Horselover Fat and the Big Pink Light

March 8, 2008 6:42 PM

The Religious Experience oof Philip K. Dick, as drawn by R. Crumb for Wierdo #17.
posted by mwhybark (26 comments total)

Double. But a good one.
posted by eschatfische at 6:48 PM on March 8, 2008

Woah, good catch. Your turn!

('oof', oops)
posted by mwhybark at 6:50 PM on March 8, 2008

The sun glinting off the tiny, tiny letters this is written is giving me a powerful religious experienceheadache.
posted by DU at 6:54 PM on March 8, 2008

trifecta in play?
posted by dawson at 6:57 PM on March 8, 2008

The Religious Experience oof! bam! pow! zap! Philip K. Dick
posted by papakwanz at 7:08 PM on March 8, 2008

Thanks mwhybark - I missed it the first time around. It also just struck me that Crumb must have been a significant influence on Richard Corben - the scene where Dick as John the Baptist gets garotted looks just like classic Corben.
posted by ooga_booga at 7:11 PM on March 8, 2008

I wonder if Crumb deliberately drew it like a Chick Tract.
posted by mattoxic at 7:25 PM on March 8, 2008

you know, it's from 2002, maybe we can leave this here.
posted by jessamyn at 7:30 PM on March 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

Nice to see the "k" tag getting some use.
posted by puke & cry at 7:35 PM on March 8, 2008 [3 favorites]

yeah that's over five years, it should be cool to leave up I'd hope.
he said, obviously and redundantly
posted by dawson at 7:35 PM on March 8, 2008

Ooof!
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:42 PM on March 8, 2008

The Empire never ended.
posted by Kinbote at 7:50 PM on March 8, 2008

How to build a reality that doesn't fall apart two days later.
posted by empath at 7:55 PM on March 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

That would be "triFARKta", dawson...
posted by wendell at 8:12 PM on March 8, 2008

oh wendell, you've just outed me, dammit! not that I was being terribly obscure
posted by dawson at 8:20 PM on March 8, 2008

You know, PKD was an interesting writer who wrote some fun books.

But he was a loony.
posted by sonic meat machine at 8:37 PM on March 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

This is great. I had never heard of Elijah and his wandering spirit before, but I just rewatched "Being John Malkovich" this afternoon and noticed that the pet chimp is named Elijah. I was wondering who Elijah was, and why Kaufman chose that name, but I forgot to look it up after I finished the movie. Now here it is explained. It makes perfect thematic sense -- Elijah's migrating consciousness is able to inhabit other people's minds, just like the characters in the movie are able to get inside Malkovich's head.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 8:51 PM on March 8, 2008

You know, I never really put this together before - I was born in Staples, MN in 1971, but my family very shortly moved to San Diego, as my father was called to serve his third congregation. I lived in California from late 1971 to 1975, after which we moved to Minnesota.

My maternal grandparents lived in Fullerton, CA for several decades - in fact they both lived out their last days there. We visited them frequently throughout the seventies. It is quite certain that I visited Fullerton while Phillip K Dick was living there! That's weird. I mean, not really, statistically, but it's weird for me since I've been a Dick fan for a long time and never made that connection.

Well worth revisiting, thanks for posting it.
posted by nanojath at 8:51 PM on March 8, 2008

Wow. Thank you for this -- I'm a big PKD fan, and somehow never knew this comic existed. Really made my night!
posted by jacobian at 11:32 PM on March 8, 2008

To my amazement, as much as I've read about him, I have never read any of PKD's stuff. (And I love Crumb.) In exchange for this FPP, I will request a couple from the library. Thanks mwhybark!
posted by not_on_display at 12:21 AM on March 9, 2008

Why didn't he draw Dick piggy backing Elijah?
posted by strawberryviagra at 3:42 AM on March 9, 2008

First, PDF version of Weirdo 17

PKD's psychological eccentricities mark him as one of the most important American writers after 1945, especially in light of the fact that his work sometimes crosses over.

He used amphetamines and it shows up in his work, notably in one year in which he wrote 11 novels (can't find ref atm). To anyone unfamiliar with PKD's textual corpus, be forewarned that his writing is uneven from a literary standpoint.

From a mainstream point of view, some of his best novels (among those I've read) are Dr. Bloodmoney, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and We Can Build You. Novels such as A Scanner Darkly, and The Penultimate Truth are also well-written but are fractured in a way that can only be described as Dickian.
posted by mistersquid at 4:50 AM on March 9, 2008

nb: Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said is one title.
posted by mistersquid at 4:52 AM on March 9, 2008

Shoot -- server's down or something. I wanna see it! I wanna see it!
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 8:09 AM on March 9, 2008

Previously:

Shamanic Crisis? | MetaFilter
The Other SF Prophet Meat | MetaFilter
Mr. Dick...we're ready for your close-up. | MetaFilter

PKD:

Philip K. Dick - Science Fiction Author - Official Site
philipkdickfans.com - The web site devoted to science fiction visionary Philip K. Dick
BBC - Radio 4 - Factual - Confessions of a Crap Artist
Benjamen Walker's Theory Of Everything: BROADCAST 01
YouTube - Rare Philip K Dick interview
Philip K. Dick's Divine Interference, by Erik Davis
Philip K. Dick and the Illuminati
Philip K. Dick FAQ
Jeet Heer, "Philip K. Dick Versus the Literary Critics"
VQR » Phil in the Marketplace
Mind Hacks: Neuropsychology and Psychosis in 'A Scanner Darkly'

And:

Grey Lodge Occult Review :: Issue #10 :: If You Find This World Bad... ::
Grey Lodge Occult Review :: Man, Android and Machine ::
:: Grey Lodge Occult Review :: Cosmogony and Cosmology ::
Philip K. Dick (1928-82): Four Novels of the 1960s (Library of America)
posted by psyche7 at 9:38 AM on March 9, 2008 [3 favorites]

Nice post. I hadn't seen this.

Obviously I had to say something...
posted by Horselover Fat at 9:07 PM on March 10, 2008