According to McKee, what relationship did Dick’s ideas have to (a) Christianity (b) religion and philosophy in general?
According to McKee, Dick seemed to agree with the ideas of Christianity and in his book “A Scanner Darkly” he seems to use different ideologies commonly found in Christianity, such as “the holy ghost” as well as “the logos” (Mckee, 2004). This logos to Dick was identified as the hidden message which held not just one truth but every truth. Dick never seemed to find religious interpretations more valuable in comparison to political and more secular analysis. Also in Dick’s other book “The Man in the High Castle” he is known to portray the disruption plaguing the land, through a religious transformation rather than a political one. Dick rather than study one religion in particular seemed to study different ancient religious literature from different religions, than create entries which had similarities among them. Although numerous studies on Dick’s books seemed to expose how as much as there were mentions of concepts of other religions, his writings of religions powerfully supported Christianity. Although his ideas were heretical, but “never questioned the power or the authority of Christ.” All his theories on religion returned to Christianity and Dick believed in the Christian God (Mckee, 2004)
McKee, Gabriel (2004). A Scanner Darkly: Dick as a Christian theologian. In Pink Beams of Light from the God in the Gutter: the sciencefictional religion of Philip K. Dick. NY: U Press of America.
This is really good I never thought of his writings in this way. I have seen A Scanner Darkly and now that I think about it he does like to play around with ideas but he never questions religion throughout the film.
ReplyDeleteZane - religious iconography and mtaphors are frequently found in PKDs work- check out the Online article on this. Farish a succint summary of a number of points from McKee's article - but it would be good if you could go into more detail in a few of these - for example the reference to 'the holy ghost' and 'logos' in SC. Also I though you might have mentioned the rather obvious i-ching in tMitHC - esp in regars sto your comment on his exploration of alternative religion or spirituality. Don't forget to use in-text references where appropriate.
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