"Dick,_Philip_K._I hope I shall arrive soon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dick Phillip K)

the time was not ordinary, was not a part of the regular writing process. I had a dream one night, an
especially vivid dream. And when I awoke I found myself under the compulsion-the absolute
necessity-of getting the dream into the text of the novel precisely as I had dreamed it. In getting the
dream exactly right, I had to do eleven drafts of the final part of the manuscript, until I was satisfied.
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I will now quote from the novel, as it appeared in the final, published form. See if this dream
reminds you of anything.
The countryside, brown and dry, in summer, where he had lived as a child. He rode a horse, and
approaching him on his left a squad of horses nearing slowly. On the horses rode men in shining
robes, each a different color; each wore a pointed helmet that sparkled in the sunlight. The slow,
solemn knights passed him and as they traveled by he made out the face of one: an ancient marble
face, a terribly old man with rippling cascades of white beard. What a strong nose he had. What
noble features. So tired, so serious, so far beyond ordinary men. Evidently he was a king.
Felix Buckman let them pass; he did not speak to them and they said nothing to him. Together,
they all moved toward the house from which he had come. A man had sealed himself up inside the
house, a man alone, Jason Taverner, in the silence and darkness, without windows, by himself from
now on into eternity. Sitting, merely existing, inert. Felix Buckman continued on, out into the open
countryside. And then he heard from behind him one dreadful single shriek. They had killed
Taverner, and seeing them enter, sensing them in the shadows around him, knowing what they
intended to do with him, Taverner had shrieked.
Within himself Felix Buckman felt absolute and utter desolate grief. But in the dream he did not go
back nor look back. There was nothing that could be done. No one could have stopped the posse
of varicolored men in robes; they could not have been said no to. Anyhow, it was over. Taverner
was dead.
This passage probably does not suggest any particular thing to you, except a law posse exacting
judgment on someone either guilty or considered guilty. It is not clear whether Taverner has in fact
committed some crime or is merely believed to have committed some crime. I had the impression
that he was guilty, but that it was a tragedy that he had to be killed, a terribly sad tragedy. In the
novel, this dream causes Felix Buckman to begin to cry, and therefore he seeks out the black man at
the all-night gas station.
Months after the novel was published, I found the section in the Bible to which this dream refers.
It is Daniel, 7:9:
Thrones were set in place and one ancient in years took his seat. His robe was white as
snow and the hair of his head like cleanest wool. Flames of fire were his throne and its wheels
blazing fire; a flowing river of fire streamed out before him. Thousands upon thousands served
him and myriads upon myriads attended his presence. The court sat, and the books were
opened.
This white-haired old man appears again in Revelation, 1:13: I saw . . . one like a son of man,
robed down to his feet, with a golden girdle round his breast. The hair of his head was white as
snow-white wool, and his eyes flamed like fire; his feet gleamed like burnished brass refined in a
furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.
And then 1:17:
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me and
said, "Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, and I am the living one, for I was dead and
now I am alive for evermore, and I hold the keys of Death and Death's domain. Write down
therefore what you have seen, what is now, and what will be hereafter."
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And, like John of Patmos, I faithfully wrote down what I saw and put it in my novel. And it was
true, although at the time I did not know who was meant by this description:
... he made out the face of one: an ancient marble face, a terribly old man with rippling cascades