VALIS by Philip K. Dick

 Refinished Sa 6/25/22

This is part of one of my trade paperbacks that contains all of 'The Valis Trilogy'; VALIS, THE DIVINE INVASION, THE TRANSMIGRATION OF TIMOTHY ARCHER.

Over the decades I've read this several times and always find something new.

Beth- wife

Christopher- son  "Pink Light"

Sign of the Fish could signify The Double Helix

Kevin's dead cat- Why did god allow this to happen?

Gloria- addict; suicide

Sherri- cancer; sadomasochistic tendencies

'Valis' the movie; MOTHER GOOSE (Rock Band- Eric & Linda Lampton)

Ferris Freemont (Richard Nixon)

***From a reader at Goodreads:

"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 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 high point 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."