VALIS

by Philip K. Dick

VALIS was one of the last novels written by addict/paranoid/sci-fi king Philip K. Dick.  Like many of Dick's other novels, the plot of VALIS  is complicated, elusive, and difficult to explain.  However, the strength of Dick's dark and paranoid vision, and the feeling of unfettered access to a slightly unhinged mind that the reader experiences through his work, have created ripples through all of popular culture and keeps fans fascinated.

VALIS is a semi-autobiographical novel exploring Dick's idiosyncratic religious views.  Dick narrates the novel in first-person while telling the story of Horselover Fat, who Dick admits to the reader is his own alter ego.  Fat claims to have been struck by a pink laser from Heaven called VALIS (which stands for Vast Active Living Intelligence System) inputting pure information into his brain.  

What is this information?  That is what Fat would like to know.   His obsession with uncovering the truth of this message leads him to write pages and pages of an exegesis, or statement of religious beliefs, which make up the bulk of this book.  These beliefs include:

• That the universe was created by a blind, malevolent, and delusional god that foolishly thought it was the only presence in the universe;
• That Jesus Christ was a corrective program sent by the benevolent, rational elements in the universe to correct humanity's false understanding of the world;
• That the year is really 70 A.D., and that history has been a delusion to hide from humanity the fact that it is living in the days before the Second Coming.   

If this all sounds nuts... well, it is. 

The magic of this book lies with Dick himself.  Through the stand-in of Horselover Fat, Dick is able to provide commentary on his own crazy ideas and tragically broken mind.  He is always on hand to remind us that Fat (he) is losing his grip on reality.  The novel lets us into Fat's (Dick's) grief over the suicide of one friend, the death from cancer of another, his break-up with his wife, and his loss of a son.  Fat tries to commit suicide and winds up in a mental hospital.  We come to understand Fat's religious delusions sympathetically: he has to figure this all out to regain his control over his life and himself.  It is his only hope for salvation, even as his obsessing brings him ever closer to insanity...