Mercerism

I'm not sure if anyone anawered my earlier question as I didn't check until
now and no longer see the original post. I was wondering if anyone had any
ideas where Phil Dick got the inspiration for Mercerism? Thanks.




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On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 03:27:20 GMT, "pulse" <nonehere RemoveThis @nosuchplace.com>
annonced:

 >I'm not sure if anyone anawered my earlier question as I didn't check until
 >now and no longer see the original post. I was wondering if anyone had any
 >ideas where Phil Dick got the inspiration for Mercerism? Thanks.
 >

Well, in his collection of short stories "we can remember it for you
wholesale" the opening story "The little back box" served as the
direct inspiration for its use in ...Electric Sheep. Within the
'notes' section of the aforementioned collection of short stories PKD
writes the following:

THE LITTLE BLACK BOX ("From Ordinary Household Objects") 5/6/63.
Worlds of Tomorrow, Aug 1964.

"I made use of this story when i wrote my novel DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF
ELECTRIC SHEEP? Actually, the idea is better put forth in the story.
Here, a religion is regarded as a menace to all political systems;
therefore it, too, is a kind of political system, perhaps even as an
ultimate one. The concept of caritas (or agape) shows up in my writing
as the key to the authentic human. The android, which is the
unauthentic human, the mere reflex machine, is unable to experience
empathy. In this story it is never clear whether Mercer is an invader
from some other world. But he must be; in a sense all religious
leaders are . . . but not from another planet as such. (1978)


Not sure if that helps you, but I thought someone should reply!!

Take care,
Giles.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->