http://www.amazon.com/Exegesis-Philip-K-Dick/dp/0547549253/
Definitely the book I have been most excited to read for the past year or so. It is almost 1,000 pages of pure, unfiltered, DICK. His most personal reflections and dialogues, many inspired (from what I understand) by the actual events in his life that were the basis for the VALIS trilogy... which I'm nearly done with and is very unlike anything else I've read (recommended). I guess it's like Jung's Red Book, a giant tome of the deepest and most wrestled-with thoughts beautifully articulated. It's going to transcend 'sci-fi'. It's going to blow your mind. I AM FUCKING EXCITED!!!!!
so... has anyone ever read something by philip k dick confuseddood;
i been meaning to But Have Not yet.
VALIS is really really good, without mentioning any of his more traditionally science fiction books :O
I will Read It!!! was he the one who wrote did android's dream of mechanical sheep or something like that. because i been meaning to read that.
Aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnddd ordered.
Phil D's wonderful stuff.
Quote from: silvertone on October 19, 2011, 01:37:50 PM
I will Read It! Bim!! Bim!! Bim! was he the one who wrote did android's dream of mechanical sheep or something like that. because i been meaning to read that.
yes, it's ~9,000x better than Blade Runner 5thgrade;
Quote from: Boognish-Redux- on October 19, 2011, 03:15:29 PM
Aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnddd ordered.
Phil D's wonderful stuff.
Wooo1!!
Quote from: vziard on October 19, 2011, 05:42:37 PM
yes, it's ~9,000x better than Blade Runner 5thgrade;
Never saw blade runner lol. but i been meaning to read that Book. Next time i do a Book Buy i will probably pick up one of his Boaks. ~added to the Boak List~
TOMORROW!!!
Quote from: vziard on November 07, 2011, 12:21:34 AM
TOMORROW!!!
Right! I almost forgot about this.
Unfortunately, I probably won't really be able to read it for a few weeks though.
They're going to release the whole exegesis???? That's fucking tight! I've been wondering that ever since I read VALIS.
I've definitely read a good chunk of Dick's oeuvre. Even a lot of his lesser-known books are brilliant. VALIS blew my mind all over the wall. That book actually was one of the primary catalysts that opened my mind to esoteric thought.
Quote from: Houdini on November 08, 2011, 08:09:28 PM
They're going to release the whole exegesis???? That's fucking tight! I've been wondering that ever since I read VALIS.
I've definitely read a good chunk of Dick's oeuvre. Even a lot of his lesser-known books are brilliant. VALIS blew my mind all over the wall. That book actually was one of the primary catalysts that opened my mind to esoteric thought.
YES it is more than has ever been published! maybe it will arrive tomorrow omgomgomg
VALIS is definitely one of those 'oh, whoa' books. Since making the OP I've finished the other two books in the 'trilogy', and they've left lasting impressions as well... the three parts are so individual and set apart from each other, yet completely contained and self-referential in their ideas. In VALIS (all three), compared to his others, he seems to be speaking about a very vague purpose hidden far beyond the words of the stories... I admire Dick's ability to weave things like that. He was a genius and a wizard of the highest order, in my mind.
Quote from: vziard on November 09, 2011, 12:02:07 AM
YES it is more than has ever been published! maybe it will arrive tomorrow omgomgomg
VALIS is definitely one of those 'oh, whoa' books. Since making the OP I've finished the other two books in the 'trilogy', and they've left lasting impressions as well... the three parts are so individual and set apart from each other, yet completely contained and self-referential in their ideas. In VALIS (all three), compared to his others, he seems to be speaking about a very vague purpose hidden far beyond the words of the stories... I admire Dick's ability to weave things like that. He was a genius and a wizard of the highest order, in my mind.
I agree completely. He was definitely on to something when he wrote those last three books. Even when I was 16 and didn't know shit about religion I could tell he had discovered something very important and difficult to comprehend. I still can't quite wrap my mind around it. I should go back and reread that stuff. But what I remember that what was really important at the time was the realization that reality is not necessarily what we perceive to be - and in all likelihood it's something completely different, that only the subconscious mind can perceive.
It wasn't until much, much later that I realized that PKD was what most regular people would perceive to be 'insane.' I never for an instant doubted the validity of anything he wrote. Yes, he was definitely unhinged in some way or another, but he was also acutely aware that he wasn't 'sane' by most people's definition. He was far too lucid, clear-headed, and persuasive for an average paranoid schizophrenic. I think he may truly have perceived something out there, some kind of super-conscious entity or force.
'A wizard of the highest order' is exactly what I'd call him.
Quote from: Houdini on November 10, 2011, 10:01:59 PM
I agree completely. He was definitely on to something when he wrote those last three books. Even when I was 16 and didn't know shit about religion I could tell he had discovered something very important and difficult to comprehend. I still can't quite wrap my mind around it. I should go back and reread that stuff. But what I remember that what was really important at the time was the realization that reality is not necessarily what we perceive to be - and in all likelihood it's something completely different, that only the subconscious mind can perceive.
It wasn't until much, much later that I realized that PKD was what most regular people would perceive to be 'insane.' I never for an instant doubted the validity of anything he wrote. Yes, he was definitely unhinged in some way or another, but he was also acutely aware that he wasn't 'sane' by most people's definition. He was far too lucid, clear-headed, and persuasive for an average paranoid schizophrenic. I think he may truly have perceived something out there, some kind of super-conscious entity or force.
'A wizard of the highest order' is exactly what I'd call him.
Those ideas like 'does insanity apply only to the individual, or is it relative to the perception of the majority' do seem to crop up quite a bit in his books. I really like how VALIS is slowly built up into some insane, looming, very real thing, but at the conclusion of everything, especially when the themes of all three books are strung together, his only point is that you don't know. You can follow the 'clues' from one explanation to another and build up references and theory for a lifetime, but there will still always be one big question blocking the way to real knowledge, and you can never know the answer. Some say that is insanity, but it definitely is interesting to me that certain 'schizophrenics' (the more lucid and persuasive ones) regularly outdo the force of entire civilizations with their creative visions... Sun Ra, Dick, Vonnegut, Roky Erickson, Van Gogh, Basquiat, whatever. They were all 'crazy', but also intense futurists who subtly or openly propagated waves of change to the world. Is that insanity? I don't know either.
Immediately after finishing VALIS I collected as much as I could of what might have been Dick's influences, mostly from the 'original'--as far as academia is concerned--Gnostics that he mentions, and some very good but also very shady works by G.R.S. Mead, Harnack, and others from around the beginning of last century (the previous high point of investigation into 'christian origins'). I thought I might get closer to the roots of what he was talking about, and I think I have, at least in understanding the evolution (or devolution) of certain ideas over time. Above all I was only shown the same looming 'question mark'... deeper into the void. It struck me that Dick didn't write 'science fiction', and I don't think he intended to; he re-wrote the concepts of many ancient sources in a revised and highly modern format, probing at the same uncertainties that have plagued humanity in an impossibly sophisticated way since the beginning.
That is what science fiction ought to be.
And that's why I'm especially excited to read this, because it purports to be much of the same 'gnosis' material, without the framing of a sci-fi novel, just the man's honest thoughts. So, without further ado...
OFFICIAL EXEGESIS UNBOXING!!!!
(http://boyah.net/wziard/exegesis1.jpg)
omg
(http://boyah.net/wziard/exegesis2.jpg)
omg!!
(http://boyah.net/wziard/exegesis3.jpg)
sweeet I like 2-3-74 on the spine.
(http://boyah.net/wziard/exegesis4.jpg)
cool inside-the-cover
(http://boyah.net/wziard/exegesis5.jpg)
I got this too, something by a more traditional 'genius' that I'm also excited for
Quote from: vziard on October 19, 2011, 05:40:35 AM
Definitely the book I have been most excited to read for the past year or so. It is almost 1,000 pages of pure, unfiltered, DICK.
Well this certainly caught me off guard.