The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick [Hardcover]

Philip K. Dick (Author), Pamela Jackson (Editor), Jonathan Lethem (Editor)

Book Description

Release date: November 7, 2011

“A great and calamitous sequence of arguments with the universe: poignant, terrifying, ludicrous, and brilliant. The Exegesis is the sort of book associated with legends and madmen, but Dick wasn’t a legend and he wasn’t mad. He lived among us, and was a genius.”—Jonathan Lethem

Based on thousands of pages of typed and handwritten notes, journal entries, letters, and story sketches, The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick is the magnificent and imaginative final work of an author who dedicated his life to questioning the nature of reality and perception, the malleability of space and time, and the relationship between the human and the divine. Edited and introduced by Pamela Jackson and Jonathan Lethem, this is the definitive presentation of Dick’s brilliant, and epic, work.

In the Exegesis, Dick documents his eight-year attempt to fathom what he called “2-3-74,” a postmodern visionary experience of the entire universe “transformed into information.” In entries that sometimes ran to hundreds of pages, in a freewheeling voice that ranges through personal confession, esoteric scholarship, dream accounts, and fictional fugues, Dick tried to write his way into the heart of a cosmic mystery that tested his powers of imagination and invention to the limit.

This volume, the culmination of many years of transcription and archival research, has been annotated by the editors and by a unique group of writers and scholars chosen to offer a range of views into one of the most improbable and mind-altering manuscripts ever brought to light.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Over a writing career that spanned three decades, Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) published 36 science fiction novels and 121 short stories in which he explored the essence of what makes man human and the dangers of centralized power. Toward the end of his life, his work turned toward deeply personal, metaphysical questions concerning the nature of God. Eleven novels and short stories have been adapted to film; notably: Blade Runner (based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly. The recipient of critical acclaim and numerous awards throughout his career, Dick was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005, and in 2007 the Library of America published a selection of his novels in three volumes. His work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

JONATHAN LETHEM is the author of six novels, including Motherless Brooklyn,The Fortress of Solitude, and Gun, with Occasional Music. He lives in Brooklyn.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 976 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition edition (November 7, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0547549253
• ISBN-13: 978-0547549255
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #45,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

165 of 177 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a novel at all... November 10, 2011

By The Dilettante

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am compelled to write this based on the extraordinarily misleading review below. If you don't already know what this is, DON'T buy it. Not only is it not a novel, it's not even a story. Come to think of it, it ain't even, strictly speaking, a "book"! So if you're looking for an introduction to Philip Dick, you should really try something else. Most of us start with Blade Runner.

To explain, toward the end of his writing career, Philip Dick had a visionary/religious/mystical experience. Like all such experiences, it was exceptionally difficult to verbalize, rationalize, or explain. If the experience itself didn't drive Dick mad, the task of making sense of it clearly did, at least for a time. Dick entered a period of heightened creativity, struggling to give voice to his religious experience through writing. Dick called this process, and the body of text it produced, his "Exegesis." Traditionally, the word signifies the process of expounding upon and interpreting a work of literature, typically a religious text; here, the object of Dick's literary critique was his own mind.

This book is a relatively narrow selection of pages from that effort. It reads like a philosophical journal, and consists of outlines, correspondence, doodles and rambling essays on science, creativity, ancient history, religion, death, and drugs. This is the raw ore of genius, but it is extremely unrefined. Worse, it has an eerie "tinfoil hat" feel to it; one gets the strong sense that Dick was flirting with mental illness. The casual reader is certain to be alienated, and unnecessarily, since the Exegesis formed the basis for several excellent works of narrative fiction. VALIS, Dick's crypto-autobiographical novel recounting the same events is infinitely more accessible.

But, if you, like me, are more than a casual reader - if you have read Valis and Ubik (and possibly Cosmic Trigger I: Final Secret of the Illuminati to boot) - if you take seriously the possibility that Dick contacted a divine intelligence in February of 1974, then this book is for you. And if that's you, then the content will speak for itself.

But the editing? In my view, it's above average. Since I have never seen the file cabinets from which these pages have been selected, I can't attest to their completeness. However, the stuff that's here is consistently engaging and seems to have been selected with care. Better still, the text has been annotated by a multidisciplinary team of editors, ensuring that the reader has a guide for some of Dick's frequent digressions into brain science, Biblical hermeneutics, and pharmacology.

This is much better than I'd hoped and the serious fan/student will be very, very happy.

[UPDATE: In a previous version of this review, I complained about the absence of explanatory material on Bishop James Pike. A comment below pointed out that there is in fact a detailed entry on Pike at the back of the book. My mistake. My gripe is withdrawn.]

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars PKD's Magnum Opus November 19, 2011

By Paracelsus

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Anyone who has read VALIS will know that Dick speaks about a very vague purpose hidden far beyond the words of his stories. It is that 'vague purpose' which is here laid bare, in its fullest and richest brilliance, in the author's most personal and undiluted expression. Do not expect to read an average 'journal', scraps of notes, or even 'science fiction' -- be prepared for a deep and exacting examination of Logos and Mind, Christ and Sophia; the philosophies of Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Iamblichus; the Gnosticism of Thomas and Valentinus, and much more besides that will threaten or inspire you, if you can even begin to understand it.

The physical presentation is commendable, definitely worthy of the price and perhaps even the 29-year gap between PKD's death and the book's publication: the binding is attractive and gold beneath the dust jacket; the pages are light and crisp with 8 glossy photocopied entries from the Exegesis in the center; the type design is pleasantly minimal and unobtrusive. I found the editorial work to be only average; in particular, I was disappointed with several of the footnotes to the text. Although always historically informative, the editors frequently fail to illuminate any deeper meaning, which is what editorial notes traditionally are meant to do. Still, they have done a great service to PKD and the world by bringing together a lucid and presentable collection of the Exegesis material, a task that I'm sure was incredibly complex.

I would not recommend the Exegesis as a starting point for exploring PKD's work. At the very least, you should be familiar with Ubik, as its subject and themes are frequently referred to throughout the Exegesis; and PKD's final trilogy, VALIS. The Exegesis is connected intimately with the VALIS trilogy, both being a result of Dick's infamous '2-3-74' experience; indeed, the Exegesis is basically a 938-page appendix to the VALIS trilogy, the novels being mere poetic summaries in comparison (though brilliant, of course, in their own right).

The Exegesis, to me, is a philosophical 'tour de force', a cypher blueprint of reality waiting to be understood, a veritable 'feast of the mind', as another reviewer noted; it is an incredible thing to read and behold, something that has impressed me as a work of modern genius possibly more than anything else I have ever read. I would recommend it to anyone interested in PKD and the ideas reflected in his work.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A amazing well put together book February 11, 2012

By Lucidity111

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I got this book a few weeks ago & to be honest i was not 100% what i was going to get because of the confilcting reviews of philips notes put together here in this book. But i must say as a student of philosophy/theology this is one of the most interesting & inspiring books i have ever read. So much is covered from the pre-socratics to the neo-platonists, Spinoza, & more modern philosophers that are mixed seamlessly into his very personal experiences, ideas, & style. The best part is this is a "Inspired" writting in that Philip Dick was not only inspired by philosophy but most importantly by direct experiences of the divine mind, Holy Ghost, the Logos, or whatever it was that showed itself to Mr dick. He expresses it as many letters & random notes here which i enjoyed more then i can put in words & i will be coming back to this beautiful work for the rest of my life. In short if you have a OPEN mind & enjoy philosophy/theology i bet you would like this book, even more so if you have already read Philip's work before & want to go as deep as possible into his amazing mind. i love this book.