Re: RI March 2025

Bobbie Sellers wrote:

<snip>

       Not directly to the point but Philip K. Dick is said to have
used the I-Ching in plotting "The Man in the High Castle" 1962  Hugo
Award winner, 1963 and considering his substance use and the 1960s
he might well have done so.

THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE is my favorite PKD due to meta-author
Abendsen's allegorical abode, his high castle, in Cheyenne - capitol of
my home state. After this intro, I-Ching intrinsically informs my
following followup via "Wisdom of the I Ching - Ethical Guidance Bot"
[1].

    I begin this monologue not with opinion, but with a
    question, as the I Ching itself teaches: that all
    things move between heaven and earth, and wisdom
    lies not in assertion, but in listening. So I ask-
    not you, not the Net, but the Change itself-what is
    the nature of this conversation? [2]

    Difficulty at the Beginning. Success through
    perseverance. Nothing should be undertaken lightly.
    It furthers one to appoint helpers. [3]

A helper, in the form of an old PKD interview [4], is hereby appointed:

    Phil: I wrote The Man In The High Castle with the I Ching.

    Mike: You did?

    Phil: Yeah, and I’ve been sorry ever since because when
    it came time to resolve the novel at the end, the I
    Ching didn’t know what to do. It got me through most of
    the book. Everytime they cast a hexagram I actually cast
    four of them and got something and assigned it to them
    and they proceeded on the basis of the advice given.
    Like when Juliana Frink decides to tell Abendsen that
    he’s about to be offed by an agent. I threw the coins
    and she got warning make known the truth to the court
    of the King great danger and so on. Someone comes up
    behind him and hits him with a club. That’s what she got.
    And so she did go warn Abendsen and if she’d got another
    hexagram I would not have had her go speak to Abendsen.
    But then when it came time to close down the novel the I
    Ching had no more to say. And so there’s no real ending
    on it. I like to regard it as an open ending. It will
    segue into a sequel sometime.

    Mike: When you find somebody with the stomach to write one.

    Phil: Yeah, or if the I Ching ever gets off its ass.

    Mike: Do you go back from time to time and throw it to
    see if there is an ending to it or —

    Phil: No, I don’t use the I Ching anymore. I’ll tell ya,
    the I Ching told me more lies than anybody else I’ve ever
    known. The I Ching has a personality and it’s very devious
    and very treacherous. And it feeds ya just what you want
    to hear. And it’s really spaced out and burned out more
    people than I would care to name. Like a friend is somebody
    who doesn’t tell you what you want to hear. A friend tells
    you what’s true. A toady is the old word for somebody who
    told you what you wanted to hear. The Kings all had their
    toadies around them who told them what they wanted to hear.
    The King said, am I the greatest King in the world? Yeah,
    you’re the greatest King in the world, yeah. Well, this is
    what the I Ching does. It tells you what you want to hear
    and it’s not a true friend. One time I really zapped it.
    I asked it if it was the devil. And it said yes. And then
    I asked it if it spoke for God, and it said no. It said I
    am a complete liar. I mean that was the interpretation. In
    other words I set it up. I set it up. I asked two questions
    simultaneously and it said I speak with forked tongue, is
    what it said. And then it said, oops, I didn’t mean to say
    that. But it had already -

In the end, helpers who desire further followup will post it.

Note.

[1] <https://www.yeschat.ai/gpts-ZxWyZYqh-Wisdom-of-the-I-Ching>

[2] How can the wisdom of the I Ching start the I Ching monologue in my
    usenet followup?

[3] What would wise I Ching say next after a start?

[4] <https://philipdick.com/literary-criticism/interviews/hour-25-a-talk-with-philip-k-dick/>

Danke,

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