The Blot

In this supplement to Jonathan Lethems novel A Gamblers Anatomy the renowned novelist engages in a concerted transatlantic dialogue with cult theorist Laurence A. Rickels exploring the vicissitudes of popular culture and the profound influence of Philip K. Dick on their respective lines of flight. Foregrounding the introjections between California and Germany they address a range of ideas subjects and figures from B-movies science fiction Wile E. Coyote and the Devil to trauma theory Freud Hitchcock and German Expressionism. Animating their zone of interrogation is the blot--an algorithm of innuendo an uncanny defamiliarization of reality and truth wherein the trajectories of meaning desire and perception fold into themselves like an origami in flames.