Helpful Score: 1
A wildly comic novel on one man's obsessive, trancendant vision, of secret ruling intelligences, ancient conspiracies and the Second Coming. Valis is a compelling testament of madness, love and hope that shatters the boundaries of science fiction to grapple with the nature of reality itself.
Helpful Score: 1
I think this could have been subtitled "The Gospel according to Philip K. Dick". Definitely one of the strangest and disturbing books I have read in some time. I don't know if I would classify this as sci-fi or as religious philosophy. Anyway, it was definitely thought-provoking! The book is also auto-biographical and expands on an event that happened to Dick in 1974. From Wikipedia:
On February 20, 1974, Dick was recovering from the effects of sodium pentothal administered for the extraction of an impacted wisdom tooth. Answering the door to receive delivery of extra analgesic, he noticed that the delivery woman was wearing a pendant with a symbol that he called the "vesicle pisces." This name seems to have been based on his conflation of two related symbols, the ichthys (two intersecting arcs delineating a fish in profile) that early Christians used as a secret symbol, and the vesica piscis. After the delivery woman's departure, Dick began experiencing strange visions. Although they may have been initially attributable to the medication, after weeks of visions he considered this explanation implausible. "I experienced an invasion of my mind by a transcendentally rational mind, as if I had been insane all my life and suddenly I had become sane," Dick told Charles Platt. Throughout February and March 1974, he experienced a series of visions, which he referred to as "2-3-74", shorthand for FebruaryMarch 1974. He described the initial visions as laser beams and geometric patterns, and, occasionally, brief pictures of Jesus and of ancient Rome. As the visions increased in length and frequency, Dick claimed he began to live a double life, one as himself, "Philip K. Dick", and one as "Thomas", a Christian persecuted by Romans in the 1st century A.D. He referred to the "transcendentally rational mind" as "Zebra", "God" and "VALIS." Dick wrote about the experiences, first in the semi-autobiographical novel Radio Free Albemuth and then in VALIS, The Divine Invasion, and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, i.e., the VALIS trilogy.
The book tries to address some of the immortal questions such as Is God trying to communicate with us? Is Life and Death just an illusion? Is the second-coming (or is it the 5th or 7th coming) near at hand? VALIS was a difficult read at first and left you wondering about many unanswerable questions.
On February 20, 1974, Dick was recovering from the effects of sodium pentothal administered for the extraction of an impacted wisdom tooth. Answering the door to receive delivery of extra analgesic, he noticed that the delivery woman was wearing a pendant with a symbol that he called the "vesicle pisces." This name seems to have been based on his conflation of two related symbols, the ichthys (two intersecting arcs delineating a fish in profile) that early Christians used as a secret symbol, and the vesica piscis. After the delivery woman's departure, Dick began experiencing strange visions. Although they may have been initially attributable to the medication, after weeks of visions he considered this explanation implausible. "I experienced an invasion of my mind by a transcendentally rational mind, as if I had been insane all my life and suddenly I had become sane," Dick told Charles Platt. Throughout February and March 1974, he experienced a series of visions, which he referred to as "2-3-74", shorthand for FebruaryMarch 1974. He described the initial visions as laser beams and geometric patterns, and, occasionally, brief pictures of Jesus and of ancient Rome. As the visions increased in length and frequency, Dick claimed he began to live a double life, one as himself, "Philip K. Dick", and one as "Thomas", a Christian persecuted by Romans in the 1st century A.D. He referred to the "transcendentally rational mind" as "Zebra", "God" and "VALIS." Dick wrote about the experiences, first in the semi-autobiographical novel Radio Free Albemuth and then in VALIS, The Divine Invasion, and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, i.e., the VALIS trilogy.
The book tries to address some of the immortal questions such as Is God trying to communicate with us? Is Life and Death just an illusion? Is the second-coming (or is it the 5th or 7th coming) near at hand? VALIS was a difficult read at first and left you wondering about many unanswerable questions.
