VALIS

Very confusing and somewhat annoying at first since the author seemed to keep repeating himself on many points. As the story developed though, I realized that it was all a very well-planned storytelling device. By the time I finished this book, I realized how thoroughly it had pulled me onto the crazy edge that the author was dancing on while writing the story. Very, very clever Mr. Dick!

“A question we had to learn to deal with during the dope decade was, How do you break the news to someone that his brains are fried?” So says the first-person narrator in VALIS, Philip K. Dick’s autobiographical novel of spiritual odyssey, a novel where the narrator begins by laying out the major issues he must deal with as he attempts to gain a measure of sanity along with a sense of purpose and the meaning of life: drugs, a desire to help others, the pull of insanity, suicide and death, time and place (Northern California in the 60s), split-identity (the narrator alternately identifies and disidentifies with one Horselover Fat), God and occlusion (he receives otherworldly messages via a beam of pink light prompting him to show more explore ancient Gnosticism) – all in all a 60s California-style version of the novels of Hermann Hesse, novels like Siddhartha, Damion and Steppenwolf. What a wild ride. For example, here is a list of what I see as the top ten conundrums we are asked to ponder:

One - Theophany
The narrator explains how a theophany is self-disclosure by the divine, in other words, a theophany isn’t something we do; rather, a theophany is something the divine – the God or gods, the higher powers – does to us. The intense pink beam of light experienced by the narrator’s persona Horselover Fat was just such a theophany. But, then, the question invariably arises: how are we to know if we received a true theophany or are suffering from an illusion?

Two - When your theophany goes against the grain of the conventional
One of the most fascinating and hilarious parts of the novel is the narrator’s therapy session with Maurice, a Hasidic Jew. In his session, Horselover Fat contrasts the ‘true’ God, the God of the Gnostics, the God of his pink ray of light, with the ‘flawed’ God of Genesis. Maurice’s reaction to such an esoteric explanation of the universe makes for lively reading, a highpoint of insight into the rocky spiritual challenges faced by our narrator.

Three - When your discover others share your theophany
Turns out, there are a number of other people who have had a similar theophany from the true Gnostic God. Horselover Fat’s encounter with these men and women challenges his very idea of sanity since he observes just how far zealots will go in their zealotry.

Four – How to deal with your theophany once it starts to wear off
From the novel: “They ought to make it a binding clause that if you find God you get to keep him. For Fat, finding God (if indeed he did find God) became, ultimately, a bummer, a constantly diminishing supply of joy, sinking lower and lower like the contents of a bag of uppers.” Darn, if only God were as readily available as drugs.

Five – When you encounter the many sides of you
As Harry Haller of Hesse’s Steppenwolf experiences the many facets of his personal identity in the Magic Theater, so, in the course this novel, PKD (yes, again, a very autobiographical work) discovers the many sides of PKD. How many versions are there? Feel free to round to the nearest dozen.

Six – The concept of time
Is someone or something playing a board game with time and we humans as mere players? Can time be abolished and transcended? If so, how do we go about it?

Seven – Zebra, that is, pure living intelligence, so called by Horselover Fat
Can an out-of-cosmos intelligence contact humans? This question is related to the possibility of a true theophany.

Eight - The presence of evil in the universe
Is there an answer to Kevin’s pressing question: What about my dead cat? In other words, why do bad things happen to good cats or why is there evil in the world?

Nine – The Exegesis
An exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of scripture or a sacred text. VALIS includes many entries from PKD’s thousand page exegesis published as a separate book. The question looms: would PKD have expanded his exegesis to several more thousands of pages had he lived to age 90? My own guess is definitely ‘yes’, since once you start to unravel the mysteries of the universe according to your own schemata, three questions pop up for every answer you offer. Ah, the mysteries of the universe!

Ten – What is VALIS?
Sure, it stands for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, but where does it fit into the novel? I wouldn’t want to spoil this question by providing an answer. You will have to read it for yourself. Once again, novel reading as a wild magic carpet ride. I recommend you hop on. show less

Dizzyingly layered; demands to be re-read, but not until my head has stopped swimming.

Whether you buy-in to Dick's religious/philosophical position or not, there's certainly lots to think about and, if you make it through to the end, it will stay with you for a long time.

As is usual with PKD, there's much here about the nature and perception of reality and what it is to be human. There's a big chunk of auto-biography and painful honesty. Where PKD deals with characters, they are by turns funny, infuriating, warm, pitiful and frightening. There's also big chunks of religious and philosophical exposition (much of which went over my head, hence the need to re-read), so it's not a book I'd recommend for everyone. If you haven't read PKD show more before, it's probably better to start with something else and come to this in 5 to 10 book's time. show less

Update 5/13/17:
I had to dive back into VALIS because certain tales continue to resonate with me... and this one is still one of the very most important.

Who knows? Maybe I am just a crazy as PKD because I'm obsessed with the perception of reality, holographic universes, the edict of "As Above, So Below", and the nature of consciousness.

Or maybe I'm just a naturally curious person that happens to be heavily stimulated by PKD's intelligence, his humility, his sincerity, and his travails.

Any way that I look at it, however, I am still in awe of this man's writing. This one more than all his other novels, in fact, for the way he bleeds all over the page with his personal experiences, his deep searching, and his willingness to look show more practically everywhere for an answer.

So beautiful. Of course, after all these years, I can now see this as the capstone to the great pyramid of his other works and words. From [b:Ubik|22590|Ubik|Philip K. Dick|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327995569s/22590.jpg|62929] and the nature of reality, to [b:Galactic Pot-Healer|498123|Galactic Pot-Healer|Philip K. Dick|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355312972s/498123.jpg|880753] for both the genetic regression and memory, and even to [b:The Man in the High Castle|216363|The Man in the High Castle|Philip K. Dick|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1448756803s/216363.jpg|2398287] for the alternate dimension mystery... for which all four of his last novels tie so well together.

I disagree with the blurb, of course. It wasn't a trilogy.

There were four, with [b:The Divine Invasion|216398|The Divine Invasion|Philip K. Dick|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355321647s/216398.jpg|1399387] exploring the return of Elijiah and how Sophia and the Logos reworks reality and the Earth, [b:The Transmigration of Timothy Archer|106585|The Transmigration of Timothy Archer|Philip K. Dick|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355321809s/106585.jpg|449786] for the exploration of immortality in the form of a mystical mushroom and Pike (otherwise the most down-to-earth and charming of the tied-in-books), and [b:Radio Free Albemuth|226475|Radio Free Albemuth|Philip K. Dick|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355312826s/226475.jpg|762914] which has the closest ties to VALIS out of the entire bunch since it IS the story of Brady from the movie VALIS and his troubles with president Faris F. Freemont in the police state that was the Black Iron Prison. :)

All of these diverse novels sprang, fully formed, from the brainchild that was VALIS. So rich a novel!

*shiver*

It's easily one of my favorites of all time. :)



Old Review:

This book has everything except plot. I still love the fraking hell out of it. As a mind experiment gone horribly, horribly awry, I felt myself slipping into PKD's mindset and taking every point seriously, as you could just tell that he was. It felt like the ramblings of a man who had gone through something he couldn't explain and did his damned awful best to figure it out, but that includes religious horror, classical Greek authors, a ton of philosophy, and a life that is falling apart.
I've since read his Exegesis, or at least the edited parts of it, but I was personally horrified by his own accounting of the Exegesis that he was currently writing at the time of, and within, this novel. A million words. Ten novel's worth. All densely populated with thought experiments, rationalizations, religious thought, humor, self-deprecation, and so much more.

Knowing what I know now hasn't diminished my respect for this novel, just given it more dimension. At the time I first read it, I honestly thought that PKD had specifically picked this highly intellectual, spooky, crazy method to tell a story in a novel, while using himself as a split personality as a foil. I thought it was Brilliant. I know now that he just took out a lot of his salient points from the exegesis and made a slapped together novel. That being said, it still doesn't deplete the depth and the density of this great novel.

I shook myself after reading it the first time and sat around dazed for a day. If I'm going to rank my favorite novels by the effects they had upon me, by their lasting effects upon my life, then I'm going to slap this one up near the very top. It still gives me shivers, and it made me feel small in a huge world of thought.

I've since read all of the authors that he name-dropped, and have explored the catacombs, and can rebut and argue with PKD now; but first I had to be bitch-slapped by this great man before I could get back up and try again.

It was NOT an easy read, but it was a fairly short novel. It was also a heart-wrenching piece to get through, as well. More than all of this, it was also an extremely rewarding piece of fiction, if you're willing to put the effort into not only it, but into PKD's thoughts and your own growth as a person. show less

I don't know how to feel about this book. At it's best, it turned my mind into a mush and rearranged it, deepened my appreciation for the mentally different, had me looking anew at basic aspects of my reality, and was just a plain good time.

In other moments, I had no idea what was happening and had to confidently trudge forward, hoping to reconnect with the book and with where Dick was trying to go.

And this is where I think he was trying to get to, or at least one thing he was trying to get to: that through the avoidance of emotional pain, one often vaults into the mystical stratosphere in an unconscious effort to continue to avoid that pain. There is a disconnection there. And maybe there is some benefit to blasting off into that show more mystical stratosphere and something beautiful and divine is witnessed there. Or maybe it is just continued avoidance of the pain with no tangible benefit, and with the downside of being severely disconnected from reality.

I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but I will reread it at some point. So that says something. show less

In 1974, a schizophrenic drug addict named Horselover Fat attempts suicide after a close friend succeeds at it. While struggling with guilt over her loss, Horselover is struck by an enigmatic beam of pink light that he attributes to a deity known as Zebra.

Afterwards, he experiences visions of the Roman Empire and gains detailed insight into early gnostic Christianity, which he chronicles in his exegesis. Horselover also credits the light for imparting crucial medical information that saves the life of his son, Christopher. A short time later, however, his wife Beth leaves him, taking Christopher with her.

Through all of this, Horselover's friends—David, Kevin, and Phil K. Dick—believe that he is insane, until Kevin persuades the show more group to see an independent science fiction movie called VALIS, playing at a small theatre in town. The film, about an alien satellite called Vast Active Living Intelligence System, contains overt and subliminal messages that correspond to Horselover’s experiences after encountering the pink light. Convinced now that Horselover’s account was legitimate, the four friends take up a quest to contact the filmmakers in the hopes of learning the truth about VALIS and the information it revealed to Horselover.

It is explained at the beginning of the story that Horselover Fat might be Phil K. Dick projecting his inner turmoil into a second personality. Either way, VALIS is one of the most bizarre, engaging, imaginative, and occasionally disturbing novels I’ve ever read and could have been conjured only from the mind of Phil K. Dick. show less

GNOSTIC SCHIZO EXISTENTIAL SURREAL SF MASTERPIECE

I cannot review VALIS objectively, as it is a book that belongs to no known genre or pre-existing category, combining as it does elements of autobiography, philosophy, science-fiction, gnostic theology, psychoanalysis, and existential self-construction. Like the posthumously published EXEGESIS, it takes its origin in the need to understand respond to the events of February and March 1974 (which he called 2-3-74). Dick was irradiated by a brilliant pink light emanating from a Christian fish-symbol (ichthys) necklace worn by a young woman. He had a series of visions over the next two months, and spent the rest of his life trying to understand them.The novel splits Dick into two characters: show more the narrator, Philip K. Dick, a moderately successful science-fiction writer; and Horselover Fat his crazy illuminated friend, to whom the visions arrived, and whose life became a quest to resolve their enigma.

The principal framework of explanation is a science-fictional variant of gnostic cosmology in which this universe has been constructed by a false, evil and crazy, god, which explains all the irrationality and the suffering that it contains. The world is the Black Iron Prison, and we are its suffering prisoners. The true God is outside the universe and breaking through to heal it and us in various ways, including the pink light that Dick experienced. After recounting many surreal experiences and visions the book ends with the narrator, Philip K. Dick, sitting before the TV, watching and waiting. He is clear that this is his way of continuing the search and keeping to his mission: keeping awake and open.

I think many of us experience moments of revelatory intensity and also of intense despair at the emprisonment of our daily lives and of our very selves. I first read VALIS in 1981, when it first came out. I was all alone in a student room in a god-forsaken empty outer suburb of Paris, unable to speak French, dreaming repeatedly of being shut up in a prison that was shrinking and squashing me out of existence. I empathised with the Gnostics and with their idea of this life as a prison. I read VALIS and it spoke to me instantly and deeply.

My own "pink light" came at a moment of extreme existential and intellectual isolation in my birthplace, in Sydney: I read Deleuze and Guattari's ANTI-OEDIPUS, and it changed my life. I left Sydney for Paris, attended Deleuze's lectures for 6 years, and finally took on French nationality and settled down as an English teacher on the French Riviera. And I'm still trying to understand what happened to me. We all have our "pink light" at least once in our life.

Dick's novel opens with the beginnings of his eventual crack-up and suicide attempt:

"Horselover Fat's nervous breakdown began the day he got the phonecall from Gloria asking if he had any Nembutals. He asked her why she wanted them and she said that she intended to kill herself".

This is no message from a divine light, but the beginning of a soul-destroying relationship with a toxic, thanatotic individual, whose name "Gloria" is an ironic mockery of her real state and aims. However, the novel ends with an optimistic phonecall from Horselover Fat reporting on his quest to find the 5th Messiah:

"one day I got a phonecall from Horselover Fat: a phonecall from Tokyo. He sounded healthy and excited and full of energy, and amused at my surprise to be hearing from him".

The split between Dick and Fat continues, but now it enriches his life instead of despairing it. Eros has come to win out over thanatos. After all the speculations and synchronicities, after all the encounters both toxic and salvific, there is no final explanation, only a new sense of optimism and openness:

"My search kept me at home; I sat before the TV set in my living room. I sat; I waited; I watched; I kept myself awake. As we had been told, originally, long ago, to do; I kept my commission". show less