Stephen A. Lawrence writes,
And what's all this Elvis stuff? The singer in the book was
Clapton, was he not? Or am I confused? (A common feeling with
PD's work.)
Confused... by a miscarriage of drollery maybe?
Perhaps the caveat about "a Tulpa-projected homunculi, condensed
out of the aether by a schizophrenic human mind no longer in
bodily existence." should have been emphasized more. This was not
intended to be an accurate crtical review of PKD, who often must
be "channeled" as much as read ;-)
Like many of us who have been, at one time or another, grounded in
science - humor is not all that "natural" for me, and despite
persistent efforts at improving that deficiency ... so often I end
up having to explain later why it seemed that such-and-such was
deemed to be so witty at the time.
In this case, the attempted-humor realtes to the issue of how an
alien "overseer" i.e. Valis... might have tried to influence
earthly affairs minimally (assuming that they are trying to adhere
with the fishbowl imperative) by introducing, or fostering a
"special" real personality - a messiah if you will; but with an
effort more genuine than something a projected mental hologram.
The Church of Moo should have been a "giveaway" as to how some
earthly observers, if it fits into their agenda, will stretch the
significance of events which aren't really all "that" coincidental
(like Elvis demise and the publishing of a novel) and try to frame
that near-coincidence as being deeply prophetic....
Oh well, I am one of the few who believe that PKD actually
intended a certain kind of cynical humor in situations where
others are trying to grasp something more sinister - from what was
indeed a rather sad and tortured life ...
Jones
