PKD

[Anonymous No.5414729]

Can we get a Philip K Dick thread going?
I just finished "The Game-Players of Titan", which I really liked' and before that read "Flow my Tears, the Policeman said", which I liked a lot more.

Any ideas, on what to read next by him?

[Anonymous No.5414755]

Is that all you've read by him? My favorite is Dr. Bloodmoney but the PKD "essentials" are: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Ubik, Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, A Scanner Darkly, and Man in the High Castle.

I read all of his novels in chronological order and definitely recommend that if you have the time. The dude had a crazy life and you can follow it through his bibliography.

[Anonymous No.5414800]

>>5414755
Thank you very much.
I think I'll start with the essentials, and will then proceed to read the rest in chronological order.

[Anonymous No.5414829]

time out of joint was funny

[Anonymous No.5414843]

>>5414755
nice to see another dr bloodmoney fan, imo his strangest book, even against the more surreal books like ubik, scanner darkly and that one with the time travelling retard.

OP, if you lke one of his books, i tihnk youll like them all, so just get stuck in!

[Anonymous No.5414912]

You can't really go wrong with any of his novels. They are all great.
My personal favorites are Martian Time-Slip and Now Wait for Last Year. Also check out Solar Lottery, I think it's his first novel.

[Anonymous No.5414930]

[Anonymous No.5414936]

>>5414729
>>5414755
Are you saying that you read all novels of him that you read *in chronological order* or did you actually read *all* of his novels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick_bibliography)) ?
I already thought of reading all his novels but it's really a shitton.
The essentials are well chosen.
I didn't like Man in the High Castle that much - I think Minority Report & Second Variety are two great short stories that also nicely display the versatility of his works.

>>5414829
I found it to be in some ways similar to Slaughterhouse 5 which is actually the only novel [and 12 Monkeys the only movie that isn't based more or less onto one of his novels] I read so far that one could at least partly allocate to the genre (why is there no distinctive name for it? I like to call it psyberpunk, ie as in "psychedelic experiences" and with cyberpunk being a cultural echo of the net['s influence] and the modern era psyberpunk is for the psy-net [concretely found as in "maze of death"] that is a further abstraction and eventually extrapolation of the continuos increase of interconnectivity with its main manifestation being what we currently know as the internet and the era of uncertainty with the world [just settling down its post-WW restructuration] being on the brink of nuclear war.) that PKD seems to define single-handedly.

[Anonymous No.5414950]

I've read VALIS, do I need to read The Divine Invasion befor The Transmigration of Timothy Archer? The last one seems far more intriguing to me.

[Anonymous No.5414983]

>>5414950
I didn't, saved the divine invasion for later. In both books he further explores themes and ideas from VALIS, so having read that before either of the two is a good idea.

Also 'Timothy Archer' is not so much of a scifi book as his other work. And it has that emotional investment in the characters that makes VALIS and A Scanner Darkly stand out. It's one of my all time Dick favorites.

Apparently he wrote some normalfag fiction in his late years- that's what's next on my list...

[Anonymous No.5415098]

I dunno, is that new Radio Free Albemuth movie any good?

[Anonymous No.5415113]

>>5414936
I have read every single novel of PKDs. A few I read before I started the chronological order project, but I reread them when I did it. I have also read all of his published short story collections, but not in order.

[Anonymous No.5415141]

>>5414936
>>5415113
Same guy. I want to be clear that I have not read his unpublished works and I'm not sure they exist. If you would like, I can lengthen the list of essentials to a chronological list of essentials. A lot of the books felt like drug induced SF cash grabs with hints of genius, and they can pretty easily be excluded. This does come with my bias though, a lot of /lit/ seems to disagree with me including Eye in the Sky among this list.

[Anonymous No.5415396]

>>5415141
Sorry just came home from the gym, are you still lurking?
I would really appreciate such a list mate!

[Anonymous No.5415432]

>>5415113 >>5415141
Wow. How long did that take you ? Any conclusions/knowledge you took from that ? Have you posted about that somewhere ?
I also found that VALIS eventually goes pretty meta as by saying that reality mourns a dead woman (roughly recalled) and that the macroworld is coupled with the(/him as) individual ("It grew within himself, and presumably within other humans, and it grew outside, in the macro-world") and that everything (one perceives) is a language that man has unlearned etc etc that kind of say a lot about his books in that it's basically describing his mind (ie mourning over lost sister in background).

It's a kinda solipsistic approach (as in a single entity existing and reality being the language of god) but more than that (or because of that) an introspection that often make it seem like it's bordering that of the biological brain with it sometimes upheaving to the psychological level of structural organization.
illustration: "VALIS (acronym of Vast Active Living Intelligence System): A perturbation in the reality field in which a spontaneous self-monitoring negentropic vortex is formed, tending progressively to subsume and incorporate its environment into arrangements of information, characterized by quasi-consciousness, purpose, intelligence, growth and an armillary coherence."
^ basically reality being the outgrowth a solipsistic entities which move through an "actual" reality
Also I found that mythology, religion and semiotics play a huge role in his stories with for examples all those miniature objects / artifacts and interpreting reality as language etc (referring back to the introspection of the biological brain -> neocortex).

Also I don't know if you remember Maze Of Death: at the end someone is taken by the mediator. I think the reality of the ship was the actual simulation with the "simulation" in it being an outgrowth of theirselves that could be called "reality" (but isn't either) whose purpose was either a "reality as moral/.. test" (here simplified as in who's killing and who isn't) or death (some Anon once wrote "heaven is a spaceship", near death experiences are slightly awakening with that helmet on to the "ship" [that's going through the actual reality]) or what he described in VALIS as those former "aliens"/more godlike creatures (you know those 2 guys who they met when they told them that they birthed the new buddha) that locked themselves into the maze of "reality".

And have you also read his exegesis ? I wondered if it was worth reading (especially as it's not available in my mother tongue and I imagine it to be written similar to VALIS)

Btw I found it sometimes quite fun to read The Silmarillion (one parallel I noticed was that "reality as language" with the gods of Silmarillion [includes a creation myth and has the characters basically "unfold" themselves] speaking through wind/water/... [that part is unimportant] with humans having unlearned/can't to understand it) and Greg Egan's

1/2

[Anonymous No.5415461]

>>5415432
2/2
Permutation City (many relevancies, mainly the "dust theory") along PKD's stuff. Are there any other novels you found interesting to read next to PKD's ?

Also as I already named one other movie and book that I found fit for PKD's "genre" and this being a PKD-general here's two songs: youtube.com/watch?v=wxwY8ehAM_I&list=RDwxwY8ehAM_I

And as you wrote:
>The dude had a crazy life and you can follow it through his bibliography
what's your view of his introspection and basically what's most revealed through the following quote:
"The changing information which we experience as world is an unfolding narrative. It tells
about the death of a woman (italics mine). This woman, who died long ago, was one of the
primordial twins. She was one half of the divine syzygy. The purpose of the narrative is the
recollection of her and of her death. The Mind does not wish to forget her. Thus the
ratiocination of the Brain consists of a permanent record of her existence, and, if read, will be
understood this way. All the information processed by the Brain-experienced by us as the
arranging and rearranging of physical objects-is an attempt at this preservation of her; stones
and rocks and sticks and amoebae are traces of her. The record of her existence and passing is
ordered onto the meanest level of reality by the suffering Mind which is now alone.
If, in reading this, you cannot see that Fat is writing about himself, then you understand nothing."
Why don't you make PKD generals if you read all his stuff ? I got more stuff to ask and so on.

[Anonymous No.5415494]

I didn't like Ubik or Electric Sheep that much but Valis was awesome.

I plan to read A Scanner Darkly sometime but I think I already know what happens because I saw the Linklater film a few years ago.

[Anonymous No.5415561]

cut this shit out, everybody knows PKD was actually a robot.

[Anonymous No.5415581]

>>5415561
Wasn't it stolen some time ago ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ930zzYxl8

[Anonymous No.5415622]

>>5414936
It was 'poorly written pulp SF' when it was written.

Today it's Hollywood.

[Anonymous No.5415624]

>>5415581
lol'd: youtube.com/watch?v=12ZMPO0Vig8

[Anonymous No.5415628]

>>5415432
If you don't read Timothy Archer and The Divine Invasion you're missing out m8

[Anonymous No.5415699]

>>5415622 I don't think it's either.
The literary quality certainly isn't his strength - it's what he conveys in his novels (neither "experiences" nor "ideas" are right word here though - rather worldviews, their relativity and removing the supportive basis of them etc).
And it's also not hollywood - his books aren't as popular as the categorization of "hollywood" would necessitate and the movies based onto his novels rather just speak of his immense genius/artistic influence
I like this relevant summary: "Philip K. Dick was to theological science fiction as James Brown was to funky R&B music: its spiritual godfather, its benchmark practitioner and a source of influence whose ever widening ripples expanded out into other genres and our culture as a whole."

>>5415628 I already queued them up into my to-read list. Currently reading sth else along with his short stories.

[Anonymous No.5416269]

>>5415432
>>5415461
I'm at my girlfriend's house, but if this thread is somehow still alive I'll give my opinion when she goes to sleep or tomorrow. Short answer, however, is read the exgesis. I'm not entirely convinced he believed much of his rambling until close to the very end. It also contains some really cool pulpy letters to other authors. My favorite is his letter to Ursula Le Guin about his self diagnosed insanity.

[Anonymous No.5417035]

>>5416269 Ok cool. And if not you could make another PKD General at some time.

[Anonymous No.5417050]

I picked up Valis at an airport bookstore this summer. He pulls off a semi-engaging Vonnegut pastiche for a few chapters and then it devolves into unreadable pseudo-philosophical drivel passed back and forth between plastic characters.

What's extraordinary about PKD is that after 30 novels he still had no idea how to put a novel together or how to develop characters

[Anonymous No.5417087]

>>5417050
Are you saying you read VALIS as your first PKD novel ? Because that's about the worst thing one could do.
In case you got a wrong impression from my previous posts here's an earlier one:
>>/lit/thread/S5388649#p5390855

Start with one of the essentials (>>5414755)

[Anonymous No.5417098]

Is 'Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' a Sequel to 'High Castle'?

Androids is set after a nuclear war, and High Castle ends with Germany and Japan on the brink of a nuclear war .

[Anonymous No.5417105]

>>5417050
It's weird. People seem to hate VALIS and it was one of my all-time favourite reading experiences. Go figure.

I guess I'd recommend Ubik to NewbDicks, along with "The 3 Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", "Time Out of Joint" and "A Scanner Darkly".

[Anonymous No.5417558]

>>5417050
I'd love to know what you think about William Gibson's "Neuromancer" then...

[Anonymous No.5417662]

>>5417098
He came up with the android idea while researching for man in the high castle. IIRC he was reading through nazi files and found a common denominator to be lack of empathy (which would be the only thing distinguishing androids from humans). Other than that, I don't think there's any direct connection.

>>5417050
>semi-engaging Vonnegut pastiche
That's quite an accusation- you do realize that VALIS was his second attempt at narrating the personal experiences of his 'psychosis' in a digestible form, yes? (the first being 'radio free albemuth', which was turned down by his publisher). You might have an interesting point though. As it turns out, Dick was very fond of Vonnegut [see link below]- and one could argue that the repetition of 'the empire never ended' throughout the book is a reflection of V's excessive repetition of short mantras ('and so it goes', etc) - though I'd have to object that V's repeated one-liners work mostly as bad excuses terminating a passage, where as Dick is actually driving an important point home.

[source on the dick vonnegut connection: http://web.archive.org/web/20070915132459/http://mog.com/spaceling/blog_post/62772]

Also, if you find the VALIS characters 'plastic', and its ideas about gnosis and reality 'unreadable pseudo-philosophical drivel', pkd is probably not for you.

[Anonymous No.5418071]

I've been going through Dick's major works recently because I'm writing an honours thesis on his literature next year. I just finished A Scanner Darkly and I feel like crying now. A master of balancing high concepts, humour, and emotion.

[Anonymous No.5418080]

>>5414755
For anyone interested in doing this, I recommend pic related as a companion. Not only it's a very informative book, Carrere's style is good on it's own.

I'm only sorry I didn't have more of PKD's books at hand when I read it.

[Anonymous No.5418108]

>>5417087
>>5417105
VALIS was the first PKD I've ever read too, but I was somehow aware of his life, and I must say, it's one of the greatest reading experiences (thanks for the expression, btw, sums pretty well) I've ever had.

I can't see how someone wouldn't find it very moving and even beautiful his attempt to rationalize his insanity through such a poignant and disconnected from reality (koinos kosmos, at least) work.

Also, I'm huge into situationism, and most forms of gnosticism go pretty well with it, so.

[Anonymous No.5418139]

>>5415461
That narrative is history.

I'm not that guy, but I'm actually planning on writing a paper about VALIS for a Philosophy of Religion class I'm taking. It seems ripe for interpretation not only as literature but as a philosophical work. The same is doubly true for the Exegesis.

[Anonymous No.5418212]

>>5414729
Nice to see someone mention The Game-Players of Titan in a PKD thread.

Just for fun, I'm going to mention Galactic Pot-Healer. It's probably the best example of Frank L. Baum's influence on PKD's writing. It's not his best, but it is entertaining.

[Anonymous No.5418265]

>>5418212
Gonna look into it, thanks!
What's your favorite? (As far as one can have a "favorite" book)

[Anonymous No.5418308]

>>5418265
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is my all-time favorite book by PKD. I read a number of his books before that, and enjoyed them all, but that was the one that made me step back and say: "This is good. I'm going to work my way though as many of his books as possible."

I haven't seen The Simulacra mentioned yet. It's one of those books that fits into the same place as The Game-Players of Titan--solid but underrated.

You might want to take a look at Divine Invasions. It's an excellent biography. On top of that, the author dedicates a section at the end reviewing each of his books. He's fair in his criticism.

[Anonymous No.5418556]

>>5417662
>You might have an interesting point though. As it turns out, Dick was very fond of Vonnegut ...
Interesting. So I was actually right about that in >>5414936.
I just read Slaughterhouse 5 so far - are there any other Vonnegut novels that are in some way similar to PKD's works ?
Didn't really notice the similarity of those short repetitive mantras. I think the closest novel to S5 is Time Out Of Joint.
Both display the immense mental shift (the mind / reality getting thrown out of joint), presentism (the future and past kinda fade away when you live in the constant fear of getting shot, think of the false vacuum theory in which the universe basically collapses from within with the destruction moving faster than light so you could fade away without any chance of seeing it coming and within unmeasurably short timespan and try to capture the feeling considering the theory as a likely event etc "Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment"), this time-as-eternalism-theory is basically the same way to deal / "making sense with the world" with war as PKD deals with insanity in VALIS and contentwise both revolving around a character within war experiencing time-shifts.
Both are also doing a great job of portraying the extend of psychological effects of war.
Btw Vonnegut's time-eternalism-theory is close to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return which again is related to Mise en abyme (for Germans here's a song on it: youtube.com/watch?v=SOEG5XYpGGY)

>>5418080 Would you recommend reading that before his exegesis (in terms of temporal order and quality) ?

>>5418139
Nice, could you post about it here (on this board) when you finished it ?
But what narrative are you referring to ? The one from the quote ?

Also...I wonder if people that pick VALIS as their favourite PKD novel ever had some "brain frying" trips. I don't want to devalue the content's of VALIS but I expected it to be way different from what I heard about it before and not more or less writing down notes during trips and later knit them into a pseudo-story that contains all of them in a cohesive way. Because usually when high you get all kinds of crazily theories but they are either rubbish, or crazy but could eventually could do well in a very well written story (ie I once imagined [all] humans to be actually avatars "played" by aliens that communicate on a subliminal level in the way that we perceive reality as ordered and logical but it's actually just a surface illusion for the playfigures [doesn't have to be a "game" - for example imagine all civilisation existing in one with the actual "individual perceiving entity" being ensnarled in a specific stage in this hierarchy - in one hierarchy the entity moves from a cave to get some water of the tribe's local water source and greets a tribe-member on the way, in the other the "same" entity moves from an underwater colony to a close intersolar information network hub exchanging a required quantum key with a coworker on

1/2

[Anonymous No.5418625]

>>5418556
2/2
the way] or actually being an android in a society of highly advanced creatures that when talking to you are actually programming/testing you with reality looking different but being perceived as what just described by the android or only few forces/"gods" in the universe existing that just, interacting, move through time through different "dreams" and states some of which are being manifested as 4 "humans" in a room or ) - you know totally crazy stuff that you get to terms with once sober enough and spotting the situationary or other influences that produced it (for my examples in order: the subconscious and its obscured mechanisms/influences, "locality" (not sure if there's a word for that what I mean is: trying "to explain the universe on the basis of the current situation" which results in solipsistic stuff), anxiety and (again I don't know a word for that) "the whole world working different with everyone knowing about it except you" - what I mean is a/the major theme of Kafka's "The Process", and again this locality on an even greater extend. Or they're totally useless and you throw them away after reading the notes.
I don't think PKD's genius is more or less raw-boned insane theories loosely knitted together in the narration of a novel but him actually a) picking the best and most "down to earth/relevant/realistic" theories/experiences and (mainly) b) making a great story out of it (basically where the "crazy" thoughts get incorporated/unfolded in a world whose contexts and explanations bring the experience closer to the reader and reality [usually reconstruction and extension when sober]). And I think VALIS was just him piling up a legacy medley of some of his core experiences which without b) are not really that digestable and conceivable nor "realistic" [it's like he left out b) to leave his "pure trips/experiences" for the reader to reconstruct and make sense of them by themselves] (>>5417050).
Pic related to a part of 1/2

[Anonymous No.5418900]

>>5418556
VALIS is meant to be read as a personal interpretation of a religious experience. The VALIS trilogy is basically the Gnostic Chronicles of Narnia, and Dick is the C.S. Lewis of trippy Christian sects.

The narrative I was referring to was the same one Dicj was referring to. It's the same one we're both living in and the one Dick lived in until he died. History is a narrative. Everything you know about history is only coherent when thought of as a process.

If Dick's work has any philosophical value it can only be found by considerijg the 2000 years of philosophy he chose not to acknowledge because of the particular nature of the 'revelations' he goes into in VALIS and the Exegesis.
I'm planning to presuppose he wasn't insane. The information he imparts in his work has substance, particular in his later work and the more rational parts of VALIS where he isn't a step away from admitting he's lost his mind completely.

[Anonymous No.5418990]

>>5418900
Ah now I get what you meant. I though you meant "is history" in terms of "it's over".

Made a post on exactly that ("History is a narrative. Everything you know about history is only coherent when thought of as a process. ...") here (before I read VALIS and during the influence of the previously meantioned book "Permutation City"):

https://archive.moe/sci/thread/6502161/
[Also "being insane" (in whatever way one choses to define it) doesn't devalue his thoughts that are relevant to philosophy and theology - it's a false dilemma.]

Also with "It's a kinda solipsistic approach (as in a single entity existing and reality being the language of god)" and so on I was mainly referring to "The changing information which we experience as world is an unfolding narrative". And at the time I was reading VALIS I was also reading the Silmarillion and what I also noticed was the Silmarillion's character's follow the same concept of unfolding (not "just character-wise" though - as said it has a creation myth [and on a related note a specific part of it is the best expression I've seen so far of an experience I had]). I really wonder if PKD has read it as it was published during his lifetime and from the description seemed to be of interest to him and he refered/quote a few things of LOTR at the start of Maze Of Death.

Do you have any other studies that examine his works (I'm not speaking of literary critiques or the like of course) ?

[Anonymous No.5419026]

>>5418990
Read up on Catholic theology and the New Testament.

I actually have found that he's easiest to understand if you think of him as a prophet-like figure. Learning about prophets and their experiences is probably useful.

I'm going to try to use Hegel's dialectic to parse Dick's theology. Method should defeat madness. It usually does.

[Anonymous No.5419103]

>>5419026
>Method should defeat madness
The thing about Dicks output in post 74 event writings is that he keeps revising and reinterpreting - just like Fat does in VALIS (trying to defeat madness with method). This becomes evident when you dive into Exegesis. He does not present *one* coherent system or explanation, but several clawings at something he knew was true, but couldn't quite rightly express or even comprehend. The Prophet analogy is good in this way, I think.

I wish you luck with the project though. I'd love to be doing that instead of the crap my institution makes me write (don't ask). Maybe you should look up some scholarship on his gnostic stuff - I think they have some dick pages over at gnosis.org

[Anonymous No.5419144]

>>5419026
>Method should defeat madness

But genius is madness in method, as our God-Emperor taught us.

[Anonymous No.5419164]

>>5414729
A Scanner Darkly was my favourite work of his.

[Anonymous No.5419367]

>>5419144
And Hegel's method is the most powerful madness ever expressed logically. >>5419103
The genius is dead. It is up to us to interpret him. By defeat I don't mean destroy.
I think PKD was onto something.

[Anonymous No.5419377]

>>5419103
Hegelian logic is based around contradictions. PKD's notion about something breaking off from itself and trying to return to itself to complete itself is pure dialectics. Hegelian Spirit was speaking to the world through Dick.

[Anonymous No.5419450]

>>5419377
>PKD's notion about something breaking off from itself and trying to return to itself to complete itself
Not the guy you were replying to but what are you referring to here ? The primordial twin?

[Anonymous No.5419505]

>>5419450
Yeah, PKD's twin sister died when they were really young and it had a huge impact on him.
It's a recurring theme in his worm: the 'phantom twin.' Death is more present in his work than in most SF.

[Anonymous No.5419509]

>>5419505
And her death inspired the 'phantom twin' motif, which is reflected in his theology.

[Anonymous No.5419521]

>>5419505
>Yeah, PKD's twin sister died when they were really young and it had a huge impact on him.
I would like to know if there is any evidence this is true or is just yet another thing PKD has claimed.

[Anonymous No.5419559]

>>5419521
It's true. I've seen no question about her existence anywhere and there are all kinds of reasons to think she existed. Do some research. Google exists.

[Anonymous No.5419580]

>>5415581
the head was stolen. they had to make another one.

> mfw somebody made a robotic speed freak that talks like a drunk zizek

[Anonymous No.5419589]

>>5419559
I'm not saying she didn't, just that he talked a lot of shit.

[Anonymous No.5419594]

>>5419521
>I would like to know if there is any evidence this is true or is just yet another thing PKD has claimed.
Do your own research. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#Personal_life

>>5419580
Haven't heard about the new one. Gonna check that out.

[Anonymous No.5421644]

>>5419377
>>5419367

>Hegelian Spirit was speaking to the world through Dick.
In the whole information system, and divine intelligence as language idea of Dick's, lies also the idea of the artist as a prophet (knowing or not), or even divine agent. This idea is explicitly elaborated on in the VALIS books (including radio free albemuth). And yes, it is a very 'Hegelian' idea- that of rationality invading irrationality, through communication by various agents. Dick was very fond of Bowie, and I believe the 'Ziggy Stardust' album was a huge inspiration - especially the 'Starman' song. ("There's a starman waiting in the sky // he'd like to come and meet us // but he think he'd blow our minds // there's a starman waiting in the sky // he told us not to blow it // cause he knows it's all worth while") etc...

Burroughs idea of language as a virus from outer space also comes to mind, although he had a different pessimistic//nihilistic outloook, he also operated with gnostic concepts of demiurge (ah pook), and ways to 'fix' language/reality.

And yes, the Dick was definitely onto something (Ah Sunflower!)

[Anonymous No.5421674]

What the fuck was up with the pink light?
>Dick recounted that as the sun glinted off the gold pendant, the reflection caused the generation of a "pink beam" that mesmerized him. Dick came to believe the beam imparted wisdom and clairvoyance; he also believed it to be intelligent. On one occasion, Dick was startled by a separate recurrence of the pink beam. It imparted the information to him that his infant son was ill. The Dicks rushed the child to the hospital where Dick's suspicion and his diagnosis were confirmed.

[Anonymous No.5421705]

>>5421674
>What the fuck was up with the pink light?
That's basically the question Dick devoted his last 8 years to answer. You can read VALIS, Radio Free Albemuth, Divine Invasion and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer + of course the Exegesis for clarification, or rather Dick's attempts at answering it.

Robert Crumb did a comic based on Dick's own testimonies which shed's more light on it than the wiki entry you copypasted:
http://www.philipkdickfans.com/resources/miscellaneous/the-religious-experience-of-philip-k-dick-by-r-crumb-from-weirdo-17/

There's also the Pratt interview where he talks extensively about the experience:
http://www.philipkdickfans.com/mirror/audio/Interview_1979_Santa_Ana.mp3

Dick came up with a multitude of explanations for the phenomenon ranging from 'schizophrenia' to a Vast Active Living Intelligence System beaming concentrated information directly to his pineal gland.

[Anonymous No.5421988]

>>5421644
Wittgenstein also comes to mind.

I'm trying to keep my sources precisely within the philosophical canon. The idea is almost too common for any particular occurrence of it to he worth noting. Think of the sun, which disappears from the sky at night only to be replaced by the moon and then return the next day.
That cycle is reflected everywhere, and Hegel is the key to the observation of this cycle. Dick's revelation is noteworthy because of how prescient he was. Our reality, the material and social conditions of our time, is more Dickian than any Dick novel.

[Anonymous No.5422026]

>>5421674
>What the fuck was up with the pink light?

PKD was batshit insane by that point. This is not to say he wasn't a great writer, mind you. I love his books.

[Anonymous No.5422100]

>>5421988
>Hegel is the key to the observation of this cycle.
>the key
I'll agree in as much as we are talking about a "meaningful" and functional theoretical framework. But I'll oppose the notion of absolutism anytime. Like you say yourself, the dynamics Hegel's dialectics seek to describe are observable not only in history but in nature itself. And I'll be bold and propose that most, if not all, creationist mythology - from abrahamic over qabalah to hinduism and even taoism (the whole yin/yang thing) not only describe, but is built upon a dialectic dynamic / framework.

Indeed, Hegel was the first to propose a metaphysical system which adequately describes these dynamics (like math adequately describe certain phenomena) - but he didn't 'invent' anything but the terminology, nor is he the 'key'. Merely a convenient framework of interpretation.

[Anonymous No.5422314]

>>5422100
That framework is as good as or better than most others when it comes to interpreting text. The Absolute is a necessity in Hegel, but he knows it's not reachable. Hats why Marxism was fundamentally flawed: Marx's Absolute was Communism, and all Communist movements have been movements towards an Absolute.

An interpretation is not a movement toward the Absolute in the same way. The Absolute is a placeholder. It's a middle term. It collapses when realized and as such is never realized. That is the true truth of Hegel.

[Anonymous No.5422984]

>>5421705 Any other interviews that you recommend ?