Horselover Fat's experience of Vast Active Living Intelligence System in Philip K. Dick's VALIS

Written by: Tomislav Kazimić (FFOS)

Issue 1 (March 2018)

Philip K. Dick was a science fiction writer, born in Chicago in 1928. He published 44 novels and 121 short stories. The much deserved appreciation of his works by the public came after his death, after some of his novels where adapted into films. Most famous being “Total Recall” (Gopnik) and “Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner” (Gopnik). Other very famous movies that drew inspiration from Philip K. Dick novels are “Matrix series” (Gopnik) and “Terry Gilliam’s Brazil“ (Gopnik). Through science fiction, Philip K. Dick was able to explore and articulate some of the existential questions from a new and approachable perspective. Some of the recurring ideas in his works are: dangers of technological advances, questioning the nature of humanity, making sense of mystical or unique experiences and the exploration of the thin line between fantasy and reality. Arguably, these ideas can be subsumed under the questions of what truly is and should be. These questions are explored extensively in his work VALIS. The novel was written in the late period of Philip K. Dick's writing career, four years before his death in 1982. Depending on the readers presupposed knowledge of the themes explored in this work, VALIS can be seen as a fictional or a purely philosophical novel. Mostly because the experiences and the ideas presented in the work are some of Philip K. Dick's personal convictions. Concepts present in the novel were mostly motivated by a “peculiar mental event in the spring of 1974” (Robinson) when he was allegedly struck by a pink beam which managed to distort his, until then, ordinary view of reality, propelling him into a chain of events that most would deem as impossible or insane. VALIS is based on his Exegesis which by the time of his death contained “millions of word” (Robinson) and “approximately 8,000 pages of analysis, hypothesis and self-questioning” (Kalder). In his Exegesis he tried to clearly explain and analyze the events that deeply influenced his life and succeeding works. The Exegezis provided more than enough material to write VALIS. This makes VALIS an experimental novel in which the author by splitting his persona into two independent people, had the goal, in his own words “to gain much-needed objectivity” (Dick 11). This leads us to the main objective of this essay, which is not to argue whether the author is insane or not, but to highlight the main elements of the novel and present them from an objective and philosophically inclined perspective. The need for the philosophical standpoint rises from the fact that the novel contains a vast number of references to major historical teachings of philosophy and theology. This fact paints a very clear picture. Philip K. Dick managed to find some correlations in history to securely ground his theses on. Consequently he created his own philosophical system in which the main function is played by the Vast Active Living Intelligence System, the rational underlying arbiter of our and Horselover Fat's reality.

Horselover Fat

Horselover Fat is the main character of VALIS and one of the two aspects of the same persona – the author. The character of Horselover is used to explore the mystical experiences from a subjective standpoint. Horselover believes that God in 1974 had “fired beam after beam of information-rich colored light” (Dick 47) directly into his brain, healing his ill son, granting him rationality in an irrational world and generally gifting him the vision of truth and foresight of the upcoming events. After being shot with the pink beam the number of mystical experiences continued to grow, most of them ending only after the period of two months. Horselover is surrounded by a couple of friends. The first is Kevin, who is skeptical of every Horselover's theory and loves to mention various contradictions of God's existence. For Kevin, initially the most important question is God's, or Zebra's reason for killing his cat (Dick 19). The second is David, who is a radical Christian with extremely dogmatic views and fearful nature towards anything that would diminish his own beliefs. And finally Philip. He is the second aspect of the two-part split of the author's persona. Philip through narration provides himself and the readers, with a more objective and, some would say, a more rational perspective towards Horselover's, or in other words, his own theories about the happenings of 1974. The initial split of persona occurred, and was further amplified because of Horselover's instability after Gloria's suicide, splitting with his wife and Sherri's death, as well as by his own two failed suicide attempts. The interpretation of God's revelation was the main occupation to Horselover and his friends. Horselover's, Philip's or, more specifically, author's interpretations of the events of 1974 range from the theory that the “true God” (Dick 45) granted him clarity scaling to the theory that “Russian scientists” (Dick 66) tried to contact him. In the novel, the author uses Horselover Fat to present parts of his own cosmogony that support the VALIS theory. Judging by the various references in the novel, the VALIS theory and a number of others are inspired and extrapolated from various philosophical and theological teachings. Some of the more prominent theoretical sources referenced in the novel are Valentinian Gnosticism (Dick 56), Kabbalah (Dick 125), The Bible (Dick 85), Plato (Dick 72), Heraclitus (Dick 27) and Parmenides (Dick 32).

Theory and Theophany

Horselover Fat believed that the superimposition of Rome and California which he experienced after being struck by the beam was the example of true reality, concluding that “time does not exist” (Dick 39). Early in the novel, Horselover assumes that our reality as normally experienced is to put it bluntly a false one. Our senses, language and thought are for seemingly unknown reasons insufficient in perceiving everything there truly is. Horselover's gnostic theory stated that the demiurge, the biblical creator was the false God and that the true God is unreachable because of the limits imposed on our mental capabilities (Dick 45). We are in a way imprisoned within the confines of space and time by an irrational deity. The source of the pink beam, logos or living information, as it is revealed towards the end of the novel is actually Vast Active Living Intelligence System, not exactly the true God, but from Horselover's standpoint equally benevolent, omnipresent and omnipotent. The pink beam contained streams of information through which VALIS contacted Horselover to direct him against the workings of the “Black Iron Prison” (Dick 39). Black Iron Prison is used in a novel as a predominant metaphor for the material imprisonment of humanity and the irrational cycle of history.

Stumbling upon VALIS the movie

In the midst of his madness, Horselover Fat was informed that our world is waiting for another savior, the incarnation of plasmate or God's word, also termed by Greek word logos (Dick 40). The new savior is to be found, none other but by Horselover Fat. His search was swiftly shortened by Kevin, who adamantly encouraged Horselover, Philip and David to watch the movie called “VALIS.” After seeing the movie they came to the conclusion that it contained a great number of secret and subliminal messages. This conclusion excited Horselover, crumbled Kevin's skepticism towards Horselover theories and greatly surprised Philip. Horselover, they thought, might not be crazy after all. The elements of the movie were identical with the phenomena that Horselover described regarding his “theophanies” (Dick 27), that is the pink beam, various flashes of light, superimposition of space, disappearance of time, God containing pots and early Christian symbolism.

VALIS

They came in contact with Eric and Linda Lampton and the music producer Mini who were all more than familiar with VALIS and who made the movie “VALIS” to establish contact with everyone who had an encounter with the Vast Active Living Intelligence System. Philip, Kevin and David concluded firmly that Horselover was not crazy after all (Dick 96). In his Exegesis, Philip K. Dick in states that Vast Active Living Intelligence System “is made up of the arrangement of the data. It can be any object, any process, any person – and at that time controls that object, process, person” (Dick, Exegesis 373). And in the novel, VALIS directly mediates its presence in the form of a two-year-old girl named Sophia who was under the care of Mini, Eric and Linda Lampton. Sophia is not merely a child, she possesses an extremely high intelligence and a voice that Horselover related to the A.I. voice he heard since the events of the 1974 (Dick 122). Sophia articulated her words in a very prophetic way with a lot of biblical and philosophical references. After being asked by Philip who she was, she responded by saying: “I am that which I am” (Dick 199). Horselover Fat, of course, had his own additional theories that emerged from his previous unique experiences. Sophia is the St. Sophia mentioned in the teachings of Valentinian gnostics he thought, the Wisdom of God (Dick 120). She is “St. Sophia, and St. Sophia is a hypostasis of Christ. Whether she admitted it or not. She's being careful. After all, she knows everything, she knows what people will accept and what they won't“ (Dick 122). The encounter with Sophia healed Horselover Fat “after eight years of madness” (Dick 132). He was once again united with Philip. The three friends were entrusted with a mission by Sophia, a mission without a clearly defined goal. She stated: “Go wherever I send you and you will know what to do. There is no place where I am not. When you leave here you will not see me, but later you will see me again” (Dick 126). The main thing that protagonists gained was not so much the answers to their questions, as consolation and guidance from what they saw as an incarnation of God. After the encounter they saw themselves as chosen and healed. They felt safe with the knowledge that they were guided by Wisdom in the reality that was, until the intrusion of VALIS, ruled by irrationality and Power (Dick 125). Their madness and long search for truth for the time being, they hoped, was finally over.

Conclusion

The novel VALIS is fascinating in its own way, and depending on the subjectivity of the reader, one can come to various conclusions regarding the quality of the novel. As can be observed from this essay, VALIS is not a fictional work that some may expect it to be if the expectations are based on other Philip K. Dick's novels. VALIS should be seen as one of the more personal works of Philip K. Dick in which he tried to express his deeply developed theories from which his creativity emanated. The ability of Philip K. Dick to syncretize various philosophical and theological theories show his intellectual capabilities and genius of Philip K. Dick. Also, it should be mentioned, VALIS is known to be written in the late period of his writing career, when Philip K. Dick became unhinged due to his alleged mental illness and mild drug use. The novel, together with his Exegesis ironically disapproves that thesis. Through this novel and various pre-death interviews he maintained and played with the idea that he might be insane or delusional, a notion that most insane or delusional people can not hold. Philip K. Dick was able to uphold and emphasize objectivity and criticism throughout the whole novel. Sanity itself enabled him to approach his experiences and thoughts from a plethora of different perspectives. This brought him to various conclusions, some that can be seen as more rational and some less. Luckily for the readers, he was able to articulate these positions in VALIS. By opposing various views and introducing elements of science fiction he produced a quality novel that would appeal to his readers in a unique way, invoke the sense of insecurity and encourage us to search the world and ourselves for even a single glimpse of meaning.

Works Cited:

Dick, Philip K. “VALIS.”The VALIS Trilogy, edited by Melissa Lotfy, First Mariner Books edition, 2011, pp. 9–152.

Dick, Philip K. The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick. Edited by Jonathan Lethem, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011.

Gopnik, Adam. “Blows against the Empire: The Return of Philip K. Dick.”The New Yorker, August 20, 2007 issue, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/08/20/blows-against-the-empire. Accessed 2 Jan. 2018.

Kalder, Daniel. “Explaining Philip K Dick's Exegesis ”The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/23/philip-k-dick-exegesis. Accessed 2 Jan. 2018.

Stanley Robinson, Kim. “An Afterword to Philip K. Dick's Valis. ”Philip K. Dick Fan Site, http://www.philipkdickfans.com/literary-criticism/essays/an-afterword-to-philip-k-dicks-valis. Accessed 2 Jan. 2018.