The deity against the human: The image of God in novels by Philip K. Dick

• Authors: Anna Mojsiewicz

Title variants

FR

La déité contre l’humain: L’image de Dieu dans les romans de Philip K. Dick

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this article, I shall claim that Dick dramatises the concept of an insane semi-god in many of his works. Furthermore, he invests his false Gods with the characteristics of the Gnostic Demiurge, a deranged architect and governor of the material reality. I shall examine three novels from Dick’s enormous oeuvre: The Man in the High Castle (1962), The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965) and VALIS (1981). The world was not created by God but by a false deity, the Demiurge, whose metaphor in VALIS is the Empire. Palmer Eldritch is one of many incarnations of the Demiurge. The Nazis assume the role of the governors of the fictional reality which they shape as they please. As the architects of the novel’s world, they share a number of characteristics with the menacing entities described above.

FR

Dans le présent article, je vais soutenir que Dick dramatise le concept d’un demi-dieu fou dans plusieurs de ses œuvres. De plus, il donne à ses faux dieux les propriétés du démiurge gnostique – un architecte dérangé qui gouverne la réalité matérielle. Je vais examiner trois romans issus de l’immense œuvre de Dick : Le Maître du Haut Château (1962), Le Dieu venu du Centaure (1965) et SIVA (1981). Le monde n’a pas été créé par Dieu, mais par une fausse divinité, le démiurge, dont la métaphore est l’Empire dans SIVA. Palmer Eldritch dans Le Dieu venu du Centaure est une de plusieurs incarnations du démiurge. Les Nazis jouent le rôle des gouverneurs de la réalité fictionnelle qu’ils forment à leur guise. En tant qu’architectes du monde dans le roman, ils partagent plusieurs attributs avec les entités menaçantes décrites ci-dessus.

Keywords

EN

the Demiurge; flawed deity; dehumanise; devour; collectivity vs. individual

FR

le démiurge; déité imparfaite; déshumaniser; dévorer; collectivité vs. individualité

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Gdański
• Journal: Beyond Philology: An International Journal of Linguistics, Literary Studies and English Language Teaching
• Year: 2013
• Issue: 10
• Pages: 129-153

Contributors

author

Anna Mojsiewicz

• Uniwersytet Gdański, Poland

References

• Barlow, Aaron (2005). How Much Does Chaos Scare You? Politics, Religion, and Philosophy in the Fiction of Philip K. Dick. New York: Shakespeare’s Sister.
• Di Tomasso, Lorenzo (1999). “Redemption in Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle”. Science Fiction Studies 26/77: 91-117.
• Dick, Philip K. (2001). The Man in the High Castle. London: Gollancz.
• Dick, Philip K. (2003). The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. London: Gollancz.
• Dick, Philip K. (2001). VALIS. London: Gollancz.
• Durham, Scott (1992). “From the death of the subject to a theology of late capitalism”. In: Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr, Arthur B. Evans, Veronica Hollinger (eds.). On Philip K. Dick: 40 Articles from Science Fiction Studies. Greencastle: SF-TH Inc., 188-199.
• Fitting, Peter (1992). “Reality as ideological construct: A reading of five novels by Philip K. Dick”. In: Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr, Arthur B. Evans, Veronica Hollinger (eds.). On Philip K. Dick: 40 Articles from Science Fiction Studies. Greencastle: SF-TH Inc., 92-110.
• Gove, Philip B. et al. (eds.) (1967). Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged. Springfield: G. and C. Merriam Company.
• Lem, Stanisław (1992). “A visionary among the charlatans”. Trans. Robert Abernathy. In: Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr, Arthur B. Evans, Veronica Hollinger (eds.). On Philip K. Dick: 40 Articles from Science Fiction Studies. Greencastle: SF-TH Inc., 109-124.
• Lem, Stanisław (1973). “Ze wspomnień Ijona Tichego I”. In: Andrzej Stobecki (ed.). Opowiadania wybrane. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 109-124.
• Palmer, Christopher (2003). Philip K. Dick: Exhilaration and Terror of the Postmodern. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
• Palmer, Christopher (1992). “Postmodernism and the birth of the author in VALIS”. In: Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr, Arthur B. Evans, Veronica Hollinger (eds.). On Philip K. Dick: 40 Articles from Science Fiction Studies. Greencastle: SF-TH Inc., 265-274.
• Quispel, Gilles (1988). Gnoza. Trans. Beata Kita. Warszawa: Pax.
• Rabkin, Eric S. (1992). “Irrational expectations: or, how economics and the post-industrial world failed Philip K. Dick”. In: Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr, Arthur B. Evans, and Veronica Hollinger (eds.). On Philip K. Dick: 40 Articles from Science Fiction Studies. Greencastle: SF-TH Inc., 178-187.
• Rieder, John (1992). “The metafictive world of The Man in the High Castle: hermeneutics, ethics, and political ideology”. In: Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr, Arthur B. Evans, Veronica Hollinger (eds.). On Philip K. Dick: 40 Articles from Science Fiction Studies. Greencastle: SF-TH Inc., 223-232.
• Suvin, Darko (1992). “The opus: Artifice as refuge and world view (introductory reflections)”. In: Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr, Arthur B. Evans, Veronica Hollinger (eds.). On Philip K. Dick: 40 Articles from Science Fiction Studies. Greencastle: SF-TH Inc., 2-15.
• Warric, Patricia (1992). “The encounter of Taoism and Fascism in The Man in the High Castle”. In: Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr, Arthur B. Evans, Veronica Hollinger (eds.). On Philip K. Dick: 40 Articles from Science Fiction Studies. Greencastle: SF-TH Inc., 74-80.
• Watson, Ian (1992). ”Le Guin’s Lathe of Heavens and the Role of Dick: The false reality as mediator”. In: Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr, Arthur B. Evans, Veronica Hollinger (eds.). On Philip K. Dick: 40 Articles from Science Fiction Studies. Greencastle: SF-TH Inc., 63-72.

Identifiers

ISSN

1732-1220