Radio Free Albemuth

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the film adaptation of the novel, see Radio Free Albemuth (film). For the album by bassist Stuart Hamm, see Radio Free Albemuth (album).
Radio Free Albemuth
ISBN
0-87795-762-2

Radio Free Albemuth is a

VALIS trilogy. Arbor House acquired the rights to Radio Free Albemuth in 1985. They then published an edition under the current title (the original was too close to VALIS), prepared from the corrected typescript given by Dick to his friend Tim Powers
.

Plot summary

In this

subversive organization known as "Aramchek". In addition to this, he is associated with a right-wing populist
movement called "Friends of the American People" (FAPers).

The President's

VALIS
.

Like its successor VALIS, this novel is autobiographical. Dick himself is a major character, though fictitious protagonist Nicholas Brady serves as a vehicle for Dick's alleged

communist covert agent
recruited by Sadassa's mother when Fremont was still a teenager.

As with VALIS, Radio Free Albemuth deals with Dick's highly personal style of

ghost writer and regime-approved hack
. Suddenly, however, he hears music blaring from a transistor radio which contains the same subliminal message. He and his friends, it turns out, were just a decoy set up by VALIS to deter the government from stopping a much more popular A-List band from releasing a similar record with a better-established recording company. As Dick realizes this and hears youngsters repeating the lyrics, he realizes that salvation may lie within the hearts and minds of the next generation.

Reception

Gerald Jonas of The New York Times thought that the novel "may have been merely a first draft (and an abandoned first draft at that), but this book is not Dick at his best."[1]

Dave Langford reviewed Radio Free Albemuth for White Dwarf #92, and stated that "Dick: understood fear and corruption too well. I was less convinced by the visionary passages, though there's a great line when nervy politicians destroy the alien satellite: 'They shot down God.'"[2]

J. Michael Caparula reviewed Radio Free Albemuth in Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer No. 80.[3] Caparula commented that "The final result presents a satisfying (albeit enigmatic) conclusion to his trilogy of Valis novels (Valis and The Divine Invasion being the other two)."[3]

Relationship to VALIS

When he rewrote Radio Free Albemuth as

VALIS, Dick incorporated the plotline of Radio Free Albemuth as a backdrop film (also titled VALIS) that recapitulated the central theological and existential concerns of his novel as a mise en abyme - that is, a miniature copy of his central preoccupations at this stage of his literary career, common to both works. The word "albemuth" was derived by Dick from the Arabic word Al Behemoth, "the whale", itself an oblique reference to Fomalhaut, the star Dick at one time believed VALIS came from in real life.[4]

Film adaptation

Main article: Radio Free Albemuth (film)

John Alan Simon wrote, produced and directed a film adaptation of Radio Free Albemuth. Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette stars as Sadassa Silvia. Filming took place in October 2007 at Los Angeles' Lacy Street Studios and multiple other locations. The film premiered in February 2010 at the Sedona Film Festival as a work in-progress. It was released as a limited release (and VOD) on June 27, 2014.[5]

References

  1. ^ Jonas, Gerald (12 January 1986). "Science Fiction". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Langford, Dave (August 1987). "Critical Mass". White Dwarf. No. 92. Games Workshop. p. 11.
  3. ^ a b Caparula, J. Michael (October–November 1987). "Space/Fantasy Reader". Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer (80). Diverse Talents, Incorporated: 42.
  4. ^ "Philip K. Dick Biography". gnosis.org.
  5. ^ Michelle McCue (9 June 2014). "First Poster For Philip K. Dick's RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH Debuts". We Are Movie Geeks.

Sources

External links

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