VALIS

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This article is about the Philip K. Dick novel. For information about the video game series, see Mugen Senshi Valis.

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 an unfinished trilogy that (together with his thematically related final novel) represents Dick's last major work before he died. As Dick's Radio Free Albemuth is actually an earlier version of Valis, it is not included as a component of this trilogy.

VALIS is a part of Dick's unfinished VALIS trilogy of novels:

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982) is thematically related to the unfinished trilogy and has been included in several omnibus editions of the trilogy as a stand-in for the unwritten final volume.

1 Plot summary
2 Horselover Fat
3 Exegesis
4 Rhipidon Society
5 Main characters
6 Philosophical and cultural references
7 Derivative works
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Horselover Fat

The main character in VALIS is Horselover Fat, an author surrogate. "Horselover" is English for the Greek word "philo-hippos", lover/friend of horses, and "fat", being English for the German word "dick". Philip is a personal name, derived from Greek Philippos (Φίλιππος), meaning "lover of horses", from philo "brotherly or comradely love" and hippos "horse".

Even though the book is written in first person, for most of the book Dick 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. The major subject of these dialogues is spirituality, as Dick/Fat's character is ostensibly obsessed with several religions and philosophies, including Taoism, Buddhism, Gnosticism and even Jungian Psychoanalysis, in the search for a cure for what he believes is simultaneously a personal and a cosmic wound. Near the end of the book the messianic figure, incarnated by the child Sophia, cures him (temporarily), and he describes his surprise that Horselover Fat has suddenly disappeared from his side.

[edit] Exegesis

Main article: Exegesis (book)

VALIS has been described as one node of an artificial satellite network originating from the star Sirius in the Canis Major 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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. It also forms the plotline of Radio Free Albemuth, Dick's rejected (but posthumously published) original version of Valis.
Eric Lampton: rock star, screenwriter, actor, aka "Mother Goose", David Bowie
Linda Lampton: actress
Sophia: the child-messiah, incarnation of VALIS
Brent Mini: electronic composer (based upon electronic/ambient musician Brian Eno)

[edit] Philosophical and cultural references

Theology and philosophy, especially metaphysical philosophy, play an important role in VALIS, presenting not just Dick's (and/or Horselover Fat's) own views on these subjects but also his interpretation of numerous religions and philosophies of the past. The most prominent religious references are to Valentinian Gnosticism, the Rose Cross Brotherhood, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, as well as Biblical writings including the Book of Daniel and the New Testament epistles. Many ancient Greek philosophers are discussed, including several Pre-Socratics (Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Empedocles and Parmenides) as well as Plato and Aristotle. More recent thinkers that are mentioned include the philosophers Pascal and Schopenhauer, the Christian mystic Jakob Böhme, the alchemist Paracelsus and the psychologist Carl Jung.

The action of VALIS is set firmly in the American popular culture of its time, with references to the Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa and Linda Ronstadt as well as the fictional rock musicians Eric Lampton and Brent Mini. However, the novel also contains a number of high culture references such as the poets Vaughan, Wordsworth and Goethe, and the classical composers Handel and Wagner. In particular, the novel contains several extended discussions about Wagner's metaphysical opera Parsifal.

[edit] Derivative works

The novel VALIS was adapted in 1987 as an electronic opera by composer Tod Machover, and performed at Centre Georges Pompidou, with live singers and video installations created by artist Catherine Ikam.

In 2004, in the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Philip K. Dick's alleged epiphany, described in the Exegesis and dramatized in VALIS, an art exhibition was organized in Vienna by multimedia artist's group XDV, which had several interactive artworks inspired by the descriptions of his experiences.

Radio station CIBL-FM 101,5 in Montreal, Canada broadcasts a late-night radio show called "L'Eglise de VALIS internationale / Church of VALIS internationale." On-air since 1997, the show's producers claim to retransmit messages sent to them from VALIS.

It is also worth noting that the graphic novel The Invisibles carries a strong VALIS influence.