The Exegesis Of Philip K. Dick Hardcover – November 8, 2011

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.

Watching Phil go mad might be entertaining for some. The writers allude to the fact that we aren't seeing full blown Phillip K. Dick madness and many pages of notes from the garage have been revised and a small chunk is being presented here.This can be read numerous ways as in Phillip K. Dick went mad and this is just a collection of his delusional rants from 2-3-74. He is just obsessing and its time to let it go. But its hard to let go of the addiction of knowledge and reason. For me the importance of the book, lies in Phil not really finding his answer some would say on a higher level that makes "him a dick," but in some ways maybe there isn't one and people are missing the point. It's no different then the computer in Douglas Adam's work saying "42." Because if you get the answer then what? It's like climbing a peak, okay you did that, now what? I always thought what would Phil think of Robert Monroe or Streiber's aliens I'm sure if he would have filled his garage so a car couldn't fit into it.Phil because of his own struggles creates his own philosphies from him trying to figure out what happened. But to me it just means that people are making themselves up as they go along and that thought creates reality, as even Phil would contest in some ways with his own work, the works are making the author. Here are the highlights.1. All roads lead back to God in a dimensional type of way. Everyone will get there it will just take longer then others.2. The sunnum bonnum effect of watching someone suffer causes the effect of loving that person more.3. A split in conciousness between choosing God or one self/friends. Accept, in either case its still God accept in a more developed state so in God either way.4. Zebra itself. I'm intrigued by the fact that the animal itself always has a different striped pattern every single time that it reproduces, although Phil was using the term in his own work, which reminds me a bit of A Scanner Darkly.Phil's just a human being. Where I find some sympathy is that Phil did care about his deceased twin sister Jane and believes it was Valis, maybe it was. A twin if we believe in incarnation as a very important person very close to Phil so that's a major loss, accept if she didn't die would he become a science fiction writer. I find it hilarious that Phil hated Blade Runner and discussed it. It's also implied that Phil in a way was pretty lonely. But you see what would people perfer Phil getting stoned and then discussing his ideas, or reading about boring aliens in popular culture that have genetically did plastic surgery on themselves, soul hoard, and became their idea and got lost in it. I would say well Phil anyday. So a good read and I think this book was for Jane.

I’ll begin by stating, I’ve loved Dick for years. To be transparent; Dick has been a huge part of the way I view the world for a long time. When I watch films I’m always keeping an eye out for a trace of Dick. And believe me, it’s always there. I knew Dick could go deep, but for any true Dick fans, this is as deep as Dick gets. This is a work of truly life changing Dick that helps you to understand Dick by really letting Dick inside you. A masterpiece.

The thing about this book is you never quite know whether you are reading the ravings of a lunatic or a work of sheer genius - perhaps it's both? Who was it that said there's a hair's breadth between a genius and a madman?Let's not forget, this is the writing of someone who was not a well man. Mentally ill, on anti-psychotics, mega-dosing vitamins, taking amphetamines and occasionally dropping acid, you get the feeling that, at times, here is someone who has lost all touch with reality. But then as PKD would say - what is reality?And yet the thing is you do see these sparkles of sheer genius in amongst ramblings that seem to have lost all cogency, and those often startling insights will keep you turning page after page after page, night after night after night.Stay curious and enjoy!

The late era of Dick's life was a troubled one, and the way that he weaves his own mental health issues from a third party perspective into his fictional works is highly involving.For those interested in Christian mysticism, the counter-culture of the late 60s to early 70s, and profound talent and possible genius wrestling with (possibly genuine) supernatural / religious experience and (scientifically diagnosed) mental illness, to have this on hand as a companion to the later works will be a great boon.

It is great to be able, at last, to read this abridged selection from the voluminous collection of papers which constitute Dick's Exegesis. I have been a fan of Dick's work for many years and have long hoped that the Exegesis would be made available, even if in an abridged form.I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who isn't already familiar with Dick's life and work. In fact I would recommend at the least having read the biography  Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick  to situate and contextualize The Exegesis and Dick's major works, which are referenced throughout ( Ubik ; Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said ; A Maze of Death ; The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch ; A Scanner Darkly  and the "VALIS Trilogy", which essentially grew out of The Exegesis ( Valis ; The Divine Invasion  and  The Transmigration of Timothy Archer )). Other Of Dick's works are referred to (and it would be helpful to be familiar with them too) but these are the ones that appear most often.The editors of this work have,as far as I can tell, done a great job. They certainly seem to have taken a great deal of effort over this work. They have provided a helpful Introduction and plenty of Endnotes, Footnotes, Indexes and a Glossary, all of which guide the reader through this fascinating work.For fans of Dick's work to whom the speculative religio-philosophical aspects are of interest (as in the "VALIS Trilogy") I recommend this volume. Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. DickUbikFlow My Tears, The Policeman SaidA Maze of DeathThe Three Stigmata of Palmer EldritchA Scanner DarklyValisThe Divine InvasionThe Transmigration of Timothy Archer

This is a book for diehard Philip K Dick fans only and it really helps to have read his novels, especially 'Valis' and his other later works. The title of 'Exegesis' accurately describes this collection of writing as it is not a novel and without the excellent edited it has received, it would be almost unreadable. I can well understand if people find this impossible to read and I am struggling but I will persevere as there are sparkles of genius hidden amongst the ramblings...