September 12, 2009
Time travel and the Last Khan of Mongolia
“Insanity is sometimes an appropriate response to reality” — or at least that’s what late cult sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick used to say, and his grim vision of the future continues to resonate with the reading and viewing public. Smash early-1980s movie hit (and popular late-night re-run) Blade Runner, after all, was based on one of his novels. We of course do mention Dick in our forthcoming book, in the context of the one time machine in existence (hint: it’s a place, not a mechanical device). However, I’m not sure I agree with Dick on his point about madness as a sensible personal choice. Still, given the way the 20th century unfolded, with gulags and gas chambers, it’s all the more impressive that so many were able to face terrible circumstances with both courage and sanity (and even, at times, sanctity).
Then there are those who lost their grip: a fascinating example is the subject of a new biography of the “Last Khan of Mongolia” — Baron Roman Fyodorovich von Ungern-Sternberg. Author James Palmer tells the story of a young Baltic German officer (see photo at right) in the Imperial Russian army, who, in the chaos and horror following the Bolshevik revolution, becomes a totally unhinged freelance warlord in the East. Ungern-Sternberg ended up a general, a madman, a semi-divine Mongol khan — and the target of a Red Army firing squad, who executed him in 1921. He remains (literally) a minor deity in parts of the country, and photos at house-shrines show him wearing a uniform of his own creation: a Mongolian tunic called a deel, with Romanov shoulderboards. My own father survived Soviet deportation to Siberia, so I’m familiar with the geographic backdrop to the narrative. An interesting and ultimately sad story, for those who can stomach it.
(Details on the Ungern-Sternberg biography: The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia
Philip K. Dick is rather less well known for his “pink beam” experience, wherein he was transfixed by a pink beam in his Orange County apartment. The Apostle Paul received a blinding light. Dick received a pink beam. Go figure. While transfixed he received a chunk of information that took him 10 years to purge from his brain in his massive, 10,000 page handwritten “exegesis”. This information came from, he believed, VALIS, a “vast, active, living intelligence system” from somewhere out there. After VALIS, Dick’s work became even more “out there” and yet even more real. Surprisingly, numerous Catholic fundamentals were supported in the encoding Dick received from VALIS. This I know firsthand from my work with the Philip K. Dick Society in 1985. In his final work, published posthumously, Dick was intent on setting forth many of the lessons from Valis. Surprisingly, however, the book was said to be “incomplete” and subsequently had to be “finished” by the estate executor, and the Catholicity has somehow gone missing from the final revision (the executor, an old pal who enjoyed sharing an occasional horse tranquilizer with Dick, was teaching classes on how to “talk to rocks” at that time).
As regards the last Khan, Dick would not be surprised, being that he was never hesitant to expose the lordship of self-appointed chieftans over the various tribes of the earth, and the horrific dangers they represent, which are being uniquely beset upon us even now. I am sure he is basking in his pink beam somewhere saying “I told you so”.
Yes, the Catholicising aspects of Dick’s work are pretty much ignored (though I had the chance to touch on them in my “Ghost in the Android,” Science Fiction Review, May 1992). At various times he expressed surprisingly orthodox sentiments.
I have always found the “Mad Baron” an immensely fascinating fellow. His dreams went far beyond merely conquering Mongolia- he intended to restore both the Romanovs to Russia and Puyi to Imperial China, and create a pan-Oriental Empire. He supported neither the White or the Red Armies, plundering the supply-trains of both. He did manage to briefly restore the Bogd Khan in Ulaan Baator, as a puppet monarch with himself as dictator, but he was eventually ousted by the Red Army and turned over by his own troops.
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