> Is [Ubik] a symbol, and, if so, of just what? This is not easy to answer.
I thought Ubik was the in-breaking of the divine Logos ("I am Ubik. Before the universe was, I am. I made the suns. I made the worlds. I created the lives and the places they inhabit; I move them here, I put them there. They go as I say, then do as I tell them. I am the word and my name is never spoken, the name which no one knows. I am called Ubik, but that is not my name. I am. I shall always be.") Ubik is thus the only force capable of rolling back entropy and rescuing man from death.
The subtle thing about the book is its gnostic philosophy, and the implication that "the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it." Which is the point of Ubik's appearance in canned aerosol form: the divine force permeates the world and takes presence even in the detritus of the sort of mass consumerism that the novel shows subverting man's relationship with the divine.
I thought Ubik was the in-breaking of the divine Logos ("I am Ubik. Before the universe was, I am. I made the suns. I made the worlds. I created the lives and the places they inhabit; I move them here, I put them there. They go as I say, then do as I tell them. I am the word and my name is never spoken, the name which no one knows. I am called Ubik, but that is not my name. I am. I shall always be.") Ubik is thus the only force capable of rolling back entropy and rescuing man from death.
The subtle thing about the book is its gnostic philosophy, and the implication that "the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it." Which is the point of Ubik's appearance in canned aerosol form: the divine force permeates the world and takes presence even in the detritus of the sort of mass consumerism that the novel shows subverting man's relationship with the divine.