Daniel Jeandet
25-08-2005, 12:49 AM
This is a rare 2-page treatment for a novel written by Philip K. Dik (the surname of this author has to be misspelled because of the forums rules on bad words. Im sure Phillip would appreciate the humor in this), in 1982 and recently rediscovered by his agent, Russell Galen. This treatment was released as an insert for 400 limited-edition novels, but has not been published elsewhere.
Brief synopsis for Alternate World Novel,
THE ACTS OF PAUL.
-- Phillip K. Dik --
Premise: Paul of Tarsus does not have his conversion experience on the road to Damascus, is not converted to Christianity, continues to persecute it as Saul, never wrires his Christian letters but instead leaves a canon of anti-Christian letters. This is what caused an alternate world to break off.
Plot: An alternate world (set in present) in which although Jesus was crucified, Christianity died out in favor of Manichaeism in the third century (called, of course, the first century based on the birth of Mani). The New Testament now doesnt exist. The books of the New Testament (excepting Pauls letters) are known to contempory scholars to have once existed, since they are mentioned in early Manichaean writings. Mani is known as the "Apostle of Light" and supreme "Illuminator" Like Jesus he was crucified. These mentions of Christianity are in a defamatory form, hence only garbled quotes and accounts about Jesus are extant. The narrator of this novel has been trying for years to reconstruct the Christ story. He has gotten it all wrong; essential parts are missing, and tottaly absurd spurious interpolations abound in his exegesis. The narrator (as he tells us), having studied the extant references to Jesus, has come to the conclusion, which he expresses in the novel, that Christianity was the true religion, and because Ahriman (the evil deity of dualistic manichaeism) rules the world, it follows from manichaean doctrine itself that the true religion would be suppressed (the narrator has fed this problem to a computer and derived this answer). And if it is the true religion, and Jesus was God or The Son of God, then Christianity must still -- but tottaly secretly -- exist (so agrees the computer). The narrator decided to seek out the secret Christians, and with the help of the computer analyzes where he will find them if his hypothesis is correct. He looks there -- place "C" -- and finds nothing. So, disappointed, he abandons his search and retires in scholarly defeat. At the end, a true secret Christian finds him; the Christian, shining like an angel, hands him a book. It is the Fourth Gospel, intact; it contains the Logos Doctrine. The Christian, as if a supernatural being, vanishes without a trace. The narrator feeds the Fourth Gospel into the computers permanent memory banks and then instructs it to print it out at every one of it's terminals throughout the world.
- end -
Brief synopsis for Alternate World Novel,
THE ACTS OF PAUL.
-- Phillip K. Dik --
Premise: Paul of Tarsus does not have his conversion experience on the road to Damascus, is not converted to Christianity, continues to persecute it as Saul, never wrires his Christian letters but instead leaves a canon of anti-Christian letters. This is what caused an alternate world to break off.
Plot: An alternate world (set in present) in which although Jesus was crucified, Christianity died out in favor of Manichaeism in the third century (called, of course, the first century based on the birth of Mani). The New Testament now doesnt exist. The books of the New Testament (excepting Pauls letters) are known to contempory scholars to have once existed, since they are mentioned in early Manichaean writings. Mani is known as the "Apostle of Light" and supreme "Illuminator" Like Jesus he was crucified. These mentions of Christianity are in a defamatory form, hence only garbled quotes and accounts about Jesus are extant. The narrator of this novel has been trying for years to reconstruct the Christ story. He has gotten it all wrong; essential parts are missing, and tottaly absurd spurious interpolations abound in his exegesis. The narrator (as he tells us), having studied the extant references to Jesus, has come to the conclusion, which he expresses in the novel, that Christianity was the true religion, and because Ahriman (the evil deity of dualistic manichaeism) rules the world, it follows from manichaean doctrine itself that the true religion would be suppressed (the narrator has fed this problem to a computer and derived this answer). And if it is the true religion, and Jesus was God or The Son of God, then Christianity must still -- but tottaly secretly -- exist (so agrees the computer). The narrator decided to seek out the secret Christians, and with the help of the computer analyzes where he will find them if his hypothesis is correct. He looks there -- place "C" -- and finds nothing. So, disappointed, he abandons his search and retires in scholarly defeat. At the end, a true secret Christian finds him; the Christian, shining like an angel, hands him a book. It is the Fourth Gospel, intact; it contains the Logos Doctrine. The Christian, as if a supernatural being, vanishes without a trace. The narrator feeds the Fourth Gospel into the computers permanent memory banks and then instructs it to print it out at every one of it's terminals throughout the world.
- end -