OK, who's all read VALIS?

VALIS by Philip K. Dick.

I'm lucky enough to have a copy of Selections From The Exegesis, so I know all about some of what Phil wrote and realised re. his own novels and short stories. The gist of it being that he wrote a bunch of sci-fi which he wasn't that into, he was more into the non-sci-fi works, but later on going over what he had written it seemed to be hinting at something rather important, and he'd not intended that. So a lot of The Exegesis is about how all his works are pointing to something that we all should know.

VALIS specificly is a novel about many things, a theme running through it is what was really going on with Watergate and Nixon. What I'm wondering is if anyone here has read it and can you see how it ages-ago threaded together a lot of what are not-yet-connected in many conspiracy interpretations? The one I find most important would be VALIS itself - a satellite capable of altering reality in real-time and also changing the past and the future. There is something about how slow JFKs motorcade went that - well it feels like it was some sticky-nightmare scenario, like there was some kind of intervention slowing it waaaay down. Kinda like if the Service were hooked up to something that the something itself was hijacked.

Also, has anyone read what William Burroughs wrote about in regard to his wife's shooting? He described a thing he termed 'Ugly Spirit' which seemed like some Ahrimanic entity - ie, coming back in time from a bad future, attaching itself onto the persons present-time so that they must comply with events so that the bad future will be the one that manifests.

I think I've read every PK Dick book except "The Man in A High castle" which I've Had for 35 years and still can't get into.

hey... Im showing my age... which reminds me that warner bros is showing one of my favorites...."A Scanner darkly"

Dont forget to check it out people .... from the director of "Waking Life"

wip.warnerbros.com...

Also good rant here:

www.themodernword.com...

[edit on 20-6-2006 by thepresidentsbrain]

Originally posted by ed 209
What I'm wondering is if anyone here has read it and can you see how it ages-ago threaded together a lot of what are not-yet-connected in many conspiracy interpretations? The one I find most important would be VALIS itself - a satellite capable of altering reality in real-time and also changing the past and the future.

I understand what your asking, Dick may well have been closer to the truth than just about anyone......His recurring theme about time unfolding from the present rather than the past and the "psychic plastic" (not Dickian term) nature of reality....allegorized in The Matrix..a film inspired by Dick.

This was very evident in UBIK and NOW WAIT FOR LAST YEAR, arguably two of Dicks greatest works.

I remember listening to PKDs notes he recorded for a sequel to MITHC - maybe that is still online at the official site, not sure.

Haven't read all his books, Ubik is a favourite of mine. Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is another and I also really liked The Divine Invasion and Transmigration of Timothy Archer, Galactic Pot-Healer, Martian Time-Slip. I can't remember if I've read Now Wait for Last Year, is that the Abe Lincoln simulacra one?

Great postname btw. It's probably kept in the Dulce base, in a jar, guarded by some white pasty entity with long fingers and long pointy ears and his tounge wrapped around the jar, like a cross between a Dark City alien and that bloke from Salem's Lot.

Originally posted by ed 209
Great postname btw. It's probably kept in the Dulce base, in a jar, guarded by some white pasty entity with long fingers and long pointy ears and his tounge wrapped around the jar, like a cross between a Dark City alien and that bloke from Salem's Lot.

LOL... congrats on being the fist person to state the connection ...

I think if I remember right , the "Abe Lincoln simulacra one" ...wherein old Abe heads of to Seatle to open a law office was, "We Can Build You"

You're right, that is the Abe book, I remember now I see the title posted there.

Best. Freudian. Slip. Ever. - "being the fist person"