In Pursuit of Valis

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by Philip K. Dick


  91

  Russian Orthodox saying.

  92

  Iknoton—also transcribed Ikhnaton and Akhenaten-was the Egyptian pharaoh (reign: 1373-1357 B.C.) who introduced into polytheistic Egypt the heretical monotheistic cult of the Sun.

  93

  See, for example, the William Burroughs novel NOVA EXPRESS (1964).

  94

  Science-fiction and fantasy writer.

  95

  PKD’s concept of the occluding “criminal virus”, here examined, was influenced by the related idea, put forth by William Burroughs, that language is an extraterrestrial virus that has inhibited the development of humankind. See previous EXEGESIS selection.

  96

  Dialogue by Plato.

  97

  PKD’s cat.

  98

  On 17 November 1971, PKD’s rented house in San Rafael, California, was broken into and various of his files were stolen or destroyed. The incident frightened him. PKD often theorized as to the identity of the intruders—the suspects ranged from the FBI to drug dealers to the local police, to name a few—but he never solved the mystery.

  99

  Tractates Cryptica Scriptura, the “Appendix” to VALIS (1981). Note the distinction PKD draws between the “exegesis” (referenced in the previous paragraph) and the “tractate”. See “Preface”, pages xi-xii for further discussion.

  100

  The blind demiurge creator of our world, according to the Gnostics.

  101

  The Richard Wagner opera.

  102

  See chapter three of the PKD novel TIME OUT OF JOINT (1959).

  103

  THE KING AND THE CORPSE: TALES OF THE SOUL’S CONQUEST OF EVIL (1948) by Heinrich Zimmer, edited by Joseph Campbell. A narrative study of mythology and comparative religion showing the influence of CG. Jung, a great favorite of PKD.

  104

  The twentieth century German philosopher Martin Heidegger focused, in many of his works, on what he posed as the varying states of ontological reality. “Dasein” means “being” or, more literally, “here-being”.

  105

  PKD’s cat.

  106

  See EXEGESIS selection dated 1 7 November 1980 in chapter one.

  107

  In August 1974, Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency. Readers interested in a fictionalized treatment of this theme should consult the PKD novel RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH (written 1976, published 1985).

  108

  Three women whose identities are unknown.

  109

  PKD would group various of his past works into thematic wholes to which he gave the name “meta novel”. See chapter four herein, “Interpretations of His Own Works,” for examples of this process. The precise configuration PKD had in mind here is unclear.

  110

  The term “Ditheon” came to PKD in a June 1981 dream.

  111

  “Ho On” was, for PKD, a cognate term for “Oh Ho”, the clay pot in VALIS.

  112

  See entry number 47 in the “Tractates Cryptica Scriptura” that forms the “Appendix” to VALIS (1981).

  113

  Literary critic.

  114

  The reference here is to FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID (1974), with its covert message of a salvific element entering the Black Iron Prison world.

  115

  Stanislaw Lem.

  116

  The critic quoted here—if, indeed, this is a literal quote-is unknown.

  117

  The Ballantine paperback edition of A SCANNER DARKLY was issued in 1977.

  118

  A reader who corresponded with PKD.

  119

  K.W. Jeter.

  120

  See Ramparts Petition in Glossary.

  121

  These years constituted a particularly painful and tumultuous period in PKD’s life. For further details, see chapters eight and nine of DIVINE INVASIONS (1989).

  122

  John.

  123

  Colossians and Ephesians.

  124

  Mark Hurst, then an editor at Bantam Books.

  125

  Patricia Warrick, a literary critic with whom PKD was in correspondence at this time.

  126

  Stanislaw Lem is here grouped (unfairly, it may be argued) with various unspecified “party experts”—Ieftist critics—who had written on PKD’s works. See previous note on Lem on page 19.

  127

  See, as an example of the use of this idea, the PKD novel THE DIVINE INVASION 1981), in which Emmanuel (the amnesiac male aspect of the godhead) is saved by Zina Pallas (who, like Pallas Athena, embodies holy wisdom and is the female aspect of the godhead).

  128

  PKD breaks off the sentence here.

  129

  Valentinus, a second century Christian Gnostic who was, circa 1 40 AD., put forward as a candidate to become bishop of Rome, but was ultimately rebuffed as a heretic.

  130

  The terms Eigenwelt (isolated, spiritual world of the inner self), Mitwelt (the middle or integrated world of the ego) and the Umwelt (earthly environment) were coined by the Swiss psychoanalyst Ludwig Binswanger in the course of his writings on schizophrenia. These writings, first read by PKD in the early 1960s, exerted a lasting influence upon him. See, especially, the PKD novel MARTIAN TIME-SLIP (1964) and its use of another Binswanger concept—that of the “tomb world”.

  131

  These phrases came to PKD in dreams he experienced in 1974.

  132

  Science-fiction writer John Sladek published, in 1973, an admiring parody of PKD’s pell-mell cosmic style, entitled “Solar Shoe Salesman,” in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Phil enjoyed it so much at the time that he sent Sladek a fan letter.

  133

  Friend of PKD’s in the early 1970s.

  134

  Term invented by the French poet and playwright Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) to describe his science of efflorescent, absurdist wisdom. Jarry formally defined “pataphysique” as “the science of that which is superinduced upon metaphysics, whether within or beyond the latter’s limitations, extending as far beyond metaphysics as the latter extends beyond physics.” There is a two-bit actor named AI Jarry amongst the characters of the PKD novel DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP (1968). PKD was, in the early 1970s, elected as an honorary membe

  135

  The reference here is to Herb Hollis, the owner of two Berkeley shops-Art Music [a record store) and University Radio [appliances]-at which PKD worked as a salesclerk from 1944 to 1951. Hollis was a recurrent model for PKD in creating beloved “boss” characters-most notably, Leo Bulero in THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH (1965).

  136

  The reference is, apparently, to William Burroughs’ novel NOVA EXPRESS (1964).

  137

  An epithet of Dionysus, the cherished son of Zeus.

  138

  The reference here is to the incidents surrounding the “xerox

  missive”. See “Editor’s Preface” at page xiv.

  139

  Le Guin.

  140

  See “Author’s Note” in A SCANNER DARKLY (1977).

  141

  At this point in 1978, PKD was deeply troubled by his inability to write a novel (“a form which I can publish”) that would satisfactorily encompass the events of 2-3-74 and after—and would satisfy his overdue contract with Bantam Books. Later in this year, PKD would write VALIS and accomplish his goal.

  142

  The “chicken scratchings” metaphor is in likely reference to PKD’s handwriting.

  143

  Jeter.

  144

  THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH (1965), UBIK (1969), and A MAZE OF DEATH (1970) (republished by Bantam in 1977).

  145

  Circa A.D.

  146

  See Stanislaw Lem, “Science Fiction: A
Hopeless Case—With Exceptions” (1972).

  147

  See VALIS (1981).

  148

  See Glossary.

  149

  See Glossary.

  150

  During his third-grade year, the young PKD was willfully tormenting a beetle that had hidden itself in a snail shell. But once he forced the beetle from its haven, the urge to cruelty was suddenly replaced by an overwhelming sense of all life being one and of all living beings bound to each other by kindness.

  151

  JUNKY (1951) by William Burroughs. An autobiographical account of heroin use and dealing, street crime, and the nature of addiction and cure. PKD felt a kinship between his novels and those of Burroughs. (See also pages 77-79 herein.) PKD would occasionally engage in cut-up writing experiments, a la Burroughs, for example (as on one page in the Exegesis not reproduced here) a narrative sequential reblending of alternate lines from pages 59 and 61 of the first (Bantam) edition of VALIS (1981). These experiments were occasional, never exceeded two pages, and were not apparently intended for publication

  152

  George Herbert (1 593-1633), English Christian poet and mystic. There is no poem titled “Thieves & Murderers” in the collected volume THE POEMS OF GEORGE HERBERT (Oxford, 1952) and I have not succeeded in tracing the phrase placed in quotes by PKD in Herbert’s work.

  153

  This sentence—with its mention of the stone rejected by the builder-may allude to the symbolism of Freemasonry. The original title of THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER (1967)-a novel written in collaboration by PKD and Ray Nelson-was THE STONES REJECTED.

  154

  A remark PKD attributed to Ursula Le Guin. See note on page 196.

  155

  Patricia Warrick.

  156

  Experiment conducted by American physicists Albert Michelson and Edward Morley in the 1880s, which demonstrated that the speed of light was not affected by the motion of the Earth through space. It thus foreshadowed Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity.

  157

  By Ludwig van Beethoven.

  158

  Characters in the PKD novel A SCANNER DARKLY (1977).

  159

  Ursula Le Guin. The reference to her pointing out the tapestry-like interrelation of PKD is to her essay “Science Fiction as Prophecy: Philip K. Dick,” in The New Republic, 30 October 1976.

  160

  PKD paid a summer 1977 visit to his old Berkeley address, 1126 Francisco Street, with Joan Simpson.

  161

  PKD lived with Joan Simpson in Sonoma County during the summer of 1977.

  162

  The possible reference here is to John 3:5: “Jesus replied: ‘I tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born through water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’ ”

  163

  The ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPHY, the four-volume reference work that was a favorite of PKD.

  164

  PKD sometimes theorized that the events of 2-3-74-most particularly the graphics displays of 3-74-might have been triggered by Soviet experiments involving the transmission of high-intensity microwaves or other energy-forms.

  165

  THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH ), UBIK and A MAZE OF DEATH .

  166

  PKD’s daughter.

  167

  Nancy Hackett, PKD’s fourth wife, was 21 when they first met in 1964.

  168

  An interview with PKD, with accompanying text by Joe Vitale, appeared in The Aquarian, 11/18 October 1978.

  169

  See Ramparts Petition in Glossary.

  170

  See “Introduction” by Thomas Disch to the hardcover Gregg Press edition (1977) of SOLAR LOTTERY (1955).

  171

  THE GRASSHOPPER LIES HEAVY is the novel-within-a-novel in THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE (1962).

  172

  Protagonist in the PKD story “The Electric Ant” (1969).

  173

  Modus operandi.

  174

  PKD sometimes theorized that reality was formed by beam-like dual elements-“real” and “spurious”—that could fashion a hologram-like world by the superimposed image created by the two beams after coming through two opposite slits. Hence the term “2 slit” logic.

  175

  THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH (1965), UBIK (1969) and A MAZE OF DEATH (1970) were all reissued in 1977 by Bantam Books.

  176

  THE BEST OF PHILIP K. DICK (1977)

  177

  Ursula Le Guin. See note on page 196.

  178

  PKD footnote: “I wonder if Lem guessed this.”

  179

  This phrase comes from a 1974 dream by PKD.

  180

  THE GRASSHOPPER LIES HEAVY, the novel-within-a-novel in THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE (MITHC) (1962).

  181

  Being; term employed by German philosopher Martin Heidegger to

  connote authentic being.

  182

  A church in PKD’s neighborhood.

  183

  German mystic Jacob Boehme (1575-1624). German Romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling (1775-1854). German theologican Paul Tillich (1886-1965).

  184

  John Brunner, British science-fiction writer. The quoted remark was apparently made during a personal conversation (date unknown) between the two men.

  185

  In 1981, an unfortunate misunderstanding arose between PKD and Ursula Le Guin, which led PKD to believe that Le Guin feared for his sanity-a concern Le Guin denies having harbored.

  186

  BISHOP TIMOTHY ARCHER, the original title of the PKD novel THE TRANSMIGRATION OF TIMOTHY ARCHER.

  187

  A New York-based shelter for homeless and runaway children.

  188

  Nancy Hackett left PKD in 1970. The end of the marriage was difficult for him to bear, and he had often pointed to it as the crisis that precipitated severe psychological difficulties for him. His emphasis here points to the fact that GALACTIC POT-HEALER (1969) was written in 1967-68, and hence his “psychosis” predated Nancy’s departure.

  189

  Luckman, Jerry Fabin, and Donna are characters in the PKD novel A SCANNER DARKLY (1977).

  190

  Glimmung is the semi-divine protagonist in the PKD novel GALACTIC POT-HEALER (1969).

  191

  These are manifestations assumed by the Glimmung (see previous note) in GALACTIC POT-HEALER.

  192

  “Frozen Journey” is not a novel but rather a story published by PKD in Playboy (December 1980) and subsequently included—as the renamed title story-in the PKD collection I HOPE I SHALL ARRIVE SOON (1985).

  193

  The metaphor here is the dual horns of dialectic—of which the “wise” is one.

  194

  Science-fiction critic. Reference is to a review in the Washington Post.

  195

  This most likely refers to a 1981 letter from Wilson to PKD that praised VALIS highly and compared it, in terms of narrative originality, with ULYSSES.

  196

  Published as THE TRANSMIGRATION OF TIMOTHY ARCHER (1982).

  197

  Russell Galen, PKD’s literary agent.

  198

  Character in VALIS (1981). See chapter nine of that novel for the “comment” referenced above.

 

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