VALIS

From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)

VALIS is a 1981 science fiction book by Philip K. Dick. The title is an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, Dick's gnostic vision of one aspect of God. VALIS is the first book in a unfinished trilogy that (together with his thematically related final novel) represents Dick's last major work before he died.

Contents

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Plot summary

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Horselover Fat

The main character in VALIS is Horselover Fat, an author surrogate. "Horselover" is English for the Greek word "phil-hippos", lover/friend of horses, and "fat", being English for the German word "dick".

Even though the book is written in first person, for most of the book he treats Horselover Fat as a separate person, describing conversations and even arguments with him, and criticizing his opinions and writings; this can all be viewed by the reader as a form of mental illness. Near the end of the book the messianic figure cures him (temporarily), and he describes his surprise that Horselover Fat has suddenly disappeared from his side.

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Exegesis

VALIS has been described as one node of an artificial satellite network originating from the star Fomalhaut in the Piscis Austrinus constellation. According to Dick, the Earth satellite used "pink laser beams" to transfer information and project holograms on Earth and to facilitate communication between an extraterrestrial species and humanity. Dick claimed that VALIS used "disinhibiting stimuli" to communicate, using symbols to trigger recollection of intrinsic knowledge through the loss of amnesia, achieving gnosis. Drawing directly from Platonism and Gnosticism, Dick wrote in his Exegesis: "We appear to be memory coils (DNA carriers capable of experience) in a computer-like thinking system which, although we have correctly recorded and stored thousands of years of experiential information, and each of us possesses somewhat different deposits from all the other life forms, there is a malfunction - a failure - of memory retrieval."

At one point, Dick claimed to be in a state of enthousiasmos with VALIS, where he was informed his infant son was in danger of perishing from an unnamed malady. Routine checkups on the child had shown no trouble or illness; however, Dick insisted that thorough tests be run to ensure his son's health. The doctor eventually complied, despite the fact that there were no apparent symptoms. During the examination doctors discovered an inguinal hernia, which would have killed the child if an operation was not quickly performed. His son survived thanks to the operation, which Dick attributed to the "intervention" of VALIS.

Another event was an episode of xenoglossia. Supposedly, Dick's wife transcribed the sounds she heard him speak, and discovered that he was speaking Koine Greek, an ancient dialect which he had never studied. As Dick was to later discover, Koine Greek was originally used to write the New Testament and the Septuagint. However, this was not the first time Dick had experienced xenoglossia. A decade earlier, Dick claimed he was able to think, speak, and read fluent Latin under the influence of Sandoz LSD-25.

The UK edition of VALIS also included Cosmology and Cosmogony, a chapbook containing selections from Dick's Exegesis.

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Rhipidon Society

Dick's friends (and fellow science fiction writers) K.W. Jeter (Kevin) and Tim Powers (David) appear as thinly disguised characters in the novel, and along with Dick, as members of the "Rhipidon Society", with the motto, "Fish Cannot Carry Guns!" It is also said that James P. Blaylock appears in the book.

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Main characters

  • Phil Dick: narrator, science fiction writer
  • Horselover Fat: narrator
  • Gloria Knudson: suicidal friend of Fat's
  • Kevin: friend of Fat's, skeptic
  • Sherri Solvig: Fat's friend, dying from lymphatic cancer
  • David: catholic friend of Fat's
  • Zebra: pure energy, discorporate, the Logos, living information, the "plasmate", "God"; communicates with Fat
  • VALIS: title of an American science fiction film, appears as a satellite, controls reality, synonymous with Zebra (see The Man Who Fell to Earth). Essentially a story within a story.
  • Eric Lampton: rock star, screenwriter, actor, aka "Mother Goose", David Bowie
  • Linda Lampton: actress
  • Brent Mini: electronic composer (based upon electronic/ambient musician Brian Eno)


VALIS is a part of the VALIS trilogy of novels:

  • VALIS (1981)
  • The Divine Invasion (1981)
  • The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982)
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See also

  • Radio Free Albemuth
  • Gnosticism
  • Solid State Intelligence (SSI) - a malevolent form of VALIS. See John C. Lilly.
  • Black Iron Prison
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External links


Books by Philip K. Dick
Gather Yourselves Together | Voices From the Street | Vulcan's Hammer | Dr. Futurity | The Cosmic Puppets | Solar Lottery | Mary and the Giant | The World Jones Made | Eye in the Sky | The Man Who Japed | A Time for George Stavros | Pilgrim on the Hill | The Broken Bubble | Puttering About in a Small Land | Nicholas and the Higs | Time Out of Joint | In Milton Lumky Territory | Confessions of a Crap Artist | The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike | Humpty Dumpty in Oakland | The Man in the High Castle | We Can Build You | Martian Time-Slip | Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb | The Game-Players of Titan | The Simulacra | The Crack in Space | Now Wait for Last Year | Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | Clans of the Alphane Moon | The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch | The Zap Gun | The Penultimate Truth | Deus Irae | The Unteleported Man | The Ganymede Takeover | Counter-Clock World | Nick and the Glimmung | Ubik | Galactic Pot-Healer | A Maze of Death | Our Friends from Frolix 8 | Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said | A Scanner Darkly | Radio Free Albemuth | VALIS | The Divine Invasion | The Transmigration of Timothy Archer
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