The Philosophy of Science Fiction : Henri Bergson and the Fabulations of Philip K. Dick

"The Philosophy of Science Fiction: Henri Bergson and the Fabulations of Philip K. Dick explores the deep affinity between two seemingly quite different thinkers, in their attempts to address the need for salvation in (and from) an era of accelerated mechanization, in which humans' capacity for destroying or subjugating the living has attained a planetary scale. The philosopher and the science fiction writer come together to meet the contradictory imperatives of a realist outlook a task which, arguably, philosophy and science fiction could only ever adequately undertake in collaboration. Their respective approaches meet in a focus on the ambiguous status of fictionalizing, or fabulation, as simultaneously one of mechanization's most devastating tools, and the possibility of its undoing. When they are read together, the complexities and paradoxes thrown up by this ambiguity, with which both Bergson and Dick struggle on their own, open up new ways to navigate ideas of mechanism and mysticism, immanence and transcendence, and the possibility and meaning of salvation. The result is at once an original reading of both thinkers, a new critical theory of the socio cultural, political and ethical function of fictionalizing, and a case study in the strange affinity, at times the uncanny similarity, between philosophy and science fiction."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Half title FC Also available from Bloomsbury Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Philosophy and science fiction Bergson and Dick at the edge of the known The ethics of balking Philip K. Dick studies Note on terminology 1 Fabulation: Counteracting Reality Mechanization and the war-instinct The biological origins of society Countering the intellect The morality of violence Open morality and the misdirection of mechanism True mysticism: Immanent salvation An incomplete soteriology Fabulation for the open Conclusion 2 Fabulating Salvation in Four Early Novels Solar Lottery (1972 [1955]) The World Jones Made (1993b [1956]) Vulcan’s Hammer (1976c [1960]) Time Out of Joint (2003c [1959]) Conclusion: Super–everyman to solar shoe salesman 3 The Empire that Never Ended A matter of life or (life under the sign of) death The open and the universal The life–death chiasmus The fictitious event The messianic tension The remnant and messianic time The magic of language Sci-fi: The genre of ‘as not’ Conclusion: Gnostic politics 4 Objects of Salvation: The Man in the High Castle The fabulation of history Mechanization and paralysis Worldly remains Openings between worlds The tyranny of the concrete Objects of salvation Conclusion: Reality fields 5 How We Became Post-Android The mechanization of pot-healing The alien god The saviour in need Robot theology Humans: The cosmic bourgeoisie Android and theoid Creative destruction Conclusion 6 The Reality of Valis Salvator salvandus The believer and the sceptic The pharmakonic god Reduplicative paramnesia (time becomes space) The fabulative cure Recursion: Valis as limitlessly iterative soteriology Befriending god Conclusion Epilogue: Soter-ecologies Notes Bibliography Index James Edward Burton explores here the deep affinity between two seemingly quite different thinkers, in their attempts to address the need for salvation in (and from) an era of accelerated mechanisation, in which humans' capacity for destroying or subjugating the living has attained a planetary scale. The Philosophy of Science Fiction: Henri Bergson and the Fabulations of Philip K. Dick explores the deep affinity between two seemingly quite different thinkers, in their attempts to address the need for salvation in (and from) an era of accelerated mechanization, in which humans' capacity for destroying or subjugating the living has attained a planetary scale. The philosopher and the science fiction writer come together to meet the contradictory imperatives of a realist outlook-a task which, arguably, philosophy and science fiction could only ever adequately undertake in collaboration. Their respective approaches meet in a focus on the ambiguous status of fictionalizing, or fabulation, as simultaneously one of mechanization's most devastating tools, and the possibility of its undoing. When they are read together, the complexities and paradoxes thrown up by this ambiguity, with which both Bergson and Dick struggle on their own, open up new ways to navigate ideas of mechanism and mysticism, immanence and transcendence, and the possibility and meaning of salvation. The result is at once an original reading of both thinkers, a new critical theory of the socio-cultural, political and ethical function of fictionalizing, and a case study in the strange affinity, at times the uncanny similarity, between philosophy and science fiction The Philosophy of Science Fiction: Henri Bergson and the Fabulations of Philip K. Dick explores the deep affinity between two seemingly quite different thinkers, in their attempts to address the need for salvation in (and from) an era of accelerated mechanization, in which humans' capacity for destroying or subjugating the living has attained a planetary scale. The philosopher and the science fiction writer come together to meet the contradictory imperatives of a realist outlook-a task which, arguably, philosophy and science fiction could only ever adequately undertake in collaboration. Their respective approaches meet in a focus on the ambiguous status of fictionalizing, or fabulation, as simultaneously one of mechanization's most devastating tools, and the possibility of its undoing. When they are read together, the complexities and paradoxes thrown up by this ambiguity, with which both Bergson and Dick struggle on their own, open up new ways to navigate ideas of mechanism and mysticism, immanence and transcendence, and the possibility and meaning of salvation. The result is at once an original reading of both thinkers, a new critical theory of the sociocultural, political and ethical function of fictionalizing, and a case study in the strange affinity, at times the uncanny similarity, between philosophy and science fiction. -- Amazon.com Fabulation: Counteracting Reality -- Fabulating Salvation In Four Early Novels -- The Empire That Never Ended -- Objects Of Salvation: The Man In The High Castle -- How We Became Post-android -- The Reality Of Valis. James Burton. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.