In Pursuit of Valis
Page 26
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.