I don't feel like I can give this a rating as I don't think I actually understood all that much of it. I struggled to get through the first half and would only read a few pages at a time as much of it just didn't make any sense to me. The second half seemed to have a bit more of a plot developing and I got through it much much quicker but still didn't particularly enjoy it all that much. Maybe someday I'll reread this and see it in a different light but for the time being I'm just quite relieved to have finally finished it.

"Valis" is one of those books that carves open your skull and craps fourth-dimension self-transofrming machine elves into your brain. It's one of those rare things that not only transcends its medium (the novel), but has a pyschoactive effect on the observer (the reader). This book is drugs.

This book is intense. It is about a schizophrenic junkie that gets "God" beamed into his head by a laser. He calls God "Zebra." It is funny at times. Valis is apparently based on a real life experience that Philip K. Dick had during the same time as the character had it in the book. The main character seems completely crazy to all of his friends, but he is very much onto something.

dude is crazy

https://jdcloughblog.wordpress.com/2018/04/04/philip-k-dick-valis/

VALIS is beaten only by The Third Policeman to the title of most psychedelic novel I’ve ever read. However, where The Third Policeman delivered unrelenting, perfectly constructed surrealism, Philip K Dick’s VALIS instead takes the reader into a world of actual insanity imposed onto something that may or may not resemble reality. VALIS is essentially Dick’s autobiography of madness. In spite of his madness, Dick’s relentless intelligence and creativity shines through, leaving a tale replete with spiritual experience, conspiracy, and disconcertingly well-realised rationalisations.

It’s impossible not to be drawn in by Dick’s idiosyncratic, vast and lively intellect. This is the first novel I’ve come across with footnotes citing Plato, extended quotations from the likes of Schopenhauer, and protracted, wild analyses of ancient mythology and Christian theology. All this intellectualism is intended to give a sort of credence to Horselover Fat’s – aka Philip K Dick’s – absolutely whacked theory of time, space, the creation of the universe and the existence of the supernatural. To a significant extent it’s totally baffling, at times bordering on total nonsense. However, I found it fascinating to see the inner workings of a mind so unusual. It was also a reminder that however irrational and bizarre people’s views of the world may seem, they often have a somewhat tangible internal logic. Thinking about it, Horselover Fat’s exegesis isn’t drastically more crazy than many religious doctrines which continue to enjoy broad acceptance across the world.

The fact is that we can’t easily disregard all that happens to Horselover as psychotic machinations. Dick really did have an all-encompassing hallucinatory experience lasting over a month in which, among other things, he believed he was being communicated to by a transcendent external intelligence. As in the novel, this intelligence – which Horselover ascribes to God – correctly informed him in detail of an undetected life-threatening health problem with his child – probably saving the child’s life. I’ve no interest in indulging in supernatural speculation, and I’ve no doubt the positivist priests of our demythologized culture would be quick to come up with a fairly meaningless ‘rational explanation’ for all of Dick or Horselover’s extremely bizarre and vivid experiences. I don’t think such explanations matter. From a psychological perspective I found it interesting to see the ‘proofs’ we can find to provide legitimacy for what may or may not be delusions. From the perspective of the novel, I loved the way Dick embedded ‘real’ experience with the indulgent flights into the seemingly more apparent terrain of science fiction. It was an extremely effective and unique way of treating reality in a novel. Rather than demanding of his readers a conventional suspension of reality, in VALIS Dick instead demands his readers to question reality, to be puzzled by it for the duration of the novel, and to absolutely receive no resolution by the end.

So far I’ve been skirting around the actual content of Horselover’s exegesis, not least because I feel woefully ill equipped to attempt to even succinctly summarize his worldview. Given that it’s the main subject of the novel, however, it really needs discussing. As mentioned, there are vast swathes of discussions focused on esoteric elements from both Eastern and Western mythology and theology, coupled with baffling science and hints of Soviet brainwashing. At the core, however, is Horselover’s perception of God, which is quite distinct from any of those traditions or theories. Horselover perceives God as a sort of artificial intelligence, that comes to be called VALIS, and that has access not only to vastly more knowledge than man, but has also transcended human limits of space and time. This God communicates with a select few, such as Horselover, imparting wisdom, and also loosening the bounds of time and space. Thus, Horselover knew of his son’s undiagnosed illness, and also came to believe that he was somehow mentally connected to an early Christian living in 70AD who had also managed to transcend time (something Dick also believed). God is occasionally represented on earth by prophets or saviours, including Jesus and Buddha. God’s next representative becomes an important subject of the novel.

It was only as the novel progressed that I began to glean the significance of God being characterised as an artificial – as opposed to wholly transcendent – intelligence. There’s a couple of red herrings involving the Soviets and the possibility of aliens. What it actually indicates, though, is that all the deranged theology Horselover distracts himself with hides a fundamental humanism. As this humanism unfolds, it reveals two key implications in VALIS – the first is simply that everything is all in Horselover’s head. As we knew from the start, he is profoundly mad. This isn’t like a movie twist in which ‘it was all in your head after all’, though. Dick’s profound resemblance to Horselover means that reality is never so clearly brought into focus as to provide the reader with any idea of its actual character within the novel. In fact, knowing that everything is in our heads simply raises more questions about the character of reality, not least inviting thoughts of solipsism. The second implication is to drive home the acid-tinged humanist message of the novel, which can be best summed up by the words of the spokesperson for VALIS herself: “Man is holy, and the true god, the living god, is man himself. You will have no gods but yourselves; the days in which you believed in other gods end now, they end forever”. Thus, the ‘artificial’ intelligence, the God we see, that’s us. Here is not really the place for an extended discussion of this sort of humanism that elevates humanity above nature. It was extremely interesting, however, to discover at the core of this seemingly theological and mystical journey a humanist core. So unexpected was it, in fact, that part of me can’t help thinking that it’s just another layer of Horselover / Dick’s self-delusion; how else but delusion could a being so profoundly out of control of his mind and the world around him come to the conclusion that he was a god?

What I’m sure this review will show is that VALIS is an absolute trip of a novel. At times it’s difficult and absolutely baffling, and I feel like more time could have been spent on building a narrative. There is nonetheless something about VALIS that means when you finish, you know you have experienced in vivid clarity the mind of a genuine genius, albeit a genius detached from any sense of reality that most of us would be familiar with.

Trigger warnings for suicide!!

Now this was a rollercoaster of book. I'm not sure how eloquently I'll be able to get my thoughts across, but I sure will try.
We were thrown right into the story from the get go and as weird as it was, and not what I was expecting, I knew this would be a novel I'd really enjoy... but perhaps one I wouldn't completely understand! The drt, matter of fact, strangely written humour reminded me of Douglas Adams, but with a far darker narration that I really enjoyed and had a heavy feel of more bizzaro fiction rather than straight up SciFi, in my opinion.
It was certainly a confusing tale but I couldn't help but adore this odd, god deciphering, 1st person (but writing as 3rd person) narrative. It was delightfully weird and even more compelling because of that.
I found myself so caught up with the discussions of space, time and God/gods that I kept forgetting this was a non-fiction science fiction novel. I would say it focused in on Horselover Fat as a character study, but it was more than that.
It was a struggle to put this book down. I found myself constantly thinking "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, HOW DO YOU KNOW ALL OF THIS AND WHY DO I FIND THIS SO FASCINATING?!" I mean, Fat's weird name wasn't even the strangest thing about the book! There was just such an overwhelming about of peculiarity that I tried so hard to absorb.
I will admit that the timelines of which was discussed did go over my head a bit, but it really didn't phase me as I just fully enjoyed the journey of this unique storytelling. Fat as a character is so interesting and I legitimately felt blessed to have a small insight whenever he explained things to people that weren't entirely on his wavelength!
About half way in I realised I don't actually know what many of these characters looks like... but I could see them in my head quite vividly. I guess their personalities had portrayed a mental imagery. Or maybe it was Valis that sent me the necessary information... Who knows? Speaking of Valis, it was odd that the actual term wasn't mention until 155 pages in and when it finally was, I was so used to it being referred by a different term that it through me through a hypothetical loop!
I love how a lot of context sounds like random shpeal until its mentioned later and I'm like... ahhh it makes sense!! It's such a complex story. I'm sure I've missed loads but I'm so grateful with what I've managed to get out of this story.

Spoiler

just as I was trying to understand the Philip and Horselover Fat alter egos it started to click that Philip was his real name and then finally it was explained that Horserlover Fat is a translation for Philip Dick .. So its about the actual author! Omfg I felt so slow but really excited to get it! Literally smirked to myself. Now I understand the shamless plug of his other books! It all makes sense now! The little segment about the author, at the end, brief though it was, really helped solidify the basis of this story.
There was the part when the Rhipidon Society met with Sophia and woah.. that child said some creepily intelligent stuff. I particularly liked the part where she said we should no longer look to a deity but believe in our own selves as gods.
I did find that when "Philip" was talking he seemed to be more sensible than "Fat" however the later came out with some deep stuff.

I absolutely adored the questioning of all mythology and religion and how it was included together as one. It's difficult to explain.
It would have been an odd, unsettling ending had I still assumed it was a standalone novel, but knowing its a trilogy has me excited for more... Although ultimately I still believe the ending will be bizarre.
The subject of mental health was strong theme throughout the whole of this, whether directed in conversation or as a strong background influence; it was handled very interestingly indeed.

I always thought The Man in the High Castle (love the tv show) or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? would be my first read on Philip K. Dick, but I'm so glad I didn't avoid this book to favour the other novels as this was a great introduction to the author and raises the bar for his other works.

Pick it up, give it a go and enjoy! >(^_^)<
Gén