The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

VALIS, Book 3

By: Philip K. Dick

Narrated by: Joyce Bean

The final book in Philip K. Dick’s VALIS trilogy, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer brings the author’s search for the identity and nature of God to a close. The novel follows Bishop Timothy Archer as he travels to Israel, ostensibly to examine ancient scrolls bearing the words of Christ. But more importantly, this leads him to examine the decisions he made during his life and how they may have contributed to the suicides of his mistress and son.

This introspective book is one of Dick’s most philosophical and literary, delving into the mysteries of religion and of faith itself. As one of Dick’s final works, it also provides unique insight into the mind of a genius, whose work was still in the process of maturing at the time of his death.

Also listen to the first book, VALIS, and the second, The Divine Invasion.©1982 Phillip K. Dick (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Narration is perfect

The story - though creative and surprising - did not strike me as PKD’s strongest sci-fi

Narrator good not perfect wanted more narration

Narrator good not perfect wanted more narration like narrator but wished for more from them

Most earthly book of the Valis trilogy

It took me longer to get into this third novel of the trilogy. I would say I'd give it 4 1/2 stars overall. Joyce Bean was a very good reader of Angel's story. Interesting changes of mind of all the characters...
out of Angel's perspective... made it fluctuate in an astral-mental Californian field, just hinting at the spiritual, although there was much intellectual pondering of it, based on scripture. Timothy Archer, after all, is a prominent bishop,
occupied with a myriad of issues, a lifelong restless student.
There should be a viewing of all three novels together, but I don't dare to do that right now. The original German quotes in all three books were read poorly. A little better in this one, mostly it was intelligible at least. Readers should accustom themselves a little with pronunciation of other languages than their own, even if a translation is given afterwards. Easy to follow this one, worth while listening.

One of PKD's best

It is a story of resurrection. Sometimes the PKD books that were based on earth and that dealt with modern social issues, instead of those that dealt with ephemeral hard core sci-fi, were his best. This is one of those books, which is more about ethereal, earthbound, social existence, and in as much this book examines PKD's later spirituality, and it resonates with the gnosticism that he exhibited in his later writings, it does so without the disorganized, manic, Geschwind type, madness of his other later writings. This book is reminiscent of "Confessions of a Crap Artist" written in the 1960's by PKD, which is one of my favorite books by him even though it had only a slight sci-fi edge to it, but the examination in that book of someone with schizotypal personality disorder, and the examination and resurrection of sorts in this book of someone with hebephrenia is where I make the connection, and it is where the theme of resurrection comes in. This book is a treasure, and I hope you mine it and enjoy it they way I do. Also, I really enjoyed the reader. She did a great job.

Good, but not V.A.L.I.S

A bit ecclesiastical for my taste, but good. The last third redeemed the first two.

My Favorite PKD novel

This was Dick's last novel and contains zero science fiction.

PKD always wanted to be a literary novelist but had to write scifi for the $. Finally at the end of his life he had enough money via film rights sales of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner) to write what he wanted. Then he died shortly after seeing the rushes for Blade Runner. So he never got to experience being a famous Hollywood writer. Maybe just as well.

Anyway onward, Transmigration is told in the first person by Angel Archer, a very cynical woman done by the narrator (Joyce Bean) in a pitch-perfect voice.

The novel presents a medium cool portrait of the San Francisco scene in the 1970s with Bishop Pike (Timothy Archer) and Alan Watts (Edgar Barefoot) as major characters.

Two of my favorite lines come toward the end when the Watts character tells Angel she should not come to his lectures for his words of wisdom but for the sandwiches he offers for the students when the talk is over. "Someday perhaps you'll come for the sandwich. But I doubt that. I think you will always need the pretext of words." The other is when Angel promises to take care of Bill, her schizophrenic friend, when he gets out of a psychiatriic hospital. Angel tells him "I will see you as you were; I will not give up. You will remember the ground again."

"... remember the ground ..." somehow that seems like something we all need to do at this very weird present moment.

Well, that's alright, but not much more

If you are a consummate PKD reader, this is a treat.
If not, well...
It left me a little less than inspired.
Not sure if the idea just ran out if steam, but I did not find a sympathetic character in the lot.
& so, it never took off.

That's it?!

Struggled to get to the end. Perhaps I simply missed how it flowed with the others books. But I didn't enjoy it as an ending to the series.

No single thing abides, except mushrooms & memory

I'm going to have to chew over this one a bit more. Transmigration of Timothy Archer was brilliant in parts, very engaging, but there were also pieces that just didn't quite fit. I'm willing to give PKD a lot of credit for attempting, so late in his life, a 'mainstream novel'. Ultimately, however, I couldn't quite swallow the whole book (oh me of little faith). I'm not sure if it was a dissatisfaction with it not living up to my expectation(s), or having too much of the novel actually exist there AND me just wanting more. I think part of it was Dick set the reader up. He wanted to yank the reader left, and then yank the reader right, then trip the reader, so we can see what it is like to live in his head as he is trying to make sense of his own mortality and faith.

I love that each of his three Valis/God/Gnostic books: Valis, The Divine Invasion, Transmigration of Timothy Archer are so different. For me, the structural and style differences in these books allowed PKD creative room to explore his big religious themes: God, faith, salvation, love, fate, compassion, the search for identity, knowledge, etc, from as many sides and angles as possible.

Bishop Archer describes the book's central quandary when he says:

"My point," Tim said, "is that if the Logia predate Jesus by two hundred years, then the Gospels are suspect, we have no evidence that Jesus was God, very God, God incarnate, and therefore the basis of our religion is gone. Jesus simply becomes a teacher representing a particular Jewish sect that ate and drank some kind of – well, whatever it was, the anokhi, and it made them immortal."

PKD doubles down when Bishop Archer finds out that the anokhi is a psychedelic mushroom out of which the Zadokites made a broth and a bread. The Zadokites drank the broth (blood) and ate the bread (body). Thus, Dick essentially turned early Christianity into a secret mushroom cult. So, in this novel Jesus (and his apostles) becomes dope dealers and smugglers. Throw into this reincarnation, mysticism, drugs, a ton of 70s music, cars, Berkeley, etc., and you get the raw and messy PKD working hard to both mess with your head and sort it all out. I'm still trying to decide what he really wanted to do, and what he actually ended up doing to me.

A focus on PKD's religious thinking

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is Philip K Dick's final piece of his VALIS trilogy, although each installment is a standalone story connected by the common theme of theological discussions. While the title role is an Episcopalian bishop whose religious views evolve over time as a result of both perceived beyond the grave activity and "dead sea" -like scrolls that suggest Jesus was repeating writings from 200 hundred years earlier, the tale is narrated by his daughter-in-law, Angel Archer. Having endured the suicide of her husband due to his inner conflict over his father's, the bishop's, mistress who also commits suicide due to her cancer remission, Angle struggles to find meaning in her life as she endures these losses.

Dick eschews sci-fi elements while presenting the implication of supernatural forces beyond the grave and presumption of reincarnation. While the bulk of the tale is a series of complicated interpersonal relationships against a backdrop of late 20th century California mores, the main focus is theological concepts and the notion that new historical information has the power to reshape millennia of thinking. Dick also imparts a degree of disdain for established organized religions with a narcissistic religious leader with a "do as I say and not as I do" attitude. Finally, Dick offers an interesting juxtaposition of schizophrenic thinking versus religious thinking.

The narration is nicely done with an adequate range of voices. Pacing is aligned with the minimal action of the story.