Although I’m a big Phillip Dick fan I have yet to read this trilogy (it’s on my to-do-list, promise ). I know some consider it his greatest work so I was looking forward to it.
One of my friends, who was also a big ‘Dickhead’, recently read this story and reacted in a rather… unusual way. Bob read the first two books of the trilogy and swore off Dick forever. He said he would never read another story from Dick again. The only reason Bob would give me is the story was a basic outline of HIS life. WTF?
Could someone tell me more about this saga? I’m kinda reluctant to read this now since my friend and I think somewhat similarly. I like Dick and I want to encourage people to read him. I was also interested in what other people thought of these three books.
If you believe my friend is crazy could you tell me what parts in the books would make you think that?
PS I don’t care about spoilers but you might want to box them for any dopers who haven’t read the story yet…
Your friend is a bit shallow. Dick goes off the deep end in those books and voices the deep psychological unrest that percolates under the surface of his past books. Others would call it “illness” and comment about his heavy drug use, but I can’t judge it so negatively. The man had an admittedly strange view on our reality, but this only enhances his work, which became more amusing as time went on, and even gained religious themes. In one of the VALIS books the character’s son is miraculously diagnosed with some seriously illness by VALIS (telepathically communicating via a pink beam to the protagonist), which supposedly happened to PKD. For some, the downside is that the simple moral questions fade away, but my infatuation with such silly “intellectual” masturbation ended long ago.
Let me emphasize: He doesn’t try to preach that the world is filled with a “spiritual force,” or any other such silliness. The projections of his personal interpretation of reality work well in the context of the book, and the whole affair is often tongue-in-cheek, or at least dotted with plenty of humor.
> One of my friends, who was also a big ‘Dickhead’, recently read
> this story and reacted in a rather… unusual way. Bob read the
> first two books of the trilogy and swore off Dick forever.
Your friend Bob has problems. Even if the Valis trilogy was terrible (and it’s not), that wouldn’t justify rejecting Dick’s other works. A work of literature stands on its own. Knowledge of the author’s life or of his other works may tell you something about a given work of fiction, but they don’t change the value of the work. A work of fiction either is or isn’t good in itself, and the value of the author’s other works is irrelevant.
First thing first. It isn’t a trilogy in the usual sense. The books are loosely related by theme - that is it. The second and third books don’t have the same charcaters, they don’t take place at the same time, and the last one, IIRC, doesn’t take place on earth. If your friend was looking for a linear plot with a clear begining and a clear end, the Valis trilogy is barking up the wrong tree.
Valis is pretty much autobiographical as is A Scanner Darkly. Dick is describing his mental problems (Dick is represented by 2 characters in Valis) and his contact with what he called a ‘perfectly rational intelligence’ (the pink light in the book). The exegesis that one of Dicks personas refers to in Valis was actually writen by Dick. It was in print, but I have not seen it for a long time.
The books, especially Valis, can come across as strange if you are expecting stories like Ubik, or TMitHC or DADoES. Dick had interesting views on religion and politics and if you don’t agree with them, or can’t read it with an open mind, it could very well be a turn off.
I saw all three books bound as one at my local library. That’s why I thought it was a trilogy.
A Scanner Darkly was one of the first stories I read from Dick. I remember I really loved the story. Often times I would have to remind myself that the two main characters were the same person. I think that book was what made me a Dick fan for life.
Adam, I saw reprints of many of Dick’s works, including Exegesis, at Border’s when the film Minority Report came out. They might still have a few left at the stores or on their site for anyone that’s interested.
If one wants to read the same storyline as VALIS in a more conventional S/F format, then check out his so-called “lost” novel, Radio Free Albemuth. It was published from a manuscript found after his death. It’s basically a pre-working of his VALIS story. The characters in VALIS even go see a movie that is the plotline of RFA. Both books are worth reading if you’re a PKD fan. Although if you’re into his ‘heavy’ gnostic thoughts, VALIS has portions of his “Exegesis” which aren’t in RFA
Firstly , yes, i’d heartily recommended the VALIS trilogy.
i think it is definitely amongst his best work.
I checked out the link to the cartoon and it has raised a few questions. (I am familiar with the story previously)
It mentions a Cipher in ‘Flow My Tears…’
Does anyone know more about this?
In his last days he located the likeliest candidate for the returned Christ.
Any info out there on this?
(i have googled ‘maitreya’ but it seems that this is a term used by a number of people, but who did Dick mean?)
> In his last days he located the likeliest candidate for the
> returned Christ.
> Any info out there on this?
> (i have googled ‘maitreya’ but it seems that this is a term used
> by a number of people, but who did Dick mean?)
Dick was at least briefly interested in a prophecy by a man named Benjamin Creme of a coming messiah call the Maitreya. Basically, Creme is a nutcase. You can Google on “Benjamin Creme” and “Maitreya,” but in my opinion there’s nothing interesting to discover about it.
cletus writes:
> Adam, I saw reprints of many of Dick’s works, including
> Exegesis, at Border’s when the film Minority Report came out.
> They might still have a few left at the stores or on their site for
> anyone that’s interested.
I’m not sure what your point is here. Pretty much everything by Dick is in print. There should be no problem finding anything by him either in bookstores or at least easily orderable by them.
). I know some consider it his greatest work so I was looking forward to it.
The only reason Bob would give me is the story was a basic outline of HIS life. WTF?
