Editing Radio Free Albemuth

{{Short description|1976 novel by Philip K. Dick}}
{{for-multi|the film adaptation of the novel|Radio Free Albemuth (film)|the album by bassist Stuart Hamm|Radio Free Albemuth (album)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Radio Free Albemuth
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = Radio free albemuth.jpg
| caption = Dust-jacket from the first edition
| author = [[Philip K. Dick]]
| cover_artist =
| country = [[United States]]
| language = [[English language|English]]
| series =
| genre = [[Dystopian]] [[science fiction]]
| publisher = [[Arbor House]]
| release_date = 1985
| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover]] & [[Paperback]])
| pages = 214 
| isbn =  0-87795-762-2
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}

'''''Radio Free Albemuth''''' is a [[dystopian novel]] by [[Philip K. Dick]], written in 1976 and published posthumously in 1985. Originally titled ''VALISystem A'', it was his first attempt to deal in fiction with his [[Philip K. Dick#Paranormal experiences|experiences of early 1974]]. When his publishers at Bantam requested extensive rewrites he canned the project and reworked it into the [[VALIS trilogy|''VALIS'' trilogy]]. Arbor House acquired the rights to ''Radio Free Albemuth'' in 1985. They then published an edition under the current title (the original was too close to ''VALIS''), prepared from the corrected typescript given by Dick to his friend [[Tim Powers]].

==Plot summary==
In this [[alternate history (fiction)|alternate history]], the corrupt [[United States president]] Ferris F. Fremont (FFF for [[number of the beast|666]], 'F' being the 6th letter in the alphabet) becomes Chief Executive in the late 1960s following [[Lyndon Johnson]]'s administration. The character is best described as an amalgam of [[Joseph McCarthy]] and [[Richard Nixon]], who abrogates [[civil liberties]] and [[human rights]] through positing a [[conspiracy theory]] centered on a (presumably) fictitious [[Subversion (politics)|subversive]] organization known as "Aramchek". In addition to this, he is associated with a right-wing [[Populism|populist]] movement called "Friends of the American People" (FAPers).

The President's [[paranoia]] and [[opportunism]] lead to the establishment of a real resistance movement that is organized through narrow-beam radio transmissions from a mysterious [[Extraterrestrial life in popular culture|alien]] near-Earth satellite by a superintelligent, extraterrestrial, but less than omnipotent being (or network) named [[VALIS]].

Like its successor ''VALIS'', this novel is autobiographical. Dick himself is a major character, though fictitious protagonist Nicholas Brady serves as a vehicle for Dick's alleged [[gnostic]] [[theophany]] on February 11, 1974. In addition, Sadassa Silvia is a character who claims that Ferris Fremont is actually a [[communist]] [[covert agent]] recruited by Sadassa's mother when Fremont was still a teenager.

As with ''VALIS'', ''Radio Free Albemuth'' deals with Dick's highly personal style of [[Christianity]] (or [[Gnosticism]]). It further examines the moral and ethical repercussions of informing on trusted friends for the authorities. Also prominent is Dick's dislike of the [[United States Republican Party|Republican Party]], satirizing Nixon's America as a [[Stalinist]] or [[neo-fascist]] police state. Fremont eventually captures and imprisons Dick and Brady after the latter attempts to produce and distribute a [[Gramophone record|record]] that contains [[subliminal message]]s of revolt against the current dictatorship. Brady and Silvia are executed, and Dick narrates the concluding passage about his life in a [[concentration camp]], while his supposedly latest work is actually penned by a [[ghost writer]] and regime-approved [[Hack writer|hack]]. Suddenly, however, he hears music blaring from a transistor radio which contains the same subliminal message. He and his friends, it turns out, were just a decoy set up by VALIS to deter the government from stopping a much more popular A-List band from releasing a similar record with a better-established recording company. As Dick realizes this and hears youngsters repeating the lyrics, he realizes that salvation may lie within the hearts and minds of the next generation.

==Reception==
Gerald Jonas of ''The New York Times'' thought that the novel "may have been merely a first draft (and an abandoned first draft at that), but this book is not Dick at his best."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/12/books/science-fiction.html|title = Science Fiction|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 12 January 1986|last1 = Jonas|first1 = Gerald}}</ref>

[[David Langford|Dave Langford]] reviewed ''Radio Free Albemuth'' for ''[[White Dwarf (magazine)|White Dwarf]]'' #92, and stated that "Dick: understood fear and corruption too well. I was less convinced by the visionary passages, though there's a great line when nervy politicians destroy the alien satellite: 'They shot down God.'"<ref name="WD92">{{cite magazine  | last =Langford | first =Dave | author-link =David Langford | title =Critical Mass  | magazine =[[White Dwarf (magazine)|White Dwarf]]  | issue =92  | pages =11   | publisher =[[Games Workshop]]  | date = August 1987  }}</ref>

J. Michael Caparula reviewed ''Radio Free Albemuth'' in ''[[The Space Gamer|Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer]]'' No. 80.<ref name="SG">{{cite journal|last=Caparula |first=J. Michael |date=October–November 1987 |title=Space/Fantasy Reader|journal=[[The Space Gamer|Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer]]|publisher=[[Diverse Talents, Incorporated]]|issue=80|pages=42}}</ref> Caparula commented that "The final result presents a satisfying (albeit enigmatic) conclusion to his trilogy of Valis novels (''Valis'' and ''[[The Divine Invasion]]'' being the other two)."<ref name="SG"/>

==Relationship to ''VALIS''==
When he rewrote ''Radio Free Albemuth'' as ''[[VALIS]]'', Dick incorporated the plotline of ''Radio Free Albemuth'' as a backdrop film (also titled ''VALIS'') that recapitulated the central theological and existential concerns of his novel as a [[mise en abyme]] - that is, a miniature copy of his central preoccupations at this stage of his literary career, common to both works. The word "albemuth" was derived by Dick from the Arabic word Al Behemoth, "the whale", itself an oblique reference to [[Fomalhaut]], the star Dick at one time believed VALIS came from in real life.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gnosis.org/pkd.biography.html|title=Philip K. Dick Biography|work=gnosis.org}}</ref>

==Film adaptation==
{{main|Radio Free Albemuth (film)}}
John Alan Simon wrote, produced and directed a [[film adaptation]] of ''Radio Free Albemuth''. Canadian singer-songwriter [[Alanis Morissette]] stars as Sadassa Silvia. Filming took place in October 2007 at Los Angeles' Lacy Street Studios and multiple other locations. The film premiered in February 2010 at the Sedona Film Festival as a work in-progress. It was released as a limited release (and VOD) on June 27, 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2014/06/first-poster-philip-k-dicks-radio-free-albemuth-debuts/|title=First Poster For Philip K. Dick's RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH Debuts|author=Michelle McCue|work=We Are Movie Geeks|date=9 June 2014}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite web
 | author = [[Charles N. Brown]] and William G. Contento
 | title = The Locus Index to Science Fiction (1984-1998)
 | url = http://www.locusmag.com/index/b137.htm#A1817.104
 | access-date = 2008-01-14 }}

==External links==
*{{ISFDB title|id=9506}}

{{Philip K. Dick}}
[[Category:1985 American novels]]
[[Category:1976 science fiction novels]]
[[Category:American science fiction novels]]
[[Category:American alternate history novels]]
[[Category:Dystopian novels]]
[[Category:Fiction set in 1974]]
[[Category:Novels set in the 1970s]]
[[Category:Gnosticism in popular culture]]
[[Category:Novels published posthumously]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Science fiction novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Novels by Philip K. Dick]]
[[Category:Arbor House books]]