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VALIS Trilogy #2
The Divine Invasion
In The Divine Invasion, Philip K. Dick asks: What if God — or a being called Yah — were alive and in exile on a distant planet? How could a second coming succeed against the high technology and finely tuned rationalized evil of the modern police state?
The Divine Invasion "blends Judaism, Kabalah, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity into a fascinating fable of human existence"
--West Coast Review of Books
The Divine Invasion "blends Judaism, Kabalah, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity into a fascinating fable of human existence"
--West Coast Review of Books
238 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1981
About the author
Philip K. Dick
1,658 books20.5k followersPhilip K. Dick was born in Chicago in 1928 and lived most of his life in California. In 1952, he began writing professionally and proceeded to write numerous novels and short-story collections. He won the Hugo Award for the best novel in 1962 for The Man in the High Castle and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year in 1974 for Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. Philip K. Dick died on March 2, 1982, in Santa Ana, California, of heart failure following a stroke.
In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty, ten of his stories have been adapted into popular films since his death, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, and The Adjustment Bureau. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.
In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty, ten of his stories have been adapted into popular films since his death, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, and The Adjustment Bureau. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.
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January 6, 2022
Lest God Forget
One of the central issues in Christian theology is the way in which the divine and the human can plausibly be combined in Christ. Once it was decided dogmatically that Christ was divine, the theological discussion turned to his two ’natures’ existing in one person. The resolution of this then raised the question of whether the two natures implied two ‘wills’. The controversy subsequently cascades into a series of doctrines and heresies. Monotheism was supposed to simplify things. Christianity is nothing if not intellectually complex.
So lots of theological loose ends about Christ, even today. And there are at least two aspects of Christianity’s inherent complexity that have never been fully explored. The first is the reason why YHWH of the Old Testament would find it necessary to send himself in physical form to live as a human being. He had after all been present in his emanation as Sophia, or Wisdom, and participating in human life for some time (as Dick casually notes). The rather slapdash theory of the Atonement, that the sacrifice of Christ was necessary because of the immensity of evil in the world, is an obvious divine own goal. It was after all God who created the evil. And he tried to wipe it out with the flood once before and failed. So this strategy of upping the bet smacks of some desperation. No, Atonement doesn’t hack it.
Second, there are further attributes of Christ aside from his general nature and will which are as yet unexplained. In particular his memory seems to be an obvious theological sticking point. According to the Gospel of John, Christ was in on the creation. And according to the Apostle Paul, he was the vehicle of creation who was meant to give the whole caboodle to his Father at some future point. But in the other gospels, Jesus seems to have forgotten entirely about the rather pivotal role in the history of the universe. A lapse that no one before Dick seems to have noticed.
Dick has connected these two missing links, as it were, in this marvellous tale of the Re-Incarnation, the first attempt (or second, counting the flood) having failed rather obviously in not ridding the world of evil. The perennial question is ‘why?’ What went wrong such that things have since his appearance been as screwed up as they ever have been? And what’s all this business that Paul was pushing about an imminent second coming? Why not get the job done in one visit? We’d expect as much from the plumber; why not God who also charges premium rates?
Dick’s theological hypothesis is that YHWH is, or is becoming, a bit forgetful. It could be that divine dementia threatens. The strain on the sacred cerebrum is undoubtedly intense, if not infinite. A bit of occupational therapy and determination of whatever the correct heavenly dosage of Haldol was for YHWH apparently took a bit longer than Paul expected.
This situation is problematic, according to Dick’s hypothesis, because the universe only exists to the extent that it is a memory in the mind of God (an idea widely shared by some pretty reputable thinkers like Leibniz). If that memory were in jeopardy, there is a clear rationale for drastic action. This is theological creativity at its best and certainly superior to the bulk 0f professional theological thought. This concept represents much more than Einstein’s metaphor for the laws of nature as the buried thoughts of God. Einstein didn’t mean it; Dick does. It is the world’s existence as God’s active memory which is at stake. If God forgets, even momentarily, the whole thing pops out of existence as suddenly as it popped in. Suck on that for a bit of relativity, Albert.
Hence the real role of Christ entering into creation - to make sure that God keeps us all in mind, and therefore in existence. The Old Testament divine emanation of Sophia (aka the Holy Spirit to Christians, and Pallas Athena/Diana to interested pagans) is inadequate for the job because he/she/it has no memory, only eternal thoughts. The Spirit just has to carry out instructions; history is demarcated to other members of the Trinity. And who knows but that there are many matters on the divine agenda more important than the continuing existence of the universe. Memory is a specialised job calling for very specific talents. Only one man for the job, obviously.
So Paul the Apostle was indeed correct; Christ’s mission was to save the world, quite literally. But although Paul remembered, Christ forgot. Both his eternal past and his intended future got a bit blurry, suggesting, perhaps, an inherited divine genetic defect. Or perhaps the job takes practice (accounting, therefore, for the second coming). Fortunately YHWH’s memory did not completely fail him (or us) in the interval between the Roman massacre of the final Jewish stronghold of Masada (when YHWH was forced into exile in a distant star system) and the present day (or rather the present day of the future when star travel has become technologically feasible).
Dick’s cinematic revival has more or less the same cast of characters as the original stage-production - the pregnant virgin, the stand-in father, the same prophet from the original cast, Elijah (a bit older but once you’re past 4000 who’d notice); as well as a chorus of worshipping followers and evil assassins. The Christian-Islamic Church (Elijah is a saint for both) is no help of course, aligned as it is with the global Communist Party as The Adversary, that is to say Satan, of old.
So the dramatic tension builds with clear biblical gravitas. Can the invading forces re-establish the power of YHWH in the evil zone? Will YHWH resist the temptation to nod off during the crucial scene? Can the new Emanuel remember his lines? On the more serious side, would it really be so hard for Christ just to forget the bad bits that keep recurring to YHWH and keep the rest (Just sayin’)? There’s at least as much action as Star Trek and much more theological wit.
One of the central issues in Christian theology is the way in which the divine and the human can plausibly be combined in Christ. Once it was decided dogmatically that Christ was divine, the theological discussion turned to his two ’natures’ existing in one person. The resolution of this then raised the question of whether the two natures implied two ‘wills’. The controversy subsequently cascades into a series of doctrines and heresies. Monotheism was supposed to simplify things. Christianity is nothing if not intellectually complex.
So lots of theological loose ends about Christ, even today. And there are at least two aspects of Christianity’s inherent complexity that have never been fully explored. The first is the reason why YHWH of the Old Testament would find it necessary to send himself in physical form to live as a human being. He had after all been present in his emanation as Sophia, or Wisdom, and participating in human life for some time (as Dick casually notes). The rather slapdash theory of the Atonement, that the sacrifice of Christ was necessary because of the immensity of evil in the world, is an obvious divine own goal. It was after all God who created the evil. And he tried to wipe it out with the flood once before and failed. So this strategy of upping the bet smacks of some desperation. No, Atonement doesn’t hack it.
Second, there are further attributes of Christ aside from his general nature and will which are as yet unexplained. In particular his memory seems to be an obvious theological sticking point. According to the Gospel of John, Christ was in on the creation. And according to the Apostle Paul, he was the vehicle of creation who was meant to give the whole caboodle to his Father at some future point. But in the other gospels, Jesus seems to have forgotten entirely about the rather pivotal role in the history of the universe. A lapse that no one before Dick seems to have noticed.
Dick has connected these two missing links, as it were, in this marvellous tale of the Re-Incarnation, the first attempt (or second, counting the flood) having failed rather obviously in not ridding the world of evil. The perennial question is ‘why?’ What went wrong such that things have since his appearance been as screwed up as they ever have been? And what’s all this business that Paul was pushing about an imminent second coming? Why not get the job done in one visit? We’d expect as much from the plumber; why not God who also charges premium rates?
Dick’s theological hypothesis is that YHWH is, or is becoming, a bit forgetful. It could be that divine dementia threatens. The strain on the sacred cerebrum is undoubtedly intense, if not infinite. A bit of occupational therapy and determination of whatever the correct heavenly dosage of Haldol was for YHWH apparently took a bit longer than Paul expected.
This situation is problematic, according to Dick’s hypothesis, because the universe only exists to the extent that it is a memory in the mind of God (an idea widely shared by some pretty reputable thinkers like Leibniz). If that memory were in jeopardy, there is a clear rationale for drastic action. This is theological creativity at its best and certainly superior to the bulk 0f professional theological thought. This concept represents much more than Einstein’s metaphor for the laws of nature as the buried thoughts of God. Einstein didn’t mean it; Dick does. It is the world’s existence as God’s active memory which is at stake. If God forgets, even momentarily, the whole thing pops out of existence as suddenly as it popped in. Suck on that for a bit of relativity, Albert.
Hence the real role of Christ entering into creation - to make sure that God keeps us all in mind, and therefore in existence. The Old Testament divine emanation of Sophia (aka the Holy Spirit to Christians, and Pallas Athena/Diana to interested pagans) is inadequate for the job because he/she/it has no memory, only eternal thoughts. The Spirit just has to carry out instructions; history is demarcated to other members of the Trinity. And who knows but that there are many matters on the divine agenda more important than the continuing existence of the universe. Memory is a specialised job calling for very specific talents. Only one man for the job, obviously.
So Paul the Apostle was indeed correct; Christ’s mission was to save the world, quite literally. But although Paul remembered, Christ forgot. Both his eternal past and his intended future got a bit blurry, suggesting, perhaps, an inherited divine genetic defect. Or perhaps the job takes practice (accounting, therefore, for the second coming). Fortunately YHWH’s memory did not completely fail him (or us) in the interval between the Roman massacre of the final Jewish stronghold of Masada (when YHWH was forced into exile in a distant star system) and the present day (or rather the present day of the future when star travel has become technologically feasible).
Dick’s cinematic revival has more or less the same cast of characters as the original stage-production - the pregnant virgin, the stand-in father, the same prophet from the original cast, Elijah (a bit older but once you’re past 4000 who’d notice); as well as a chorus of worshipping followers and evil assassins. The Christian-Islamic Church (Elijah is a saint for both) is no help of course, aligned as it is with the global Communist Party as The Adversary, that is to say Satan, of old.
So the dramatic tension builds with clear biblical gravitas. Can the invading forces re-establish the power of YHWH in the evil zone? Will YHWH resist the temptation to nod off during the crucial scene? Can the new Emanuel remember his lines? On the more serious side, would it really be so hard for Christ just to forget the bad bits that keep recurring to YHWH and keep the rest (Just sayin’)? There’s at least as much action as Star Trek and much more theological wit.
February 17, 2023
The Divine Invasion is a sci-fi alternate reality version of the second coming of Christ, told as only Philip K. Dick could.
More serious than VALIS and one his more serious works overall, PKD demonstrates his deep erudition of the Bible. Fundamentalists may be put off, and the reader looking for pure science fiction may be overwhelmed with his frequent references and quotes from the Bible, but this is an important work and one that must be read by a true student of PKD.
Dick also weaves a firm understanding of Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism and eastern philosophies into this dense but rewarding text. I think this is a book that will inspire strong emotions; readers will either love it or hate it. I am in the former ranks; this is one of Phil’s best, blending science fiction, fantasy, psychology and theology into his signature style.
It was alternately illuminating, entertaining, humorous, disturbing and terrifying. The scene where the policeman pulls over Herb Asher is a PKD classic.
*** 2023 reread -
Philip K. Dick’s retelling of the birth of Christ.
Technically it’s his SF version of the second coming of Christ, but in Dick’s able prose, this becomes something else entirely.
Any reader of PKD, especially someone reading his later works, from the mid 70s on, say from A Scanner Darkly and later, will recognize Phil’s fascination with Christianity. His was not a casual investigation either, it is clear from his writing that he had read much on the subject and someone who reads his Exegesis (first published in 2011 based upon his writings and notes from this period) will get an idea about the depth of his thought on the subject.
Here we find a later day Joseph and Mary, Herb and Rybys, living out a strange existence in domes on a methane gas planet in a distant solar system. Elijah, Dick’s version of the ancient, immortal prophet comes to tell them both about the Good News! and we are off on a Philip K. Dick adventure like none other.
As I noted in my earlier review, this is darker and with less humor than we see in many of his books, but Phil’s quirky personality still comes through. Reading PKD is an acquired taste and subsequent readings always shed news light on his narrative and the quality of his writing.
I can see where this may have influenced William Gibson and Neal Stephenson and maybe other later SF writers.
Very good and a MUST read for PKD fans.
More serious than VALIS and one his more serious works overall, PKD demonstrates his deep erudition of the Bible. Fundamentalists may be put off, and the reader looking for pure science fiction may be overwhelmed with his frequent references and quotes from the Bible, but this is an important work and one that must be read by a true student of PKD.
Dick also weaves a firm understanding of Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism and eastern philosophies into this dense but rewarding text. I think this is a book that will inspire strong emotions; readers will either love it or hate it. I am in the former ranks; this is one of Phil’s best, blending science fiction, fantasy, psychology and theology into his signature style.
It was alternately illuminating, entertaining, humorous, disturbing and terrifying. The scene where the policeman pulls over Herb Asher is a PKD classic.
*** 2023 reread -
Philip K. Dick’s retelling of the birth of Christ.
Technically it’s his SF version of the second coming of Christ, but in Dick’s able prose, this becomes something else entirely.
Any reader of PKD, especially someone reading his later works, from the mid 70s on, say from A Scanner Darkly and later, will recognize Phil’s fascination with Christianity. His was not a casual investigation either, it is clear from his writing that he had read much on the subject and someone who reads his Exegesis (first published in 2011 based upon his writings and notes from this period) will get an idea about the depth of his thought on the subject.
Here we find a later day Joseph and Mary, Herb and Rybys, living out a strange existence in domes on a methane gas planet in a distant solar system. Elijah, Dick’s version of the ancient, immortal prophet comes to tell them both about the Good News! and we are off on a Philip K. Dick adventure like none other.
As I noted in my earlier review, this is darker and with less humor than we see in many of his books, but Phil’s quirky personality still comes through. Reading PKD is an acquired taste and subsequent readings always shed news light on his narrative and the quality of his writing.
I can see where this may have influenced William Gibson and Neal Stephenson and maybe other later SF writers.
Very good and a MUST read for PKD fans.
December 19, 2019
Philip K. Dick - image from the LA Times
There is the usual time-tripping here. Pay attention. It is like a LOST episode, and indeed probably inspired some of the concepts used in that estimable show. You need to keep track not only of where you are in space, but in time. The Divine Invasion (no, not a John Waters film) posits a scenario in which god, Yahweh, was essentially booted off planet Earth after the unfortunate events at Masada. Now resident in an alien hill and renamed Yah, (so much classier than Yo!) the big guy is looking to stage a comeback. All he needs is to transport himself, or a version of himself, in the person of a fetus implanted into the womb of a virgin, past the sphere of evil (personified by a critter named Belial) that surrounds Earth. All sorts of religious musing hijinks ensue, wonderings on the nature of consciousness, the Talmud, time and space and whether reality is external to the mind or a manifestation of it. I most enjoyed a conversation between Yah and a feminine counterpart that reminded me of the devil tempting Jesus in the desert. Great fun, but don’t try this unless you are reasonably alert. Of course, I expect a dose of a psychotropic substance might enhance your reading as well.
February 21, 2019
This is kind of like when an old friend calls up and says he wants to see you, and you're like ‘Great! Come round!’ because he's smart and interesting and funny, and you sit around the table and open a bottle of wine, looking forward to an evening catching up, and he looks at you all excited and says he's got something absolutely amazing to tell you – and you're all, ‘Oh yeah? What is it?’ and he leans forward with his eyes shining and says:
‘I've found Jesus!’
And you kind of grin, but then you realise he's deadly serious and before you know it he's talking about the Dead Sea scrolls and Kabbalistic numerology, and how he's definitely going to have an affair because his wife is so boring and just doesn't understand him, whereas he's met this younger girl and they have a totally spiritual connection and oh god there isn't enough wine in the world…
‘I've found Jesus!’
And you kind of grin, but then you realise he's deadly serious and before you know it he's talking about the Dead Sea scrolls and Kabbalistic numerology, and how he's definitely going to have an affair because his wife is so boring and just doesn't understand him, whereas he's met this younger girl and they have a totally spiritual connection and oh god there isn't enough wine in the world…
June 29, 2020
"Is there essentially one matrix world from which people derive differing perceptions? So that the world you see is not the world I see?"
synopsis: the Earth that is under the shadow of Satan, religion and government its twin rulers; the father who is not His father lies dreaming, of a singer; the mother who was a virgin is dead, assassinated; the Father who is God has lost the battle, driven from Earth; He who is the son of God, conceived on a planet far away, He who shall become God, fostered by elias, He who shall invade this Earth, a divine invasion, He who shall win the war, and destroy the Earth; She who shall tease and taunt and guide and lead Him astray, into the Secret Commonwealth, into a new reality, Her reality, or perhaps the reality. we are saved, God become merciful, His divine invasion transformed, hallelujah!
Was the nightmare just a dream?
weiver: the script flipped he flipped the script Dick scripted a flip again, like VALIS, again, the story the novel, it's a play it's science fiction, it's not real. the real world is not science fiction, it's not a divine invasion, it's a bored and unhappily married man, now in love with a singer, straying from a wife who has realized she could do better. the man doesn't want a son, he doesn't care about God. not true! Dick makes it not true, the pink light that is VALIS knows it's not true. this is a cautionary tale, but for whom? a cautionary tale for God? God should be merciful, says Dick. don't be such a dick, God, says Dick, who loves God, as of course God loves Dick.
and so I finished the nightmare turned dream, glad for Earth and scared of Dick.
"'The Ape of God,'" Elias said. "A Medieval theory about the Devil. That he apes God's legitimate creation with spurious interpolations of his own."
June 6, 2017
This happens to be my third read and like the one that immediately precedes it, it's well worth the extra effort.
Absolutely amazing is only a part of what it is. It's also a complicated exploration of comparative religions, a roaring tale of a battle between God and the Devil, and it's also about totally re-writing reality because it's all a hologram... or is it?
It has the Living Torah, it has the Kabbalah, it has Zoroastrianism and Maat and the Fairy Queen and Palas Athena. It has a brain damaged kid that holds the universe in his mind, Elijah traveling through time as the spirit of the Holy Ghost (who was once Mozart), and Herb Asher, the god-smuggler, the lover of music, the *mostly* dead and frozen Job of the novel, constantly being pulled between good and evil. :)
In short, it seems to have everything, no?
But in fact, it's a very readable SF adventure with Yah an exile on another planet trying to take back the dominion of Earth from Belial, full of cool reveals and twists, and also quite a few down-to-earth mini-quests as if the fate of the world rests on the shoulders of one man's choices.
Oh yeah, and he's just the *legal* father of God. Not the real one. Can't let people think he's crazy or anything. :)
This *is* a companion to VALIS, Radio Free Albemuth, and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. All of these books explore the same themes and tie wonderfully together as if the ideas are seen through a different part of the same prism. Even the dead cat from VALIS has is place as a dead dog in Divine Invasion, on this time it isn't just an angry man talking to a mad one, but two Gods making a point with each other. Oh, and Mother Goose even gets a cameo! :) Ohhh, Bowie...
I used to rank this lower in my mind with Valis, but in fact I think it belongs on an equal footing, now. It's quicker and a more traditional SF than VALIS but that shouldn't count against it. Indeed, it makes its points quite clearer in some ways. :)
Absolutely amazing is only a part of what it is. It's also a complicated exploration of comparative religions, a roaring tale of a battle between God and the Devil, and it's also about totally re-writing reality because it's all a hologram... or is it?
It has the Living Torah, it has the Kabbalah, it has Zoroastrianism and Maat and the Fairy Queen and Palas Athena. It has a brain damaged kid that holds the universe in his mind, Elijah traveling through time as the spirit of the Holy Ghost (who was once Mozart), and Herb Asher, the god-smuggler, the lover of music, the *mostly* dead and frozen Job of the novel, constantly being pulled between good and evil. :)
In short, it seems to have everything, no?
But in fact, it's a very readable SF adventure with Yah an exile on another planet trying to take back the dominion of Earth from Belial, full of cool reveals and twists, and also quite a few down-to-earth mini-quests as if the fate of the world rests on the shoulders of one man's choices.
Oh yeah, and he's just the *legal* father of God. Not the real one. Can't let people think he's crazy or anything. :)
This *is* a companion to VALIS, Radio Free Albemuth, and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. All of these books explore the same themes and tie wonderfully together as if the ideas are seen through a different part of the same prism. Even the dead cat from VALIS has is place as a dead dog in Divine Invasion, on this time it isn't just an angry man talking to a mad one, but two Gods making a point with each other. Oh, and Mother Goose even gets a cameo! :) Ohhh, Bowie...
I used to rank this lower in my mind with Valis, but in fact I think it belongs on an equal footing, now. It's quicker and a more traditional SF than VALIS but that shouldn't count against it. Indeed, it makes its points quite clearer in some ways. :)
November 22, 2015
The Divine Invasion: A dense gnostic allegory about salvation
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Before his death, Philip K. Dick wrote several books about suffering, redemption, and the divine in the contexts of Christian Gnosticism, Jewish Kabbalism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, anamnesis, and the dualistic nature of the ultimate divine being. After writing two books that explored his personal religious experiences in 1974, Radio Free Albemuth (written in 1976 but not published until 1985) and VALIS (written in 1978 but published in 1981), he wrote The Divine Invasion (written in 1980 but published in 1981), The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (written in 1981 but published in 1982), and an unfinished novel called The Owl in Daylight. Radio Free Albemuth was the first version of what was rewritten as VALIS, and The Divine Invasion and The Owl in Daylight were intended as a thematic trilogy. However, after PDK’s death in 1982, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer was substituted for the unfinished The Owl in Daylight and grouped together as the VALIS TRILOGY.
The Divine Invasion is dense religious allegory that begins with some of the familiar SF elements frequently in PDK’s earlier novels but quickly delves into his ideas about gnosis (finding knowledge, enlightenment or salvation by recognizing a higher spiritual realm separate from the material world), anamnesis (the process of “losing forgetfulness” or regaining knowledge), and the dualistic nature of the divine Godhead, which was separated in the Fall into a superior supreme being and a lesser creator god (a “demiurge”) who shaped the material world that humans live in.
The plot is very complex, but here goes. Herb Asher lives a solitary life on a planet called CY30-CY30B, where colonists live in isolated domes. Herb is contacted by a local deity named Yah, who contacts him in a vision and demands that he help his neighbor Rybys Rommey, a woman who is sick with multiple scleroisis and also is pregnant with Yah’s baby via immaculate conception. Herb has been a recluse content to listen endlessly to the pop music of star Linda Fox and handling communications for the colony.
With the help of a bearded beggar named Elias Tate, who is the immortal incarnation of the prophet Elijah, Herb agrees to serve as husband to Rybys (like Joseph to Mary), and they travel to Earth along with Elias, ostensibly to cure her illness. However, the Earth is ruled by a Christian-Islamic Church and a Scientific Legate who are warned of the arrival of this reincarnation of Yahweh (by an A.I. system humorously named the Big Noodle) and consider this a “Divine Invasion” and threat to their dominion of the planet. But in reality, it is the fallen angel Belial who rules this world and enslaves humanity in the prison of the material world.
The authorities pursue Herb and Rybys, seeking to kill the unborn child who will be Yahweh. They escape various attempts but finally are involved in a fatal car accident which puts Herb in a coma and kills Rybys. Herb’s body is placed in cryogenic storage while waiting for a spleen replacement, and the child Emmanuel survives but suffers a head injury that causes amnesia. Meanwhile, Elias Tate manages to save the child and smuggles it to safety. Emmanuel grows up in a special school with another girl named Zina, and she gradually helps him remember his divine origins through the process of anamnesis. It becomes clear through a series of dense philosophical discussions that Emmanuel and Zina are both aspects of the divine Godhead that was split asunder in the Fall, and that it is up to both halves to unite again and heal a sick and corrupt world.
Zina reveals to Emmanuel a more idyllic parallel universe in which both Herb and Rybys are still alive. Even more strangely, Belial is nothing but a baby goat in a NY zoo. Feeling bad for it, they innocently free the goat, but Belial seizes the opportunity to regain control of this parallel world. In this world, Herb works at a high-end electronic sound system store, and encounters a beautiful young aspiring singer named Linda Fox, who he knows will become a huge star in the future. He falls in love with her, but is tricked by Belial the goat into confronting her. Eventually, Linda Fox fights and defeats Belial, freeing the world of his evil and saving Herb in the process.
Though very dense and confusing at first, The Divine Invasion reveals itself as an allegory of how the two separate aspects of the divine being, in the form of the creator Yahweh (reborn in human form as the child Emmanuel) and the feminine aspect that remained in the material world to look after and protect mankind (represented by the girl Zina Pallas and Linda Fox). The two riven parts of the Godhead must recall via anamnesis that they are one entity, and thus united confront the fallen angel Belial, who controls the material world and keeps mankind subjected to his corrupt vision of reality. The conflict between the divine and Belial also represents the struggle for salvation of individual human beings, who must live in the corrupt material world and choose between the baser pleasures of the material world ruled by Belial and the higher spiritual plane of existence beyond our world of illusions ruled by the ultimate divine being, whose various aspects include Yahweh the Creator, Christ the Savior, the feminine goddess Diana, etc.
It’s difficult to view The Divine Invasion as a SF work, because it’s really an attempt to put PKD’s extremely complex and convoluted religious and philosophical beliefs into fictional form. And unlike the more auto biographical Radio Free Albemuth and VALIS, this book takes a much broader and more allegorical approach to his still-evolving Gnostic ideas about suffering and evil in the material world, the dual nature of the divine, and the possibility of salvation through gnosis. If you are interested in these ideas, especially as they relate to PKD’s own religious experiences and life story, then you will be able to appreciate how many of his early stories questioning the morality and reality of our world evolved into his much more convoluted thinking after his religious experiences of 1974. And while he flirted with madness and schizophrenia in Radio Free Albemuth and VALIS, he seems to have found a more coherent philosophical framework for his thoughts in The Divine Invasion. It is still a difficult book to understand, and may be very unsatisfying as a work of fiction, but it remains an essential read if you are a serious PKD student who wants to achieve ‘gnosis’ by diving down his rabbit hole.
There are also several biographies of PDK that would shed more light on his life and ideas, and I will have to make time for them someday. These include Lawrence Sutin’s Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick (2005) and Emmanuel Carrere’s I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick (2005), and of course the rambling, obsessive notes of PKD himself, meticulously edited and boiled down by Pamela Jackson and Jonathan Lethem in 2001 as The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick. If you have read all these books, consider yourself a truly dedicated scholar of the most complex, troubled and fascinating personality to have ever been part of the SF genre.
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Before his death, Philip K. Dick wrote several books about suffering, redemption, and the divine in the contexts of Christian Gnosticism, Jewish Kabbalism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, anamnesis, and the dualistic nature of the ultimate divine being. After writing two books that explored his personal religious experiences in 1974, Radio Free Albemuth (written in 1976 but not published until 1985) and VALIS (written in 1978 but published in 1981), he wrote The Divine Invasion (written in 1980 but published in 1981), The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (written in 1981 but published in 1982), and an unfinished novel called The Owl in Daylight. Radio Free Albemuth was the first version of what was rewritten as VALIS, and The Divine Invasion and The Owl in Daylight were intended as a thematic trilogy. However, after PDK’s death in 1982, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer was substituted for the unfinished The Owl in Daylight and grouped together as the VALIS TRILOGY.
The Divine Invasion is dense religious allegory that begins with some of the familiar SF elements frequently in PDK’s earlier novels but quickly delves into his ideas about gnosis (finding knowledge, enlightenment or salvation by recognizing a higher spiritual realm separate from the material world), anamnesis (the process of “losing forgetfulness” or regaining knowledge), and the dualistic nature of the divine Godhead, which was separated in the Fall into a superior supreme being and a lesser creator god (a “demiurge”) who shaped the material world that humans live in.
The plot is very complex, but here goes. Herb Asher lives a solitary life on a planet called CY30-CY30B, where colonists live in isolated domes. Herb is contacted by a local deity named Yah, who contacts him in a vision and demands that he help his neighbor Rybys Rommey, a woman who is sick with multiple scleroisis and also is pregnant with Yah’s baby via immaculate conception. Herb has been a recluse content to listen endlessly to the pop music of star Linda Fox and handling communications for the colony.
With the help of a bearded beggar named Elias Tate, who is the immortal incarnation of the prophet Elijah, Herb agrees to serve as husband to Rybys (like Joseph to Mary), and they travel to Earth along with Elias, ostensibly to cure her illness. However, the Earth is ruled by a Christian-Islamic Church and a Scientific Legate who are warned of the arrival of this reincarnation of Yahweh (by an A.I. system humorously named the Big Noodle) and consider this a “Divine Invasion” and threat to their dominion of the planet. But in reality, it is the fallen angel Belial who rules this world and enslaves humanity in the prison of the material world.
The authorities pursue Herb and Rybys, seeking to kill the unborn child who will be Yahweh. They escape various attempts but finally are involved in a fatal car accident which puts Herb in a coma and kills Rybys. Herb’s body is placed in cryogenic storage while waiting for a spleen replacement, and the child Emmanuel survives but suffers a head injury that causes amnesia. Meanwhile, Elias Tate manages to save the child and smuggles it to safety. Emmanuel grows up in a special school with another girl named Zina, and she gradually helps him remember his divine origins through the process of anamnesis. It becomes clear through a series of dense philosophical discussions that Emmanuel and Zina are both aspects of the divine Godhead that was split asunder in the Fall, and that it is up to both halves to unite again and heal a sick and corrupt world.
Zina reveals to Emmanuel a more idyllic parallel universe in which both Herb and Rybys are still alive. Even more strangely, Belial is nothing but a baby goat in a NY zoo. Feeling bad for it, they innocently free the goat, but Belial seizes the opportunity to regain control of this parallel world. In this world, Herb works at a high-end electronic sound system store, and encounters a beautiful young aspiring singer named Linda Fox, who he knows will become a huge star in the future. He falls in love with her, but is tricked by Belial the goat into confronting her. Eventually, Linda Fox fights and defeats Belial, freeing the world of his evil and saving Herb in the process.
Though very dense and confusing at first, The Divine Invasion reveals itself as an allegory of how the two separate aspects of the divine being, in the form of the creator Yahweh (reborn in human form as the child Emmanuel) and the feminine aspect that remained in the material world to look after and protect mankind (represented by the girl Zina Pallas and Linda Fox). The two riven parts of the Godhead must recall via anamnesis that they are one entity, and thus united confront the fallen angel Belial, who controls the material world and keeps mankind subjected to his corrupt vision of reality. The conflict between the divine and Belial also represents the struggle for salvation of individual human beings, who must live in the corrupt material world and choose between the baser pleasures of the material world ruled by Belial and the higher spiritual plane of existence beyond our world of illusions ruled by the ultimate divine being, whose various aspects include Yahweh the Creator, Christ the Savior, the feminine goddess Diana, etc.
It’s difficult to view The Divine Invasion as a SF work, because it’s really an attempt to put PKD’s extremely complex and convoluted religious and philosophical beliefs into fictional form. And unlike the more auto biographical Radio Free Albemuth and VALIS, this book takes a much broader and more allegorical approach to his still-evolving Gnostic ideas about suffering and evil in the material world, the dual nature of the divine, and the possibility of salvation through gnosis. If you are interested in these ideas, especially as they relate to PKD’s own religious experiences and life story, then you will be able to appreciate how many of his early stories questioning the morality and reality of our world evolved into his much more convoluted thinking after his religious experiences of 1974. And while he flirted with madness and schizophrenia in Radio Free Albemuth and VALIS, he seems to have found a more coherent philosophical framework for his thoughts in The Divine Invasion. It is still a difficult book to understand, and may be very unsatisfying as a work of fiction, but it remains an essential read if you are a serious PKD student who wants to achieve ‘gnosis’ by diving down his rabbit hole.
There are also several biographies of PDK that would shed more light on his life and ideas, and I will have to make time for them someday. These include Lawrence Sutin’s Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick (2005) and Emmanuel Carrere’s I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick (2005), and of course the rambling, obsessive notes of PKD himself, meticulously edited and boiled down by Pamela Jackson and Jonathan Lethem in 2001 as The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick. If you have read all these books, consider yourself a truly dedicated scholar of the most complex, troubled and fascinating personality to have ever been part of the SF genre.
June 16, 2016
“I chose God over the material universe.”
― Philip K. Dick, The Divine Invasion
Book 2 of Philip K Dick's VALIS Trilogy (Gnostic Trilogy [God Trilogy]), 'The Divine Invasion' is a funky PKDesque exploration of good and evil, God and Belial, gnostic truth, etc. In this short novel, Emmanuel (God) is smuggled back to Earth via the womb of a Jewish woman with MS. She is accompanied by Herb Asher, a DJ protagonist of sorts (Jesus as a DJ's son) who marries Rybys (read Mary) to assist getting her and her unborn God-baby smuggled safely to Earth, and Elias (Elijah) the one who prepares the way. They have to get past Cardinal Fulton Statler Harms, Chief Prelate of the Christian Islamic Church (C.I.C.) and their counterpoint - the Scientific Legate (S.L.) and all the rest of Satan's bureaucracy.
As science fiction, the Divine Invasion is so far left of funky that it isn't on the map. It is definitely NOT what your typical teenage, pimply reader would expect from pulp Sci Fi. But in many ways it is messy genius. Well, maybe genius after a psychic break, and way too much religious exploration and hit after hit after hit of LSD. IT is weird, off beat and leaves you the reader in a trippy religious, dream-like, loop.
― Philip K. Dick, The Divine Invasion
Book 2 of Philip K Dick's VALIS Trilogy (Gnostic Trilogy [God Trilogy]), 'The Divine Invasion' is a funky PKDesque exploration of good and evil, God and Belial, gnostic truth, etc. In this short novel, Emmanuel (God) is smuggled back to Earth via the womb of a Jewish woman with MS. She is accompanied by Herb Asher, a DJ protagonist of sorts (Jesus as a DJ's son) who marries Rybys (read Mary) to assist getting her and her unborn God-baby smuggled safely to Earth, and Elias (Elijah) the one who prepares the way. They have to get past Cardinal Fulton Statler Harms, Chief Prelate of the Christian Islamic Church (C.I.C.) and their counterpoint - the Scientific Legate (S.L.) and all the rest of Satan's bureaucracy.
As science fiction, the Divine Invasion is so far left of funky that it isn't on the map. It is definitely NOT what your typical teenage, pimply reader would expect from pulp Sci Fi. But in many ways it is messy genius. Well, maybe genius after a psychic break, and way too much religious exploration and hit after hit after hit of LSD. IT is weird, off beat and leaves you the reader in a trippy religious, dream-like, loop.
September 30, 2023
My 33rd PKD novel.
Truthfully, I'm almost at a complete loss for words in response to this book. Long story short: it's not good. Structurally it's terrible. Concept-wise, it's clumsy. Essentially, it's a re-imagining of the basics of Christianity as seen through the prism of an old-fashioned sci-fi scenario. As such, its effect is minimal.
I found it to be a frustrating / irritating read. That said, occasionally PKD threw in a joke from left field; he seemed to know just when one was needed. ~ not that any of those attempts could save the book.
I've been 'hanging out' with PKD for months now, crossing off his SF titles. If this had been the first title I picked up (or one of the first), I doubt I would have finished it. But now I only have 'The Transmigration of Timothy Archer' left... so I can see the finish line in sight. (It's unlikely that, with all of the PKD titles to choose from, the average reader would choose this one right off the bat.)
To me, 'TDI' works 'best' as residue from the spiritual experiences that PKD was going through at the time. As I said about 'VALIS', I can sympathize / empathize / whatever-thize with an apparently profound encounter. But the particular distillation process that resulted in 'TDI' feels misguided. Worse, it also feels frivolous. So, how then to take it all that seriously?
On the plus side, PKD doesn't leave the reader completely empty-handed. If you're already familiar with his work, the few sequences that contain the aforementioned jokes may remind you that the more capable writer that he can be is in there somewhere. I'm recalling some of those moments as I write this - i.e., a madcap exchange late in the book involving a character who talks like he's clearly off his rocker and the mildly bewildered cop who's noticing said rocker - but, overall, the book's contents were leaving my brain shortly after entering it.
My 3-star rating is generous; given in consideration of PKD's intentions and recognition of his intelligence. Those aside, and looked at simply as a novel, 'TDI' sort of sits at a 2.
Truthfully, I'm almost at a complete loss for words in response to this book. Long story short: it's not good. Structurally it's terrible. Concept-wise, it's clumsy. Essentially, it's a re-imagining of the basics of Christianity as seen through the prism of an old-fashioned sci-fi scenario. As such, its effect is minimal.
I found it to be a frustrating / irritating read. That said, occasionally PKD threw in a joke from left field; he seemed to know just when one was needed. ~ not that any of those attempts could save the book.
I've been 'hanging out' with PKD for months now, crossing off his SF titles. If this had been the first title I picked up (or one of the first), I doubt I would have finished it. But now I only have 'The Transmigration of Timothy Archer' left... so I can see the finish line in sight. (It's unlikely that, with all of the PKD titles to choose from, the average reader would choose this one right off the bat.)
To me, 'TDI' works 'best' as residue from the spiritual experiences that PKD was going through at the time. As I said about 'VALIS', I can sympathize / empathize / whatever-thize with an apparently profound encounter. But the particular distillation process that resulted in 'TDI' feels misguided. Worse, it also feels frivolous. So, how then to take it all that seriously?
On the plus side, PKD doesn't leave the reader completely empty-handed. If you're already familiar with his work, the few sequences that contain the aforementioned jokes may remind you that the more capable writer that he can be is in there somewhere. I'm recalling some of those moments as I write this - i.e., a madcap exchange late in the book involving a character who talks like he's clearly off his rocker and the mildly bewildered cop who's noticing said rocker - but, overall, the book's contents were leaving my brain shortly after entering it.
My 3-star rating is generous; given in consideration of PKD's intentions and recognition of his intelligence. Those aside, and looked at simply as a novel, 'TDI' sort of sits at a 2.
May 17, 2012
DAMN Philip K. Dick you have got some PROBLEMS, a great many of them with women. And you're so fucking brilliant and so messed up and weird. Did you realize there is ZERO feminist criticism of you? That's about to change, my new dead crazy fucked-up friend.
July 2, 2017
I liked it, although I was confused a good part of the time and a stronger background in religious matters would have helped. But still, great classic PKD scenes and dialogue.
I'm enjoying the audio of the PKD novels I've listened to so far, and Dick Hill did a great job with this one.
I'm enjoying the audio of the PKD novels I've listened to so far, and Dick Hill did a great job with this one.
March 19, 2023
I would be curious to know what was happening in Dick's life that would influence him to make this quasi-mystical tome. Whatever the case, it doesn't really disappoint. He sets up a lot of characters that could be good or evil and even in the end, it's not clear who is and who isn't. But what is clear is that if you're hearing string versions of South Pacific tunes, evil is afoot. Lots of real Western occult stuff is in here. My only beef is equating Belial with Lucifer. A common problem since Milton, at least.
June 26, 2008
What utter crap. The first 100 pages or so of the book were somewhat coherent while the last 140 were nearly unreadable. This is a book about how God manages to reincarnate himself again through a new virgin birth. And then Philip K. Dick goes off the crazy end and starts writing in his sleep or something. Kudos to those who loved this book and thought it was great ... but were you high when you were freaking reading it?
August 23, 2016
Dacă ar trebui să descriu cartea astea într-un cuvânt, acela ar fi halucinantă.
Alungat de pe Pământ în urma unui război, Dumnezeu încearcă să se întoarcă sub forma unui embrion în pântecul unui femei însărcinate. Ca de obicei, nimic nu se desfășoară cum ar trebui, Pământul este controlat de Belial (Diavolul) prin intermediul unei inteligențe artificiale și, în urma unui accident, Manny (Emmanuel, Yah, Dumnezeu) își pierde memoria. Așadar, lupta finală ce are ca miză însăși existența Universului se apropie, iar Manny încă se află în căutarea identității sale…
This is where the usual Philip K. Dick madness begins: universuri paralele, oscilația incertă între trecut, prezent și viitoruri posibile, personaje biblice, zeități egiptene și diavoli vicleni…
Urmărind căutarea esenței divine, "Invazia Divină" mi se pare a fi o dezbatere filosofică asupra binelui și a răului, a determinismului, a libertății, a rostului Universului ca reflecție a lui Dumnezeu și, nu în cele din urmă, o explorare a spiritualității sub toate aspectele sale.
"Ce tărâm tragic mai este şi acesta, reflectă. Cei de aici, de jos, sunt prizonieri, şi tragedia esenţială e că ei nici măcar nu ştiu asta; ei cred că sunt liberi pentru că niciodată nu au fost liberi şi nu înţeleg ce înseamnă asta. Aceasta este o închisoare şi puţini oameni au ghicit lucrul acesta. Dar eu ştiu, pentru că de asta mă aflu aici. Să dărâm zidurile, să prăvălesc porţile de metal, să zdrobesc fiecare lanţ."
Alungat de pe Pământ în urma unui război, Dumnezeu încearcă să se întoarcă sub forma unui embrion în pântecul unui femei însărcinate. Ca de obicei, nimic nu se desfășoară cum ar trebui, Pământul este controlat de Belial (Diavolul) prin intermediul unei inteligențe artificiale și, în urma unui accident, Manny (Emmanuel, Yah, Dumnezeu) își pierde memoria. Așadar, lupta finală ce are ca miză însăși existența Universului se apropie, iar Manny încă se află în căutarea identității sale…
This is where the usual Philip K. Dick madness begins: universuri paralele, oscilația incertă între trecut, prezent și viitoruri posibile, personaje biblice, zeități egiptene și diavoli vicleni…
Urmărind căutarea esenței divine, "Invazia Divină" mi se pare a fi o dezbatere filosofică asupra binelui și a răului, a determinismului, a libertății, a rostului Universului ca reflecție a lui Dumnezeu și, nu în cele din urmă, o explorare a spiritualității sub toate aspectele sale.
"Ce tărâm tragic mai este şi acesta, reflectă. Cei de aici, de jos, sunt prizonieri, şi tragedia esenţială e că ei nici măcar nu ştiu asta; ei cred că sunt liberi pentru că niciodată nu au fost liberi şi nu înţeleg ce înseamnă asta. Aceasta este o închisoare şi puţini oameni au ghicit lucrul acesta. Dar eu ştiu, pentru că de asta mă aflu aici. Să dărâm zidurile, să prăvălesc porţile de metal, să zdrobesc fiecare lanţ."
April 8, 2018
A potent and heady stew of Judaism, Kabalah, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity...all cooked-up from Phil's bizarre 1974 religious experience. Of the thirteen PKD novels I've read to date, THE DIVINE INVASION was the most difficult and least humorous. It is the second book in the Valis trilogy. Heavy on theologic and apostolic ruminations, it's an alternate reality version of Jesus Christ's return to Earth. Three stars for my favorite character Herb Asher and his zany wife Rybys Rommey and preacher pal Elias Tate. Book reviews of VALIS (book #1) and THE TRANSMIGRATION OF TIMOTHY ARCHER (book #3) indicate they also contain similar ramblings; therefore, I doubt I'll complete the trilogy. I much prefer his earlier works including DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, SOLAR LOTTERY, and CLANS OF THE ALPHANE MOON. This one is more for hard-core PKD fans.
July 7, 2007
... Dick can do better. While Valis was an incredible novel that fully explored Dick's enlightenment/mental collapse via a lifelong addiction to uppers and his views of the divine, electronic music and pink lasers, this book seems to be more os a scifi thriller that really fails to go anywhere, despite the fact that it's set on both intergalactic exploration outposts, as well as parts of NY and LA. The climax was weak, the whole concept of the divine as an illegal "alien" being aided by the physical embodiment of pagan gods in a fight against a demonic baby goat that somehow ties into the legacy as a sequel to a book as chilling as Valis... uhm, yah. Like I said, I love me some Dick (he said dick, huhhuh), PKD has numerous other works that far surpass this particular little number.
October 16, 2009
Philip K. Dick did exactly the right thing with his encounter with the divine (or psychotic break, depending on who you ask). He /kept writing/. Divine Invasion is the second of the VALIS tetralogy, which includes VALIS, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, The Divine Invasion, and Radio Free Albemuth. (RFA was published posthumously, but it still addresses the same themes. The Divine Invasion is probably the most coherent of the "VALIS series". VALIS was groundbreaking, and it shattered any preconceptions about what science fiction /could be/, but it was also a bit of a trainwreck. It was apparent on every page that one of the most brilliant minds ever to put pen to paper had fractured, but the fracturing was so beautiful, like a smashed stained glass window, that it was impossible to look away.
In The Divine Invasion, PKD takes the VALIS experience and reshapes it into something with real mythic resonance. One part study in comparative mythology, one part fable, and one part science fiction, this book makes the VALIS experience both more personal and grander in scope than it has ever been. I found the character of Emmanuel (who is the deity Yah in the body of a ten-year-old boy) absolutely spellbinding. Dick excels at writing characters torn between two versions of reality, and Emmanuel is possibly his finest realization of this. Emmanuel manages to be compassionate, naive, terrifying, and mythopoeic all at once. Every character in the book strikes this balance between the terrifyingly average and a potential for greatness. Their normality is terrifying because they're faced with a conflict far beyond their scope of comprehension.
This book is an absolute masterpiece. It unmakes the Judeo-Christian tradition as a tradition and re-presents it as a myth, and in doing so, reminds us why those myths survive.
In The Divine Invasion, PKD takes the VALIS experience and reshapes it into something with real mythic resonance. One part study in comparative mythology, one part fable, and one part science fiction, this book makes the VALIS experience both more personal and grander in scope than it has ever been. I found the character of Emmanuel (who is the deity Yah in the body of a ten-year-old boy) absolutely spellbinding. Dick excels at writing characters torn between two versions of reality, and Emmanuel is possibly his finest realization of this. Emmanuel manages to be compassionate, naive, terrifying, and mythopoeic all at once. Every character in the book strikes this balance between the terrifyingly average and a potential for greatness. Their normality is terrifying because they're faced with a conflict far beyond their scope of comprehension.
This book is an absolute masterpiece. It unmakes the Judeo-Christian tradition as a tradition and re-presents it as a myth, and in doing so, reminds us why those myths survive.
February 24, 2013
This story is an amalgamation of various religions and philosophies, along with a bit of science fiction and fantasy. God finds that he needs to be smuggled back to earth, in the womb of a virgin woman, Rybys. God's mission in returning to Earth is to battle against Belial, a sort of Satan in the guise of a caged animal at the zoo. Rybys is very sick, and is granted permission to return to Earth for medical treatments. However, Earth is ruled by tyrannical religious leaders who try their best to destroy the immigration space craft, and when that fails, to have God aborted at customs, and later again at the hospital. God is brought up by a woman named Zina; it is apparent that Zina has some supernatural characteristics, although it does not become clear who she is exactly, until the end of the story.
If this plot sounds a bit confusing--well, it is. There are many shifts in time periods, and it takes a while to understand just what is going on. There are some very entertaining scenes in the story, such as how the attitudes of the soldiers in the customs station are bent around. The scene where a policeman stops Herb Asher (Rybys' "pretend" husband) is simply wonderful. There are plenty of references to Judaism and Torah in the story, and in the author's philosophy. Christianity also plays a big role, as is clear by the virgin birth. While I understood many of the religious references, much of the philosophy went right over my head.
If this plot sounds a bit confusing--well, it is. There are many shifts in time periods, and it takes a while to understand just what is going on. There are some very entertaining scenes in the story, such as how the attitudes of the soldiers in the customs station are bent around. The scene where a policeman stops Herb Asher (Rybys' "pretend" husband) is simply wonderful. There are plenty of references to Judaism and Torah in the story, and in the author's philosophy. Christianity also plays a big role, as is clear by the virgin birth. While I understood many of the religious references, much of the philosophy went right over my head.
August 3, 2008
the internal battle for reality, the good vs. the evil, the light vs. the dark, children vs. goats -
its a throwdown for all of humanity. its intergalactic and its terrifying, its your soul and its winner take all. Sunday, sunday, sunday - BE THERE!!!
its a throwdown for all of humanity. its intergalactic and its terrifying, its your soul and its winner take all. Sunday, sunday, sunday - BE THERE!!!
November 12, 2013
I feel sorry for Philip K Dick. I mean, before he died. It's probably a good thing he didn't live to see Hollywood steal all of his ideas and completely debase and dumb them down to make crappy forgettable movies, not mentioning his name anywhere for their inspiration.
But really, the guy didn't get the credit he deserved. He ate dog food and he only had time to write 200 pagers rather than the Infinite Jest-sized mega-beast I know he wanted to write. And then just as he was getting some money and respect, he died due to his shitty lifestyle. Luckily before that he wrote a helluva lot of those 200-pagers and most of them feel connected, so reading his works feels like piecing together a huge novel with no order but clear development of thought. In some ways it's more fun like that.
Mostly my pity for him has come reading VALIS and now The Divine Invasion. I pity him because he was very disturbed in his later years and his entire foundations about reality and existence had been completely shaken by a strange divine experience he had. It sounds cool and the fiction he came up with is certainly awesome, but I don't think anyone would wish for what happened to Dick. Whether drug-induced or just crazyness or real divine intervention, Dick stopped believing that this world was the real one, because a pink beam of light told him and showed him otherwise. I feel sorry for him because after reading the scrawling, desperate madness of VALIS, I realised how much the experience fucked him up. But he wasn't crazy enough to go completely crazy. That book shows that he thought he was probably crazy but might not be, caught in a cage match with his own rationality and the experience he had, poking fun at himself for his readers but on an exhausting quest to find the truth.
But the 2nd book is different. Here, Dick seems to be entertaining the idea that the experience definitely happened and through protagonist Herb Asher, a strange paranoid fantasy comes through. Without spoiling too much, which is why I'm talking about the author and not the book, Dick wonders whether God or Gods were playing games with him. As if divine beings had chosen him to make bets with one another, to test the fabric of reality and to challenge human perception and faith. The Divine Invasion is much more controlled in its writing than the series' first, but the outrageousness of the story suggests Dick was completely on his own in discovering the secrets of the universe. Of what I've read, this for me is his most impenetrable work because it's too difficult to read the message he was trying to communicate to readers, but also because there is so much in here that needs further exploration. You know, like, more than 200 pages or so. And unfortunately the ending sucks. Hopefully the third book in the series will answer some of my questions. Whatever they are.
But really, the guy didn't get the credit he deserved. He ate dog food and he only had time to write 200 pagers rather than the Infinite Jest-sized mega-beast I know he wanted to write. And then just as he was getting some money and respect, he died due to his shitty lifestyle. Luckily before that he wrote a helluva lot of those 200-pagers and most of them feel connected, so reading his works feels like piecing together a huge novel with no order but clear development of thought. In some ways it's more fun like that.
Mostly my pity for him has come reading VALIS and now The Divine Invasion. I pity him because he was very disturbed in his later years and his entire foundations about reality and existence had been completely shaken by a strange divine experience he had. It sounds cool and the fiction he came up with is certainly awesome, but I don't think anyone would wish for what happened to Dick. Whether drug-induced or just crazyness or real divine intervention, Dick stopped believing that this world was the real one, because a pink beam of light told him and showed him otherwise. I feel sorry for him because after reading the scrawling, desperate madness of VALIS, I realised how much the experience fucked him up. But he wasn't crazy enough to go completely crazy. That book shows that he thought he was probably crazy but might not be, caught in a cage match with his own rationality and the experience he had, poking fun at himself for his readers but on an exhausting quest to find the truth.
But the 2nd book is different. Here, Dick seems to be entertaining the idea that the experience definitely happened and through protagonist Herb Asher, a strange paranoid fantasy comes through. Without spoiling too much, which is why I'm talking about the author and not the book, Dick wonders whether God or Gods were playing games with him. As if divine beings had chosen him to make bets with one another, to test the fabric of reality and to challenge human perception and faith. The Divine Invasion is much more controlled in its writing than the series' first, but the outrageousness of the story suggests Dick was completely on his own in discovering the secrets of the universe. Of what I've read, this for me is his most impenetrable work because it's too difficult to read the message he was trying to communicate to readers, but also because there is so much in here that needs further exploration. You know, like, more than 200 pages or so. And unfortunately the ending sucks. Hopefully the third book in the series will answer some of my questions. Whatever they are.
February 8, 2011
One of my favorite Philip K. Dick books. It explores the theme of parallel universes that sneaks into most of his work, and gives a nail-biting account of Yahweh's, and creation at large's, struggle to survive in a world with harmful religious leaders and stifling bureaucracy. All of the characters really come to life for me, from the strong and grounded Rybys Rommey to the Scared-of-the-World Herbert Asher, who would prefer to live in his fantasies than reality, to the eerie and truly scary Belial whose view of the world is very glum indeed; the solemn Emmanuel, who literally has the weight of the world on his shoulders; the playful and zestful Zina, whose world view we DO want to share; the wise and rumpled Elias, weaving like a helpful friend in and out of the story at key moments; and Linda Fox, probably the vaguest character because, after all, she is mostly a product of Herb Asher's fantasy... but not for long. You don't have to be religious to like this book, you just have to have a soul.
April 7, 2008
Now my favorite book in the so-called "Valis Trilogy," The Divine Invasion takes the heady gnostic concepts of Valis and truly presents them in an unabashedly "sci-fi" context - the infant Christ has been reborn on mars to a woman with M.S. after a divine conception, and must be smuggled back onto earth, which is completely under Satan's control via artificial intelligence and totalitarian government. And that's merely the setup for a book that ends up in a completely different place than you'd expect, and which contains scenes like the young Emmanuel accelerating his reality and ascending through levels of existence that would make Grant Morrison green with envy (if he didn't already acknowledge completely and unabashedly plundering them for his entire career!).
November 30, 2018
As with the previous book in the Valis trilogy, I give this one five stars with a big ol' asterisk next to it. There are people who are going to hate this book and throw it across the room, and I totally get it. It is weird, not much makes total sense at first glance, and the plot is all over the place. If you know and care who Philip K. Dick was and if you are into the weird ravings of crazy people (Grant Morrison and Robert Anton Wilson come to mind as other examples), however, then you just might love this.
Also, as with the first volume, DO NOT start with the Valis trilogy as your introduction to the works of PKD. I did that and didn't pick up another PDK book for years after because of it. But, when you are ready, the mad prophet of the satellite god will be here waiting to explode your brain with 99% "nonsense" and 1% "everything you need to know about life"
Also, as with the first volume, DO NOT start with the Valis trilogy as your introduction to the works of PKD. I did that and didn't pick up another PDK book for years after because of it. But, when you are ready, the mad prophet of the satellite god will be here waiting to explode your brain with 99% "nonsense" and 1% "everything you need to know about life"
December 21, 2011
It's baffling to me that this is considered to be part of a trilogy with Valis and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. Sure, they all contain religious themes, and underlying each of them you can see the struggle of Dick to interpret his mystical experiences. But beyond that they have very little, if anything, to do with each other.
I consider The Divine Invasion to be much less satisfying than Valis. None of the characters come alive on the page. Emmanuel and Zina are profundity-spouting ciphers; it seems that manifestations of God will never, in fiction or film, possess a sense of humor. Herb Asher is the typical put-upon Dick protagonist, at the mercy of events yet somehow also at the center of a cosmic drama. Elijah gets the thankless "here comes God, everybody" role.
It should also be mentioned how incredibly awkward the science fiction elements of Dick's books are. He invests no effort in creating a believable futuristic environment...the exception in The Divine Invasion is the tablet mentioned a few times, clearly a prediction of the IPad and similar devices, for the prophetic-minded of Dick's fans. Otherwise it's all sketched-in aliens and typewriter-based technologies and cassettes and cars in the sky.
The Divine Invasion has to stand in the second tier of Dick's works. It reads like he wrote it with one hand while doing his taxes with the other. A thinly veiled exposition of some of his religious reading and theorizing. I'd much rather be able to read The Owl in Daylight, but I don't live in that universe.
I consider The Divine Invasion to be much less satisfying than Valis. None of the characters come alive on the page. Emmanuel and Zina are profundity-spouting ciphers; it seems that manifestations of God will never, in fiction or film, possess a sense of humor. Herb Asher is the typical put-upon Dick protagonist, at the mercy of events yet somehow also at the center of a cosmic drama. Elijah gets the thankless "here comes God, everybody" role.
It should also be mentioned how incredibly awkward the science fiction elements of Dick's books are. He invests no effort in creating a believable futuristic environment...the exception in The Divine Invasion is the tablet mentioned a few times, clearly a prediction of the IPad and similar devices, for the prophetic-minded of Dick's fans. Otherwise it's all sketched-in aliens and typewriter-based technologies and cassettes and cars in the sky.
The Divine Invasion has to stand in the second tier of Dick's works. It reads like he wrote it with one hand while doing his taxes with the other. A thinly veiled exposition of some of his religious reading and theorizing. I'd much rather be able to read The Owl in Daylight, but I don't live in that universe.
August 12, 2016
This novel was a difficult read. It contains a lot of profound meditation on theological issues like divine omnipotence and the reality of evil. It is so abstract though and there is not much of a plot, just a lot of wordy and artificial dialogue. It is based on a mystical experience that Dick had and it seems like he didn't spend much time integrating these experiences into a novel. Part of the problem could be that this novel is a part of a trilogy, which I did not know before I started reading it.
December 7, 2014
"Questo mondo, questo pianeta, tutto quanto, e tutta la sua popolazione: tutto qui dorme".
Secondo episodio della visionaria Trilogia di Valis. Dopo un primo episodio praticamente privo di elementi fantascientici, i cui tratti surreali sono giustificati da un narratore/protagonista inattendibile, Dick ritorna alla fantascienza più classica, quasi un ritorno alle (sue) origini, che strizza l'occhio al suo giovanile mito delle utopistiche e felici colonie oltremondo.
Nuova variazione sul tema, Dick ripropone la vicenda autobiografica dell'esperienza mistica, questa volta sovrapponendovi un intreccio tipicamente sci-fi: così, in ordine sparso, ritornano il mistico "raggio rosa", l'idea del tempo che si è fermato al 70 d.C., il concetto di Dio come informazione e Valis, la divinità aliena che in questo nuovo capitolo manda nel mondo umano un figlio. E per non rendere le cose più facili, questa volta il figlio in questione è privo di memoria.
La storia è così sdoppiata in due filoni: da un lato il tentativo del piccolo Emmanuel di ritrovare la memoria perduta, dall'altro il racconto (tra passato e presente e pure tra realtà alternative) della coppia umana cui era stata affidata la seconda venuta di Dio.
La prima parte del romanzo sembra un'ottima sintesi delle diverse esperienze letterarie di Dick: l'omaggio (parodistico?) alla sua fantascienza giovanile, il conflitto sonno/veglia e vita/morte ripreso direttamente da Ubik, la cospirazione mondiale (questa volta religiosa). Poi, improvvisamente, l'intero romanzo si sgancia dal suo percorso e vira verso direzioni impensate e impensabili, mentre Emmanuel, ritrovata la memoria e tornato in possesso delle sue divine facoltà, comincia a modificare la realtà a suo piacimento.
Ciò che distingue fortemente Divina invasione da Valis è (oltre all'evidene diversa fonte religiosa: qui l'ebraismo, lì il cristianesimo gnostico) il punto di approdo della ricerca. Se Valis è il tentativo (fallito) di accostarsi a Dio seguendo voci interiori che sono o non sono deliri mistici di un pazzo, Divina invasione parte dalla seconda venuta di Dio che è raffigurato come un bambino capriccioso che gioca con le realtà come se fossero dadi, ma il vero protagonista è Belial, l'invisibile antagonista di Emmanuel, il Male-nel-mondo.
Il finale è brusco e lascia tutto in sospeso, ma è chiaro che NON troveremo risposte nel romanzo conclusivo della trilogia. Del resto, la vicenda del primo sembrava risolutiva, sembrava presentare un'imminente fine del mondo; e invece, è un ricordo lontano che riecheggia in Divina invasione, ambientato in un futuro molto più lontano. Chissà cosa accadrà nell'ultimo e (non) definitivo romanzo di Philip K. Dick!
Secondo episodio della visionaria Trilogia di Valis. Dopo un primo episodio praticamente privo di elementi fantascientici, i cui tratti surreali sono giustificati da un narratore/protagonista inattendibile, Dick ritorna alla fantascienza più classica, quasi un ritorno alle (sue) origini, che strizza l'occhio al suo giovanile mito delle utopistiche e felici colonie oltremondo.
Nuova variazione sul tema, Dick ripropone la vicenda autobiografica dell'esperienza mistica, questa volta sovrapponendovi un intreccio tipicamente sci-fi: così, in ordine sparso, ritornano il mistico "raggio rosa", l'idea del tempo che si è fermato al 70 d.C., il concetto di Dio come informazione e Valis, la divinità aliena che in questo nuovo capitolo manda nel mondo umano un figlio. E per non rendere le cose più facili, questa volta il figlio in questione è privo di memoria.
La storia è così sdoppiata in due filoni: da un lato il tentativo del piccolo Emmanuel di ritrovare la memoria perduta, dall'altro il racconto (tra passato e presente e pure tra realtà alternative) della coppia umana cui era stata affidata la seconda venuta di Dio.
La prima parte del romanzo sembra un'ottima sintesi delle diverse esperienze letterarie di Dick: l'omaggio (parodistico?) alla sua fantascienza giovanile, il conflitto sonno/veglia e vita/morte ripreso direttamente da Ubik, la cospirazione mondiale (questa volta religiosa). Poi, improvvisamente, l'intero romanzo si sgancia dal suo percorso e vira verso direzioni impensate e impensabili, mentre Emmanuel, ritrovata la memoria e tornato in possesso delle sue divine facoltà, comincia a modificare la realtà a suo piacimento.
Ciò che distingue fortemente Divina invasione da Valis è (oltre all'evidene diversa fonte religiosa: qui l'ebraismo, lì il cristianesimo gnostico) il punto di approdo della ricerca. Se Valis è il tentativo (fallito) di accostarsi a Dio seguendo voci interiori che sono o non sono deliri mistici di un pazzo, Divina invasione parte dalla seconda venuta di Dio che è raffigurato come un bambino capriccioso che gioca con le realtà come se fossero dadi, ma il vero protagonista è Belial, l'invisibile antagonista di Emmanuel, il Male-nel-mondo.
Il finale è brusco e lascia tutto in sospeso, ma è chiaro che NON troveremo risposte nel romanzo conclusivo della trilogia. Del resto, la vicenda del primo sembrava risolutiva, sembrava presentare un'imminente fine del mondo; e invece, è un ricordo lontano che riecheggia in Divina invasione, ambientato in un futuro molto più lontano. Chissà cosa accadrà nell'ultimo e (non) definitivo romanzo di Philip K. Dick!
June 30, 2016
Es una gran novela que mezcla cristianismo con la cábala, teorías psicoanalíticas con mitos fundacionales, perspectivas del cuerpo y una extraña combinación de tiempo y espacio. En la novela mínimo se superponen, como capas, cuatro realidades: La "realidad" en la cual Emmanuel sobrevive y está en la escuela donde conoce a Zina; luego, en la mente de Herb Asher que recuerda la vida vacía e inútil en las cápsulas del planeta CY30-CY30B donde pasa los días escuchando cintas de Linda Fox hasta que Yah (Yahvé) lo obliga a visitar a su vecina, Rybys Romney y aparece Elías Tate (el profeta Elías); luego se tuerce la realidad cuando van al reino de Zina y en el reino de Zina se vuelve a torcer la realidad cuando aparece el caos (Belial) y esas capas de realidad conforman una nueva, donde se desarrolla el final que es genial. Para poder mantener el ritmo de las capas de realidad, Philip K. Dick sacrifica partes del argumento e incluso personajes, pero el lector se encuentra tan fascinado por lo que sucede que no importan. Es una gran novela, imperdible. Hay que seguir con las otras de la trilogía. Se lee rápido y es simplemente hermosa la conclusión. Como dato: creo que en esta novela hay muchas de las obsesiones de K. Dick, como la idea de estar en una realidad alterada que no es la correcta (no porque sea mala, sino porque algo torció "la realidad real") y que hay cosas que presienten que esa realidad no está en el orden... como en El hombre en el castillo, Fluyan mis lágrimas, dijo el policía o Ubik
February 23, 2022
Sci Fi meets the absurdity of religious thinking. This book, to my mind, exposes the ridiculous logic that religion imposes on humankind. It is full of magical thinking and contradiction and meandering reality set in a futuristic space drama. The story follows Herb Asher a recluse living in isolation on a distant planet and Rybys, a woman neighbor. They have been chosen to be the parents for the second coming. They must return to Earth for the birth of the child but then complications arise from the forces of evil and the story evolves from there through a bizarre series of events and realities. Characters are introduced who turn out to be not who we thought them to be but then continue to morph into someone else later. The nature of good and evil is questioned as well as who is responsible for evil, was it Belial (Satan) or was it God. I'm sure that Dick was trying to express a philosophical message in the book, probably about religion, but what that message was totally escaped me.
October 6, 2015
This book is great for the dialogue between the characters. PKD takes a little bit from the various religions of the world and creates a science fiction story based very loosely on the second coming of Jesus Christ (Peace Be Upon Him). The novel is brilliant in it's depiction of two alternating realities (or worlds) at the same time. One world being more real than the next, and in the end creating a sort of amalgamation of both. The book is very epic in its prose and dialogue as mentioned before. I really enjoyed this book for the great moments of conversation between the characters. We also learn a little bit about PKD's ideas about the beam of pink light that (he said) intervened in his own life to help him save his son. The reason I did not give it a perfect rating is because of it's anticlimactic ending. I feel, that it could have ended a lot better.
January 26, 2023
A mio avviso nettamente superiore al primo volume, Valis.
Realtà che si intersecano non solo nella teoresi gnostico-fantascientifica, ma anche in una comprensibilità fattiva. Specialmente nella figura della Fox/Paraclito, che riassume quanto di più bello esiste nella dottrina cristiana.
Un po' più critica, e secondo me relativamente superficiale, la figura di El. Ma comunque era dalla prima lettura di Leto II che una figura non mi angosciava in questo modo.
È difficile caratterizzare un dio (e figuriamoci la versione di Dio di Dick): per questo mi sembra che ci sia un po' di carenza nella parte centrale, che comunque è stata pienamente rivalutata dal salto quantico tra dimensioni, tema classico di Dick a partire da Ubik, e dalla figura atroce del Caprone, descritto come signore della disperazione.
Realtà che si intersecano non solo nella teoresi gnostico-fantascientifica, ma anche in una comprensibilità fattiva. Specialmente nella figura della Fox/Paraclito, che riassume quanto di più bello esiste nella dottrina cristiana.
Un po' più critica, e secondo me relativamente superficiale, la figura di El. Ma comunque era dalla prima lettura di Leto II che una figura non mi angosciava in questo modo.
È difficile caratterizzare un dio (e figuriamoci la versione di Dio di Dick): per questo mi sembra che ci sia un po' di carenza nella parte centrale, che comunque è stata pienamente rivalutata dal salto quantico tra dimensioni, tema classico di Dick a partire da Ubik, e dalla figura atroce del Caprone, descritto come signore della disperazione.
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