TLS signed “Love, Phil,” who adds a heart with arrow and writes in his own hand, "Hoch die Rote Fahne" [Raise the red flag], three pages, 8.5 x 11, February 12, 1981. Lengthy letter to science fiction author Patricia Warrick, in part: “When I read VALIS the other day (which I mention in my most recent letter) there was something else I noticed, something had not realized was there. A coherent system for political action of a revolutionary nature can dimly be apprehended through the obscuring layers of philosophy and theology and science fiction. I am wondering, therefore, what effect—if any—VALIS will have on born-again Christians, inasmuch as they are into apocalyptic speculations—as my novel is. Just as in Revelation ‘Babylon’ is identified as Rome, I go on and identify ‘Rome’ as the imperial American Presidency. I bipolarize true Christianity to this modern-day Rome and stigmatize the American Government as the incarnation and physical manifestation of Satan, in true Christian apocalyptic terms and images (the toxic metal particle; the physician Christ who will surround and destroy it, etc; cosmic phagocytosis—all that). In fact, VALIS seems to me to be a very political book—virtually a manifesto and to a certain extent even a handbook of rebellion.
For example, the summation of the kerygma (Christian commission emanating from Christ or God) is expressed by the child Sophia (identified with Hagia Sophia, God’s Wisdom or Christ) thus:
1) The wicked are in power but their day will soon end.
2) The grim king (i.e. U.S. President) will not capitulate voluntarily…
3) This will be a violent overthrow, not a mere voting out of office…
4) A new social order is envisioned…
5) Danger is involved…
Deconstructed, VALIS, then, is a political novel, more so than any I’ve previously written. What apparently happened in March 1974 was that my political views and my religious inclinations and convictions, which up to then were at odds, fused as thesis and antithesis in me into one higher synthesis, so that my theology can be said to have explicit political implications, or it can with equal accuracy be said that I now see my political views as emanating from divine authority, represented in VALIS by Sophia and of course by VALIS itself in the movie Valis. Which is to say, its successful attack on and overthrow of Nixon…
I am, frankly, very joyful that I got such a radical political novel published—in the guise of a theological-philosophical sci-fi novel. This radical political call to action against the regime is totally syntonic to me—well, of course it is; I wrote it. Very likely (and this is important) for the first time both personalities in me have been joined into one personality and that one mega-personality has fashioned a novel whose message is integrated, rather than two unrelated messages running along parallel, as is found in TEARS. So I guess I experienced what Jung calls ‘the recollection of the psychic opposites,’ this being what March 1974 was all about; the opposites (politics and religion) were fused into a higher synthesis…and out of this came VALIS. When one reflects on the current political climate, VALIS is extraordinary indeed, and very much needed.” In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope.
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