Jeff Lewis Forum Index
$1.75 US
$1.95 CAN
Jeff Lewis
message board
 
  FAQ     Search     Memberlist     Usergroups     Register  
  Profile     Log in to check your private messages     Log in  

Philip K Dick's exegese

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Jeff Lewis Forum Index -> About anything
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Dav
Site Admin


Joined: 30 Oct 2005
Posts: 2890
Location: Rennes, France

PostPosted: Mon May 08, 2017 2:01 pm    Post subject: Philip K Dick's exegese Reply with quote

As a huge K dick fan for a long time i've been waiting for a translation of his Exegese" for over a decade and i'm finally the proud owner/reader of the first volume.

If you are curious here is what the exegese is (from wikipedia)

The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick is a non-fiction book containing the published selections of a journal kept by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, documenting and exploring his religious and visionary experiences. Dick's wealth of knowledge on the subjects of philosophy, religion, and science inform the work throughout.


Dick started the journal after his visionary experiences in February and March 1974, which he called "2-3-74." These visions began shortly after Dick had two impacted wisdom teeth removed. When a delivery person from the pharmacy brought his pain medication, he noticed the ichthys necklace she wore and asked her what it meant. She responded that it was a symbol used by the early Christians, and in that moment Dick's religious experiences began:

In that instant, as I stared at the gleaming fish sign and heard her words, I suddenly experienced what I later learned is called anamnesis—a Greek word meaning, literally, "loss of forgetfulness." I remembered who I was and where I was. In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, it all came back to me. And not only could I remember it but I could see it. The girl was a secret Christian and so was I. We lived in fear of detection by the Romans. We had to communicate with cryptic signs. She had just told me all this, and it was true.

For a short time, as hard as this is to believe or explain, I saw fading into view the black, prisonlike contours of hateful Rome. But, of much more importance, I remembered Jesus, who had just recently been with us, and had gone temporarily away, and would very soon return. My emotion was one of joy. We were secretly preparing to welcome Him back. It would not be long. And the Romans did not know. They thought He was dead, forever dead. That was our great secret, our joyous knowledge. Despite all appearances, Christ was going to return, and our delight and anticipation were boundless.[1]

In the following weeks, Dick experienced further visions, including a hallucinatory slideshow of abstract patterns and an information-rich beam of pink light. In the Exegesis, he theorized as to the origins and meaning of these experiences, frequently concluding that they were religious in nature. The being that originated the experiences is referred to by several names, including Zebra, God, and the Vast Active Living Intelligence System. From 1974 until his death in 1982, Dick wrote the Exegesis by hand in late-night writing sessions, sometimes composing as many as 150 pages in a sitting. In total, it consists of approximately 8,000 pages of notes, only a small portion of which have been published.

Besides the Exegesis, Dick described his visions and faith in numerous other works, including VALIS, Radio Free Albemuth, The Divine Invasion, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, one brief passage in A Scanner Darkly, and the uncompleted The Owl in Daylight, as well as many essays and personal letters. In Pursuit of Valis: Selections From the Exegesis was published in 1991.

The first volume is over 700 pages (the whole exegese is 8000) there will a second one, so that will cover 1500 pages, i hope that they will maje the whole stuff available someday...

So far i'm at page 100 and it's so good, if you're into these kind of stuff.
To me there are a lot in common in K dick and Alan Moore, questionnings about the nature of time for starting.

I really love reading these kind of books when you read something that makes you put the book down and thing about a couple of sentences that makes you mind wonder for half an hour.

Any K dick fans around here?
_________________
http://uberaffe.bandcamp.com
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
dazmann



Joined: 19 Sep 2012
Posts: 86

PostPosted: Wed May 10, 2017 12:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interesting stuff. Which of his book(s) do you recommend as a starting point? Not sure I'd fancy a 700 page tome to start with.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Dav
Site Admin


Joined: 30 Oct 2005
Posts: 2890
Location: Rennes, France

PostPosted: Wed May 10, 2017 10:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ha! yeahthe exegese is for hardcore k dick fans.
I've started with Ubik and got hooked.

Blade runner is also a must read, very different story than the movie adaptation.

The man in the high castle is also a good one to start with, it's basically a what if story : The axis won the war, nazis and japaneses shared the usa, meanwhile a sci-fi writer is writing a book about what would have happened if the axis had lost world war two.

A scanner darkly is also really cool, this cop Fred is investigating on a drug addict Bob Arctor who is himself (this isn't a spoiler it's really the beginning of the story.
Damn it's really hard to explain clearly the plot for this one, anyway it's a great book.

A lot of K dick books had found their way to the big screen, sometimes it was good, sometimes bad.

Minority report, blade runner, a scanner darkly (maybe the best adaptation so far...) to name a few.
A lot of movies aren't adaptation but are really based on K dick mythologies : dark city, matrix, the truman show...
_________________
http://uberaffe.bandcamp.com
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
misshelenc



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 943
Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

PostPosted: Wed May 10, 2017 11:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I read extensively but never sci-fi. Or fantasy. Or romance. Or historical fiction. Just all the other stuff. Sorry can't join in. Never been able to sit through any of those films either. x
_________________
You don’t put your life into your books. You find it there.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
All times are GMT + 1 Hour
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Jeff Lewis Forum Index -> About anything
 
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group