Shakespeare Reference in Clans Of The Alphane Moon

Philip K. Dick’s novel Clans Of The Alphane Moon contains an interesting Shakespeare reference. Each of the clans, which are groups of mentally ill people divided by their particular maladies, has its own town, and those towns are named after people, including Gandhi and Da Vinci. One of the towns is named after a Shakespearean character, the playfully named Hamlet Hamlet, its inhabitants considered the creative members of the population. The character Annette Golding resides in Hamlet Hamlet, and at one point she contemplates suicide. Philip K. Dick writes, “On her trip home from the council meeting at Adolfville, a meeting which had seen the Terran ultimatum expire and the enemy go into action against Da Vinci Heights, Annette Golding considered the possibility of suicide” (p. 182). Hamlet Hamlet is mentioned several times in the book, on pages 89, 179, 180, 182, 193, 190, 191, and 193.

Clans Of The Alphane Moon was published in 1964. The copy I read was the First Vintage Books Edition, published in May 2002.