tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post6818158158865921416..comments2024-03-28T14:31:08.981-07:00Comments on Total Dick-Head: Descending Into Pot-HealerRagle Gummhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951340313214410331noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-10657321826190936772010-07-04T17:45:15.552-07:002010-07-04T17:45:15.552-07:00Robin, I use exactly that analogy when I teach DAD...Robin, I use exactly that analogy when I teach DADOES? <br /><br />But I disagree; in the PKD universe we are ALL Sisyphus!Ragle Gummhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13951340313214410331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-2745845878187228832010-07-04T13:41:10.045-07:002010-07-04T13:41:10.045-07:00"Think Sisyphus, but instead of a obeying a p..."Think Sisyphus, but instead of a obeying a punishment for some crime, the guy pushes the rock up the hill because obscure signs (of divine origin??) on the side of the path suggest it's the right thing to do. You'd certainly read the signs differently the second time up the hill wouldn't you?"<br /><br />In the PKD universe there is no Sisyphus, but there is Wilbur Mercer. He walks endlessly up a hill in a wasteland, pelted by rocks from unknown assailants. This is not a part in a tragedy but rather a recognition of the human condition and an invitation to empathy.robinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08743788064455642852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-47947661606432060422010-07-01T07:04:17.857-07:002010-07-01T07:04:17.857-07:00I just wrote a huge comment and now I fear it may ...I just wrote a huge comment and now I fear it may be lost as when I clicked "publish" after entering my sign-in details, I got a 404 error. :( <br /><br />I will come back a later stage if my comment hasn't been posted to try to remember it, but for now I am too annoyed.goodbyeghostshiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17929264764033370097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-67070606305609178932010-06-29T22:29:54.489-07:002010-06-29T22:29:54.489-07:00I'm with you on the "prescient autobiogra...I'm with you on the "prescient autobiography" thing. Couldn't have put it better myself. One of the interesting things that PKD does in the letters and exegesis is to go back and retroactively read his pre-VALIS experience novels in the light of his theories, looking for coded information or allegories he wouldn't have known he was writing at the time, or retconning his own work. As a longtime follower of the biography and experiences as well as the novels, I've enjoyed the game of reading the novels both in terms of how they stand on their own, and how they can be esoterically read in light of this problematic project of discovering "the theology of PKD" or at least some kind of pragmatic material for jokes about doing one's own mystical project. GPH is certainly one of the most obvious, and perhaps one of his best novels about the existential angst experienced by somebody who questions an ambiguous divine call. Maybe in this light comparison to Kierkegaard (who's often better than referencing Kafka or Borges when treating elements of Dick's Serious Literary Style) is apt here. It's not the weirdness of the divine call that's at issue, although it provides some of the special effects and delightful images. Rather it's the way the GPH thinks and feels about his new boss experience that matters. The insight this provides as a psychological novel is immediately recognizable to anybody what's had weird "contact" experiences of their own. In that regard GPH is a great PKD novel for talking about with other contactees, marin county new agers, aficionados of mindfuck religious experience, psychedelic heads, or what have you. The meaning of the novel is to be found in what all the weirdos who love it recognize in the strange mirror of the murky depths of that post-Jungian underwater cathedral.Mr. Handhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00308380761257083577noreply@blogger.com