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This complete study is at the assessment stage, any input or corrections, recommendations are welcomed based on constructive criticism, please all readers for full substantive criticism. Thank you J.S. This is an extended full study of a previous article – Dickian (New) Gnosticism in Practice: Mercerism as Religion Empathy (1) [Copyright ©].
Mercerism – (1) is a vision of Philip Kindred Dick’s religion within the so-called Phildickian Gnosticism – (2), in Czech naming I adhere to naming in my own judgment as Dickian (novo) Gnosticism (3). This vision is reflected in Mercerism’s backdrop of the post-apocalyptic world of the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) – (4). For the first time, though, the subject of Mercerism appeared in the short story collection The Golden Man (1980) – (5), right in the story The Black Box (1964, The Little Black Box) – (6). Subsequently, Philip Kindred Dick reworked this story into his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? In doing so, he created a definitively (fictional) literary religion named Mercerism, which was based on a basic idea of living (life-encroaching) empathy and the search for its limits, extended not only to human or animal friends, but also to technical friends, – androids, both human and animal.
Explanation of all terms in the study – complete:
- Mercerism is an artificial construct of the religion of Empathy, created by Philip Kindred Dick, when it will be comprehensively explained in this study
- Dickian (novo) Gnosticism (Phildickian Gnosticism) is more difficult (briefly) and (perfectly) to define, or at least always to define well (well, with a full representation of the individual ideas of the writer Philip Kindred Dick). The reason is simple (every reader or reader) of Philip Kindred Dick’s stories and books understands that the moment he reads all of Dick’s work from his subjective, many factors of distorted view; this always happens to you (not just when studying PKD), whether you want to or not, every word, every expression can be understood at one moment differently from, say, a day later, the same thing is true of explaining individual concepts to Philip Kindred Dick. So is there a healthy golden rule that every (Phildickian) gnostic daily discovers new secrets in the works of the PKD (sometimes it may recall the Sisyphean work or the futile efforts of the prophet Wilbur Mercer in Blade Runner in the original based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
- Naming Dickian (New) Gnosticism comes from the fact that Philip Kindred Dick felt himself to be a Gnostic, given that his area of action (direct) was in the 20th century, with an overlap to the 21st century, so naming a (New) Gnostic is a distinguishing sign from the so-called (Old) Gnostic – meaning the period of (Old) Gnostic – Gnosticism.
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968); released in the Czech Republic in 1993 (2004 second edition) as Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (DICK, Philip K. Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Hang on. 1. Prague: Argo, 2004. ISBN 80-7203-632-7)
- DICK, Philip K. The Golden man. Plzeň: Laser, 1995. SF edition. ISBN 80-7193-008-3
- The Black Box (1964, The Little Black Box), this story about the empathy box served as the basis for his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Mercerism as such is only mentioned in detail in literary form, but the religion of Mercerism is not mentioned in the subsequent film (alternative) treatment of the novel entitled Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Blade Runner – (1). So it remains only (imprisoned) in the literary form of the original Dick novel, which in its way is an insensitive interference with Dick’s literary work, the film Blade Runner, so it is deprived of a mystical interpretation of the philosophy of empathy and fusion into suffering in the Sisyphean cycle.
- The film – Blade Runner (also known as Ostré komando in the Czech version) is a 1982 cult dystopian sci-fi film by director Ridley Scott, directed at the subject of a book by Philip K. Dick.
If anyone thinks in the 21st century about what could be applied to Dickian (new) Gnosticism today and to us, then surely we are in a position to reach boldly to the shelf for a classic work of Dickian Fantastics, for the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (the film treatment of the book is called – Blade Runner.) I recommend, for the understanding of Mercerism, to consider also the short story The Black Box (1964, The Little Black Box) – (1)
- The Black Box (1964, The Little Black Box), this story about the empathy box served as the basis for his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Shee
In this novel, with its unusual title, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which forms the core of Philip Kindred Dick’s creation, everything is different from what would fit our world. The novel is set in the environment of the destroyed planet Earth soon, in a situation where Planet Earth, after the event of the cataclysmic Third World War, called „World War Terminus“ (WWT for short), was transformed largely into the post-apocalyptic Wasteland. To save what was left of mankind from extinction, so extinction did those of mankind save themselves from extinction. They chose such a common course (because it was impossible to send them all) that some people (based on careful expert judgment) were sent mainly to Mars; so Mars is not the only one, but it is the main one to which direct reference is made, but it is assumed that there are other colonies on other planets, although the so far unsuccessful mission to Alpha Proxima is also mentioned explicitly. The idea of a new beginning for mankind is therefore geared to survive the disaster’s aftermath elsewhere. Given that the conditions of resettlement (and the associated survival skills, beyond high IQ and other necessary abilities) were very difficult, not all humans could leave Planet Earth. So it has taken place, and at the time of the novel the selection, that is to say, the choice to find those who will benefit in the new humanity among the stars, is still taking place.