The Transmigration of Timothy Archer - Philip K. Dick

Just finished reading Philip K. Dick's The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982), published posthumously. (For those who may not know, transmigration is "the religious or philosophical concept that the soul or spirit, after biological death, begins a new life in a new body that may be human, animal or spiritual depending on the moral quality of the previous life's actions.")

The novel is set in the 1960s and 1970s, and follows the descent into drug addiction, radical religion, and madness of a deeply entwined but unhappy circle of five friends - intelligent but lonely Angel Archer, "professional student" at Cal Berkeley and poetic grass fiend, her disaffected husband, Jeff, whose maniacally intensive study of Wallenstein and Hitler becomes a pointless bid for his father's attention, Jeff's father, the dreamy but brilliant Bishop Timothy Archer, who unwittingly destroys himself and his friends, the Bishop's secret lover, the spiteful barbiturate addict Kirsten, and Kirsten's angelic son, the schizophrenic Bill.

The action begins on the day of John Lennon's death, with Angel's attempts to make sense of the "retributive fate" which has enveloped her life and destroyed those closest to her. For all this darkness, the book is a fairly light read, with some good humorous bits. For Philip K. Dick enthusiasts, it is also an interesting window into his thoughts in later years, and perhaps his most mature piece of writing. Although the repetitive nature of some of the lines was at times tedious for me, I believe it was a deliberate stylistic choice to evoke the obsessive nature of Angel's thoughts, and was effective for that purpose.

Bishop Archer's darkly comic misadventures are in fact based on the doings of the unfortunate Bishop James Pike - definitely worth reading a bit about that man, although save it for after you've read the novel - spoiler alert!

The World Jones Made

Recently read The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick. This novel is set in 2002 on a post-apocalyptic earth that has been nearly destroyed by radiation and is filled with bizarre and disturbing mutants. The populace is ruled by a Federal World Government, aka Fedgov, and has been bullied into adopting Relativism, a philosophy that has led to the legalization of hard drugs and public acts of perversion. The plot revolves around the messianic fervor aroused by the titular character, Jones, and explores the issues of liberty and free will.

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

"The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" (1965) was the last Philip K. Dick novel I read this summer, and I liked it the most.

I will paraphrase excerpts from the wikipedia page's "Plot introduction":

The setting is some time in the 21st century. Global climatic disruption has rendered Earth inhabitable and to cope with this humans have colonized throughout the solar system. No one wants to be a colonist since it's hard and boring so the UN has to draft people to become colonists. Colonists entertain themselves by playing with "Perky Pat" dolls and accessories manufactured by P.P. Layouts. The real attraction of Perky Pat is using the layouts with Can-D, an illegal hallucinogen that allows the user to "translate" into Perky Pat (if the user is female) or her boyfriend Walt (if male), allowing colonists to experience an idealized version of life on Earth in a collective unconscious hallucination. P.P. Layouts employs several "precogs" to determine if new Perky Pat accessories will be popular. Barney Mayerson, a precog, is the protagonist of this novel.

The plot gets a bit bizarre towards the end of the book, and a few parts are unconvincing, but on the whole I really enjoyed this book.

A Scanner Darkly

Another Phillip K. Dick book I read this summer was "A Scanner Darkly" (1977). It took me a little while to get into it because the main character was so vulgar and hard to sympathize with, but I did end up liking it.

The story revolves around a group of friends who are all addicted to "Substance D," or "Death." The book did a very good job in my opinion of realistically depicting the brutality of drug dependence, in real contrast to movies like Trainspotting. I made the mistake of reading the book jacket, which I think gives a lot away, so I won't say a great deal about the plot here, only that it is a real page turner and gives a powerful view of a seamy drug culture in a futuristic Orange County, California.

VALIS

Earlier this summer I read Philip K. Dick for the first time. VALIS was good and thought-provoking, but very strange.

The protagonist is named Horselover Fat, and is possibly or likely an author surrogate (according to the VALIS wikipedia page: "Horselover" echoes the Greek etymology of the name Philip, while in German, Dick's surname means "fat").

Fat is hit with a beam of pink light which blasts a dense stream of information into his head. He becomes obsessed with the "religious" information he has gained, and begins to write a treatise. His band of friends is unusually sarcastic and bitter, and there is a lot of interesting tension as a result.

Many of the more philosophical aspects of the book were of great interest to me. I returned it to the library so I don't remember exactly what was on these pages, but I wrote down page numbers of sections that interested me: 69, 118, 136, and 170. If anyone reads this soon (same edition!) we can discuss.