Valis
by Philip K. Dick · first published 1981
50% recommend50% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Philip K. Dick's semi-autobiographical novel explores reality and madness in a mind-bending, high-concept story. It is a psychedelic, intense take on Dick's work.
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…The Peripheral - William Gibson Not exactly the same thing, but I'll also throw in Glasshouse by Charles Stross. And since we're talking Charles Stross, also add Halting State to the list. Oh, and VALIS by Philip K. Dick. Definitely worth a read.
on “Ask HN: Books that altered your view of reality” ↗Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle is definitely worth a read. Valis [or is it VALIS?] is also an interesting read...in the psychotropic sense of "interesting". I found Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep worth a read for the way in which it differs from the movie...the…
on “Sci-Fi Novels You Should Read” ↗VALIS by Philip K. Dick and Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
on “Ask HN: What is your comfort book?” ↗I adore Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but for Philip K Dick at his most mind-bending, I’d instead go for Valis
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗VALIS by Philip K Dick. It explores the nature of reality through the lens of mental illness / madness.
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗…influenced by some alchemists. Jung probably isn't a psychologist in any scientific way but I really don't know enough to judge his contribution. Another interesting place where alchemy comes up is in Valis, Philip K. Dick's semi-autobiographical attempt at making sense of his purported visions. I think he writes about a continuity between christian gnostics and alchemists. I love this book but I haven't…
on “What alchemists got right about chemistry” ↗…memories of it, though it's been two decades since I read it. Philip K. Dick wrote a tonne of good stuff (and a bit of meh) but my two favourite are Clans of the Alphane Moon (the first Dick I read), and Valis (a bit more conventional to have on the favourite list) Ursula Le Guin also has a huge body of excellent work - Left Hand of Darkness, and The Dispossessed are my favourites. I really loved Roger Zelazny's…
on “What are your favourite sci-fi books?” ↗Moby Dick, Herman Melville VALIS, Philip K Dick Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance + also Lila, Robert Pirsig Naked Lunch, William Burroughs Immortality, Milan Kundera Catch-22, Joseph Heller (pair with The Deserters, Charles…
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗…nothing about this author, but this reads to me a lot like late Philip K Dick but without the "what is real" element. After his religious event in 1974, he wrote some real bangers - A Scanner Darkly, Valis, The Divine Invasion - alongside his religious exegesis. This feels a bit like an alternate timeline where PKD saw even more drugs as the way to chase this feeling, but somehow came out the other side.
on “The seam through the center of things” ↗If you want the druggy, high-concept, ersatz-reality version go with Philip K. Dick - namely The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, A Scanner Darkly, VALIS. If you want the intellectual take go with A Canticle for Leibowitz (Miller), Oryx and Crake (Atwood) or Solaris (Lem). If you want the 60s hard-science rooted societal outlook from an ex-Naval Engineer…
on “Book Review: There Is No Antimemetics Division” ↗yeah for me it's all about specificity, like no one else but Philip K. Dick could have written VALIS, it is so tied to his life and psychology. Its difficult for me to imagine something which is is build on huge amounts of various cultural output to retain the specificity of a singular limited human…
on “The End of an Era” ↗“no conspiracy theory has yet emerged arguing that the Empire never really fell at all” Really, no Philip K Dick VALIS mention? The book that repeats “the empire never ended” and argues that much of the time between now and the was “false?” See also: https://philipdick.com/resources/miscellaneous/the-religious....
on “Did the early medieval era ever take place?” ↗This reminds me of Philip K. Dick’s experience, somewhat detailed in VALIS, of receiving information via a pink laser aimed at his forehead. One of the things he learned was that his son had a tumor that needed to be removed immediately. Similar to this event, doctors didn’t…
on “A difficult case: Diagnosis made by hallucinatory voices (1997)” ↗…Sidney) Er, and which also means "lover of a star" - Greek "philos", Latin "sidus". Did the author miss that, or are we supposed to get the wink? Reminds me that Philip Dick's self-insert character in Valis is called Horselover Fat.
on “Uncanny Elizabethan autofiction: 2 ways of understanding early modern personhood” ↗Philip K Dick wrote about being out of the heat of God's light, not feeling the scorching heat of the palm tree garden upon us. I believe it was from one of the VALIS novels but I haven't gone back to dig it up, and could be wrong. Personally, I find I sometimes have trouble accepting good enough solutions. I want more structure, a better defined start. At night I…
on ““When the entire household goes to bed, I do curl development for 2 more hours.”” ↗