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“no conspiracy theory has yet emerged arguing that the Empire never really fell at all” Really, no Philip K Dick VALIS mention? The book that repeats “the empi

“no conspiracy theory has yet emerged arguing that the Empire never really fell at all” Really, no Philip K Dick VALIS mention? The book that repeats “the empire never ended” and argues that much of the time between now and the was “false?” See also: https://philipdick.com/resources/miscellaneous/the-religious-experience-of-philip-k-dick-by-r-crumb-from-weirdo-17/ https://philipdick.com/resources/miscellaneous/the-religious....

gpderetta 4y ago
first thing that came to my mind as well. The missing time is also on-topic.
jrumbut 4y ago
Tongue firmly planted in cheek but... There's a guy in Rome still holding one of the Roman emperors' titles, pontifex maximus (held by some of them anyway). Meanwhile, there’s a powerful army marching all over the world with an eagle standard and a commander-in-chief who recognizes the Roman guy's authority in some matters but not others. He's trying to deal with rising food and oil prices while organizing resistance to an invader from the east and warding off a domestic usurper. When did the Roman empire fall again?
- Perceval 4y ago
  https://twitter.com/publicanthony/status/1542922977481728000 https://twitter.com/publicanthony/status/1542922977481728000
Finnucane 4y ago
Clearly this guy has not seen the pink beam of light.
bpiche 4y ago
When I read it it didn’t seem like it argued that the time between now and then was ‘false’. VALIS argues that the time and events between now and then are constantly being ‘laminated’ (PKD’s term) onto the long now. Iirc Horselover Fat develops the ability to see the layers of history laminated onto the present and concludes that the Empire never ended. Caveat lector, I haven’t read the other two books in the VALIS trilogy.
x86x87 4y ago
PKD does not argue that the actual roman empire did not fell. It's most around the idea of the empire and the existence of an entity that continuously makes our life miserable. Keeping us closed in a metaphorical black iron prison. From that POV the empire never ended - even worse: nowadays we have multiple flavours of it.

gpderetta 4y ago

first thing that came to my mind as well. The missing time is also on-topic.

jrumbut 4y ago

Tongue firmly planted in cheek but... There's a guy in Rome still holding one of the Roman emperors' titles, pontifex maximus (held by some of them anyway). Meanwhile, there’s a powerful army marching all over the world with an eagle standard and a commander-in-chief who recognizes the Roman guy's authority in some matters but not others. He's trying to deal with rising food and oil prices while organizing resistance to an invader from the east and warding off a domestic usurper. When did the Roman empire fall again?

Perceval 4y ago
https://twitter.com/publicanthony/status/1542922977481728000 https://twitter.com/publicanthony/status/1542922977481728000

Finnucane 4y ago

Clearly this guy has not seen the pink beam of light.

bpiche 4y ago

When I read it it didn’t seem like it argued that the time between now and then was ‘false’. VALIS argues that the time and events between now and then are constantly being ‘laminated’ (PKD’s term) onto the long now. Iirc Horselover Fat develops the ability to see the layers of history laminated onto the present and concludes that the Empire never ended. Caveat lector, I haven’t read the other two books in the VALIS trilogy.

x86x87 4y ago

PKD does not argue that the actual roman empire did not fell. It's most around the idea of the empire and the existence of an entity that continuously makes our life miserable. Keeping us closed in a metaphorical black iron prison. From that POV the empire never ended - even worse: nowadays we have multiple flavours of it.