The Exegesis of Philip K Dick

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Disorienting and deeply fascinating, The Exegesis of Philip K Dick provides a mind-bending exploration of the renowned author’s thoughts concerning time, God, and the nature of reality. Edited by Pamela Jackson and Jonathan Lethem, this complex, 900-page collection of letters, journal entries, and other writings by Philip K Dick from 1974-1982 offers insight into the mystical experiences and haunting obsessions that inspired his numerous novels as well as the films (Blade Runner, The Adjustment Bureau, Through a Scanner Darkly) based on them.Combining aspects of Neoplatonism, Taoism, Gnosticism, Brahmanism, Buddhism, Orphism, Christianity, Judaism, as well as the writings of Schopenhauer, Jung, and Meister Eckart, among others, Dick analyzes and attempts to understand a life-altering hallucinogenic experience he had in 1974 that led him to question all of his previous conceptions about reality. In the process he seeks to find meaning amidst the suffering afflicting all mortal creatures.According to Dick, this suffering is unjustifiable. It is a tragic, recurring, universal experience of pain and martyrdom. Each creature’s agony and death, Dick perceives as a re-enactment of Christ’s crucifixion.“I have seen the Savior wrapped in the crazed, crapping, dirty, wild body of an animal, then transformed and eternally . . . ,” he poignantly writes, describing a vision he had of his dying cat, Pinky. “Christ in deliberate disguise, and the passion fulfilled in victory: resurrection.” By becoming at that moment one with the tortured, debased creature, Christ acts as surrogate Dick believes, and this voluntary sacrifice, Dick believes, lies at “the heart of Christianity.”Dick’s version of Christianity is a far cry from the restrictive, repressive, politically and socially conservative dogmas associated with most churches. It is, in his words, “revolutionary,” harkening back to Christianity’s beginnings as a subversive, underground religious cult persecuted by Rome. It is a Christianity incorporating aspects of other religious philosophies and inclusive of all species, from the lowliest insect to the most advanced forms of life. “There is nothing we know that the creatures don’t know; they are our equals,” he maintains. “The slain God proliferates down through the cosmos to each rat and cockroach.” Since each living being is, in a sense, a microcosm of the divine, Dick points out that by destroying the ecosphere, “we are killing not only the life-chain of our planet but our own God . . . God voluntarily sacrifices himself to save man: that man may live, but this time not just man but the entire life-chain, the ecosphere as an indivisible entity.”Throughout his writings in this collection he continually challenges and revises his theories. At times he succumbs to abject despair, seeing the world as an entrapping illusion of perpetual pain whereby “each creature is born, suffers, dies, is again born, forever and ever, because the world soul . . . has fragmented into billions of bits--made the primordial and primary mistake of taking the spatiotemporal realm as real, thus plunging itself into enslavement and multiplicity. For a few,” he suggests, “there is a way out: discovery that the spatiotemporal world is not real, an ascent back up into unity and freedom,” but for most, he envisions perpetual entrapment, an endless wheel of suffering “unless some great savior comes and frees us en masse.” At other times, he even doubts his own sanity, the validity of his revelations and the possibility of ever attaining release from the “epistomological hell” of imprisoned consciousness, “a sort of normal madness” whereby the mind, in a “recirculating closed loop . . . simply monitors its own thoughts forever.”Although the Exegesis is very dense, often rambling and sometimes incoherent, I find it immensely intriguing. In addition to the paradigm-shattering insights, vast eclectic knowledge and brilliant intellectual analysis, Dick’s concern for animals and oppressed humanity imbues the book with compassion as well as visionary wisdom. Radical and revelatory, Dick exposes the delusory, enslaving systems of control that prevent us from achieving our full creative potential. He, like David Lynch, William Burroughs, Sylvia Plath, Edvard Munch, and other fearlessly subjective artists, explores the horror, tragedy, and beauty of our fragile existence.

Produit épuisé non réédité mais pourtant trouvé en état tout neuf par Amazon à un prix imbattable. Livré avant la date. Top des top.

Ein Werk Dicks, der schwer zu verstehen ist, aber seine intime Welt, sowohl im Diesseitigen wie im Jenseitingen, nach seiner versuchten Auslegung der Annäherung ananeinder Beider, darstellt.

Philip K. Dick had a number of unusual semi-religious experiences, mentioned elsewhere. Whether these were brought on by a medical condition, vitamins or any other explanation has been suggested is largely irrelevant. This books only deals with these in passing, and is a wonderful compilation of Dick's own attempts to make sense of them; a great mind trying to analyze itself. As such, it offers an often surprising view of his preoccupations, feelings and worries. Some may think him crazy; to me, this book made him all the more human and interesting.It should be noted that the Exegesis (Greek for "explanation") is not a story or a novel. The editors have done a valiant and largely successful effort to compile random thoughts and notes into a coherent narrative that reads more like a diary of half-baked philosophical and religious thoughts than a treaty on such matters. They should be congratulated, but be warned: don't read it to find out a definitive answer. Dick changes his mind constantly as he attempts to chart his own mind and any meaning readers may decipher from his thoughts will be on a personal level.Dick obviously believed in the objective nature of his experiences, however what intrigued me the most was a unique opportunity to explore his deeply subjective and personal viewpoint. This alone, made the book worth every penny I spent, although I realize it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea.