Coin-Operated Doors and God. Issue 1 (1st January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Braver, Lee
• Is Part Of: Extrapolation. Volume 56:Issue 1(2015)
• Page Start: 83
• Page End: 110
• Publication Date: 2015-01-01
• Subjects: Science fiction -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Science fiction -- Bibliography -- Periodicals; Science fiction; Bibliography; Criticism, interpretation, etc; Periodicals; 809.38762
• DOI: 10.3828/extr.2015.6
• Languages: German
• ISSNs: 0014-5483

Abstract

<abstract> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>In this paper, I use classic scholarship on Gnosticism, as well as Dick's later works and <italic>Exegesis</italic>, to highlight the many Gnostic elements in <italic>Ubik</italic>. These include the lower realm of half-life, the battle between a benevolent force interceding from outside and a malevolent one controlling the realm from within, the strange forms of the "Manifestations of Runciter, " and the nature of Ubik itself. I show how Dick forged a new worldview—postmodern Gnosticism—by calling attention to his medium and, unlike classic Gnosticism, never fully trusting any definite resolution of his perennial question, What is real? This discussion also sheds a surprising light on how Dick reflected on his own work as he reread his earlier books after his religious experiences of 1974. His shock at how well <italic>Ubik</italic> in particular had anticipated Gnostic ideas and his own epiphanies led him to entertain the possibility that it was "a form of scripture, " hidden from the malicious rulers of this world and even from himself.</p> </abstract>