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The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick,

Pamela Jackson (Editor),

Jonathan Lethem (Editor)

4.17 · Rating details · 869 ratings · 121 reviews

Based on thousands of pages of typed and handwritten notes, journal entries, letters, and story sketches, The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick is the magnificent and imaginative final work of an author who dedicated his life to questioning the nature of reality and perception, the malleability of space and time, and the relationship between the human and the divine. Edited and i ...more

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Hardcover, 976 pages

Published November 8th 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published January 1st 2011)

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Oct 19, 2013 Lyn rated it liked it

Philip K. Dick was a fascinatingly weird guy.

In other reviews about a PKD novel like Ubik or The Man in the High Castle I have invited new readers to come and try with the offer that this was a good introduction to Dick’s work. The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick will get no such invitation, this is advanced PKD study. But for a true fan, who has read much of his work and who will appreciate the references to many of his novels, this is a taxing but ultimately rewarding graduate level course.

Taken ...more

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May 23, 2020 BlackOxford rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, american, philosophy-theology

Mind Isn’t In Here; It’s Out There

One of the greatest conceits of the species Homo Sapiens is that each member of that species thinks independently. That is to say, every individual has a Mind which is unique and which defines the existence of a separate and distinct person.

This is of course nonsense, as any advertising executive or religious preacher or populist politician knows very well. And the error of this presumption is what Dick’s rambling, aphoristic Exegesis demonstrates so relentle ...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mindfuq, non-fiction, metaphysics

This wasn’t an easy book to read. Lacking in structure, consistency, or even payoff, one has to wonder what could be the point in reading it. And yet, I’ve read it twice and now I’ve changed my rating to 5 stars. What gives?

“So,” I asked myself, “How did you like the book?”
I needed to look at myself for several minutes to let the meaning of my statement sink in. A pink beam of light streamed into my skull and gave me visions of post-modern paintings at the rate of three-million per second, on This wasn’t an easy book to read. Lacking in structure, consistency, or even payoff, one has to wonder what could be the point in reading it. And yet, I’ve read it twice and now I’ve changed my rating to 5 stars. What gives?

“So,” I asked myself, “How did you like the book?”
I needed to look at myself for several minutes to let the meaning of my statement sink in. A pink beam of light streamed into my skull and gave me visions of post-modern paintings at the rate of three-million per second, only stop in mid-blurp to tell me that the pink light is actually the Godhead, that the Empire Never Ended, that I’m still cribbing Valis, and you haven’t fucking seen anything, yet, motherfucker.
The pink beam then just chuckled to herself for eight years and forced me to write about her the meaning of her to the tune of over one million words.
I said to myself, “Thank God you’ve got a sense of humor, or this would have been completely unbearable.”
I continued back at myself, “Thank God that we’ve got a team of dedicated editors and/or hidden gnostic survivors from the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD who are able and willing to sort THAT mess out. I don’t care that Farris F. Freemont (666) got ousted from office in 1974. The fact that I’m here is proof that the Demiurge is still under the waters, dead but dreaming, and all of my admittedly mad ramblings are a call to arms for all true believers and we need to rise up and perform Anamnesis on ourselves. I mean, now. You know, 70 AD.”
I said, “We’re under the gun, here.”
I asked, “You mean sword? Hmmm.”
So I asked myself one last time, “Am I bat-shit crazy?”
I answered myself, “Hell no. I’m saner than I’ve ever been. Besides, after seeing an infinity of punch cards put before me by God is an example that no amount of words can express the Infinity That I Am (Binary); that I no longer think that I work for God, I’m just a dupe of Satan/Demiurge/Dross Matter of the Universe; and I’ve just woken up for the four-hundredth time to the immense realization that reality is nothing that we see, that Ubik is Jesus, and pot really opens up my mind.”
I said, “But you really love that David Bowie movie, (The Man Who Fell To Earth) enough to see the opening up of all possible realities and that Spinoza is actually right, after all.”
I really had to reply to this jab: “At least I’m enlightened. P.S. don’t tell anyone, and make sure you burn this Exegesis, ok?”

(And now, for the The Really Strange Part: I honestly don’t think PKD is crazy. His working notes are information-rich and dense, philosophically diverse and deep. Like anyone, his views change over time, but he is almost excessively intense about his inner life. He just sounds like a sci-fi author who thinks deeply about all of the things he wants to understand. The only difference is the sheer volume of words he’s devoted to it; and after all, phylogeny recapitulates Philagony. Viva la PKD.)
...more

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Apr 12, 2014 Karl rated it really liked it

This book will not be for everyone, not even PKD fans. The book is tasking and frustrating and at times mind boggling. This is not one of Mr. Dick's novels, though I believe he poured out ideas for his novels in this context. He expounded on these ideas, he contradicts these ideas, rejected these ideas and kept on documenting more ideas and thoughts than one would believe would be humanly and sanely possible.

The man was brilliant, fascinating, engaging, creative and perhaps the most insightful ...more

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Nov 09, 2011 Sheila rated it it was amazing

For any reader who is unfamiliar with the author Philip K. Dick and his many published stories, I hope that after reading this article you realize what you are missing and you subsequently work to resolve the matter of this deficiency immediately. In other words, please find Dick's novels and read them as if you have been touched by madness. Be a voracious reader with an insatiable appetite for knowledge. You cannot miss the brilliance of this author.
Philip K. Dick passed away a few decades ago For any reader who is unfamiliar with the author Philip K. Dick and his many published stories, I hope that after reading this article you realize what you are missing and you subsequently work to resolve the matter of this deficiency immediately. In other words, please find Dick's novels and read them as if you have been touched by madness. Be a voracious reader with an insatiable appetite for knowledge. You cannot miss the brilliance of this author.
Philip K. Dick passed away a few decades ago but he left us with a remarkable and vast collection of novels and short stories, most of which would be classified as science fiction. Even if you are not a fan of this genre, Dick's writing goes well beyond this sometimes limited territory and deals with aspects of religion, philosophy, and pure science. In case you did not know, much of his writing has been adapted for film. Films such as Blade Runner and A Scanner Darkly come directly from Dick's collection, and even films like Minority Report were inspired by some of his shorter writings. He was a true genius who lived an unusual life complete with visions (of a spiritual nature) and ripe with complications. Some consider him a sort of precursor to or partial founder of post-modernism, especially with regard to his focus upon the sociological, political, and cultural experiences in our world.
Now, his final (and extensive) work is about to be available for your pleasure and (perhaps if you keep an open mind) enlightenment. The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick is the final collection of writing to be offered by Dick to the world. It serves as a means of better understanding his peculiar but powerful views on a wide range of topics but particularly religion and the true nature of the spiritual reality. As an author, he delved deeply and with great care into topics such as personal identity, perception, and the impossibility of a truly objective reality. The Exegesis is a journal-style collection of notes, entries, story sketches, and letters, all of which relate to Dick's remarkable and sometimes surreal experiences with faith and religion. The editors of the work, Pamela Jackson and Jonathan Lethem, have taken great care in compiling and arranging this epic and potent piece. You will not be disappointed...
...If you wish to test yourself with a work that is far from ordinary and almost painfully provocative in its uncanny awareness, do not miss The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick, the final novel from Philip Dick. If you are a lover of science fiction (then you should by this point be familiar with Philip Dick's work and you have this novel ordered or already in your collection), do not miss this release. Even if you have no interest in science fiction whatsoever, the importance of this piece cannot be lost. For anyone with an interest in spirituality, the true nature of perception and reality, or science, The Exegesis must at this point be considered a must-read. You will not regret this purchase. For more information about this ultimate work from author Philip K. Dick, look to the following website: http://www.philipkdick.com/new_exeges.... ...more

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Nov 28, 2011 Felix Hayman rated it it was amazing

Ok, be prepared to be afraid.Phil Dick was never easy reading, was never an easy person to know and never had any easy answers. His close reading of the Gnostics and Jung and the Cosmologists lead to the writing of VALIS and this (shortened) version of his thoughts on God, The Gnostics and cosmology.It is not an easy read because Phil Dick is so distracted that thoughts come thick and fast and although overlaid with his undoubted scholarship they lack a lot of rigour, both in their theological s ...more

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Dec 10, 2017 Jim Elkins added it

Shelves: american

A Complex Confusion of Fiction, Nonfiction, and Revelation

I'm studying this as part of my project of reading long, complex texts (see notes on Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," Szentkuthy's "Prae," Nabokov's notes on "Eugene Onegin"). Dick's "exegesis" of several irrational, mystical or revelatory experiences he had in February and March 1974 occupied him for the remainder of his life; this is a 940-page excerpt from 8,000 pages of notes.

The book has received some simplistic reviews. Charles Pla ...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Bryan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

[review 1]
swhernp

[review 2]
Every man and woman is a star.

[review 3]
There he said it, Valis is true. What else to do want? What else could you possible want?

[review 4]
If the original document is 9,000 pages there had to be a lot more editors than just PJ and JL. And there were, and they are credited by only PJ and JL are on the jacket. I’m guessing PJ did most work and JL has the most name recognition.

[review 5]
VALIS

[review 6]
http://www.zygonjournal.org/

[review 7]
VALIS

[review 8]
“The Hunger Artist ...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Denis rated it liked it

Shelves: first, hardcover

Sure, I read it. All of it. Difficult to review.

I don't feel it was meant to be published in this way, though the editors did a great job making something surprisingly readable out of the whole mess, and provided excellent notes to explain things, I felt perhaps, might have been obtuse.

There is definitely genius there: great research and remarkable associations made. This is perhaps PKD's primary talent, but it is in my opinion, more a study of one who may be falling into the depths of psychosis Sure, I read it. All of it. Difficult to review.

I don't feel it was meant to be published in this way, though the editors did a great job making something surprisingly readable out of the whole mess, and provided excellent notes to explain things, I felt perhaps, might have been obtuse.

There is definitely genius there: great research and remarkable associations made. This is perhaps PKD's primary talent, but it is in my opinion, more a study of one who may be falling into the depths of psychosis.

I read the Syd Barrett biography "An Irregular Head". After Barrett's death, due to complications with diabetes, files, papers and notes were found in his apartment all pertaining to the effects and causes of schizophrenia. Near the end of his life, Roger Keith Barrett was privately researching, trying to understand what had happened to him; what was obviously wrong; trying to wrap his "irregular head" around it.

PKD's Exegesis was very much the same type of activity.

It is a wonderful insight on what PKD was going through between the late sixties until his death in late 1982 (it notes the important date of 2-3-74, but it is clear that his odyssey had begun well before that). One who is fascinated with anything that PKD had ever put on paper will find this a sort of holy grail, but, for the average curious read, it could have been paired down even further. There are many redundancies and unnecessary repetition. I understand the point to be noted is PKD's perpetual reassessment of the meaning of his experience, but this seems to be an actual pen (or type) to paper of someone struggling to wake from a two decade long delusional dream state.

The best and most interesting parts are the connections he attempts at making between his 2-3-74 experience and his published fiction as if he had been a subconscious profit at a Biblical scale? (I'm not quite sure as to how to properly express this idea). It seems that PKD was well aware that delusions of grander are a common symptom of schizophrenia.

Simultaneously fascinating and very disturbing read. ...more

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May 22, 2012 Quinn da Matta rated it it was amazing

Life-changing!

His opinions/views/beliefs may - at first - seem delusional and paranoid but, the moment you allow him to validate his opinions, a lot of it begins to make sense.

Not an easy read - like reading a complex text book - but, totally worth the time and effort. After reading this, I feel a little more enlightened and open to the world around me.

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Dec 27, 2011 M.L. Rudolph rated it it was amazing

2011. When time stops, "the substrate is revealed." So begins this edition of PKD's end-of-life compulsion to understand the revelation he experienced in February 1974 then again in March. He may have seen through to the underlying reality of, well, our perception of reality. Or he may have had a small stroke. Or he may have had an acid flashback. Or he may have been visited by a superior intelligence.

PKD explores every possible angle for his sudden insight by writing mostly by hand nearly every 2011. When time stops, "the substrate is revealed." So begins this edition of PKD's end-of-life compulsion to understand the revelation he experienced in February 1974 then again in March. He may have seen through to the underlying reality of, well, our perception of reality. Or he may have had a small stroke. Or he may have had an acid flashback. Or he may have been visited by a superior intelligence.

PKD explores every possible angle for his sudden insight by writing mostly by hand nearly every night for the remaining eight and a half years of his life. He analyzed himself and his own work especially ten novels he felt to be form a meta novel. He continued to produce novels and was working on still another when he died. He had reached a point in his career where money began to flow a bit more freely, a fan base had grown, international markets were bestowing more praise than his home country, and SF conventions were inviting him to keynote and paying for his trips. His overriding ambition throughout everything was to understand the above revelation. He wrote; he debated with himself; he called his friends in the middle of the night with further insights; he figured it all out only to dismiss his findings in the cold harsh light of the next morning when he'd start the process all over again.

It's not clear to me if PKD ever meant for any of this work to be published, but I'd guess from my layman's distance that he probably did. He wrote mostly by hand and didn't bother to keep the material in an orderly fashion, but he had enough faith in his reputation to expect future biographers to come in after his death and sort through the mess he left behind. Friends even spotted him carting stacks of handwritten material to the incinerator at times, meaning he did dispose of something, which meant he did allow the rest of his pages to survive.

I spent months reading The Exegesis. The material was too dense for me to read more than ten to twenty pages at a time. This edition runs to 900 pages. I didn't want to race through it. I wanted to think about it. Let the ideas linger, maybe fester, maybe germinate. And unusual for me, I expect to return to the book from time to time just to jump in for a blast of PKDickiana. I like how he challenges everything, every idea and solution he conjures, how he takes the BUT WHAT IF opposite side of every auto-debate.

It's his process of exploration that I find most intriguing. How he hammers unrelentingly at a problem to see just how malleable are the assumptions upon which we base our worldview.

If you like PKD, and if you like digging into a writer's journals for insight into how and why he wrote what he did, you'll like Exegesis. If you aren't familiar with PKD, this is still a violently good read. And if you stick with it, you'll end up reading his novels which is exactly what you should do after you finally make his intimate acquaintance. ...more

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May 25, 2013 Mel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bought2013, 20th-century-non-fiction

I started reading this the day that Bowie died. It is pretty amazing, genius and very mad. PKD has an experience where he deliberately tries to get the different hemispheres of his brain in contact by taking a concoction of vitamins he found is given to schizophrenics. He hallucinates amazing visuals and then through a series of events he thinks he is being given a revelation, possessed first by his friend, then by different people of the past, and currently settled on Erasmus. He is fully aware I started reading this the day that Bowie died. It is pretty amazing, genius and very mad. PKD has an experience where he deliberately tries to get the different hemispheres of his brain in contact by taking a concoction of vitamins he found is given to schizophrenics. He hallucinates amazing visuals and then through a series of events he thinks he is being given a revelation, possessed first by his friend, then by different people of the past, and currently settled on Erasmus. He is fully aware that he is in one of his novels. That he might have hallucinated it all, but at the same time is very sincere that he has gotten a message from a god like being. It relates very much to his previous novel ubik. It is fascinating reading as it is an incredibly clever and unusual mind trying to make sense of something totally out of the ordinary. He tries and connects up the Greeks, Christianity, and ideas about the flow of time forward and backwards. There is one part where he talks about multiple realities, as he's had dreams of other lives. In one he is poor in Mexico, in one he is famous and travelling the world. He said both were perfect. That each was a full universe created by god to show him that whatever choices he made, that he would still be happy. It was a wonderful and comforting thing.
He's also talked a lot about his process of writing novels. Because he is such a writer he incorporates these different experiences and tries to express them in his work. He lays out the ideas for novels, he talks about how in his stories he always tries and incorporates the plots of two different novels, cause he thinks one idea on its own isn't good enough. He says that's why they are so disjointed and often have unanswered questions. (And not cause he was up all night doing speed).
The work is a series of letters to friends, his own musings on paper and plot ideas.
Only 100 pages in and so much I had to write down before I lost it in the next 800.
Next there was a wonderful bit where he remembered his friend who had died from cancer. Who had been reincarnated as his cat that only stayed with them for three years, before it too died of cancer.
And another lovely bit where he talked about how prophets were people who remembered the previous reality when God changed it. That they weren't in fact saying how things would be, but how they were in an alternate reality. That was why prophecy never came true as it was something that had already happened.
(after I finished)
I was going to take notes as I went because there was SO much in this and it changed so much section to section. Every 50 pages or so he thought he'd figured out what the events were and what they meant to him and then it changed. It was fascinating to see how he pursued this and tried to understand the world around him. It was everything that's great about his novels but in a non-fiction form. Any other mind would probably have not given the "events" a second thought and put it down to a false hallucination but to PKD it was real and a mystery and an obsession. What is here is only a fraction of what he wrote but it does give an idea of all the different things and ideas he went through while trying to sort out what happened to him. He goes into a lot of philosophy and Christian theology, my two least favourite things but because it's PKD the approach is still fascinating, though I will admit I did loose interest in certain parts of 1979 when it all became Yahweh, thankfully that passed.
One thing that really struck out was how PKD was coping with the loss of his twin sister when she was a baby. So many times he thought of her as the wise female spirit bringing him wisdom. How she was his soul in the last books he wrote.
There's great insight into his novels as he interprets and reinterprets them based on his experiences, and how he tries and writes those experiences into new novels. It definitely made me want to go back and re-read Ubik, Vallis trilogy, and several others. I folded down so many pages to make notes from when reading this. There were so many interesting parts to his obsession.
One thing I remember noting was how he was offered a huge sum of money to re-write Androids as a tie-in novel for the Bladerunner film, so it would more closely follow the plot of the film. But the original Androids story would never be printed again. Which I thought was particularly hideous (as much as I do love Bladerunner) and I'm very glad he didn't!
This is just a fascinating look into one of the most interesting minds of the 20th century. I like to think there is an alternative universe out there where instead of scientology there is a big religious movement among celebrity based on PKD instead. It would be a much more interesting and confussing place.
For people who love his books and want to understand or at least know more, I highly recommend this! ...more

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Sep 26, 2014 R.K. Araddion rated it it was amazing

So what is an exegesis?

Well, Google defines 'exegesis' as "critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture." I'll accept this definition, since my only alternative to Google seems to be Bing, and I'll be damned if I let Microsoft fuck me up again.

So what is a Philip K Dick?

This is a considerably more complex question. Philip K Dick was a writer whose work was often classified as science fiction during his lifetime. He wrote several great novels. One, Do Androids Dream o ...more

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Jun 04, 2018 Michael Adams rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Philip K Dick’s search for the fundamental truth behind a life-changing spiritual event that occurred in his life in February 1974. He explores, or exegetes, this event through the lenses of Christianity, Gnosticism, Brahmanism, Sufism, Taoism, quantum mechanics, recursive time travel, and a plethora of other philosophical, theosophical, and science-fictional ideals before concluding that maybe it is the search for meaning that is the real meaning of it all. Along the way we see the modern day b ...more

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Dec 21, 2016 Wakizashi rated it liked it

Shelves: 2016-reads, philip-k-dick

[This is a difficult book to review, so instead I'll share my reading progress with quotes and various thoughts that popped into my spinning head:]

Here are two quotes taken from the hardback cover:

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

'Based on thousands of ...more

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Jun 11, 2015 John Aaron rated it it was amazing

One of the Great Works of World Mysticism

Many of us who have read PKD's visionary novels had been eagerly awaiting the release of this edited version of his magnum opus, The Exegesis.

We weren't disappointed.

The Exegesis is like no other work in the world's mystical literature of which I'm aware. A relentless, probing, moving - and often hilarious - attempt to clarify PKD's profound mystical experiences in February and March of 1974, he created an incredible, encyclopedic discussion of the exi ...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Garrett Cook rated it it was amazing

A great mind turning on itself and turning itself on. A man waiting for the beast in the jungle. This is not a journal or a notebook of ranting this is a novel of ecstatic experience barred from reaching its true potential as a great novel solely by the fact that it is factual and therefore not a novel. But your protagonist is compelling, his insights and running monkeys fascinating and his emotional life intensely sad and beautiful. Is he seeing God, is he seeing the end? You don't quite know. ...more

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Jun 10, 2017 Octavian Florescu rated it really liked it

The Book of the Apostles in the Gnostic form.

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Nov 26, 2012 A.E. Reiff rated it liked it

To have to say Christian Apocalypse, as if there were any other, shows how far adrift the times, for apparently it is not common knowledge that Ezekiel and Daniel, Isaiah and David are its foundation. If you are under 50 say, or have never felt it possible to believe that any of this is so, you should know that unlike the Buddhist world, which has many pleasing insights, the Apocalypse posits a war from the beginning of time. Shall we say time begins when we know it? In this countdown of the war ...more

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Dec 14, 2011 Janet marked it as to-read

I"m an enormous Phillip K. Dick fan. This compendium of Dick's philosophical/metaphysical investigations following a visionary experience in the 70's has been edited, impossibly, by novelist Jonathan Lethem, editor Pamela Jackson, plus a number of other of the Dick inner circles, including two or more of his many children (5 marriages.)

Heard it discussed last night on a podcast from the LA Library Aloud Series, a fascinating panel moderated by LA Times book reviewer David Ulin, between Lethem, ...more

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Jul 19, 2016 Karl Kindt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016

Here my 35 year journey ends. I today have finished reading every published work by PKD. I read "The Unreconstructed M" in OMNI magazine in 1981 when I was a sophomore in high school, which led to THE COSMIC PUPPETS, which led to THE UNTELEPORTED MAN, which led to the rest. Today I've read his final words.

This book is PKD's analysis of his own fiction. I suggest you read it after reading everything else he wrote. It made me want to re-read UBIK and DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? and VALIS ...more

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Feb 15, 2012 Edward Tully rated it it was ok

For hardcore Philip K. Dick fans only - Phil tries in various ways to explain his strange "74/3" experience, but fails to convince himself or the reader no matter how outlandish each succcessive theory is. In the end, it's a dispiriting read as ideas are picked up, examined in great detail and then discarded for another unlikely explanation. This is real 1970s California philosophy at its worst. ...more

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Oct 05, 2012 Kilburn Adam rated it it was amazing

Such a fascinating book, and I think the editors did a really good job. I wonder if PKD didn't die when he did, how long he would have continued to write The Exegesis. And I also wonder what The Owl in Daylight would be like, if he had of completed it. ...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Billy rated it really liked it

smart versus crazy

i forget which is which

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Jan 19, 2018 Mihai Persinaru rated it it was amazing

Intens

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Dec 20, 2019 Christopher rated it did not like it

Shelves: the-arts, philosophy

Sometimes an artist's work should speak for itself. This is one of those times. I'm a hardcore PKD fan. Reading this book is excruciating, hence why it took me almost a whole year to finish it. Dick was everything people said about him, paranoid, delusional and megalomaniacal. He had an original and brilliant mind, which was kept from reaching its true potential because of huge holes in his education. His novels are essential. These notes and letters are mostly garbage. ...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Patrick rated it did not like it

Shelves: people

ludicrous babbling!!

Amazon review:

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

Based on thousands of pages of typed and handwritten notes, journal entries, letters, and story sketches, The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick is the magnificent and imaginative final work of a ...more

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Mar 18, 2014 Pat Rolston rated it liked it

I was conflicted by the book as I really wanted to find the magic so many readers articulated in their reviews. I have read a number of biographies and most of Phil's works, so I felt it was time to take the Exegesis and give it a go. I highly recommend the same for anyone who feels strongly about his work as being categorically in a league of it's own. The preparation became a benchmark to take on the Exegesis and ironically led to the lesser number of stars . While the book provides a unique w ...more

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Oct 19, 2017 Mike Kleine rated it it was amazing

I read this some years ago. Well, I read parts of it. It's long. I remember dedicating all of my "reading time" to this book. And I did this for about 2 months. Everything I read here made me think. And it made me think in the way thinking sometimes leads to amazingly creative thoughts. I wrote notes and came up with ideas for stories. These have been the best ideas for stories I have ever had. I still have those notes from all those years ago. I have not even scratched the surface of my ideas. ...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Marc rated it liked it

Shelves: philosophy-or-philosophical, nonfiction, i-like-big-books-and-i-cannot-lie

I cannot imagine the labor of love this book must have been for the editors. They had to go through some 9,000 pages of Philip K. Dick's 7 years of writing as he essentially attempts to make sense of his own writing, reality, and salvation. In 1974 he experiences a kind of visionary experience whereby he is inexorably changed--he believes he's seen the true fabric of the universe (possibly experienced divinity directly) and he attempts through his writing to explain, interpret, and extend the ex ...more

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About Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick

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Philip 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. Di ...more

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Indie Romances to Push Your Buttons (and Boundaries)

Talia Hibbert is a bestselling romance author and certified book nerd. Her hobbies include reading about baking, reading about chess, reading...

Trivia About The Exegesis of P...

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“We are all sleeping avatars of God, with amnesia.” — 15 likes

“Also, I do seem attracted to trash, as if the clue--the clue--lies there. I'm always ferreting out elliptical points, odd angles. What I write doesn't make a whole lot of sense. There is fun and religion and psychotic horror strewn about like a bunch of hats. Also, there is a social or sociological drift--rather than toward the hard sciences, the overall impression is childish but interesting.” — 8 likes

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