Valis
Finished reading Philip K. Dick's Valis recently.
Strange book. Very strange. Not sure if I liked it.
Learned something new about PKD. In 1974, he was
suddenly struck by a vision -- an "intense pink light, beaming immense volumes
of information straight into my brain". Probably induced by all his drug use.
As a result, he became an obsessive Christian, or at least obsessively
spiritual, and it effected him for the rest of his
life.
Valis has its main character, Horselover Fat, undergo the same phenomena. So, in a sense, it's autobiographical. Funny at parts, but interspersed with writings from Fat's "exegesis", it becomes plainly strange.
PKD went off the deep end. He was probably always teetering on the edge anyway -- most great artists are so. But, Valis went too far. Didn't like it.
Now, I'm reading PKD's A Scanner Darkly. Should prove to be a lot funnier.
Valis has its main character, Horselover Fat, undergo the same phenomena. So, in a sense, it's autobiographical. Funny at parts, but interspersed with writings from Fat's "exegesis", it becomes plainly strange.
PKD went off the deep end. He was probably always teetering on the edge anyway -- most great artists are so. But, Valis went too far. Didn't like it.
Now, I'm reading PKD's A Scanner Darkly. Should prove to be a lot funnier.
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Posted: Wed - March 10, 2004 at 10:25 PM
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Published On: Jun 07, 2004 10:25 PM
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Published On: Jun 07, 2004 10:25 PM