I became aware of Tessa B. Dick as the ex-wife of Philip K. Dick, who famously wedded theological inquiry to speculative fiction. I reviewed her attempt at a third volume of her ex-husband’s incomplete VALIS trilogy, The Owl in Daylight, taking note of one character’s fixation on December 21, 2012, the conclusion of the Mayan long-count calendar, when many expect the world to come to an end or be utterly transformed. When I interviewed Tessa, I asked if this date had any significance for her personally and she replied, “We must always behave as if it were the end of time.” I wrote back and told her that was a beautiful line, then wrote back again and let her know I knew it wasn’t just a “line” either, since I could tell she meant it.
This volume tends toward an unorthodox Judeo-Christian worldview, perhaps inspired by Philip K. Dick’s experience of anamnesis or “unforgetting,” in which he perceived himself as an early Christian disciple undercover in an unending Empire. But she is by no means monothematic—among other observations, she points out the recorded existence of nuclear reactors and anti-gravity craft in Indian lore predating the Western historical record, and shows how the major Judeo-Christian religions have adopted various pagan beliefs and practices, and how ancient catastrophes and visitations by sentient beings shaped the history of civilization and continue to influence human culture today (which brings to mind Charles Fort’s prosaic notion of Earth as a farm, and people a crop).
Besides 2012 and Beyond: Ancient Secrets and Mysteries, Tessa B. Dick is the author of The Owl in Daylight, a memoir of her marriage called Remembering Firebright, and the just released murder mystery, The Man Without a Past. She maintains a regularly updated blog called It’s a Philip K. Dick World.
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