Valis
by Philip K. Dick
Book Summary Information
Author: Philip K. DickEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1991-07-02
ISBN: 0679734465
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Vintage
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780679734468
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of Valis
Book Review: God in search of man
Summary: 4 Stars
I approach this piece with fear and trembling. It's probably the most controversial novel of Philip K. Dick's career; if he had lived it doubtless would have boded a fundamental change in his style and themes. Some consider it such an inspired work of genius that it's practically a book of scripture - others say it's the most boring novel ever produced by a major writer. Step lightly as we peer in.
Look around carefully - it's not exactly science fiction, but it certainly isn't plain mainstream work. For the first several pages it concerns a figure named Horselover Fat, of whom the narrator informs us that he starts going crazy when a friend of his commits suicide. Tragic, but fairly standard fictional stuff, apart from the protagonist's name. Then we smack into the statement "I am Horselover Fat", and we have to start wondering whether this is the author speaking for himself or some fictional narrator playing tricks on us. Don't hold your breath - you are not going to find out.
You're going to find out plenty of other things, though, such as the fact that "Horselover Fat" is a clear pseudonym for Philip K. Dick himself, since "Horselover" is a translation of the Greek name "Philip", and "Fat" the English equivalent of the German "Dick". So far, we have three PKD's - the author of the novel, its narrator, and its subject. There's more going on here than meets the eye, but after all, this is PKD. You didn't come in here expecting reliable surface appearances, I hope. In any case, this protagonist seems at least as confused about his identity as you and I are.
When a loved friend commits suicide, surely a person needs to spend some time trying to fathom it. In "VALIS", Horselover Fat seizes the opportunity to construct an entire cosmology, a sometimes desperate effort to believe in a meaningful universe where good people kill themselves. Some later experiences convince him that his new, enlightened understanding of reality has been beamed directly into his brain by God Himself, via a Vast Active Living Intelligence System. VALIS. Which sounds like a lot of hooey to all of his friends and to the narrator of this novel, until evidence begins to arise that Fat may be right. So what do you say when a drug-eating lunatic relates to reality more powerfully than you do?
There's a great deal to say on the subject, which is part of the problem with "VALIS". The middle chapters are full of Horselover Fat's notes on what God, or VALIS, has revealed, and his discussions with friends about the same. So you read and read, gradually realizing that this is one of those novels with little or no story as such, and you start to get into the philosophical and religious constructs in view, and then about 50 or so pages before the end you crash into a plot. Kind of knocks the wind out of you.
It's almost like PKD began this novel as a way to work out his feelings of rage and helplessness, then at some point said "Oh, wait a minute, I'm supposed to be writing a story!" Sounds pretty disorganized, but a good portion of this material first showed up in the earlier "Radio Free Albemuth", unpublished during the author's lifetime. That being so, we have to assume that PKD had his ideas pretty well worked out when he started on "VALIS", but it can take a lot of digging to prove the truth of that assumption. Nevertheless, and despite the apparently loose construction, "VALIS" shows definite signs of careful authorial shaping.
For instance, PKD played "pull the rug out from under the reader" plenty of times in earlier novels, but never with such subtlety as he did here. As narrator, he claims that he is Horselover Fat, dividing himself as a way of working out his pain, and with every page Fat and "Phil" get farther apart. You find yourself coming to accept them as separate characters. Then, within the story itself, the two characters unite again and you realize you've been tricked. The astonishing part is that the trick doesn't seem cruel or cheap - instead, it's a form of healing.
There's another force at work here that shows PKD's control over his story. It's very easy for an author to perform narrative experiments, or stuff loads of philosophical ideas into a story (that's not even necessarily a bad thing, as fans of "The Da Vinci Code" know), but those kinds of maneuvers tend to reduce a novel's emotional punch. The narrative tricks and exposition in "VALIS", on the contrary, actually add force to the wallop, maybe because it feels earned. If you process the hard stuff and really try to understand it, the feeling in the work means more. A passage early on tells us that for two months after his friend's suicide, Horselover Fat "cried and watched TV". Any author who can pack that much loneliness and grief into four words is doing something right - somehow that little passage made me want to jump into the book and give the guy a big hug. There's really not enough of that sort of thing in "VALIS", but there's just about enough.
In short, as many a knowledgeable authority said, Philip K. Dick was a national treasure because he found a way to examine deep and sometime dangerous issues in a popular format - in a word, pulp science fiction. That's certainly true here. More than just about any other PKD novel, though, "VALIS" requires a couple of readings to sink in - like a lot of great literature (and I use the word advisedly), this book makes you work. On one level, that's a weakness. On another, considering what's available in this book, to what better use could you devote your reading time?
Benshlomo says, God speaks - all you have to do is listen.
Summary of Valis
VALIS, the disorienting and eeerily funny centerpiece of Dick's final trilogy, is part science fiction, part theological detective story, in which God is both missing person and the perpetrator of the ultimate crime.The first of Dick's three final novels (the others are Divine Invasion and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer). Known as science fiction only for lack of a better category, "Valis" takes place in our world and may even be semi-autobiographical.
The proponent of the novel, Horselover Fat, is thrust into a theological quest when he receives communion in a burst of pink laser light. From the cancer ward of a bay area hospital to the ranch of a fraudulent charismatic religious figure who turns out to have a direct com link with God, Dick leads us down the twisted paths of Gnostic belief, mixed with his own bizarre and compelling philosophy. Truly an eye opening look at the nature of consciousness and divinity.
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