Life changing

This is exactly the kind of story I need to hear. If you are dealing with depression or you feel alone and confused about the Universe, I would highly recommend this book. It maybe baffling at times, but that just makes me feel more connected with the characters (especially Dick himself). It won't make you less crazy, but you might feel less alone. You may even find a spark of faith you never thought you had.

13 of 13 people found this review helpful

Brilliant

Creative and cleverly witty. An impressive mix of theology, gnosticism, psychology and humor. Expertly narrated.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Briljant, original or ramblings

Can't make up my mind on this one. So much philosophical rambling and semi religious stuff that I was waiting for it to end really badly. But it brilliantly weaves aliens with dreamworld with religion and science into one big hallucination that makes it really hard to pin down.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

love this book

really helps me deal with the hard days and the sad times to search for a God with PKD. hopefully something has my back.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Horselover Fat, Marin County, Is this even real?

Would you listen to Valis again? Why?

Yes. I enjoyed the book, but like before I will follow along in the text. I found it useful to make use of both formats.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Horselover Fat is a fantastic character for many reasons: 1. he transposes his visions/dreams to what could be alternative realities of real life on Earth, 2. he is basically Philip K. Dick so he is automatically amazing.

What about Phil Gigante’s performance did you like?

His voice with a hint of "southern-ness" when speaking for Horselover Fat aided to his characterization, particularly when trying to shape a character who is altogether somewhat unreliable and could be perceived as lacking in his mental faculties.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Is this even real?

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Speculation meets madness--but misses an editor

With a very talented editor, this could have proved a worthwhile work. There are scattered esoteric commentaries on classical myths and canonical works of art and music in the Western heritage which I found to be of interest, and the explication of Horselover Fat's hodgepodge bricolage cosmology *at times* -- such as the high stakes conversation with Dr. Stone in the psychiatric ward -- serves a compelling dramatic interest. While the unique dynamic between the reasonable narrator Phil and his hallucinatory alterego Fat is a productive one, and while Phil's role in bringing the counterpoint personalities of Kevin and David into skeptical relief enriches the texture, this arguably delicious batter decidedly fails to serve up viable cookies owing to 2 chief flaws: 1. its lack of events of import that we can connect with a *relatable human interest* whose future fate is at stake (this is much needed to counterbalance and contextualize a text heavy in dry, esoteric commentary). 2. it's veritable diarrhoea of half-formulated, whispy attempts at a thematic syntheses of a vast catalogue of mythic, religious and philosophical sources with personal, paranormal visions.

Were a slightly more learned or ironical artist like Thomas Pynchon or Umberto Eco to undertake the same literary project, attempt to weave the same torturous metaphysical unity from the same amateurish smattering of comparative religion source texts, the results would be far more salient, far more piquant, since such high stakes require a critical distance between the author and his or her subject matter. Otherwise, instead of subordinating the panoply of presented material to the rhetorical and dramatic aims of the presenter--in short, to communicative ends--the reader is fated to drown within the slow whirlpool of fulminations that a particular, personal catharsis imposes on the same materials. Dick clearly lacks this vital distance between his personal psycho-philo-theological imbroglios and the narrative means that will convey their import to his readers. Despite the attempts of Phil to periodically reinterpret the mystical forrays of Fat or David as poetic projections of pyschological trauma (say, in Fat's case, by the loss of Sherri or Gloria), Dick fails to create a forward-stretching string of consequence which will rationally confirm or supernally explode these speculations in a way we care about...Since these real world dramatic anchors are what anchor the flights of fancy to our sympathetic interest, Dick's relative inattention to their counterpoint with the messianic quest means that he catalogues, rather than immerses his readers in the grand mysteries' relevance to his subjects. The event, detail, anticipation, the arousal of sympathy to characters' core interests is outweighed by sloppy mystical problem solving. Hence, in this book, Dick remains unable to convert his highly promising novelistic premise into a palatable whole. The work is therefore to be appreciated for certain of its parts (which predominate the first and not the second half), its unique storyworld and diegetic POTENTIAL, and a few, but only a few, of its Theosophic musings.

The narrator strikes an admirably appropriate tone to the uneven material Dick tasks him with rendering into speech. He intones the neo-Gnostic axioms of H. Fat with the pitch-perfect, eerie adamancy, mixed with autonomic flatness that would befit a perplexed--and arguably insane--zealot of the Nous who, despite his ever-evolving views, must aver each new inference with sacerdotal solemnity and propound each hazy revelation with oracular assurance.

Not for the faint of heart.

A whirlwind tour through the collective discussion of all faiths and sciences; a visceral perspective on the question of life and existence. The narrative does not assume you know anything, and so assumes you know everything. Does not hold your hand. A worthwhile endeavor to the few that suffer the question; why?

Drug fueled search for meaning

Philip K Dick's VALIS attempts to recapitulate ancient explanations for creation and god-like entities within a modern framework of science and science fiction. As such, the tale encompasses a group of individuals, including an autobiographical figure with a split personality piecing together clues regarding the existence of a god-like entity that appears to have produced actual revelations with pink laser light. The main character spends a good deal of time time discussing theological theory and attempting to reconcile this with modern science. At the same time the group becomes aware of a film that appears to overlap and confirm many of their hunches which.

Most of the sci-fi elements conform to near future developments along with the addition of a presumed alien entity that is responsible for injecting revelations into certain humans. The bulk of the book concerns theological / philosophical arguments that demonstrate the flexibility of substituting modern scientific language in place of ancient spirituality / religious explanations. Much of the banter has the flavor of being buzzed in the presence of theology students going at it. Dick also enjoys long tracks of Greek, Latin, and German language as well as a god bit of humor.

The narration is well done with decent character distinction as well as a good flow for much of the back and forth conversational sections which can get dense.

drug addict's dream

If I was high on drugs this might have made sense. As it was it is mostly just nonsense.

Fantastic Reading of a Strangely Told, Odd Story

The reader, who I previously enjoyed as the Stainless Steel Rat, outdoes himself in narrating this story. The multiple characters, in more way than one, pose an interesting challenge, and they were all rendered perfectly.
The story itself took some repetitions to even begin to make some sense, but it was enjoyable even when I didn't have the any idea of what was going on. This is a book that felt like a romp around in the fascinatingly strange mind of the author, with a strange feeling of autobiography by an unreliable narrator.
There is not likely another book like it, but it has positive similarities to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I quite enjoyed the philosophical ramblings as well.