Preorder PKD Tarot

https://wide-books.com/pkd-tarot-the-fools-journey-of-philip-k-dick.html

Call for Papers: PKD Day 2017

PKD Day 2017: Philip K. Dick and Vast Narrative
The second PKD Day to be held at Birmingham City University, Saturday 22nd of April 2017
Unlike many writers of SF and fantasy literature, Philip K. Dick never synthesised his plots or characters into vast story-worlds. Apart from rare exceptions, his novels and short-stories are self-contained narratives. Despite this, many commentators on Dick have encouraged readers to work across his fiction as part of one “continuing conversation” (T. Disch 1986), arguing that there is something more than a simple sharing of tropes going on here.
This one-day, interdisciplinary conference will seek to explore the contours of the Dickian vast narrative, examining whether it is fair to talk about a Dick-iverse that is neither connected by narrative continuity (like Lord of the Rings) nor the repetition of characters and situations (like Marvel or DC comics). Furthermore, this provides the opportunity to explore how creators, commentators, industry and fans compete over the canonicity of different interpretations of Dick.
Our discussion of Dick’s work is not limited to his fiction, but expands out to include, along one axis, his non-fiction; interviews, letters and, often unreliable, biographical writings. And, along the other axis, adaptations, allusions and references to Dick and his oeuvre by, for example, filmmakers, other writers, musicians, robotic engineers and academics. Indeed, this conference provides an opportunity for the academic community to reflect on the key role they have played in the formation of dominant interpretations of Dick’s themes and concerns.
Topics for presentation might include, but are not limited to:
- Vast narratives and storyworlds
- Texts and intertexts
- Canonisation
- Adaptation theory
- Convergence culture
- Fictionalised or unreliable biographies
- Genre studies
- Fandom and participation (especially around the Exegesis project)
- Gnosticism and other readings that resist the dominant interpretation of Philip K. Dick
We welcome proposals for twenty minute presentations from both creative and academic practitioners, and from undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and established scholars. Please send 300-word proposals to Thomas Knowles thomas.knowles@bcu.ac.uk and Terence Sawyers TSawyers@qmu.ac.uk by the end of March 12th 2017.

Ryan Gosling cast in Blade Runner sequel

Kabbalah and Alchemy in VALIS

   "I saw Hebrew letters on the wall," Fat said.
   "Yes," Mini said, still smiling. "Cabala. And the Hebrew letters permutated until they factored out into words you could read."
   "Into KING FELIX," Fat said.
   "Why did you lie about the doorway?" Linda said, without animosity; she seemed merely curious.
   Fat said, "I didn't think you'd believe me."
   "Then you're not normally familiar with the Cabala," Mini said. "It's the encoding system which VALIS uses; all its ver­bal information is stored as Cabala, because that's the most economical way, since the vowels are indicated by mere vowel-points. You were given a set-ground discriminating un-scrambler, you realize. We normally can't distinguish set from ground; VALIS has to fire the unscrambler at you. It's a grid. You saw set as color, of course."
   "Yes." Fat nodded. "And ground as black and white."
   "So you could see the false work."
   "Pardon?" Fat said.
   "The false work that's blended with the real world."
   "Oh," Fat said. "Yes, I understand. It seeemed as if some tilings had been taken away-"
   "And other things added," Mini said.
   Fat nodded.
   "You have a voice inside your head now?" Mini said. "The AI voice?"
   After a long pause, and a glance at me, Kevin and David, Fat said, "It's a neutral voice. Neither male nor female. Yes, it does sound as if it's an artificial intelligence."
   "That's the inter-system communications network," Mini
170

said. "It stretches between stars, connecting all the star sys­tems with Albemuth."
   Staring at him, Fat said," 'Albemuth'? It's a star?"
   "You heard the word, but-"
   "I saw it in written form," Fat said, "but I didn't know what it meant. I connected it with alchemy, because of the 'al.' "
   "The al prefix," Mini said, "is Arabic; it simply means 'the.' It's a common prefix for stars. That was your clue. Anyhow, you did see written pages, then."

Eliade in the Exegesis

"Eliade says it is the primary purpose or goal of the shaman to pass over to the other side and say what's there. Also he mentions phosphene activity..."

Another Radio Free Albemuth online review -- this one less argumentative, focusing on what I loved

This movie is more faithful to the letter and spirit of Philip K. Dick than his fans ever thought they had the right to expect in a movie. Imagine a film adaptation that makes no artistic compromises. Well, you don't have to imagine that anymore. Although it's not a word-for-word adaptation and takes creative liberties, Radio Free Albemuth "gets" Philip K. Dick's dystopian vision, and sensitively handles the mystical experiences that were the subject of the novel. The special effects are clever and interesting, better quality than "cheesy" but low budget and appropriate for the sort of sci-fi movie this is. The acting is surprisingly good given the short filming schedule and small budget I'm assuming they had, with some absolute casting coups, especially in Shea Whigham who plays a hilariously deadpan Philip Dick. Jonathan Scarfe is transcendental as Nicholas Brady, compellingly portraying the entranced and blissed out altered states of consciousness and moral convictions of the character. Katheryn Winnick is sexy and sweet as Rachel, capturing the paradoxical qualities of the PKD wife archetype. She is protective to the point of being neurotically controlling, getting defensive whenever he brings up the religious experiences that drive the plot. Alanis Morisette is a surprising choice for Silvia Sadassa, but pulls off the role and brings a certain musical presence. Scott Wilson is effectively creepy as the evil president Fremont; the FAP girl (whose story is a spin off of FBI agents asking the real Philip K. Dick to inform on his wife) is seductive and dangerous in the honeytrap scene. The music is fantastic and lovingly crafted, and the astute viewer will notice many little easter eggs that reveal little differences about the alternative universe. You don't have to be a Robyn Hitchcock fan to enjoy the soundtrack, although his songs dominate, and I find myself getting the song that drives the subversive activity plot stuck in my head. "Join the party!" It's worth mentioning that given the recent NSA revelations, the surveillance theme in this movie are more interesting than ever. What I think is interesting about it, and most critics seem to have missed, is the casual way in which the details about the dystopian society are revealed to us, basically as the characters discuss them over dinner or around the TV. Rather than shoving action or special effects in your face, or depicting horrifying ultra-violence, this movie creates an effective dystopia more subtly by showing how ordinary people who aren't yet taking scary societal changes seriously. It's like, all of a sudden there are security checkpoints and we have to take a test about what the president said, and look aren't these questions tricky? Philip K. Dick's under-appreciated masterpiece has become a film that rewards viewers in so many ways I couldn't hope to enumerate them in this small review. After three viewings I'm still catching more that keeps me interested!

Radio Free Albemuth is the Most Faithful Philip K. Dick Adaptation -- But not just for PKD-Heads Only!

This is a surprisingly successful indie film that was made on a tiny budget, pulled off with a lot of creativity and elbow grease. I'm a huge fan of PKD and writing a book about his mystical experiences, so forgive my bias, but I think that it deserves better than its gotten in some of these reviews. When you grok the context, that it's a goofy science fiction movie in a long tradition, the understandable flaws (which I don't find distracting in the least from the story, which is captured accurately to the letter and faithfully to the spirit) can be forgiven. The cast is great, and their performances are more than adequate to capture Dick's characters. if you can imagine how rushed their filming schedule must have been, what small flaws can be found in delivery can be forgiven. For the most part, the actors know their characters and make them come alive, but because a lot of what is happening is quiet or subtle the big city critics have mistaken this for "lifeless" acting. Considering these actors had weeks to create their characters, I'd say they've accomplished an amazing feat of bringing them to life. Whigham's portrayal of Phil Dick is a great example. He's deadpan and sardonic, not resorting to the cheap jokes that Bill Pullman did when he played the crazy PKD. And some critic has the nerve to complain that he's not wild and crazy enough? This criticism misunderstands the character, which is how PKD viewed himself, cool and witty, and Whigham NAILS THAT. Winnick is amazing as his wife, sexy and sweet, capturing the paradoxical essence of the Dickian wife archetype. She's concerned about her husband to the point of being protective and controlling, annoyed and defensive when he talks about his weird experiences. Alanis is not there as a gimmick, she pulls off her interpretation of Silvia, which I might disagree with at points but don't dislike at all. This movie is very much worth your time if you like philosophical science fiction, and you don't need to be a diehard Philip K. Dick fan to appreciate what it's doing. It's only in theaters for a few more days, so go!

radiofreealbemuth.com

I'm going to the Radio Free Albemuth movie tonight!

It's playing at the Berkeley Rialto 430 6 9 for a week.
Also working on a podcast which I hope to post soon.

Interview with Radio Free Albemuth director John Alan Simon

I've had the privilege of seeing the movie twice and hanging out with John for a few hours on a PKD tour and between events at a few cons. It's a great movie -- see my review below -- and finally hits theaters this Friday. Tomorrow I'm going to distribute some promotional postcards they sent me in Berkeley which is kind of a trip because it's the city where the film is set. Bay Area readers let me know if you want some of the postcards and maybe we can meet up.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/06/23/interview-with-radio-free-albemuth-writer-director-john-alan-simon-look-it-moves-with-adi-tantimedh/

interview bit on the tutelary spirit voice

"The voice that speaks to me, my priest – I’m an Episcopalian – is identified as ruah, which is the word that appears in the Old Testament for the Spirit of God. It speaks in the feminine voice and tends to express statements regarding the Messianic expectation.

It guided me for awhile. It has spoken to me sporadically since I was in high school. But I haven’t heard from it since the sequel. I expect, though, that if a crisis arises it will say something again. It is very economical in what it says. It limits itself to a few very terse, succinct sentences.

I only hear the voice of the spirit when I’m falling asleep or waking up. I have to be very receptive to hear it. It’s extremely faint. It sounds as though it’s coming from millions of miles away."

http://www.philipkdickfans.com/literary-criticism/interviews/horselover-fat-and-the-new-messiah/

Philosophy and Religion from the Joe Vitale interview

AQUARIAN: Then what is the major influence on your work?

DICK: Philosophy and philosophical inquiry.
    I studied philosophy during my brief career at the University of California at Berkley. I’m what they call an “acosmic pan-enthiest,” which means that I don’t believe that the universe exists. I believe that the only thing that exists is God and he is more than the universe. The universe is an extension of God into space and time.
    That’s the premise I start from in my work, that so-called “reality” is an mass delusion that we’ve all been required to believe for reasons totally obscure.
    Bishop Berkely believed that the world doesn’t exist, that God directly impinges on our minds the sensation that the world exists. The Russian science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem poses that if there was a brain being fed a simulated world, is there any way the brain could tell it was a simulated world? the answer, of course, is no. Not unless there was a technological foul-up.
    Imagine a brain floating in a tank with millions and millions of electrodes attached to specific nerve centers. Now imagine these electrodes being selectively stimulated by a computer to cause the brain to believe that it was walking down Hollywood Boulevard chomping on a hamburger and checking out the chicks.
    Now, if there was a technological foul-up, or if the tapes got jumbled, the brain would suddenly see Jesus Christ pass by down Hollywood Boulevard on his way to Golgotha, pursued by a crowd of angry people, being whipped along by seven Roman Centurions.
    The brain would say, “Now hold on there!” And suddenly the entire image would go “pop” and disappear.

    I’ve always had this funny feeling about reality. It just seems very feeble to me sometimes. It doesn’t seem to have the substantiality that it’s suppose to have.
    I look at reality the way a rustic looks at a shell game when he comes into town to visit the fair. A little voice inside me says, “now wait just a second there…”

AQUARIAN: Religion and religious inquiry also occupy a very prominent place in your writing.

DICK: I’ve always been interested in religion. In man’s relationship with is god, what he chooses to worship. I was raised a Quaker but converted to Episcopalianism very early in my life.
    The new novel I’m currently working on for Bantam Books has its basis in theology and what I’ve had to do, in short, it to create a new religion right from scratch.
    It reminds me of something a girl said to me a couple of weeks ago. She said, “You’re really smart, too bad you’re not religious.” (Laughs) And here I am doing nothing all day but reading the Bible, the Apocrypha, the writings of Gnosticism, histories of Christianity. I’ll tell you, I could go out and get a degree in theology right now!

    It seems like a natural progression of sorts. I got badly burned in the political arena. I was hounded by Mr. Smith and Mr. Scruggs. I would literally get thrown out of Socialist and Communist Party meetings when I was in college for disagreeing with party doctrine. And so I turn to religion, and I find incredible bigotry. Two thousand years of history and the names change but the activity remains the same. Somebody was always throwing someone else into prison for his beliefs or burning him at the stake.
    I believe that the establishment churches have lost the keys to the kingdom. They don’t even know what the Kingdom of God is.
    It’s like some guy who loses the keys to his car. He knows he had them a second ago but now they’re gone. The churches, however, don’t even know what the car looks like anymore. They can’t even give a description of it to the cop.
    Organized religion is crooked, dumb, and it’s lost the keys. I mean, it’s OK to be crooked and dumb, we’re all crooked and dumb. But the tragedy is that they’ve lost the keys. They can’t even point us in the right direction much less take us there.
    The whole question of religion is very melancholic. It makes me very sad really. I mean, I’ve read so much and still, I haven’t found God. We have a “deus abscondatus,” a hidden God. As Plato says, “God exists but He is hard to find.”
    I’ve spent the majority of my life studying and reading and seeking God, but, of course, the thing is you can’t find God. God has to find you. I’ve learned that.

http://www.philipkdickfans.com/literary-criticism/interviews/an-interview-with-americas-most-brilliant-science-fiction-writer-philip-k-dick/

My Resume

5423 Shasta Avenue (510) 255-7388 (home)

San Pablo, CA 94806 (707) 481-5332 (cell)

Albert Edward Hand

Objective: To obtain a research assistant position that challenges my teaching skills and creative writing experience.

Education:

Sonoma Valley High School -- diploma class of 1998

Santa Rosa Junior College courses in music and psychology 1996-1997

UC Davis English Major (teaching emphasis) Philosophy Minor 1998-2003

Graduate Theological Union - MA in Art and Religion (finished coursework) 2004-2008

UC Berkeley - Summer Latin Intensive 2006

Work Experience:

ESL Instructor, ELS Language Center. San Rafael, CA 2011-2014

Duties: Designing lesson plans, teaching classes, evaluating new students, calculating grades and maintaining student records using spreadsheet software, writing handouts, memos and grade reports, writing recommendation letters for college aspirants.

TOEFL Test Administrator, ETS Testing Services, San Rafael, CA 2011-2014

Duties: Using computers to administer English proficiency tests for international students who want to attend university, managing test proctors, writing reports, customer service.

Conference Co-Organizer, SFSU “Philip K. Dick Fest” literature conference.

Duties: Writing emails to conference participants, scheduling, writing copy for conference program, moderating panels, introducing speakers, setup and cleanup.

Substitute Teacher, West Contra Costa USD. Richmond, CA 2007-2011

Duties: Reading and implementing lesson plans, classroom management, writing reports on lesson objectives and student papers, long-term replacement during sick leave.

CELDT Test Administrator, West Contra Costa USD, Richmond CA 2008-2009

Duties: Giving written and spoken test to evaluate K-12 students from 80 different language groups, data entry of test results, maintaining records, working with teachers, administrators, and parents as a liaison for the testing service.

Legal Assistant for Frederick Peterson, Esq. 2002

Duties: Summarizing depositions from a construction law case.

References:

David Gill, Lecturer at San Francisco State University (510) 663-5961

Lauren Holt (415) 846-6840 ESL Instructor

Pamela Jackson on Frances Yates in the Exegesis

Let's see, Francis Yates. Oh, for a searchable exegesis. I remember that K.W. Jeter lends PKD a copy of The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, which inspires various musings on Hermeticism, Bruno, etc. No detailed discussion of the book, but it joins the mix, probably in 1978.
(from a facebook thread)

Cat as Guru

"I guess I am the first person ever to be peed on by my guru."
Philip K. Dick, July 30, 1974 "Dear Claudia" letter

Excerpt from Dick's 1977 Letter to Julian Jaynes

"What I did not expect, however, was to find myself under the jurisdiction of an ancient god who commanded me first this was and then that, extricating me from a highly stressful situation I had found myself in. No theory of my own (and for three years I have studied and labored to come up with a theory) or by anyone else could account for the exquisitely beautiful voice, the inner voice, which I heard off and on for eleven months. At first I told my wife that "The Elohim" were talking to me. Later, during one of my many hypnogogic dialogs between me and this articulating entity (it also communicated, in dreams, in written form), it infomed me that "Jesus" was a name for Zeus-Zagreus. However, in most dreams early on it appeared in the form of the Sibyl of Apollo, but with a third eye in lateral lens-form, by which she could see and hence know everything. She had seen a dreadful conspiracy in America, she said, and she showed me a group of men wearing Eastern Establishment, very expensive business suits; she was showing me, in fact, the gang we now call "The President's Men." These "conspirators," as she called them, would be removed from power and punished for what they had done. By August this had indeed happened and by then I understood who she was talking about...

Another curious aspect was its memory, to which I had access during the intial three or four days when it originally overwhelmed my left hemisphere. It remembered events between roughly three and two thousand years ago--from the high point of Crete to the time of St. Paul--and then it literally had no memories; there was a two thousand year gap, right up to World War One. It was as if it had been asleep, away or dead for those two thousand years. It readily remembered the Egyptian aspects of Crete-I had in hypnogogic states incredible visions of Greece and Rome, but after that--nothing, until about 1916. This evidently was why it initially addressed me in Greek; it was using the language it was accustomed to use in addressing humans.

I never have doubted that it was a god, the gods, or God. Yet it seemed to be female. Within the first hour of its mastery it noetically disclosed to me an entire cosmology--and then had me read up on it in Plate. I found that same cosmology in Timaeus. It even informed me about ananke, which, as you know, is the factor which noos "persuades" in Timaeus...

Let me finish by giving you a couple of ideas which I've developed about this which did not appear in your book. First of all, I think we hear a vastly scaled-down version of this godly command voice in the form of conscience. And second, I am positive that the godly voice informs us in the normal course of dreaming. Subliminally, it clues us in on what to do and what to avoid during our daylight waking hours--without our suspecting...

Let me say in conclusion that your superb book has now made it possible for me to discuss my 3-1974 experiences openly, without being merely called schizophrenic..."

Neoplatonism

"By the way--our new Britannica defines Neoplatonism as the sum total of all pagan (i.e. non-Christian) Western theological and philosophical thought, rather than a particular doctrine or sect. Wow. It was around the year 500 A.D. that Justinian closed all the schools which taught Neoplatonism; i.e. he forbade its teaching; he outlawed it. Golly; I have brought down Christianity then. I have proved what Ted Sturgeon said in that VENUS PLUS X or whatever he called that Ace book; the Church kicked the asses of those who were right, and sold two thousand years of profitable lies in the place of what I am sure now was not only real and true but what they knew was real and true (vide what became of Erigena). How is the Pope going to take this? As the popes always have; by kicking someone's ass. But in truth, in very truth, this is a shadow universe we see, a reflection in the mirror of another universe behind it, and that other universe can be reached by an individual direct, without the help of any priest or service or communion or even knowing what he is doing (the latter pertains to me, you understand; I was just trying out the massive hits of WS vitamins). God is as close as the wall beside me; is within the wass beside me, concealed by it, as if that wall is a paper mask. Letters Feb. 13, 1975 (p.61)

Radio Free Albemuth has been funded!

Stay tuned for a podcast I'm doing on why it's a great PKD adaptation.

Phildickian Esotericism (playing around with Google Charts)

I haven't figured out how to add text to the intersections. Gnostic and Hermetic is Kabbalah. Neoplatonic and Hermetic is Alchemy. Gnostic and Neoplatonic is Theosophy/Pansophy. In the middle I guess would be Exegesis? Ah the game of correspondence and attribution.

Luhrman on Jaynes

The book, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind,is one of those gangly, overwritten academic books that is undoubtedly wrong, but wrong in such an interesting way that readers, on finishing it, find that they think about the world quite differently. The book begins, “O, what a world of unseen visions and heard silences, this insubstantial country of the mind!” Jaynes was a psychology professor at Princeton, back in the days before psychologists had walled themselves off from literature, when he noticed that the gods in the Homeric epics took the place of the human mind. In the Iliad we do not see Achilles fretting over what to do, or even thinking much. Achilles is a man of action, and in general, he acts as the gods instruct him. When Agamemnon steals his mistress and Achilles seethes with anger, Athena shows up, grabs him by the hair, and holds him back. Jaynes argued that Athena popped up in this way because humans in archaic Greece attributed thought to the gods—that when the ancient kings were buried in those strange beehive Mycenaean tombs, when social worlds were small and preliterate, people did not conceptualize themselves as having inner speech. Jaynes did not think that the role of the gods in the Iliad was a literary trope. He thought that people who did not refer to internal states used their brains differently and—the cognitive functions of speaking and obeying split across their unintegrated hemispheres—actually experienced some thoughts audibly. “Who then were these gods that pushed men about like robots and sang epics through their lips?” Jaynes asked. “They were voices whose speech and direction could be as distinctly heard by the Iliadic heroes as voices are heard by certain epileptic and schizophrenic patients, or just as Joan of Arc heard her voices.”

http://theamericanscholar.org/living-with-voices/#.Ubf-Vec3vpk

David Hyde on Kabbalah in PKD's 1974 letters

 In THE SELECTED LETTERS 1974, PKD mentions kabala/cabala/qabalah/etc. three times (not sure which as I only have my Index handy - I used 'Cabala') : (1). In a letter to Claudia Bush, 7-22-1974, SL 74 page 200ff (also in the EXEGESIS, page 37). (2). In a letter to Louise Zimmerman, 7-25-1974, SL 74 page 214ff. (3). In a letter to the Roiscrucian Supply Bureau, 9-30-1974, SL 74 page 256. Indexes are fun!