Valis

Rating:
Summary: Arcane Religious Philosophy as Schizophrenic Quasi-Biography
Review: This book comes from the later stages of PKD's career, when he probably didn't even care about making his books accessible to the masses. That's something that up-and-comers have to do, and by this point PKD was surely trying to sort out his own personal philosophies in narrative form. You can see the websites for several different PKD fan clubs for speculation on what was going through his mind when he wrote this one. Here we have musings on religious visions, spiritual quests, and arcane ancient Greek and Gnostic Christian philosophies. Obviously one would also suspect experimentation in the arts of mind expansion, though in real life (if such a thing exists) PKD hated to be branded in that way. These are all played out by the typically off-center characters and curveball speculative plotlines of classic PKD.

This book can be quite frustrating at times, with long philosophical passages that are merely a mishmash of ideas PKD had come across in his personal studies, and that lead to philosophy overload but with little direction or grand overall insight to be found. Plus you have to wonder if this book is a literal or merely mental autobiography, or not an autobiography at all but one of PKD's subversive storytelling techniques, designed to warp the reader's mind. This book is told in both first and third person by the same character, a schizophrenic with two personalities that operate simultaneously and even interact with each other (a feature of several PKD stories). Here one of the two selves is the increasingly insane Horselover Fat and the other is his sane alter ego, who happens to be the author PKD himself. Ultimately, the mass philosophical confusion of this novel morphs into sheer fascination, albeit in a pretty cluttered way.

Note that the make-believe movie seen by the characters in this book was expanded by PKD into another novel - *Radio Free Albemuth* - which was not published during his lifetime. A story within a story within a quasi-mental-autobiography, as it were.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhere between Vonnegut and Eco
Review: This is a very funny, strange, and thought-provoking book. Philip K. Dick's world is somewhere between those of Umberto Eco (there is a lot of theology here) and Kurt Vonnegut (surreal 1970s setting). The main character, with the unlikely name of Horselover Fat, is confronted with the fact that the universe is fundamentally irrational when a friend of his commits suicide. This flaw in the universe then proceeds to destroy Fat's sanity. He believes he has an encounter with god -- a perfect, gnostic god who exists outside of the flawed universe who has transmitted knowledge directly into his head by means of a pink laser.

The ideal reader for this book should be a person who has studied theology at the college level, and who has an open mind. It is a very entertaining book with a lot of insight into our strange world, but it is by no means easy.

Rating:
Summary: The World behind the World.
Review: I believe that this is the third time that I've read this book. It isn't that I find it that hard to understand, it is just that it is so dense with meaning that I feel compelled to glean it over and over to see if I missed anything.
The basic premise of the book is that a transcedent God (or Vast Acive Living Intelligence System) not only exists, but periodically "breaks through" into our own material world "the Black Iron Prison." If we are receptive, or desperate enough, it makes itself known (i.e. grants "gnosis"- the knowlege of the true state of things.) I consider Dick to be an expert on Gnosis, afterall, it actually happened to him. You see this story is semi-autobiographical. Considering the hell that the protagonist, Horselover Fat, goes through in his interactions with a totally incompetent mental health bureaucracy, and a completely dysfunctional social and family life, you hope that it isn't too close to his actual life. Still, it was no doubt this living hell (coupled with his drug abuse) that led to his epiphany. This is somewhat like true shamanic inititiation- the ordeal either kills you, or you break through the veil of this prison world into the "real" world beyond.
Actually, it is the ideas imbedded in this novel that are it's true worth. These are best expressed in _The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings_ by the same publisher.
One other thing, if you watch the film _The Matrix_ and then read this book, you get the inexcapable feeling that the "world behind the world" plot line is straight out of P.K.D....

Rating:
Summary: Not a conventional sci-fi
Review: You'll be able to tell from the other reviews here that this novel is one of those that people will either love or hate. I can appreciate and understand that. It is one of those books. Having said that, I think that if it's read with the reader forewarned that this is not a conventional sci-fi novel, then there is a greater chance of enjoyment.

I read this many years ago having borrowed the entire Valis trilogy from a friend thinking - "Philip K. Dick, yeah, he writes science fiction, therefore this must be science fiction". It is, no doubt about it, but it's quite unlike any other sci-fi I've read. The first time I read this, it was an effort and for the most part I didn't enjoy it much. I didn't really think that it was sci-fi then, and felt cheated.
Then I got to the last few chapters and it all began to gell for me. The exegesis which is liberally littered throughout the main body of the novel was re-printed at the end, and it all made sense to me there, when it hadn't in the piecemeal form.
Subsequently reading about PKD and the problems he faced from 1974 onwards just makes this book even more special. Once you realise that it's semi-autobiographical it almost becomes something different. This actually prompted me to read Valis again, and this time it completely blew me away.
I've read it again since that, and I think it was the most enjoyable yet. The only problem(??) then was having to continue on to read the Divine Invasion and the Transmigration of Timothy Archer, which complete the trilogy.

It's not a good place to start if you've not read PKD before, but it is one of his best (IMO). His dark wit shines through at times, and so do the moments of dark depression. It comes across to me as a work of love, and also a catharsis. Valis was certainly something that obsessed PKD for many years. I understand why, I almost find myself looking for signs of Valis sometimes, especially after a particularly unlikely coincidence or synchronous event.

All that said I'd just like to re-iterate that this is not a conventional sci-fi novel. It can be read on many different levels, but be prepared to jump into the deep end of the philosophical pool. Otherwise, stay down the shallow end and read Harry Potter or Dr. Who novels instead.

Rating:
Summary: Everyone else is crazy not me.
Review: I thought the novel had a great premise. I am insane. I know I am insane, but I am going to prove what I am thinking. Then if you believe me, maybe your not as sane as you think. I read the novel...

Rating:
Summary: Again
Review: I have reviewed this novel already, but here I am reviewing it again, and rating it the same. Why would I do this? - well, it's because I have just reread 'Valis'. In the time since my last reading of the novel I guess I have changed, I have learned more about myself and more about Philip Dick. But this novel is still mightily intriguing despite the pages of obscure philosophising which, to use another reviewer's expression, I just don't get. But then I have said that before - admitted it - and speculated that the novel like the universe itself may not be knowable at any specified level of detail.

I admire the works of Philip Dick. I like this novel, but I do not think that it is his masterwork and wouldn't recommend it as a first read of the author - it is too complex, has too many shifts of perspective. But, for the reviewer who saw it a amateurish with unacceptable shifts from first to third person - I guess they just didn't get the fact that Philip, the author himself, is a character and even more important is his alter ego, Horselover Fat. Philip gets 'cured' of Horselover, but before the end of the novel Horselover is back, suddenly reappearing ever so gently, as if he had never really gone.

When we read a novel like 'A Passage to India' (Forster) we are often left with a key outstanding puzzle. In 'A Passage to India' we ask if the alleged assault did take place in the caves on the ill-fated expedition into the Indian hills. For the reasons of a novel, one question is enough to generate a whole world of incidents and speculations. And at the end, we may still be no closer to a definitive answer (I read somewhere that Forster himself claimed that he did not really know the answer - perhaps, perhaps not).

Of course life is not like that. We are all enmeshed in a Universe of the inexplicable - things we have to rationalise so that we can get on with our lives. It seems to me that Philip Dick, while concentrating on key issues for himself - such as what is real, and how can we separate reality from fantasy or misperception - immerses his writing with many of life's mysteries. Consequently I expect from his writing a fair degree of chaos - not answers, but questions. And I also expect that the speculations of my mind as I read his works are probably different to any other reader. I recommend that you explore the works of Philip Dick - he is not a labour to read - and take yourself on your own journey of discovery. Philip Dick was certainly a great guide even if he had far more questions than answers. And, ultimately all answers must come from within ourselves - it is we who have to make conclusions and assimilate points of view.

Rating:
Summary: geek fodder
Review: In the good old days books like this would be published in installments to make up the printed word minimum that qualified pornos as magazines and not art (which has a higher shipping cost). These days guys like PKD get awards named after them! They get compared to Kafka and are credited with revolutionizing entire industries of thought! Vonnegut fans: this guy IS Kilgore Trout. Great ideas... Sorry delivery. Still, this is his best work. Valis is what happens to a smart, paranoid sci-fi writer who is abducted by aliens: even smarter, more paranoid sci-fi! It's about this guy who, in meeting with an extraterrestrial, decides that he's unlocked the secret to modern human history. And it's a hell of a secret. The Roman Empire... it never ended. Here's proof. Sort of.

Rating:
Summary: absolute page-turner
Review: amazing master of sarcasm and symbolism, blended with a host of themes and ideas that occasionally make sense. the first time through the book was less a intellectual exercise for me than it was an emotional one. i really enjoyed some of his other, more coherent novels such as flow my tears and 3 stigmata, but this is a jewel in its own way. read it and let pkd play with your mind for a while.

Rating:
Summary: un-readable
Review: This book is an OBNOXIOUS RAMBLING of a man with MAJOR problems. And it is rendered even more inpenetrable via its form as a pseudo sci-fi novel. If you need a book that describes PKD Becoming a lecherous old man, and the insanity that escorted him to an early mortal stroke, Read one of the biography's about him by another author. They are more interesting and probley more truthful because PKD was extremely paranoid (Amp?), which was the creative juice of his heyday novels but was his undoing after '72. Also he tended to either lie or misfire regarding personal information. The book Valis is less digestable than the worst ramblings of an average madman. I dont see how it was accepted for publication at all( Mabey they figured after such a long hiatus, they could sell copies of a "new anything" by the original master of 'noid sci-fi). I found the originally rejected prototype of this novel called " radio free albumuth "(1976) much more enjoyable, even with its hokey mystery plotline. Poor Philip, the ladies man, doomed from the start
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Rating:
Summary: Valis
Review: Half the time I was reading this book I was confused. The other half I was annoyed. Despite this, I was unable to put it down. This book twisted my mind in every direction and left me disoriented and wanting more.