The Divine Invasion
VALIS | |
Followed by | The Owl in Daylight (or The Transmigration of Timothy Archer) |
---|
The Divine Invasion is a 1981
After the fall of Masada in AD 74, God, or "Yah", is exiled from Earth and forced to take refuge in the CY30-CY30B star system. Although people of Earth are meanwhile ruled by Belial, the fallen Morning Star who serves as Yah's principal Adversary, Yah is intent on reclaiming his creation.
Writing
The book was conceived as a sequel to Dick's
The Divine Invasion was conceived immediately after the completion of VALIS, with the working title VALIS Regained.[9] Dick did not begin actually writing the novel until March 1980 (more than a year after VALIS's completion in November 1978), when he wrote it in less than a month.[9] The opening chapters were based on Dick's short story, "Chains of Air, Web of Aethyr," which had been written between VALIS and The Divine Invasion and published before either novel in Stellar Science-Fiction Stories #5 in 1980.[9]
Plot summary
After a fatal car accident on Earth, Herb Asher is placed into
In the past, Herb lived as a recluse in an isolated dome on a remote planet in the binary star system, CY30-CY30B. Yah, a local divinity of the planet in exile from Earth, appears to Herb in a vision as a burning flame, and forces him to contact his sick female neighbor, Rybys Rommey, who happens to be terminally ill with multiple sclerosis and pregnant with Yah's child.
With the help of the immortal soul of Elijah, who takes the form of a wild beggar named Elias Tate, Herb agrees to become Rybys's legal husband and father of the unborn "savior". Together they plan to smuggle the six-month pregnant Rybys back to Earth, under the pretext of seeking help for Rybys' medical condition at a medical research facility. After being born in human form, Yah plans to confront the fallen angel Belial, who has ruled the Earth for 2000 years since the fall of Masada in the first century AD. Yah's powers, however, are limited by Belial's dominion on Earth, and the four of them must take extra precautions to avoid being detected by the forces of darkness.
Things do not go as planned. "Big Noodle", Earth's
Six years pass. In a school for special children, Emmanuel meets Zina, a girl who also seems to have similar skills and talents, but acts as a surrogate teacher to Emmanuel. For four years, Zina helps Emmanuel regain his memory (the brain damage caused amnesia) and discover his true identity as Yah, creator of the universe.
When he is ready, Zina shows Emmanuel her own
In an act of kindness, Zina and Emmanuel liberate the goat-creature from his cage, momentarily forgetting that the animal is Belial. The goat-creature finds Herb Asher and attempts to retain control of the world by possessing him and convincing him that Yahweh's creation is an ugly thing that should be shown for what it really is. Eventually Herb is saved by Linda Fox, a young singer whom he loves and who is his own personal Savior; she and the goat-creature meet and she kills it, defeating Belial. He finally discovers that this meeting happens over again for everyone in the world, and whether they choose Belial or their Savior decides if they find salvation.
Characters
- Herb Asher: audio engineer
- Rybys Rommey: mother of Emmanuel, sick with MS
- Yah: Yahweh
- Elias Tate: Incarnation of Elijah
- Emmanuel (Manny): Yah incarnated in human form
- Zina Pallas: Shekhinah
- Linda Fox: singer, songwriter, Yetzer Hatov
- Yetzer Hara
- Fulton Statler Harms: Chief prelate of the Christian-Islamic Church (C.I.C), Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church
- Nicholas Bulkowsky: Communist Party Chairman, Procurator maximus of the Scientific Legate
- VALIS: agent of Yahweh, disinhibiting stimulus
Other works
The Divine Invasion is a part of the
- VALIS(1981)
- The Divine Invasion (1981)
- The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982)
See also
- Exegesis
- Radio Free Albemuth
References
- ^ "1982 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
- ^ VALIS, p. 14; The Divine Invasion, p. 189.
- ^ VALIS, p. 90; The Divine Invasion, pp. 153, 164.
- ^ VALIS, p. 150; The Divine Invasion, p. 69.
- ^ VALIS, p. 140; The Divine Invasion, p. 242.
- ^ VALIS, p. 200.
- ^ The Divine Invasion, p. 199.
- ^ VALIS, p. 237:
The Divine Invasion, p. 153:"To walk toward the dawn
You must put your slippers on."You have to put your slippers on
To walk toward the dawn. - ^ The Library of America, 2009
Sources
- Rossi, Umberto. “The Holy Family from Outer Space: Reconsidering Philip K. Dick's The Divine Invasion.” Extrapolation Vol. 52, no. 2 (2011): 153–73.
- Schmid, Georg, "The Apocryphal Judaic Traditions as Historical Repertoire: An Analysis of The Divine Invasion bt Philip K. Dick". Degrés: Revue de synthese a orientation semiologique, #51, Automne 1987, 1–11.
External links
- The Divine Invasion at Worlds Without End