Interesting Stanislaw Lem essay on Philip K. Dick

Lem is lovely. Lem gives us a perspective of ourselves in the way that
flatland and the little prince do. He uses fantasy to break us out from the
larger picture so he can focus on some smaller aspect of the human condition
that tells us something grandiose.

Lem's perspective is that an author tells his philosphy in woof of the his
story; the weave being the entertainment of the story. I think Dick does
this, as do most great authors, but what is interesting here is that Dick
was not yet sure of his philosophy, he was building and searching - he was
telling us that his main ambitions were silloheuttes to something on the tip
of his tongue. To give Lem and Dick credit, the ending of 'Through a Scanner
Darkly' has haunted me since the first time I read it. I might liken it to
an Italian anarchist short, dark but enlightening.

Dick did give some very important ideas to us through his main phase, as
opposed to the last three books (not that they were not important):

the women's hat maker
the ethical choice made in isolation
the world as a stage

We need constant reminders of these aspects of the human condition.

I am not sure if Dick knew of Gurdjeff. but he seemed a parallel.



"Aleks A.-Lessmann" <aleks.TakeThisOut@lessmann-consulting.com> wrote in message
news:ve4n00hlrjm03pp359b85ko856r943ahnj@4ax.com...
 > On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 18:51:57 -0000, Chris Monk wrote:
  > >http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/5/lem5art.htm
 >
 > Thanks for posting. Sound very typical Lem, and as always, I'm at a loss
 > about what his broad point is. Which is suppose is one of _my _ main
 > problems with Lem.
 >
 > Aleks<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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