Radio Free Albemuth

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Radio Free Albemuth is a dystopian novel by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick . Although the novel was written in 1976 under the title VALISystem A , it was only published posthumously in 1985, which is why it is sometimes advertised as "Dick's last novel"; Dick's publisher, Bantam, had called for profound changes, which led Dick to revisit the idea instead and write the VALIS trilogy. The later revised text from Radio Free Albemuth (RFA) gave Dick to a friend, the American sci-fi writer Tim Powers . In 1985 Arbor House acquired the rights to RFA ; the title was chosen because the original title VALISystem A was too reminiscent of the VALIS trilogy. In 2010, a film adaptation of the novel Radio Free Albemuth was released .

action

In an alternate universe, the corrupt politician Ferris F. Fremont (FFF = 666, 'F' is the sixth letter of the alphabet), a figure strongly based on the actual politician Richard Nixon , becomes President of the United States. Fremont cuts civil rights as he fears the machinations of an organization (first considered invented in the novel) called "Aramchek". He is supported by a right-wing populist organization called “Friends of the American People” (FAP).

The plot is narrated alternately by Phil Dick, a sci-fi writer who is not only reminiscent of the real Philip K. Dick, and his friend Nicholas "Nick" Brady; both live in Berkeley , which is described as almost obsessively intellectual-university / liberal; dissenting opinions have little place in the realm of dissenting opinions. Nick, a college dropout, works here in a record store while his wife is studying. As he begins to have visionary dreams, he and Dick begin to interpret them. News from aliens? From alternative worlds? Or is it divine inspiration? On a trip to Disneyland, Nick sees Berkley's alternative, so to speak, in the small town of Placentia (close to Nixon's real birthplace, Yorba Linda ) in Orange County, the area from his inspirations; a few years later he succeeds in moving there with a family of three and leaving Berkley. Dick follows him.

Nick's “reception” when it comes to visions is better in Placentia; he also found a better job in the artist management of a record label. Meanwhile, representatives of the FAP are trying to get both Nick and Dick to expose the other either as a communist or a member of the secret organization Aramchek. Nick is "awakened" by the messages he receives; he is going through a kind of rebirth, whereby he and Dick slowly understand - via the promptings - that they are dealing with an alien, but not almighty entity that sends messages to Nick via a satellite in orbit around the earth and intervenes in a kind of struggle between order and chaos. They call this entity or organization "Valissystem A". Fremont turns out to be a representative of a tendentially “evil” regulatory power, a kind of US Stalinism or fascism, whereby the communism of this alternative world is only the other side of the same coin; in fact, in his youth, Fremont was recruited as a "sleeper" by the Soviet rulers in his native Placentia by a woman named Aramchek.

The satellite instructs Nick to publish the lyrics of the young American girl Sadassa Sylvie (daughter of the woman who recruited Fremont for the Soviets) with subliminal messages that are supposed to expose Fremont on a subconscious level via a successful band. At the same time, the Soviet government finds the VALIS satellite and shoots it down. Nick gets to work, but the FAP quickly finds him. Before the record is even released, Sylvie, Nick and Dick are taken prisoner; Nick and Sylvie are shot. Dick is sent to a labor camp; other authors continue his work under his name in order to discredit it. But soon he hears the subliminal messages on the radio and understands: He, Nick and Sylvie were just a diversionary maneuver so that another “cell” led by VALIS could do its work.

background

In 1974 Dick experienced a series of idiosyncratic visions that would occupy him for the rest of his life; around the experience and its interpretation of the insights gained, he built up an extensive philosophical-esoteric work, parts of which were published in 2011 under the title "The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick"; Dick assumes that he was contacted by a transcendent intellectual being, to which he gave the name VALIS (Vast Active Living Intelligence System), and to whose work he attributed certain events in human history, especially in the history of religion. He built a number of his assumptions and experiences into the novel Radio Free Albemuth . For example, Dick in real life and Nick in the novel notice the early Christian fish symbol while they are getting painkillers, which involves uncovering a hidden knowledge.

reception

Opinions on Radio Free Albemuth vary widely; Gerald Jonas of the New York Times writes that the novel "may have been merely a first draft (and an abandoned first draft at that), but this book is not Dick at his best," while for others it is one of the author's masterpieces . The Christian / Gnostic tendencies are striking; some of this is associated with visions that Dick, like Nick in the novel, experienced from pain medication.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Goodreads. Retrieved January 1, 2017 .
  2. ↑ nut. Retrieved January 1, 2017 .
  3. ^ Philip K. Dick, "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later". In: Lawrence Sutin. The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings. New York: Vintage / Random House. Page 271.
  4. ↑ http://openmagick.com/index.php?accion=ver&lang=en&importancia=1&catid=7&idelemento=100
  5. ^ Review by Ian Mathers: Radio Free Albemuth (1985) "Philip K. Dick Fan Site. In: www.philipkdickfans.com. Retrieved January 2, 2017 .
  6. ^ The religion of Philip K. Dick, science fiction writer. In: www.adherents.com. Retrieved January 2, 2017 .