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Otaku is a zine made by fans for fans. It exists to celebrate, explore and discuss the work of Philip K Dick. The Otaku Team have enjoyed the writing and ideas of Philip K. Dick for decades, and continue to do so. The subject of Philip K. Dick benefits from diverse perspectives, opinions, and insights. In this zine we hope to explore the Novels, Short-Fiction, Non-fiction and ideas of Philip K Dick. If you would like to contribute (a letter of comment, an article, essay or review) please make your submission in MS Doc, Rtf or Txt form to the Otaku Team c/o Patrick Clark via email: [email protected] All submissions are welcome and considered, but we cannot promise that all will see print. Thank you for maintaining the dialogue! -- The PKD OTAKU Team

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2 Nothing was familiar. All was strange. Alien...He could feel the difference. couldn’t stop taking notes. Maybe VALIS is that disserta- tion Phil was working on – except if that were true than Editorial the EXEGESIS would have ended in early December 1978 when Phil sent the manuscript to his agent in New York. by Patrick Clark As we know Phil kept at it almost until the day he died. There are certainly aspects of the EXEGESIS I do “You know, of course, that this is going to shoot down my admire, particularly how well it is edited. The inclusion of professional probity.” the Claudia Bush letters, by way of an introduction, was “What probity?” Kevin said, characteristically. inspired. The commentary notes are brilliant; in some -- Valis Chapter 10 ways I prefer them to the actual entries and taken to- gether they are a sort of biography of Phil and his times. XEGESIS mania seems to have dropped off consid- I have to say I very much enjoy Phil’s self-exploration of erably since our last issue of PKD Otaku. At least it his oeuvre, parsing his novels and short stories, searching Eappears to be so in the mainstream press which has for clues as to their true meaning (of which, I guess, he moved on to other cultural phenomenon, like The Hun- was unaware when actually writing them originally), sort- ger Games. No doubt ing them into categories, the academic press is still scuffling them around gearing up for a range from entry to entry, such of scholarly articles to as he did circa 1977: come. It takes a while for those to see the light The info conveyed chron- of day. For all I know ologically in the sequence the topic is still white of books is interesting. hot on various blogs and 1) EYE plural & subjective specialized web sites. I worlds don’t follow those so 2) JOINT world as simu- it’s impossible for me to lated deliberately say. But for your average 3) STIGMATA plural hal- citizen the clamor -- the lucinated worlds con- book reviews and articles cocted by an evil magi- Calling Card Graphic © 2012 Nick Buchanan Graphic Calling Card in newspapers, the inter- cian-like deity views with editors and publicity tours -- have died down 4) UBIK messages of assistance penetrating the and are over. On the one hand I’m fine with this. Perhaps simulated world(s) “from the other side” by/from a sal- best to let the EXEGESIS fade from view for a while. It is vific true deity an exceedingly strange book. To tell you the truth I have 5) MAZE simulated world fabricated by us, to es- read very little of it, Phil’s most ambitious and frustrating cape an intolerable actuality final work. The endless and mostly fruitless exploration 6) TEARS the nature specifically of the actuality of what really happened on 2-3-74 was, for me, exhaust- (an intolerable one – the BIP Acts) ing and this, mind you, was only from dipping at random 7) SCANNER buried memories connected with in its hundreds and hundreds of pages. I kept wondering lost identity; & protospeech breaking through, not into what in the world Phil thought he was doing beating his world as in UBIK but inside a person’s head. Two psychoi head against a metaphysical brick wall, night after night, one in each brain hemisphere, each with its own name & constructing one esoteric theory in elaborate detail, a characteristics. Faberge Egg of a theory, only to refute it the next night Plus such stories as “Imposter,” “Retreat Syn- with a different equally elaborate concept. Okay, maybe drome,” “Electric Ant,” “Human Is” & “”Precious Arti- he was visited by God back in 1974 but even so couldn’t fact,” a very good one. & related themes in TIME-SLIP, he just accept that and move on? Apparently not. He just MITHC, PENULTIMATE TRUTH, GAME-PLAYERS, also even kept at it, year after year for eight years and, really, had he UNTELEPORTED MAN, (ANDROIDS DREAM treats memo- survived his strokes in 1982 does anyone doubt he’d be ry-identity theme). back to it once he got out of the hospital. I’m inclined to believe Tessa Dick who suggested that Phil was essentially I do find this sort of stuff fascinating. Phil speaks going to write a dissertation and that the EXEGESIS is a of these titles as composing a single work, what he re- series of research notes that, one day, would have been fers to as “one unfolding true narrative” and later on as condensed down into a coherent, single book. Phil just a “metanovel.” I half expect someone to publish all of

3 False memories. Even his name, his identity. The whole contents of his mind—everything. Falsified, by someone or something. these books and stories as one con- thing? Can we fairly say that Phil tinuous volume someday. For that couldn’t stop himself? And isn’t matter, with e-text, any one of us the inability to stop yourself a form could do such a volume, and it could of madness? be a unique, personalized narrative I said at the beginning that addressing our own particular needs. “on the one hand” I’m fine with the We wouldn’t even have to include EXEGESIS fading from the pages of the works in toto but instead just the mainstream press. That implies the chunks that are particularly an “on the other hand” belief as well relevant to us perhaps with addi- and, indeed, on that other hand I’m to- tional bits and pieces of the SE- tally glad the EXEGESIS is still out there, LECTED LETTERS, interviews, es- disturbing people. You probably know says and speeches and, naturally, that the Estate was a little nervous about entries from the EXEGESIS itself. letting the EXEGESIS be published. Paul It would have a print run of one Williams was likewise hesitant. Both copy – but there would be as thought that bringing Phil’s obsessive many versions as there are dif- investigations into 3-4-74 would do ferent individuals willing to go his reputation no good at all. They to the trouble of compiling were right. A passing remark in the such a collection. Wall Street Journal (March 24, 2012 Of course, that way lies page C5) refers to “the lunatic out- madness, which is what the sider sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick.” “Lu- EXEGESIS more or less en- natic outsider” is a new descriptor courages. You can’t read for Phil in my experience and not a too much of it without get- happy one. I think it likely that this ting caught up in it like the game designation come directly from the at the end of THE ZAP GUN that traps publicity surrounding the EXEGE- the alien invaders. You may consider SIS. As David Gill pointed out at his the previous paragraph as an example Total Dickhead site: “the Exegesis of this effect, ricocheting off -a ran is hardcore theological specula- dom entry into some wild concept of tion, an endeavor that many in a private PKD novel, one made only for our current milieu feel to be point- me. But the EXEGESIS is mostly about less, and what’s worse, the sign other issues than Phil’s books and sto- of a degraded mind.” That being ries. Those issues, frankly, have little true, the EXEGESIS is going to make a attraction for me. Things like homoplas- lot of people think twice about mate, acosmism, orthogonal time, the Phil. morphological realm – the “crazy parts” But consider this point one might say – have no resonance with by Daniel Silliman in his essay me at all. I don’t believe in them in the way “Cyberpunk, Orwellian Fears, that I do believe in, you know, UBIK, TIME and the Faces of Tyranny: Chang- OUT OF JOINT, THREE STIGMATA, MARTIAN es in the Future, and What They TIME SLIP, and TIMOTHY ARCHER. And VA- Tell Us about What We Fear:” LIS, too, I have to admit even though most people would wonder why I can accept in In recent years, George Or- a novel the very concepts I cannot abide in well has received the rites of canon- the EXEGESIS. Good point and one I am not ization. Anyone who writes dark sto- sure how to answer except to say that, to ries of the future does so in his shadow. me, VALIS is ultimately sane and the EX- All the groups he made uncomfortable EGESIS is…not so sane. The EXEGESIS we during the complicated and divided have, all 900-plus pages of it, is reportedly times in which he wrote are now retro- only half of the total manuscript. What in actively conferring high status upon him, the world can the other 900 pages have to bestowing on him full political and literary say? Why would anyone compose such a rank. He has gained stature in the political

4 He had to find out who he was, and this was the only place there was any chance of learning. dialogue, being invoked directly and indirectly on matters characters they are instead still quite unnerving. of tyranny and its outworks in the details of information, Which is why the EXEGESIS is such a wild card. technology, and society. He holds a place in great litera- The standard messed-up-reality tropes are still there but ture and is counted mixed within hun- among our secular dreds and hundreds saints. But this should of pages of dense give us pause, for a theology: frustrat- prophet honoured, a ing, idiosyncratic, of- prophet recognized, ten unintelligible, ag- is a prophet tamed. onizingly repetitive, The respected proph- funny, profound, et is a prophet whose heart-breaking and, time has passed. This finally disturbing. I is especially true of can attest to this those who write of and from paranoia, stigma, and isola- even having sampled only a small portion. It’s discourag- tion. ing to read but heartening to realize that here is Phil once again upsetting the universe. I believe we can all see how simple it is to re- Actually we don’t have to reference Orwell at all place “George Orwell” with “Philip K. Dick” with exactly in this regard. Michael Swanwick summed up the situa- the same results. Phil’s books are deeply subversive of tion precisely years ago in the pages of the New York Re- “consensual reality.” That’s what makes them so remark- view of Science Fiction (no. 70, June 1994): able and so continuingly relevant to our lives here in His career did indeed the 21st Century. Too late “The lunatic outsider takeoff after his death, and to ignore or consign to the this fact is not coincidental. trash heap of pulp science A dead PKD is a manage- fiction, the powers-that- sci-fi writer able commodity, where be have turned Phil into alive he was a loose canon. a simple commodity: raw Philip K. Dick.” He remembered (and pub- material for some forgetta- lished) versions of business ble movie or the subject of and personal relationships some dense, post-modern journal article. In both instanc- wildly at variance with what actually happened. He de- es the point is to get away from what Phil wrote about nounced people the FBI. He appeared at friends’ homes to, instead, some interpretation that high on drugs or maybe aberrant vi- neutralizes the message. Oh, they sions of the truth, and made terrible are in it to make a buck or make a scenes. In short, he was uncannily reputation of course. I don’t believe like the heroine of George Bernard in a conscious conspiracy to neutral- Shaw’s Saint Joan, a wild card from ize Phil’s disturbing depiction of our God, someone whose business it was real world. It’s funny, though, that to trash the status quo, somebody the aspects of his work we almost who has a better purpose for your always identify as peculiarly “phildi- life than the smug quotidian ends ckian” – unstable reality, conspiracy, to which you have put it. Somebody inauthentic humans, suspicious ma- you don’t really want back. chines, altered perception – are now comfortably ensconced in our cul- The EXEGESIS is the “wild card from ture. They hardly raise an eyebrow God” come back to life. when they are acknowledged at all. They have, become, in fact, mere ------forms of entertainment and for that

I think we can thank Hollywood. On © 2012 Nick Buchanan Graphic Exegesis the printed page where they are so richly detailed and enmeshed in the lives of fully realized

5 “There’s something going on. Beyond human awareness.” THE COSMIC PUPPETS: An Exploration into a hell in the center of the earth. But it was too late. by Barbara Hyde Creation was already corrupt and distorted by Ahriman © July 1992 and he remains within the material realm to continue his abominable work until the resurrection of the Final Body hen I first read The Cosmic Puppets a few years when all is made good once more. This myth, which is ago I thought it lacked the depth of PKD’s later similar to the Christian Armageddon, is the basic plot of novels. Being his first novel I thought it natural The Cosmic Puppets. W The Creation myth is allegorized at the beginning that it would contain less intellectual diversions and hid- den symbolism than his later works. I was wrong. It turned of the story where Mary, the daughter of Dr. Meade, cre- out to be a philosophical maze. The story depicts the his- ates animals out of clay. Then Peter Trilling comes along tory of Western dualist thought from its origins in ancient and distorts her creation. This is how the Zoroastrian myth Zoroastrianism to the mod- starts, with the Creator cre- ern day dialectical theories. ating and the Destroyer de- Dick created a story that re- stroying. flects the religions and ideol- There is a daughter in ogies of our society, a story the myth, but this daugh- of our reality as it would be ter doesn’t match the char- if these ideologies were tak- acter of Mary. Another fe- en literally and objectively. male character in the myth, Structurally, the Spand-Armatis, is Ormazd’s story is hinged on the Zoro- wife. She has the multi-fac- astrian myth of two arche- eted role of wife, mother, typal beings, one good and and daughter. Spand-Arma- the other evil. This myth tis, or Mary, represents the expresses the dual nature typical feminine attributes of human perception and of nature or Mother Earth, includes our persistent hope the regenerative force. for a Savior who will abolish Mary is versatile. In the evil and make a heaven on end she becomes fluid and earth. I believe Dick felt Zo- everlasting. Dick gave much roastrianism to be the origin to this character, making her of dualistic ideology because encompass all facets of the The Cosmic Puppets, being female essence. He elimi- the effigy of dualism, is root- nated any negative conno- ed in this myth. tations completely. He was We know that Dick kind to woman, giving her meant for us to compare image respect. the story with the myth be- The myth tells of the cause he had the character whore who lures Ahriman of Dr. Meade give a brief into the final battle with summary of the myth when Ormazd. In their appropria- he described his interpreta- tion of the myth, the Jews tion and understanding of and Christians gave the term the situation in Millgate. Ac- a negative connotation. This cording to Dr. Meade there led to woman being blamed are two opposing spirits: Ormazd is the spirit of light and for starting the battle between good and evil. Instead of good - the builder. Ahriman is the spirit of darkness and questioning the existence of evil, they stopped short at evil - the wrecker. Ormazd creates and Ahriman distorts. the translation of the word “whore” and made Eve guilty These two entities have agreed to spend thousands of of the fall of man. They did not go on to acknowledge the years fighting each other for control of Creation. outcome of the cosmic battle which brought about the At some point in their struggle Ahriman rent the resurrection of the Final Body, the heaven on earth. sky and came to earth. The sky closed and he found him- Dick, with the character of Mary, changes this im- self trapped in the material universe until the end of time. age of woman, going beyond the biases of the predomi- Ormazd, arriving later, then cast Ahriman and his demons nant Western ideals. He saw that although the woman

6 You can’t all sit around and pretend everything is perfectly ordinary! was called whore in the Zoroastrian myth, she was a In essence, this is the same as the Zoroastrian and Judeo- positive force for humanity. Without her Ahriman never Christian beliefs in two opposing forces battling untila would have been defeated. He would have remained in new and better world evolves. the material realm and continued to distort everything. In The Cosmic Puppets symbolizes this process of realizing this, Dick removed the burden placed on woman dialectic history. It represents the struggle of conscious- by the Judeo-Christian ideology which blames her for the ness as it tries to transcend the objective false reality fall. Dick set woman free from original sin and put her in a and replace it with the ideal subjective reality. Ormazd more proper perspective. is the thesis, Ahriman the antith- Ted Barton, the protago- esis, and the Millgate Ted Barton nist in the story, is Gayomart, the “Ted Barton... remembers the synthesis. The Blessed Man, Christ. He is also definite negation is all the action something else. He is the natural in Millgate which leads to the real- man, the man who is not contami- is man ization of the pure truth when Dr. nated by the change that reified Meade transforms into the symbol Millgate. He is man before the fall, of absolute knowledge, Ormazd. the non-reified man who was not before the fall” When Dick describes this transfor- present when the change or reifi- mation, he mentions the husk of cation took place. He is free from the original assumptions Meade’s human form left behind. Meade has transformed and biases of those who are distorted. into the God of Light. By having Ormazd taking Barton up Dick expressed other philosophical and sociologi- with him, he takes our consciousness into this realm of cal ideas in this story. The main theme is the history of pure thought where it dangles in the ultimate creative the dualistic concept. The Zoroastrian myth is used as the space. basic skeleton of the book and expresses the dualistic ide- At this point, held by his heel in space, Barton ex- ology of Western religions. The philosophical dualism, the periences Christ consciousness. He is become the Hanged dialectic theories, emerge with the interactions in the sto- Man of the tarot, the crucified Christ. He is made aware of ry. Just as our philosophical thought has expanded from the sacred energy that pulses through all existence. The its origins, the storyline changes to encompass and ad- unconscious is now made conscious. Dick has awakened dress the dualism of today. both the human spirit and the world spirit to true con- There are many dualist and sciousness. He has turned around dialectic theories. Dick probably society’s values and brought equi- studied them all. I have chosen librium to the duality in reality. Out Hegel as my reference because he of the negation came the true real- is the one with whom I am most fa- ity, undistorted. miliar. Dick depicts the conflict we ex- Hegel developed a meth- perience between subjective and od which he applied to the mind, objective reality most clearly when whereby consciousness in realizing Ted Barton first enters Millgate and itself abolishes itself by creating finds his subjective memory is dif- its own negation, and as a result ferent from the Millgate he expe- passes into a higher mode of unity rienced in objective reality. The with its opposite. Eventually the characters are continually faced human spirit and the world spirit, with this dilemma, especially the out of the act of definite negation, Wanderers. They are outcasts from will evolve to a state of absolute Ahriman’s distortion and spend knowledge or pure truth. their lives trying to bring back the The dialectic method by memory of their objective reality. which an idea (thesis) is challenged They have a lot of trouble living by its opposite (antithesis), then in the distortion. They must close reconciled into a new idea (synthe- their eyes to blot it out and count sis) was applied by Hegel to both their steps. The Wanderers repre- the human spirit and the world spirit. Hegel believed the sent the thought processes of our mind. They are lost, human spirit and the world spirit have evolved together confused, and distorted. They search in a blind void for through a dialectical history of conflict and synthesis to absolute knowledge, the true reality, but they can’t re- become refined as an existence of absolute knowledge. member it.

7 “He’s already faced with the fact that his memories don’t agree with the situation.” The philosophy of Marx is the next step in the his- He is afraid. He creates things that harm others. He has tory of dualist thought. A resemblance to Marxism in The no self-realization. He is just there to distort. Although Cosmic Puppets is apparent. Dick went beyond Marxism. he seems harmless and vulnerable, he is very powerful. Although Dick does not address the socio-economic class This character represents the existing social structure. He conflict as the dialectic force at work in our reality, he is the monster that nips at our heels while we are fight- doesn’t ignore the economic factor altogether. He uses it ing to free ourselves from its domain. He is humanity not as part of the distortion. yet aware of absolute The part of the knowledge or true con- real Millgate Barton sciousness. The distor- misses most is the park. tion he created is the This has significance, as false reality of false con- the park is a symbol of sciousness. The people the Garden of Eden, the of Millgate whose real- paradise before the fall. ity is this distortion are In the distorted Millgate the bourgeois who per- the park is replaced by petuate the illusion of old, rotting and desert- false consciousness. ed stores, the symbols Dick shows two of the old structure of types of reified con- capitalism. To bring sciousness in the story. back the park was an Dr. Meade, the rest of important step in bring- the distortions, Will ing back the true reality. Christopher, and the It was the first step. Dick Wanderers are crude felt we should replace empiricists trying to the old rotting capital- live and adjust to the ist structure with some- distortion. Peter is the thing natural. With this abstract utopian. He, symbolic transforma- along with his golems, tion he acknowledges rats, spiders, and snakes the part capitalism plays represents the capi- in distorting reality, and talists of Big Business, the importance of replacing it. He knows that the larger their politicians and their enforcers. Strangely enough, conflict is between our idea of what reality should be and Mary, too, is an abstract utopian; only her power to mas- the objective reality we experience. ter the motion of objects is not meaningless. This reveals What Dick did with Zoroastrianism, Marx did with a quality in the nature of abstract utopianism that others Hegel. He brought the myth into reality. Where Hegel have missed. used abstract and historical ideas to support his dialectic Will Christopher represents both the will of the method, Marx applied the method to the reality of capi- workers and the lumpen proletariat - Marx’s “refuse of talist industrialization. He turned Hegel’s ideological theo- all classes,” the unemployed, the displaced and dispos- ry from abstract concepts of spirit sessed. Will used to have his own and thought into the experienced business before the change and is, reality of capitalism. “The Wanderers then, one of the petty bourgeoi- When Dick made the gods sie who have lost their small busi- human and alive, he brought the nesses due to Big Business preda- Zoroastrian myth into the reality are crude tion. He was also an electrician, a of the story. When the gods be- skilled worker, and represents all came real, the subjective united the unemployed workers. He then with the objective. The myth now empiricists” becomes one of the homeless, existed. It was real. This is where degenerating as he tries to live in Dick was exceptionally creative with his scenario. The the distorted society. gods exist on one level as omnipotent deities and on an- Will, although a drunken bum living in a card- other level as humans. board box, knows that his world is distorted and that he is The deity Ahriman is Peter Trilling, a small boy. too. He has class consciousness. He lives within the false

8 My mind’s been tampered with, I think. Something I found in the newspaper office makes me sure even my identity isn’t—” reality of false consciousness. Conscious of the distortion, modern reality. The battle between good and evil occurs he is unable to create the true reality. He develops the in human and abstract forms. Although socio-economic “Spell Remover,” a device to bring back the true reality, conflict theory is similar, Dick depicts the conflict as being then finds that it doesn’t work either. With this example between a distorted social structure and true conscious- Dick is telling us that our technologies are useless in ef- ness. The battle is fought for control of the earth. When fecting the change. the battle is won, the Ted Barton had earth will be rejuvenated to work with Will Christo- “What Dick did with and society reconstructed. pher before he could bring back a substantial part of Zoroastrianism, (This essay originally appeared the old, non-reified real- in #3 of For Dickheads Only and ity. Together they brought is reproduced by kind permission back the park. The symbol Marx did with Hegel.” of the Author and Editor). of the working force and the lumpen proletariat, Will Christopher must unite with true consciousness, Ted Barton, before he can turn back capitalism. Will had the desire to bring back Millgate; he just needed the true consciousness to help him do it. Dr. Meade represents the intelligentsia. He knows about the change but does nothing to turn it back. He rec- ognizes the contradiction and he tries to help the victims of the false reality, the Wanderers, but he does not want to change the social structure which created the Wander- ers in the first place. He accepts the false reality because he lives comfortably within it. Dick shows us that the intelligentsia are the most important agent of the change. He makes them the god of light. He places human destiny in their hands. There comes a point in the story where everything was failing. Even Ted Barton, the non-reified man, was losing control of reality. They were all being defeated. Their only hope was that Dr. Meade would realize who he really was; oth- erwise the battle was lost. But Meade did not want to become aware of his true identity because it meant his 2012 own demise. The intelligentsia do not want to realize their © role in bringing about a new reality because they fear a loss of status. The catalyst that makes Meade realize that he must give up the false reality is the death of Mary - Mother Earth. When Ted Barton confronts him with his true identity he cannot deny it. When the intelligentsia are confronted with true consciousness, they will no lon- ger be able to cling to the false reality.

When the true reality is realized and the old dis- Perry Kinman by Illustration tortion abolished, things change to the way they would have been if the reification had not taken place. Will Chris- topher does not remember Ted at the end of the story. Consciousness, in eliminating Ahriman or evil, has no “Everyone loves the Papoola” memory of it having existed. Evil is no longer conscious to us. by Perry Kinman The Cosmic Puppets was written to show histori- cal dialectics in action. In a sense our ideology is a defi- nite negation of our civilization. Our reality contradicts the democratic ideals of freedom and equality. In essence Dick shows how philosophical ideologies fit in with our

9 Like one of those games—as soon as the hidden shape becomes visible it’s impossible not to see it. DO ARTISTS DREAM OF A right around the time my second daughter was born and PHILIP K. DICK MOMENT? my art had progressed to more complex digital paintings, primarily humorous ones of Tiki’s and Fez wearing chimps. By Robert Jiménez Encouraged by a few painter friends I picked up acrylics © March 2012 and began working on paintings. In between some Pulp styled art and a chimp painting I decided to finally tackle s I took the print of my painting A PHILIP K. DICK the images of Phil that had been lingering (loitering?) in MOMENT to the framers, I was hit yet again with the back of my mind. the strangest feeling. A mix of surreality and de- A I knew the painting would incorporate surreal el- light. Here I was dropping off a ements. Although my work falls canvas print to be framed and into what is called Pop Surreal- sent off to Tessa Dick, Phil’s 5th ism, due to the inclusion of the wife. The very one who shared aforementioned Tikis and chimps his life as V.A.L.I.S. gave up its in- , outlandish settings and sarcastic formation... humor, I had never really worked I’d been reading Phil’s on a painting that was made up work since my early teens. I was of multiple surrealistic elements. at a local Waldenbooks and was I thought that the nature of Phil’s intrigued by the cover of The work and many of the events of Man In The High Castle. I picked his life could be best represented it up, read it and shortly after had in a painting by working with sur- my first viewing of Blade Run- realism. ner. From that point I read all I I searched Google for as many could by Phil. If I recall correctly, pictures as I could find of him that was a point in Phil’s literary to aid in achieving his likeness, life where there weren’t many which is an area of my art I some- of his books in print, the Vintage times struggle with, and began reissues a few years away. But, I sketching out the painting. I tend read what I could find, ordered not to do much sketch work so I the PKD Society Newsletter back quickly settled on one (Fig. 1) and began the painting. I issues, later bought and read those Vintage reissues, the knew I wanted to incorporate sheep, but didn’t want to collected Letters and then Lawrence Sutin’s biography. His fall into images of robotic or android sheep which I often work, his life, and the Phil I knew from his letters moved find border on the cliché. I had the thought of sheep be- me and influenced me in many ways and all this then ing counted, as insomniacs may do to bring on sleep, and came to influence my painting. envisioned them jumping a fence...then the idea of the I had plans to paint a portrait of Phil for some sheep running and jumping over his shoulders came to time. I suppose like many artists who incorporate pop me. To add to the surrealistic quality I thought I’d have the culture elements in their work, there is a litany of im- sheep jumping and disap- ages and references from pearing into his goatee. my youth that stream Of all the pictures I found through my conscious and of Phil, I thought the look sub-conscious mind and of the full shaggy goatee inform my art. In my case to be his most interesting along with comic book im- and felt it’d be humorous ages, lyrical and film refer- to have sheep jumping ences, there has been the into it and have another occasional image of an au- peeking out of it. Also, I thor that grabs hold of my used the sheep and his attention and then may goatee to incorporate “2- work its way into my art. 3-74”. (Fig.2) Among Kafka, Paul Aus- I thought that the pres- ter and others there was ence of Phil’s words would Phil....I had done a digital illustration of Paul Auster and be an important visual element to the work so I scanned wanted to do one of Phil but that was around the time pages of my copies of his books and pasted them in col- that my medium would change. I had gotten into Tiki art

10 First I find out I’m dead, that I never lived to grow up—” lage around his head and in the pink beam. I purposely my inbox later that day and a thrill to read that she loved blurred some pages and left certain words readable(Fig.3 the painting. She shared it on her facebook page and the and 4) work received favorable reviews by her friends. However, I also wanted to add it was pointed out to me that his eye color was wrong. Tes- Phil’s friend, Bishop James sa said they were Pike to the portrait and a sky blue. I went wanted to give him a mys- back and made terious vibe (which I guess that last change to directly relates to how I the painting. see him) by obscuring his I am so face under the collar of grateful for Tessa’s Phil’s shirt. (Fig.5) response to the The encompassing swirls that surround Phil’s head are a piece. As I men- direct result of the line work I implemented to portray the tioned here and to pink beam. These swirls branch off in different directions, Tessa via emails, ricocheting of Phil’s head. They are basically abstract but I there was and still is a sense of surrealism to my exchanges with her. That time of Phil’s and Tessa’s life, married and living with their son Christopher, and their experiences and the actual (and fictional accounts) of those moments, and the many letters Phil wrote....I lived that over many times through the reading of his letters, VA- LIS, Radio Free Albemuth, and The Trans- migration of Timothy Archer among others. It is such a thrill to me to know that she has ex- perienced my work of Phil. And that she will be receiving a print of this painting and that it may hang in her home.

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More examples of Robert Jiménez’ work can be found at: did decide to loosely include the face of an owl, referenc- Tiki Tower http://www.tikitower.com ing his unfinished work. (Fig.6) & Zerostreet http://www.zerostreet.com When I completed the painting, and was already into another, I suddenly had the thought to contact Tessa Dick. I had come across her blog when googling pictures Full Portrait on Next page → of Phil. I wrote her a short email, telling her of my painting and directing her to my Zerostreet facebook page so she could see it. It was a great surprise to see her response in

11 I woke up and it was all different. I couldn’t find my way around. I stayed inside and hid. I thought I was crazy.” A Philip K.Dick Moment by Robert Jiménez

12 CONFESSIONS OF A CRAP COVER ARTIST: they become unconscious possibilities; options you may A review of the Houghton call upon depending on mood, direction and key. Then, Mifflin Harcourt covers what you play becomes a free, creative distillation of all By Nick Buchanan that you have learned. Without such understand- © March 2012 ing (of any craft) one is destined only to make jan- gling ‘noise’ – reduced to mimicking the motifs of he cover of a favourite book others. Ventriliquy instead of Art. is the face of a good friend. Picasso’s abstracts were robust and in- It embodies all your happy teresting because he had first learned to paint in T a representational way. In so doing, he familiarised memories and represents the character of the whole thing. himself with the complexities of reality, which then Some of my Philip K. Dick books became a currency for his abstract work (i.e. an have been with me for over awareness of lines, angles, shapes, tones, textures, thirty years. Constant compan- colours, etc.) As John Lassiter once said, “Reality is ions: the good, the bad and a convenient measure of complexity.” Many ama- the ugly. All are treasured for teurs looking at a Picasso abstract say things like the inner beauty of their rich ‘I could do that!’ Yet, if you texts. They have pride of place offer them a brush and on my bookshelves. There are lurid paint, their efforts betray pulps with beautiful illustrations which them and it is clear that hint at dramatic scenes not found in they simply can’t do that. the text. Others offer space landscapes; Their results don’t carry breathtaking in the scope of their visual the learning and their imagination. There are cheap movie tie- marks are not invested ins and stunning wraparound illustrations with any level of un- by artists like Chris Moore. Then, sadly derstanding or visual there are covers which relate to nothing awareness. They lack and which mean nothing. a sense of colour and You can’t judge a book by its cover they don’t know how but you can judge a publisher by its covers. to relate forms in Are they making an effort or not? Too many space. Philip K. Dick publishers look like they just don’t In April 2010, Houghton Mif- care or aren’t trying. Even worse, some defend flin Harcourt acquired the North poor efforts (which lack thought or commit- American publishing rights to ment). How many times has something sub- Philip K. Dick. I always wait with keen standard been fortified with claims that it is anticipation when a designer has the ‘ironic,’ ‘cool’ or ‘post-modern’ - the last ref- task of providing fresh new covers for uge of the inept and the unqualified. Small the Dick catalogue. It is always exciting. circles of unskilled critics champion those For each title, one wonders what they with no sense of design as the designers will do. Perhaps they will illustrate a key of tomorrow when they never even made scene from the book? Or perhaps they it to today. Their lack of understanding will attempt to express the atmosphere of layout, illustration and typography of the story? Or a central idea (e.g. seeing are glaringly obvious to anyone who has behind the veil). Perhaps they will ignore studied and worked in these areas. the text altogether but will nevertheless Let me make it clear that I am delight us with their invention and skill. not against abstraction, experimenta- perhaps they will try to convey the psy- tion or play, nor have I ever been con- chological atmosphere (menace, paranoia, servative in my tastes. However, to uncertainty, etc.) Perhaps the typography play great Jazz you need to know your itself can be used to convey something to scales; to be a good lead guitarist you do with each story? must first learn the patterns on the In the case of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, fret-board. You learn them so that the results were disappointing, though co- lourful. The cover for The Man in the High

13 These people are imitation people. The real ones are gone. Swept aside overnight.” Castle was typical of their new house style. It used bold colours and a white text box con- Counter Clock World with its very literal clock mecha- taining the book title in the (old typewriter) font ‘courier’ nism and cogs. UBIK has a view of unbranded aerosol (or similar) with the over-sized initials of the author in cans, which comes some way toward the books content caps buttressed up against the lower left corner of the - but why couldn’t they turn them into the proper UBIK book face. The text box outline drew attention to itself by ‘brand? being erratic; it is sometimes broken, sometimes closed As a Designer, one wonders what the brief and sometimes has notches at right angles was...‘Do some Philip K Dick Covers which don’t relate to (see The Transmigration of Timothy- Ar the books contents and then do some oth- cher). Such motifs invite you to look for ers which do.’ Their thematic inconsistency patterns only to find they are purely abi- suggests erratic sloppiness rather than ar- trary lacking decorative value or meaning. tistic planning. These book jackets look like the Then there’s the typography. product of ad-hoc decisions; Lies Inc. has Now this is definitely done by someone an image of a portion of sky tinted red who hasn’t a clue what to do with type whereas The Transmigration of Timothy (I am sorry but Archer has what appears to be a slice of there is no other polished gemstone or shell. The Man in way to put it). the High Castle shows us a red liquid in When it is done close up (with some bubbles near the well, typography bottom) and The Zap Gun is one of the pur- has what appears to est forms of de- be a bank of neon sign. The alphabet lights. These images is a wonderful set all look suspiciously of abstract shapes like they were culled from stock im- which, arranged well, make a kind age photos in a very slap-dash fash- of music - and just as with mu- ion. There’s nothing wrong with using sic, the spaces are as important stock images, except of course if you as the ‘notes.’ In the hands of a use them mindlessly. This is design on skilled typographer it positively the cheap and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt sings! There is a beauty in the should know better. way the type relates letterforms to The cover image for VALIS has at the spaces around them (as well least a tentative link with the book’s content as to the borders of any given de- in that it has radiating lines of light (which sign). I use the word ‘letterforms’ because that is the way might suggest a Godly presence), and part of the best typographers think of them - as shapes which the cover is pink (perhaps relating to the pink emerge from groups of letters. Incidentally this is why beam?) Eye in the Sky has an image of locusts many typographers are renowned for not noticing spell- on the cover - which at least feature in the story; likewise, ing mistakes - they are so tuned to seeing the shapes they the cover of The Crack in Space features a mantle of ice are organising that they no longer ‘read’ the words. (which might be a metaphor for cracking?). Then there’s Some might think it is simply a matter of getting

14 “Where’s the bottle? What happened to the wine bottle?” ... “There never was a wine bottle,” the words in the right order, but good typographers know Harcourt series featured here. the huge impact of their choices - the colour of the font, UBIK, being just four letters, looks positively lost its size, character, kerning, leading, italic or emboldened, in its text box (perhaps that’s why they put the review etc. quote in there to bolster it a little)? The results are For example consider the huge im- so ugly and ill-considered. The size of the font is ob- pact it would make if Burger King changed viously so wrong being so easily intimidated by the it’s font and colours from its usual (right) to bold use of colour in the overall imagery. There this: are pretentions of design here as if this were all done knowingly - however there is a genuine difference between violin sounds from- some one who can play the instrument and sounds from someone who can’t. And that’s the essence of my complaint - there is no craft. It is as if in the land of post-modernism you don’t need the craft, the skills or to understand the language - It is obvious that these fonts and colours repre- it’s easy, anyone can do it! But as I said at the start, Picas- sent a very different proposition. The shape of the- let so had first to learn the craft before he could distill it into ters encourage us to ‘feel’ something different when we abstraction and visual decisions. Making random noises is read the words. This is reinforced by the dark green blend not the same as playing an instrument. Blind chance is no which suggests sophistication (the opposite of the brash artist. As Josef Albers once said: primary colours in the original). The thin white pinstripes further the elegance and a sense of refinement. The point “To design is to plan and organize, here is NOT that Burger King should change their logo (they shouldn’t - it works and it communicates well to its to order, to relate and to control. target audience - it shouts, and it especially attracts chil- In short it embraces all means dren which is what it is meant to do [start ‘em young] - opposing disorder and accident.” there is a sense of fun about it and it is legible from a long way away etc.) Of course there are ethical concerns here Design involves decisions - even the font you are too which are worth exploring. But this piece is not about reading now has been deliberately chosen; selected be- morality, it’s about semiotics. The point is that graphic de- cause it feels more modern than Times New Roman; it sign and typography play a huge part in communicating has a certain formaility about it because it wants to be something to the ‘reader.’ taken seriously (it is neither throwaway like Comic Sans, So, why am I so disap- nor is it elegant or too formal like pointed in the typography on the Monotype Corsiva); if you magnify Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - cov “They have this page (or look closely at the ers? Take a look at those white text Albers quote above) you will see boxes which contain the book titles delivered a set that the font’s corners are slightly and the authors name. Now look at rounded which gives it a friendly the white spaces around the text. feel and stops it being cold or See how ugly and haphazard they of covers which clinical. In other words, there’s a are? There is nothing ‘organized’ or reason for my choice of the font designed here, they are simply ran- would better Calibri. A deliberate attempt at dom and left to chance. Some are communication - some level of left-justified (like Eye in the Sky) understanding that it will commu- others have no justification (like serve IKEA” nicate something whether I am The Crack in Space). aware of it or not. In this sense The ‘courier’ font used is so ‘thin’ it is bullied off fonts are neither good nor bad, they are simply appropri- the page by the huge and muscular ‘PKD.’ Surely the titles ate or innappropriate. should be more important than this? They are very weak. Other covers (see next page) in the Houghton And with UBIK the Authors name and Title now share a Mifflin Harcourt series are equally arbitrary; featuring a space with a positive review ‘One of Time’s 100 best Eng- bronze bust (The Man Who Japed), a child’s face in mar- lish Language novels.’ (it was number 94 by the way and ble (The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch), concentric the only one of Dick’s books to make it!) Quoted reviews circles of light (The Penultimate Truth) and close ups of don’t feature on any other books in the Houghton Mifflin fibres (The Simulacra). It’s a garage-sale of odds and ends

15 ‘It’s under the surface. There’s a layer over it. A dark fog. Illusion. - so disparate it your bank shouldn’t look like makes one wonder your hairdressers. whether any crite- These Harcourt covers are ria was used to in- self-important, overly man- form such choices. nered, and could be an Phil deserves better. equal solution to any au- Much better. Unless thor. They refer instead of course you think only to themselves; ‘colourful and strik- they are ‘design’ ing’ is as good as it talking to design. A gets? The typography monologue dressed up as a is hopeless on all of them. dialogue. They should instead The pulp style covers of speak to their target audience, and they the fifties and sixties often should have something to say (either about the writer, his had only tenuous links with themes, his ideas, the text of each particular book, the the text within. However they were all closer wonder of other worlds, people and places, etc.) Instead, in spirit to the wonder and mystery of text inside than these covers signify nothing (in both the Shakespearean Harcourt’s cold covers. They presented new vistas, new and the semiotic sense). modes of travel, new species, Some may feel that new ideas even! There was the stark austerity of the ‘ele- a generosity to the ments’ of these covers shows a art direction - most seriousness which might serve covers were beauti- Dick’s standing in the liter- fully painted - with ary world. However there is a typography that pomposity about these designs didn’t draw atten- which is so self conscious (look, tion to itself, but I’ve been ‘designed’). And as rather, served regards Dick’s need to be tak- the overall de- en ‘seriously,’ I think he allied sign. Despite be- himself much more with popu- ing regarded as lar rather than literary circles. throwaway or This is clear in a 1978 interview trashy, these in Aquarian Magazine: items are now prized for AQUARIAN: “In terms of broad their true worth. God acceptance, science fiction indeed was in the trash. has undergone quite a change In contrast, Hough- in the last few years. Always ton Mifflin Harcourt considered a popular, inferior have de- brand of writing, it has now livered a been accepted, not only by the set of cov- masses but by the academic ers which community. Science fiction would bet- courses are now part of al- ter serve most every Eng- IKEA (se- lish department, riously, people are doing look at the feel of the Harcourt cov- theses and doctoral dissertations on science ers then imagine them on the front of fiction. What do you think of all this?” an IKEA catalogue - they wouldn’t look out of place). And that’s my point - they DICK: “I hate it. I just hope we can survive it. shouldn’t be so easily appropriated. Dick’s You know, we’ve survived complete obscurity. work should look like a different proposi- We survived complete condescension, the ‘are tion to Swedish flat-pack furniture. Just as you people really doing anything serious?’ at-

16 It was there. We made it emerge.” titude. I hope we can survive acceptance. It’s really the in time and will soon be lost - a great metaphor for the most dangerous thing. authors incredible experiences in February and March of You know, sometimes I think it’s all a plot, to 1974. The almond eye-shaped motif on the cover is part of praise you and accept you and treat the christian fish sym- you like a serious literary form. Be- bol (beloved by de- cause in that way they can guarantee “And this vout car bumpers the your demise. world over). It con- The only thing that’s worse ‘scholarly’ tinues on the spine than being treated as ‘not serious’ is and the back, and re- being treated as ‘serious.’ I’d much lates to Dick’s pivotal rather be ignored. And this ‘scholarly’ science fiction doorstep experience science fiction criticism is the worst. when a woman with You know, if they can’t criticism is a fish symbol neck- de- lace called at Phil’s stroy house with some you by the worst” dental medication. ignoring you, they can de- Dickheads everywhere know the signifi- stroy you by annexing you. cance; a guy (probably) looking at cleav- They, the literary critics, age got a lot more than he bargained for. write these incredibly tur- The overall feel of this cover is gid articles which see all this much more accomplished than those in ‘meaning’ in your writing. the fictional line. There is something appropriate about it. The end result, I guess, is to Something that ‘works’ for the Exegesis. The cover serves drive all your readers away the book well. It fits. screaming.” -- “An Interview with As to the origins of the covers’ main image - soap America’s Most Brilliant Science- bubbles; they are part of a ‘bubbles desktop’ theme for Fiction writer” by Joe Vitale. The Windows 7 (below). The fact that Houghton Mifflin Har- Aquarian: October 11-18, 1978 (see court may have got their image ‘cheap’ does not necessar- PKD-OTAKU #4) ily mean that their design is flawed. The real measure is in In November 2011 Har- what is done with what is found. In this case I think it has court published The Exegesis been used well and complements the mysterious, elusive of Philip K. Dick. This would themes of the Exegesis. provide any designer with a challenge. For here is a book So, apart from the The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick whose scope embraces God, Identity, the nature of time cover, I think Harcourt have let us down; especially when and Consciousness; A book which one considers the immense documents an obsessive struggle scope available with one of the to solve a problem (which ulti- most exciting authors (one ripe mately cannot be solved). How with so many ideas and fresh per- does one provide a visual coun- ceptions). What they have done terpart for the task of Sisyphus is resort to cheap stock images or the mystery of a numinous ex- and apply them in an altogether perience? Houghton Mifflin Har- abitrary fashion. This is publish- court’s solution was much more ing on the cheap. Where the old satisfying than their aforemen- pulp style covers at least offered tioned fiction covers. Right away us food for thought, Harcourt we can see that the Typography have given us candy-floss and has been skillfully prioritised by lemonade. virtue of the different type sizes Isn’t it sad when you get (a practice largely abandoned for talking with someone really at- the spine). tractive only to find that they are The mysterious nature immensely under-developed and of the book’s content and the author’s quest is echoed have nothing to say. Their face will never be remembered by the deformed soap bubbles which collide in the dark- as that of a good friend. ness. The fleeting beauty of their colours is but a moment ------

17 Because they’re distorted themselves. They were all here when the Change came. SIXTEEN FRAGMENTS OF A CHRONOLOGY HAS REPAIRED THAT WHICH SYMBOLIZES ALL MORLEY OF CHANCE - 1 - The maze of Delmak-O BELIEVES IN Clear match: The Walker-On-Earth appears to by Andre Welling inform Morley that he had chosen a faulty noser (which © April 2012 would have killed him and his wife on the way to Delmak- O) and advises him to take another. The deity repairs A Maze of Meaning Seth’s life. Say no more. The strange chapter “titles” in PKD’s novel A Maze of Death are known as a unique and baroque Dick- 3 A GROUP OF FRIENDS GATHER TOGETH- ish oddity and have prompted the question if they have ER, AND SUE SMART RECOVERS HER FAC- anything to do with the plot and overall con- ULTIES tent of the novel. They obviously Big introducing get-together don’t describe (or give a on Delmak-O when the Morleys arrive catch phrase or summary (safely, thanks to the deity). Big Bab- for) what’s going on in the bling. Sue Smart is introduced too, corresponding chapters. complaining that the others like to Or so it seemed to name her ‘dumb’ (but she ain’t, it’s most observers and com- explicitly said). Match. menter I encountered: One popular theory is that these 4 MARY MORLEY DISCOVERS headings comment on some THAT SHE IS PREGNANT, WITH UN- other polyencephalic dream- FORESEEN RESULTS world adventure the Perseus-9 Mary Morley nudges Seth ‘vio- crew had lived through. So refer lently’ in the ribs because he is to anything, i.e. nothing. friendly to pretty Suzie Smart. For me it’s strange that a Then no more mention of her. large number of them do seem to The big belly of Seth Morley is describe - in a more or less meta- pondered by Dr Babble. Mere phoric way - what’s happening in the associations. Nothing seems to corresponding chapters, but the rest fit. No match. (basically fifty-fifty) completely fails (my) understanding (or rabid pattern- 5 THE CHAOS OF DR. BAB- matching). That’s odd, too: You would BLE’S FISCAL LIFE BECOMES expect either to find a “key” to the TOO MUCH FOR HIM meaning of them all or that they all (or Not much Babble activity at least most of them) remain enigmati- during the chapter. Then, cally impenetrable. at the end, he is appointed Was PKD just stoned when writ- for the autopsy of the colony’s first ing these? Playing ‘the Game’? murder victim, Ben Tallchief. Too much? Not here Did he ever comment on them? but more than a hundred pages later we learn that it was Or where they written by his agent’s Dr. Babble who killed Ben Tallchief with the tranquilizing unknown intern? gun. Babble was the colony’s first member who lost it and killed. Then almost all others followed him into the maze Here’s my match-making: of death they formed as a polyencephalic unity. Match. 1 IN WHICH BEN TALLCHIEF WINS A PET RABBIT 6 FOR THE FIRST TIME IGNATZ THUGG IS UP IN A RUFFLE AGAINST A FORCE BEYOND HIS CAPACITY That chapter deals exclusively with Ben Tallchief Ignatz stands up against Wade Frazer but actu- (highly significant; it is actually the only chapter where ally he is referred to in this chapter only once and briefly only a single crew member is portrayed) and he too wins when he remarks while Frazer is organizing the vote: “You out: His prayers have been heard and he’d ‘won’ a trans- won’t get it, Frazer. No matter how badly you want it.” He fer to Delmak-O. That’s more like a lemon than a rabbit then goes on smoking a “tobacco” cigarette and that is but even so: Match. that for him during this chapter. Frazer, of course, didn’t “get it” so no force beyond capacity. Not really a match. 2 SETH MORLEY FINDS OUT THAT HIS LANDLORD

18 “Did it ever occur to you that maybe some of these people prefer the illusion?” 7 OUT OF MANY INVESTMENTS SETH MORLEY er’s part is only being suspicious of Russell and accord- REALIZES ONLY A DISSAPOINTING GAIN - MEASURED IN ingly he asks the Tench which answers “Escape is out of PENNIES the question.” But it is Maggie Walsh who confronts the Much Seth activity in the first half of the chapter big issues by asking the Tench “Why are we alive?” and (the latter deals exclusively with Tony and Suzie’s death), “Is there a god?” And it is Seth Morley who discovers that he discovers that the “enemy” is not at all alien: “MADE Russell is battle god Wotan and that the Goetterdaem- AT TERRA35082R” is imprinted in the sharp-shooting mini- merung is on its way. Thus no Match. Building which attacked his wife. Later, when unexpected- ly Russell arrives, he muses “Something to save us, some- 11 THE RABBIT WHICH BEN TALLCHIEF WON DE- thing to doom us. It - the equation of everything - could go VELOPS THE MANGE either way.” The gain/loss situation is stochastically bal- What was that rabbit anyway? And developing anced by an overdose of uncertainty. Nothing gained but the mange sounds pretty sick to me. Like open murder the pennies of his knowledge about this. Match. and mayhem as Ignatz Thugg now kills Maggie Walsh point-blank in broad daylight. Match, I claim. Too thin? 8 GLEN BELSNOR IGNORES THE WARNINGS OF OK, I don’t get it, I admit. I would like to know the rabbit’s HIS PARENTS AND EMBARKS ON A BOLD SEA ADVENTURE color, white or hazy pink? Now that’s strange, an anti-match: Morley’s “ex- plorer” group in search of the Building ignores Belsnor’s 12 ROBERTA ROCKINGHAM’S SPINSTER AUNT (their elected leader, i.e. their providing and caring father PAYS HER A VISIT figure like Belsnor experiences himself in the dream which Weird: Roberta Rockingham was visited and van- opens the chapter) warnings and embarks on a bold expe- ished in chapter 10. Here is no mention of her or any visit- dition into the unknown open. Belsnor very much doubts ing. Morley gets shot. No match at all. seeing them (all) back alive. He’s right in this. One of his “children,” 13 IN AN UNFAMILIAR poor Betty Jo Berm, will drown in TRAIN STATION BETTY JO BERM the river from nowhere. But then LOSES A PRECIOUS PIECE OF LUG- why Glen Belsnor as child in the GAGE title, not Seth Morley or Betty Jo? I Come on, Betty Jo don’t get it! Anti-Match! drowned herself back in chapter 9! Here Seth Morley discovers the 9 WE FIND TONY DUN- vast ruin field of the dead city Lon- KELWELT WORRYING OVER ONE don. They are on Earth! No Del- OF MANKIND’S MOST ANCIENT mak-O. No match either. PROBLEMS Sure we do! We find Tony 14 NED RUSSELL GOES deeply disturbed by the murder of BROKE Suzie Smart and pondering over- Boy, and how! From the all decay. He senses the vast ma- shining heights of a know-it-all lignity, and personal presence, of guard and big gun to the depth Man’s age old enemy, the Form of lying on the floor, dead or- dy Destroyer. Then, in a bout of para- ing, and getting his pockets and noid urgency, he worries himself belongings ransacked by the “gin- into a state where he recognizes ger” fingers of Mary Morley. Ideal the Form Destroyer in old and Match. harmless Bert Kosler and con- sequently stabs him to death. A 15 EMBITTERED, TONY mistake, he realizes, but then he DUNKELWELT LEAVES SCHOOL is killed himself by grim Glen Bels- AND RETURNS TO THE TOWN IN nor. This sure is Tony’s most worri- WHICH HE WAS BORN some chapter. Over and Out. Match. For him more than for anyone else (it is related), Tony’s “school” is the polyencephalic experience 10 WADE FRAZER LEARNS THAT THOSE WHOSE he is now forced to abort and return to the ship’s reality ADVICE HE MOST TRUSTED HAVE TURNED AGAINST HIM which was his home for almost all of his life. (But he was As part of a group out to question the Tench, Fraz- not born on the ship.) But except for briskly approaching

19 “The imitation people.” the captain for having “killed him,” nothing much is said about him. A half-hearted match, I say, and do not claim it.

16 AFTER THE DOCTOR EXAMINES HER X-RAYS, MAGGIE WALSH KNOWS THAT HER CONDITION IS INCUR- ABLE Maggie Walsh is mentioned only once. When she wishes that the next fabricated world may be a warm aquatic world where they would be sea mammals, dol- phin-like. There is a great need for deliverance in this wish, I felt. But what is important in this chapter is that the Intercessor delivers Seth Morley from evil and Mary Morley takes a noser to the Delmak-O colony on her own. Incurable yes, but no match.

That are seven clear matches, and some more quite near. So do they or don’t they comment on the chap- ters? It appears to me that they do it half of the time which I find harder to explain than entirely or not at all. If they follow a previous polyencephalic dream-world ad- venture (meaning are random word-play with the novel’s characters) shouldn’t they be more off? Maybe they are and I did not let them. You are to judge, pilgrim. You re-enter the maze. ------

20 If the symbol is accurate, it can be considered the object itself. Any difference between them is purely logical.” INSTEAD Solidarity! Which made it intact into the English-speaking by Lord Running Clam world. I recall Lech Walesa well and we workers cheered © April 2012 him along in the factory I was then working in. Walesa was an industrial electrician, I, too, was an industrial electri- On this 30th anniversary of Philip K. Dick’s death cian! At about that time our union, The United Auto Work- I think back to what I was doing on that sad day in March ers Union, was in a contract struggle with management. 1982. I remember other tragedies, of course, like being I believe the freedom movement in Poland at that time scared to death by the nuns in my convent school the day inspired us to risk a strike and we walked out of the fac- JFK was shot down in Dallas in 1963, and my beach vaca- tory rather than bow to management demands! So, my tion in the summer of 1969 when I fell in love with a pretty point is that even the definition of a single word has great girl and Man landed on the moon, power. and that day Dale Earnhardt hit Orwell in 1984 made a fascinat- the wall at Daytona in 2001. But ing attempt to reduce the num- of 1982 I remember little; I was “I just opened it ber and meanings of words so married and just had a baby and that the Ingsoc government in his working the evening shift at a fac- to the word - novel could control the thoughts tory in Indiana. Don’t remember of the populace by limiting their much about it. I wasn’t reading very ability to think beyond con- Philip K. Dick’s stories at the time Jiffi-scuttler” strained lines. There’s no such and now, 30 years later, the year word as ‘bad’ it becomes ‘ungood’ is just gone. Like Philip K. Dick, gone. So, instead of dis- and very bad becomes ‘doubleungood’. tant memories I shall expand and adapt here something I But Philip K. Dick goes in the other direction. wrote to Dickhead Marcin Stefanski in Poland during the Many science fiction writers make up words but they are run-up to the 2010 PKD Festival in Colorado. usually some obvious coinage like ‘televisor’, a word that PKD would quickly abbreviate to ‘visor’. You can open any As I write this (May 2010) I am in the middle of PKD book and find this sort of thing. For instance, I have moving my household – boxes everywhere and all in disar- THE CRACK IN SPACE on my desk waiting to be packed in ray! But this computer is the last thing to go so picture me a box and then to a storage locker. I just opened it to the high in the Colorado Mountains at word ‘Jiffi-scuttler’, which is a device 0730 with the sun blazing in a dusty whereby the people in the novel window and surrounded by boxes can move instantaneously from one and a small pile of Philip K. Dick place to another - a teleportation books which are essential to me as device (a ‘teleporter’). Dick quickly we prepare for the PKD Festival this makes the transition from ‘Jiffi-scut- summer. My last act before unplug- tler’ to ‘scuttler’. By doing this he ging the computer is to write this ar- makes the abbreviation ‘scuttler’ a ticle about what it is in the writing of word that is assumed to be so com- Philip K. Dick that first interested me mon everyone knows its meaning and that has maintained my interest without requiring the expression of for 28 years now. This is primarily the term in full: Jiffi-scuttler. his imagination, although I do like This is one way PKD makes his to read a story that speeds along – a stories seem familiar; his colloquial- good pot-boiler. isms, his made-up words, abbrevia- There’s a quote by Philip K. Dick tions, even acronyms like VALIS. somewhere to the effect that ‘He VALIS is a word that is not yet de- who defines the meaning of words fined in the English language. But it defines the meaning of reality.’ is about to become so. It’s a word When you think about it this is true. like “phildickian” which means ‘far- In English literature the prime ex- out, imaginative, wacky, futuristic’ ample of this in action is George Or- etc. But what’s interesting is if the well’s 1984. But even back to Charles word VALIS were to be accepted Dickens and before we have words into the English language, that is, deciding the fate of the people. In Poland (it just occurred defined, it would not have the definition it has now and to me) you have the famous freedom call Solidarnosc! which is found on the very first page of the novel,VALIS :

21 It’s nice, but it isn’t permanent. They’re rolling us back.” “VALIS: (acronym of Vast, Active, Living, Intelli- contained in my flip description above. All the research in gence System, from an American film): A perturbation in the world has led us to such a modern definition of the the reality field in which a spontaneous self-monitoring Spanish Inquisition and all the “Yes, but…”’s of the Histo- negentropic vortex is formed, rians have little effect. So, what tending progressively to subsume I’m attempting to say is that and incorporate its environment PKD’s style – and we’re talking into arrangements of informa- science fiction here – expresses tion. Characterized by quasi-con- his knowledge of how History sciousness, purpose, intelligence, works. Scientific extrapolation, a growth and an armillary coher- la hard science fiction writers, is ence. - Great Soviet Dictionary, not what PKD is about and nor Sixth Edition, 1992” are future histories. Instead of moving history into the future Or would this indeed be he moves the future into history. the definition? And why is PKD Early fans who read THE MAN IN giving us a definition at the very THE HIGH CASTLE instinctively opening of the novel VALIS? knew this and awarded Philip There is food for thought here, K. Dick his one and only Hugo but, you know what, neither VA- Award for best science fiction LIS nor ‘teleporter’, nor Jiffi-scut- novel of 1962. But, obviously, this tler’ nor ‘ungood’ or even ‘phildi- notion needs more exploration; ckian’ are defined in the English to say he moved the future into language! Even my computer history means that there must puts a red line beneath them to be some truth in the scientific or signify the word doesn’t exist in social realms of his novels, that the computer’s built-in diction- is, he must’ve written about the ary (with the exception of VALIS future in a true way. The futures which I added to my computer in his stories are true - but not dictionary but undefined!). necessarily real. The truth per- So, here we are discuss- haps lies in ‘essences’, to revive ing the meaning of words that an Aristotelian idea, while real- are not yet defined! But which, ity is a multitude of ‘accidentals’. perhaps, are gaining definition. And it is Philip K. Dick’s We see this well-illustrated in UBIK. All of PKD’s novels power with words, his facility with them that makes the are loaded with neologisms describing new devices and expression of his imagination so natural. It’s as if he as- ideas of the future - as we would expect from any com- sumes that his coinages, his made-up words, already be- petent science fiction writer – but is this where history long naturally in the world. Of course, in the worlds of his is found? Nowadays we don’t have stories this is obviously the case. But I think Dick goes be- scuttlers or even yet Jiffi-scuttlers; yond that somehow and penetrates the real world. but we do have mobile telephones, We could say that definition moves to fixation or cellphones, and instant travel, and fixation in time gives us history. PKD moves into the in a way, via Skype. We don’t have arena of history as his writing illuminates the ways history the Stink of Shrink but we do have is recorded. His quick coinages, like ‘scuttler’, contain an Swine Flu, and on and on. Acciden- industrial lineage that needs little further description -be tals all, which, when combined into cause PKD relies on our understanding of the way history a description of the present, some- is written, or rather, how it is solidified into History – the how define that present. And one common understanding. thing we know about the present How is this? Let’s take the Spanish Inquisition is the instant it is here it becomes as an example: We commonly now see the Spanish In- the past and, thus, history. Dick, quisition as a period in Medieval times when the Roman then, describes how history be- Catholic Church went crazy torturing heretics and devil- comes itself; it’s not a coterie worshipers and the like. And the reasons they did all this of scholars deciding after much can be found with more research. But for my point here cogitation that such and such is this doesn’t matter because the ‘more research’ is already important and, hence, worthy of

22 “It’s an old problem,” Doctor Meade said, from the shadows. “If God made the world, where did Evil come from?” inclusion in History but, instead, History is a sort of com- novel for many years and think it gains part of its power monly understood compression of the future into the from this idea of making something that is unknown present; things define become known. Or, the themselves in a fast- bringing into conscious- moving world of social ness the idea - the prin- movements and gad- ciple even - that there are gets. Just as in SOLAR things around us of which LOTTERY and THE ZAP we are not aware but they GUN. are there. It is the work of The question our scientists to discover of, What is reality? is these things. But it is the one of Dick’s major work of the writer to de- themes. He says, in fine them. And writing another familiar quo- relies on imagination. tation that “reality is Philip K. Dick wrote con- that which, when you tinuously all his life. His stop believing in it, imagination began in it doesn’t go away.” wild ideas and gained in But what, to stress sophistication. Even his the point, is it that short stories are highly doesn’t go away? It imaginative. One of my is the things that are favorites is “Explorer’s defined that don’t We”. In this short story go away. In UBIK, his explorers are return- famous novel (and ing home to Earth here we have anoth- from space. They are er coinage/abbre- all excited to be com- viation ‘ubik’) we ing home and looking have with the short forward to seeing their families, per- chapter headings haps going fishing or spend a day at the beach. They land definitions of what ‘ubik’ is – I don’t have a copy of their spaceship and disembark, but their eager greetings the book to hand but headings like “Ubik! The house- are met with horror and the people flee! What’s going on hold cleaner that solves all your problems!” are what I here? Then two black cars pull up and disgorge mean here. These definitions of ubik are, for Joe Chip FBI agents who force the surprised explorers in the novel, unknown. He doesn’t know what ‘ubik’ up against a wall and burn them to ashes with is. He doesn’t know that he is dead and that all mani- flame-throwers! festations of reality – which to him and the others in An unpleasant reception for sure! But half-life are ubiquitous – are not real. what the explorers didn’t know was that this was Talk about defining reality! How about Phil- the twenty-second time they had returned to ip K. Dick defining unreality! Earth! You cannot blame the FBI for burning them With UBIK Dick knew what he was doing. down because no matter what these explorers look He had to understand the notion of the modern like, they’re not human. physicists that ‘dark matter’ makes up the bulk of This story, “Explorer’s We” demonstrates Dick’s the mass of the universe. But we can’t see it, we imagination. I sometimes find myself at odd moments can’t detect it except by inference at best. Dark thinking about stories like this and others of Dick’s and matter is ‘ubiquitous’ in the universe. And in just letting my mind wander. I do not recommend this UBIK Dick actualized a world in which that which practice! One’s world takes on an irreality and nothing © Nick Buchanan Ubik Graphic is ubiquitous – in the sense of undetectable – is made seems fixed, one finds oneself one day surrounded by sensible. But he had to do it with reference to an external pine trees in the mountains, and the next day one is... system – reality. In the novel the reality of Runciter is real where? Somewhere else, somewhere yet to be defined, and not that of Joe Chip and the others in half-life. somewhere with its own dictionary of unknown words. UBIK is a tour-de-force and literally blows your And the current place? Well, that’s now history. mind when you first read it. UBIK was not the first PKD I read that had this effect on me (that was EYE IN THE ------SKY) but UBIK is such a stunner. I’ve thought about this

23 It turned life into a barren path of filth and ruin and death. IS THE WUB SATISFIED? by Frank C. Bertrand © April 2012

was recently re-reading Philip K. Dick’s first-published short story, “Beyond Lies the Wub,”(Planet Stories, Vol. I5, no. 7, July 1952; also available inThe Collected Sto- ries of Philip K. Dick, Vol. 1) and puzzling over just what is going on regards the Wub and Captain Franco. That is, does Franco commit an act of “exo-cannibalism” when he eats the Wub? And, does the Wub use metempsychosis to “escape” its predicament? Even more intrigu- ing, I find, is the Wub’s statement to Franco: “Rather you should discuss questions with me, philosophy, the arts – ,” and what this implies about the “contemplative life” versus the “active life.” It is reminiscent of Thoreau’s complaint that “the mass of men” waste their days on boring and routine jobs, rather than studying literature, philoso- phy and “the book of nature.” Then, I happened to be doing some reading in “moral philoso- phy,” a subject/theme almost as important in Dick’s work as “reality” and “human-ness,” when I came across this quote by John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), from Utilitari- anism(1861):

“It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a FromThe Exegesis, 1991, p. 161). Why Phil’s emphasis of fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different the word “must” and his identifying with Socrates? opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the I would suggest that while these are indeed im- question.” portant questions, there are, equally, no “easy” answers Seven years earlier, in a March 23, 1854 diary en- to them. We also need to realize, I would argue, that this try, Mill wrote, “Quality as well as quantity of happiness is story is far more significant than we’ve been led to be- to be considered; less of a higher kind is preferable to more lieve by various commentators and critics, to the extent of a lower. Socrates would rather choose to be Socrates that it’s been noticed at all. It’s nothing less than the first dissatisfied than to be fictional/narrative mani- a pig satisfied. The pig festation of Dick’s “moral probably would not, but “This story is far more imagination.” That is, as then the pig only knows Lionel Trilling has aptly one side of the question: significant than we’ve written, “…the most ef- Socrates knows both.” fective agent of the moral Now, it so happens that in imagination has been the “Beyond Lies the Wub,” been led to believe” novel of the past two hun- the Wub is described, by dred years…its greatness Captain Franco, as “A huge pig. It must weigh four hun- and its practical usefulness lay in its unremitting work dred pounds.” A serendipitous coincidence or something of involving the reader himself in the moral life, inviting else? To make it more problematic, consider that Dick him to put his own motives under examination, suggest- once wrote, “Someone must come along & play the role ing that reality is not as his conventional education has of Plato to my Socrates” (In Pursuit Of Valis: Selections led him to see it” (The Moral Obligation to be Intelligent,

24 He was seeing the force, the energy behind all growing things, all creativity. 2000, p. 118). transfers its “life-essence” to Captain Franco, is it commit- One approach, and promising resolution, is the ting murder as well? Is its means of surviving any less or fact that while the Wub may “look” (according to Captain more of an “appropriate” moral choice that what Franco Franco) like a “pig” (the philosophical quandary of “form does so he and his crew can survive? vs. content”?), it is very much a sentient being from a In this regard I’d like to quote three statements by “Very old and very Philip K. Dick, the first ponderous” race from 9/73: that is “Tolerant, “It’s nothing less than the “…there is the eclectic, catholic. fundamental philo- We live and let live.” sophical dictum that And it’s the Martian first fictional/narrative goes: “I should be- natives who call it a have in such a way “Wub;” they have manifestation of Dick’s that if everyone did their “own term.” In it, good would come addition, the Wub of it, rather than can read minds, is “moral imagination.” evil.” I believe this telekinetic, has the supersedes all other ability to transfer its “life essence,” and is “addicted to var- wise saying…,” ious forms of relaxation.” I suspect the Wub would have a and, from 2/74: lot to discuss with Orwell’s infamous Old Major, Napoleon “Should I do the right thing or the expediate and Snowball, and prove a very formidable debating part- thing?…. Practical conduct and ethical conduct do not ner for J.S. Mill about the “moral” nature of questions, conflict, but actually reinforce each other, which is almost opinions and satisfaction. In this instance, according to impossible to think of in our society.” the Wub, the salient question is “Apparently your scien- Then, in 9/81: tific hierarchy is not equipped to solve moral, ethical – ,” “Ethics may far more involve an abstraction from though it’s not clear who would know only their own side evil than a commission of good…. It may be actually more of the question, Mill or the identifiable authentically Wub. with a balking and a refus- This fact dramati- al…. I define as human that cally changes the dynamics organism that, which when of the story, for not only can perceiving a threat to its Captain Franco be accused moral integrity, balks.” of exo-cannibalism but xe- These can be meaning- nophobic murder, and rais- fully compared/contrasted es implicit (philosophical) with what Kant (1724- issues about science and 1804) writes in Ground- technology, the nature of work of the Metaphysics of “intelligence,” the Self, and Morals (1785): fear of the “Other.” More “If the action would be important, I believe, is how good solely as a means to we choose to character- something else, the imper- ize and interpret what the ative is hypothetical; if the Wub actually does. action is represented as The salient mo- good in itself and therefore ment in “Beyond Lies the as necessary, in virtue of its Wub” occurs just before principle, for a will which of Captain Franco is going to itself accords with reason, shoot the Wub: “It stopped, then the imperative is cat- staring at the gun. “Can you look me in the eye and do it?” egorical.” the Wub said. “Can you do that?” Now, a 16th century Dick’s statements indicate, at least implicitly, that proverb purports that eyes are the windows to the soul. he believes the Wub’s “moral” actions/choices are jus- If this is correct, then we know how the Wub transfers its tifiable, are right, expedient, practical and ethical in re- psyche, its life essence into Captain Franco. What is not so sponse to a threat to its moral integrity. As the Wub ex- clear is what happens to Franco’s psyche. When the Wub plains, “I am against the idea of hurting. All I have done is

25 What sort of laws were binding on gods? try to protect myself. Can you expect me to rush eagerly vation.” to my death? I am a sensible being like yourselves.” (Dick This being so, problematically, Dick has certainly also features the Wub in his short story “Not by Its Cov- succeeded with this story in generating what he terms, in er” (1968) and alludes to it in his novels The Penultimate a May 14, 1981 letter, “conceptual dislocation.” That is, Truth (1964) and The Zap Gun (1967). “…it must invade his [the reader’s] mind and wake it up to the possibility of something he had not up to then thought of,” or mental cultivation. © Frank C. Bertrand. April 2012

------PUZZLE SCHMUZZLE by Perry Kinman © April 2012

hil uses a number of what are called shm-redupli- cations in five of his novels. Shm-reduplication is a Pmethod of taking a word and repeating it immedi- ately after the normal way, replacing the first consonants with the letters ‘shm’ or other similar variants. Examples would be ‘Joe Schmoe’ or ‘holiday schmoliday.’ There are other variations like ‘confusion conshmusion’ where shm is moved to another place, but the most common is the front. The purpose of doing this is to down play or show derision of the topic word. By mangling the word itself one shows how little they care about the word and so also The operant word here would seem to be “sensi- the topic. Joe in the above example is now nothing spe- ble,” as in having appreciation or understanding, showing cial. He’s just ordinary Joe. And the holiday, well, suppose good sense or sound judgment. But the Wub’s claim to be your boss says “I’ll give you two days off for your Sum- against the idea of hurting makes me wonder how sound mer holiday so you can go to the PKD Festival.” And you or sensible we can view what it does to Captain Franco. Its know that’s not near enough time so you reply “Holiday, ideas and values are at odds with its “moral” actions. schmoliday, there isn’t even enough time to get there and Because of this I find it a bit disingenuous of Dick back let alone enjoy myself!” to claim, some 29 years after the fact that this story, “… Shm-reduction is generally thought to come from has to do with empathy, or, as it was called in earlier Yiddish with all its many words with the “shm” sound and times, caritas or agape…. I show empathy possessing a similar methods of use. It migrated into the American survival value; in terms of interspecies competition, -em English language in the late 19th Century and came into pathy gives you the edge” (“Headnote” for “Beyond common usage in the 1930s. It can be used on any sub- Lies the Wub” (1981), in: The Shifting ject, not necessarily Jewish related. With Phil’s interest in Realities of Philip K. Dick, 1995, pp. German and war and religion, invariably Judaism was in- 106-07). cluded. I’m left, as usual when reading a Philip Here is one example of Phil’s usage. In THE MAN K. Dick short story, or novel, with more WHOSE TEETH WERE ALL EXACTLY ALIKE, Chap 3, Paul questions than answers and thinking, and Phyllis Wilby visit Leo and Janet Runcible for the eve- for now, it’s better to be a human being ning to see about moving into a house in the area. Upon dissatisfied that a Wub satisfied, at least entering Paul asks if any blacks live in the area because he in Mill’s sense of it: saw a black man down the hill at the Dombrosio’s house. “The main constituents of a satisfied life This sets Leo off and he has a major meltdown, saying appear to be two, either of which by itself there are no blacks there nor Jews either, and asks Paul if is often found sufficient for the purpose – he isn’t a Nazi. Paul gets upset and says he’s leaving and tranquility and excitement…. Next to self- Leo says he can’t stay anyway because he’s in the house ishness, the principal cause whichmakes of a Jew. Phyllis counters with “Jew, smew. Get off it Leo.” life unsatisfactory is want of mental culti- And things go downhill from there. Phyllis is saying she

26 She was everywhere. In all the trees, in the green fields and lakes and forest lands. doesn’t care if Leo is a Jew. This is the only shm-re- duction writ- ten with ‘sm.’ The others are written with ‘shm and schm. So, here’s the puzzle: Where are the other shm- reduplications Phil used? Nov- el, chapter, and scene. Send in your answers via let- ters to the editor. The first person to find all of them will be awarded a full can of Ubik spray, and heralded as a true Dickhead in the pages of Otaku. Act fast. Not only a deodorant, Ubik restores lost manliness and ban- ishes vapours of all kinds. Makes a delicious beer, salad dressing, great medical insurance, the perfect bra, electric appliance, and a million oth- er uses.

------UBIK Graphic © Nick Buchanan UBIK Graphic

27 The Sound of One Bong Hitting rages to broaden its meaning and replace the old defini- In An Empty Brain tion with one that describes ‘any civil union.’ In the Eng- by Lord Running Clam lish language this sort of thing goes on all the time. So © April 2012 whatever Valis is - and it cannot be the definition given in the novel because that was written before 1992 and the I want to start this article with two quotes from Russian source is a fiction – it is defined at the very start Philip K. Dick. The first is the definition of Valis as found of Dick’s most perturbing novel. Even though it cannot be at the front of the novel VALIS. Philip K. Dick fans will be defined! For how can a fictional object have a definition? familiar with this defi- It’s fictional, a figment nition as it sets a tone of the imagination and going that vibrates “He doesn’t know that therefore not real. throughout the novel; Similarly, with as if PKD hit a gong the headings in UBIK, with one of those puffy- he is dead and that all PKD creates something headed sticks that mu- that is more real than sicians use and a soft the narrative – all Joe bong resonates through manifestations of Chip’s peregrinations VALIS only fading into ultimately are, again, silence at the end. reality are not real.” imaginings and not as “VALIS (ac- real as the Ubik head- ronym of Vast Active Living Intelligence System, from ings because, in the novel, the over-arching truth of the an American film): A perturbation in the reality field in matter is that Joe Chip is dead. And if we know one thing which a spontaneous self-monitoring negentropic vortex about reality it is that it does not apply to the dead. is formed, tending progressively to subsume and incorpo- When you collect all the definitions of words into rate its environment into arrangements of information, one place you have a dictionary, which, by definition, characterized by quasi-consciousness, purpose, intelli- contains all the words used in a particular language. But gence, growth and an armillary coher- what have you got when you have a ence.” – Great Soviet Dictionary, Sixth non-existent dictionary defining a non- Edition, 1992. existent word? In fiction this is not a problem. Science fiction novels are The second is from UBIK: scattered with future objects that may “Friends, this is clean-up time or may not be defined in context. PKD and we’re discounting all our silent, was a great one for making up fantas- electric Ubiks by this much money. Yes! tic objects – and quickly abbreviating We’re throwing away the bluebook. them for purposes of verisimilitude: And remember: every Ubik on our lot the standard sf writer’s ‘televisor’ has been used only as directed.” quickly becomes a ‘visor’ and even his own creations, like ‘Jiffi-scuttler’ from PKD also uses similar introduc- THE CRACK IN SPACE, swiftly reduce tory devices in other novels, notably to ‘scuttler’. It is by such means that sf THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER EL- writers suspend our disbelief. DRITCH. VALIS: a fictional word defined in What is he doing with these a non-existent dictionary from a time extraneous statements? With PKD it in the future that is now in the past. often seems his novels are metaphori- There’s a definition for you! Use it in a cal or metaphysical or meta-somethin- sentence! A paragraph! A dissertation! gorother. So, what, then, is VALIS? “The valisization of the dominant real- It begins with definition. But ity of the early 21st century occurred what is definition? It describes the known; when we retroactively with the publication of VALIS in 1978. Critics know what something is we say it is defined and although of the time, little understanding the nature of the paradig- they are open to interpretation definitions fix an object matical shift heralded by this novel, promulgated convo- in time. What, for example, the Victorians understood by luted forms of post-modernism that which while indeed a the definition of ‘marriage’ is different than how the word step in the right direction failed to take into account… ” is being defined today. It currently retains its old meaning Now this is all jolly good fun and I’m tempted to of ‘a union between a man and a woman’ but a battle

28 continue forever, but you might notice that this jaunt is How is this? Let’s take the Spanish Inquisition written as if it were from a future history book that in- as an example: We commonly now see the Spanish In- cludes a definition of Valis that is taken for granted by me quisition as a period in Medieval times when the Roman as fictional narrator. Can this definition, after all, be the Catholic Church went crazy torturing heretics and devil- original one? The one quoted above? A perturbation in worshipers and the like. And the reasons they did all this the reality field… From the definition, what is it that this can be found with more research. But for my point here Valis is doing? in which a spontaneous self-monitoring this doesn’t matter because the ‘more research’ is already negentropic vortex is formed. Hmm. A spontaneous self- contained in my flip description above. All the research in monitoring negentropic vortex… this might be something the world has led us to such a modern definition of the that counters the ac- Spanish Inquisition tion of entropy. But and all the “Yes, the only thing that but…”’s of the His- counters entropy torians have little is reversal in time. effect. So, what I’m Only when we look attempting to say at things backwards is that PKD’s style does order ensue. – and we’re talk- To complete the ing science fiction definition: tending here – expresses progressively to sub- his knowledge of sume and incorpo- how History works. rate its environment Scientific extrapola- into arrangements of tion, a la hard sci- information, charac- ence fiction writers, terized by quasi-con- is not what PKD is sciousness, purpose, about and nor are intelligence, growth future histories. and an armillary Instead of moving Joe Chip Graphic © 2012 Nick Buchanan Joe Chip Graphic coherence. Again, history into the fu- hmm. This seems to describe the creation of history, the ture he moves the future into history. Early fans who read doings of mankind as organized by none other than we THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE instinctively knew this ourselves as if seen from the point of view of an observer and awarded Philip K. Dick his one and only Hugo Award in the future explaining the mechanism of history. Order for best science fiction novel of 1962. But, obviously, this ensues because we’ve written it down. And the mecha- notion needs more exploration; to say he moved the fu- nism – Valis – is what does the writing. Valis is, then, our- ture into history means that there must be some truth selves – but operating from a different perspective than at in the scientific or social realms of his novels, that is, he present. Us, coming from the future, writing our past. must’ve written about the future in a true way. The fu- So, here we are discussing the meaning of words tures in his stories are true - but not necessarily real. The that are not yet defined! But which, perhaps, are gaining truth perhaps lies in ‘essences’, to revive an Aristotelian definition. And it is Philip K. Dick’s power with words, his idea, while reality is a multitude of ‘accidentals’. We see facility with them that makes the expression of his imagi- this well-illustrated in UBIK. All of PKD’s novels are loaded nation so natural. It’s as if he assumes that his coinages, with neologisms describing new devices and ideas of the his made-up words, already belong naturally in the world. future - as we would expect from any competent science Of course, in the worlds of his stories this is obviously the fiction writer – but is this where history is found? Nowa- case. But I think Dick goes beyond that somehow and pen- days we don’t have scuttlers or even yet Jiffi-scuttlers; but etrates the real world. we do have mobile telephones, or cellphones, and instant We’ve suggested that definition moves to fixation travel, in a way, via Skype. We don’t have the Stink of and fixation in time gives us history. PKD moves into the Shrink but we do have Swine Flu, and on and on. Acciden- arena of history as his writing illuminates the ways history tals all, which, when combined into a description of the is recorded. His quick coinages, like ‘scuttler’, contain an present, somehow define that present. And one thing we industrial lineage that needs little further description be- know about the present is the instant it is here it becomes cause PKD relies on our understanding of the way history the past and, thus, history. Dick, then, describes how his- is written, or rather, how it is solidified into the common tory becomes itself; it’s not a coterie of scholars decid- understanding. ing after much cogitation that such and such is important

29 and, hence, worthy of inclusion in History but, instead, my favorites is “Explorer’s We”. In this short story explor- History is a sort of commonly understood compression ers are returning home to Earth from space. They are all of the future into the past; things define themselves in excited to be coming home and looking forward to see- a fast-moving world of social move- ing their families, perhaps going fishing ments and gadgets. Just as in SOLAR or spend a day at the beach. They land LOTTERY and THE ZAP GUN. Masters of their spaceship and disembark, but reality like Steve Jobs and the inventor their eager greetings are met with hor- of crack cocaine knew that to succeed ror and the people flee! What’s going you had to sell what was already there, on here? Then two black cars pull up and things get where they are because and disgorge FBI agents who force the we squeeze them out of the future. surprised explorers up against a wall IPhones and 8-balls, they’re both ex- and burn them to ashes with flame- amples of the same mechanism. throwers! The question of, What is real- An unpleasant reception for sure! ity? is one of Dick’s major themes. He But what the explorers didn’t know was says, in another familiar quotation that that this was the twenty-second time “reality is that which, when you stop they had returned to Earth! You cannot believing in it, it doesn’t go away.” blame the FBI for burning them down But what, to stress the point, is it that because no matter what these explor- doesn’t go away? It is the things that ers look like, they’re not human. are defined that don’t go away. InUBIK , To return to VALIS: The opening his famous novel (and here we have definition describes the mechanical op- another coinage/abbreviation ‘ubik’) eration of history; the compression of and Science Fiction January 1959 of Fantasy Magazine Philip K Dick) by We” (with “Explorers we have with the short chapter headings definitions of the future into order in the past. But what of the Tractates what ‘ubik’ is. These definitions of ubik are, for Joe Chip in Cryptica Scriptura that occupy the appendix toVALIS ? the novel, unknown. He doesn’t know what ‘ubik’ is. He The many cryptic statements that comprise the doesn’t know that he is dead and that all manifestations Tractates come from many places and times. Taken over- of reality – which to him and the others in half-life are all they appear to be the result of a layout or schematic ubiquitous – are not real. that is not given but is assumed to be known; that of the Talk about defining reality! How about Philip K. nature of change in orthogonal or sideways time. I’ve just Dick defining unreality! opened the Tractates and find, immediately, a statement With UBIK Dick knew what he was doing. He had apropos, perhaps, to what I’ve said above: to understand the notion of the modern physicists that ‘dark matter’ makes up the bulk of the mass of the uni- TCS 11: The great secret known to Apollonius of verse. But we can’t see it; we can’t detect it except by Tyana, Paul of Tarsus, Simon Magus, Asklepios, Paracel- inference at best. Dark matter is ‘ubiquitous’ in the uni- sus, Boehme and Bruno is that: we are moving backward verse. And in UBIK Dick actualized a world in which that in time. The universe in fact is contracting into a unitary which is ubiquitous – in the sense of undetectable – is entity which is completing itself. Decay and disorder are made sensible. But he had to do it with reference to an ex- seen by us in reverse, as increasing. These healers learned ternal system – reality. In the novel the reality or Runciter to move forward in time, which is retrograde to us. is real and not that of Joe Chip and the others in half-life. UBIK is a tour-de-force and literally blows your And here’s another: mind when you first read it. UBIK was not the first PKD I TCS 14: The universe is information and we are read that had this effect on me (that wasEYE IN THE SKY) stationary in it, not three-dimensional and not in space but UBIK is such a stunner. I’ve thought about this novel or time. The information fed to us we hypostatize into the for many years and think it gains part of its power from phenomenal world. this idea of making something that is unknown become On that note and having hypostatized as much as known. Or, the bringing into consciousness the idea - the I can into this short essay, I shall now revert to standby principle even - that there are things around us of which mode and hypostatize automatically while refueling. If we are not aware but they are there. It is the work of our the Empire comes calling tell them I’m out to lunch. scientists to discover these things. But it is the work of the writer to define them. And writing relies on imagination. ------Philip K. Dick wrote continuously all his life. His imagination began in wild ideas and gained in sophistica- tion. Even his short stories are highly imaginative. One of

30 I Can Hear Music, Sweet, Sweet Music We have this massive pile of internal inquiry which con- sumed Phil’s latter life. This view into his mind. It shows ear Patrick, in action what Powers, and Jeter and others who spent I am writing to congratulate you (and your team of time around him described how Phil was. His constantly Dregular contributors) on keeping Otaku going for so changing theories and phone calls in the night. long. It has become a welcome conduit for intelligent dis- cussion about the ideas, work and life of Philip K. Dick. I’m enjoying that now. I did get the same experience I remember looking forward to every issue of the Philip from IN PURSUIT of VALIS, but not to this degree. Now, K. Dick Society Newslet- the things that bother me ter, then Radio Free PKD are these: knowing this and For Dickheads Only “While so many are is only one tenth of the – I feel the same about total. (Bummer! I want PKD-Otaku. Indeed the ‘counting the notes,’ more!) Knowing that, writing in Otaku is of such probably some material quality and the informa- that was cut out was jour- tion so useful, that I have Otaku is encouraging nal/diary like comments printed them all out and that were considered to keep them on one of my be too personal. (Bum- PKD shelves as a refer- people to mer! That’s what I’d like ence (I know other Otaku to see more of!) Believing readers do the same). A hear the music.” that we probably aren’t recent piece in the Guard- going to be seeing any ian Newspaper (UK) on the thirtieth anniversary of Phil’s more of the EXEGESIS in our lifetimes. (Unless someone death, references material from Otaku (the William Gib- stands to make Money. It’s always about money!) son remark) without being brave enough to give a credit. In a field fraught with intellectual competitive- “P.S. this is a hard lesson to learn- you keep thinking ness, and the ferocious desire to sit one seat higher at something more is at stake - and it’s always just money” a very small ‘scholarly’ table, Otaku welcomes all. While PKD Letter to Malcolm Edwards, May 5th, ‘74 so many are ‘counting the notes,’ Otaku is encouraging people to hear the music; to delight in the joy of Dick’s Well, “Wacha gonna do?” as Tony always says. You make stories and the wonderment of his ideas. As Richard Feyn- your own happiness. I choose to enjoy what we got. man once said “Knowing the name of something is not the same as knowing something.” “Dream: I am Jerry Lewis, a contemptible clown, but ad- Here’s to Otaku – may the rest of its life be the mired by millions, especially in France.” EXEGESIS P.515 BEST of its life! Perry Kinman Nick Buchanan ------Liverpool, UK Phil and Tessa circa 1974 ------IMPORTANT APPEAL: For complicated reasons, Tessa Dick Flow My Tears of Joy the EXEGESIS Recipli- (Phil’s wife 1973-1977) is close to becoming homeless and needs your cant Cried! support and help.

If you feel you can help her in any oncerning the EXEGESIS: I’m glad it’s here! I like way, please send her something via her paypal account: having new source material. I’m glad even little Cbits are filtering out. It’s not a novel, and - Yes! I’d [email protected] rather have 10 more Philip K. Dick novels to dive into and Thank you. absorb. But.... we don’t.

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