NationMaster - Encyclopedia: VALIS

VALIS is a 1981 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. The title is an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, Dick's gnostic vision of one aspect of God. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... Shortcut: WP:NPOVD Articles that have been linked to this page are the subject of an NPOV dispute (NPOV stands for Neutral Point Of View; see below). ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 â€“ March 2, 1982) was an American writer, mostly known for his works of science fiction. ... In political geography and international politics, a country is a political division of a geographical entity, a sovereign territory, most commonly associated with the notions of state or nation and government. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... In February and March of 1974, science fiction author Philip K. Dick experienced visions in which he claimed to have been contacted by a transcendental, mystical mind he called VALIS, or Vast Active Living Intelligence System. ... Some notable science fiction novels, in alphabetical order by title: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke 334 by Thomas M. Disch An Age by Brian Aldiss The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Bantam Books is a major U.S. publishing house owned by Random House and is part of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... ISBN-13 represented as EAN-13 bar code (in this case ISBN 978-3-16-148410-0) The International Standard Book Number, ISBN, is a unique[1] commercial book identifier barcode. ... The Divine Invasion is a 1981 science fiction book by Philip K. Dick. ... Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar). ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 â€“ March 2, 1982) was an American writer, mostly known for his works of science fiction. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ...

VALIS is the first book in the VALIS trilogy of novels including The Divine Invasion (1981), and the unfinished The Owl in Daylight. The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982) is thematically related to the unfinished trilogy and was included in several omnibus editions of the trilogy as a stand-in for the unwritten final volume. Together with his thematically related final novel, VALIS represents Dick's last major work before he died. Radio Free Albemuth is considered an earlier version of VALIS, and is not included as a component of the VALIS trilogy. In February and March of 1974, science fiction author Philip K. Dick experienced visions in which he claimed to have been contacted by a transcendental, mystical mind he called VALIS, or Vast Active Living Intelligence System. ... The Divine Invasion is a 1981 science fiction book by Philip K. Dick. ... The Owl in Daylight is a novel that Philip K. Dick was working on at the time of his death in 1982. ... The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is a 1982 novel by Philip K. Dick. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... jacket cover A posthumously published novel by Philip K. Dick, written in 1976, Radio Free Albemuth (originally titled VALISystem A) was his first attempt to deal in fiction with his experiences of early 1974. ...

Plot summary

Horselover Fat

The main character in VALIS is Horselover Fat, an author surrogate. "Horselover" is English for the Greek word philippos (Φίλιππος), meaning "lover of horses" (from philo "brotherly or comradely love" and hippos "horse"); "Fat" is English for the German word "dick". As a literary technique, an author surrogate is a character who expresses the ideas, questions, personality and morality of the author. ...

Even though the book is written in the first-person-autobiographical, for most of the book Dick treats himself and Fat as two separate characters; he describes conversations and arguments with Fat, and harshly if sympathetically criticizes his opinions and writings. The major subject of these dialogues is spirituality, as Dick/Fat is/are ostensibly obsessed with several religions and philosophies, including Christianity, Taoism, Gnosticism and even Jungian psychoanalysis, in the search for a cure for what he believes is simultaneously a personal and a cosmic wound. Near the end of the book the messianic figure, incarnated by the child Sophia, cures him (temporarily), and the narrator describes his surprise that Horselover Fat has suddenly disappeared from his side. Christianity percentage by country, purple is highest, orange is lowest Topics in Christianity Movements Â· Denominations Ecumenism Â· Preaching Â· Prayer Music Â· Liturgy Â· Calendar Symbols Â· Art Â· Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul Â· Church Fathers Constantine Â· Athanasius Â· Augustine Anselm Â· Aquinas Â· Palamas Â· Wycliffe Tyndale Â· Luther Â· Calvin Â· Wesley Arius Â· Marcion of Sinope Pope Â· Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch... Taoism (Daoism) is the English name referring to a variety of related Chinese philosophical and religious traditions and concepts. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Carl Gustav Jung Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of the neopsychoanalytic school of psychology. ... In Judaism, the Messiah (×žÖ¸×©×Ö´×™×—Ö· anointed one, Standard Hebrew , Tiberian Hebrew Arabic ) initially meant any person who was anointed by God. ...

Philip K. Dick

Dick, as narrator, states early in the book that the creation of the character "Horselover Fat" is to allow him some "much needed objectivity." In this particular work the narrator is also a fictional character provided as a cool pragmatic counter-point to Horselover's slow disintegration.

Exegesis

VALIS has been described as one node of an artificial satellite network originating from the star Sirius in the Canis Major constellation. According to Dick, the Earth satellite used "pink laser beams" to transfer information and project holograms on Earth and to facilitate communication between an extraterrestrial species and humanity. Dick claimed that VALIS used "disinhibiting stimuli" to communicate, using symbols to trigger recollection of intrinsic knowledge through the loss of amnesia, achieving gnosis. Drawing directly from Platonism and Gnosticism, Dick wrote in his Exegesis: "We appear to be memory coils (DNA carriers capable of experience) in a computer-like thinking system which, although we have correctly recorded and stored thousands of years of experiential information, and each of us possesses somewhat different deposits from all the other life forms, there is a malfunction - a failure - of memory retrieval." Exegesis is a journal kept by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, documenting his alleged communication with a God-entity. ... An Earth observation satellite, ERS 2 In the context of spaceflight, satellites are objects which have been placed into orbit by human endeavor. ... Sirius (Î± CMa / Î± Canis Majoris / Alpha Canis Majoris) (IPA: ) is the brightest star in the night-time sky with a visual apparent magnitude of âˆ’1. ... Canis Major (IPA: , Latin: ) is one of the 88 modern constellations, and was also in Ptolemys list of 48 constellations. ... Recollection is the retrieval of memory. ... This article or section should be merged with [[{{{1}}}]]. Racial memory Genetic Memory As used in this article , genetic memory is present mental use of ancestor learned lessons and information that is stored in the memory of our genes and DNA, an area of science that is not presently understood. ... Anamnesis (Greek: Î±Î½Î±Î¼Î½Î·ÏƒÎ¹Ï‚ = recollection, reminiscence) is a term used in medicine, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and religion. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Platonic idealism is the theory that the substantive reality around us is only a reflection of a higher truth. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Recollection is the retrieval of memory. ...

At one point, Dick claimed to be in a state of enthousiasmos with VALIS, where he was informed his infant son was in danger of perishing from an unnamed malady. Routine checkups on the child had shown no trouble or illness; however, Dick insisted that thorough tests be run to ensure his son's health. The doctor eventually complied, despite the fact that there were no apparent symptoms. During the examination doctors discovered an inguinal hernia, which would have killed the child if an operation was not quickly performed. His son survived thanks to the operation, which Dick attributed to the "intervention" of VALIS. Enthusiasm (Greek: enthousiasmos) originally meant inspiration or possession by a divine afflatus or by the presence of a God. ...

Another event was an episode of xenoglossia. Supposedly, Dick's wife transcribed the sounds she heard him speak, and discovered that he was speaking Koine Greek-the common Greek dialect during the Hellenistic years (3rd century BC-4th century AD) and direct "father" of today's modern Greek language- which he had never studied. As Dick was to later discover, Koine Greek was originally used to write the New Testament and the Septuagint. However, this was not the first time Dick had experienced xenoglossia. A decade earlier, Dick claimed he was able to think, speak, and read fluent Latin under the influence of Sandoz LSD-25. Glossolalia (from the Greek, glossa, tongue) comprises the utterance of what appears (to the casual listener) either as an unknown foreign language, or as simply nonsense syllables; the utterances sometimes occur as part of religious worship (religious glossolalia). ... Koine redirects here. ... The term Hellenistic (established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen) in the history of the ancient world is used to refer to the shift from a culture dominated by ethnic Greeks, however scattered geographically, to a culture dominated by Greek-speakers of whatever ethnicity, and from the political dominance... The Greek language (Greek Ελληνικά, IPA // – Hellenic) is an Indo-European language with a documented history of some 3,000 years. ... This article is about the Christian scriptures. ... The Septuagint: A column of uncial text from 1 Esdras in the Codex Vaticanus, the basis of Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brentons Greek edition and English translation. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Sandoz Laboratories was a Swiss pharmaceutical company, best known for inventing LSD in 1938 and later marketing it as a psychiatric drug under the trade name Delysid. ... LSD blotter paper D-Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, commonly called acid, LSD, or LSD-25, is the most powerful semisynthetic hallucinogen and psychedelic entheogen. ...

The UK edition of VALIS also included Cosmology and Cosmogony, a chapbook containing selections from Dick's Exegesis. Exegesis is a 8,000 page journal kept by Science Fiction writer Philip K. Dick, documenting his alleged communication with a God/VALIS/Zebra entity. ...

Rhipidon Society

Dick's friends (and fellow science fiction writers) K.W. Jeter (Kevin) and Tim Powers (David) appear as thinly disguised characters in the novel, and along with Dick, as members of the "Rhipidon Society", with the motto, "Fish Cannot Carry Guns!" It is also said that James P. Blaylock appears in the book. Kevin Wayne Jeter (born 1950) is an American science fiction author known for his literary writing style, dark themes, and paranoid, unsympathetic characters. ... Tim Powers at the Israeli ICon 2005 SF&F Convention Timothy Thomas Powers (born February 29, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author. ... James P. Blaylock (born September 20, 1950) is an American fantasy author. ...

Main characters

Look up logos in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Man Who Fell to Earth is a 1976 film directed by Nicolas Roeg about an extraterrestrial who crash lands on Earth seeking a way to ship water to his planet, which is suffering from a severe drought. ... A story within a story is a literary device or conceit in which one story is told during the action of another story. ... jacket cover A posthumously published novel by Philip K. Dick, written in 1976, Radio Free Albemuth (originally titled VALISystem A) was his first attempt to deal in fiction with his experiences of early 1974. ... Brian Eno (pronounced ) (born Brian Peter George St. ...

Philosophical and cultural references

Theology and philosophy, especially metaphysical philosophy, play an important role in VALIS, presenting not just Dick's (and/or Horselover Fat's) own views on these subjects but also his interpretation of numerous religions and philosophies of the past. The most prominent religious references are to Valentinian Gnosticism, the Rose Cross Brotherhood, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, as well as Biblical writings including the Book of Daniel and the New Testament epistles. Many ancient Greek philosophers are discussed, including several Pre-Socratics (Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Empedocles and Parmenides) as well as Plato and Aristotle. More recent thinkers that are mentioned include the philosophers Pascal and Schopenhauer, the Christian mystic Jakob Böhme, the alchemist Paracelsus and the psychologist Carl Jung. Theology finds its scholars pursuing the understanding of and providing reasoned discourse of religion, spirituality and God or the gods. ... The philosopher Socrates about to take poison hemlock as ordered by the court. ... Plato (Left) and Aristotle (right), by Raphael (Stanza della Segnatura, Rome) Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the ultimate nature of reality, being, and the world. ... This article is about the Gnostic Valentinus. ... The rosy cross (also called rose cross and rose croix) is a symbol largely associated with the semi-mythical Christian Rosencreutz (1378-1484), alchemist and founder of the Rosicrucian Order. ... Zoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster (Zarathustra, Zartosht). ... A silhouette of Buddha at Ayutthaya, Thailand. ... For other uses, see Book of Daniel (disambiguation). ... This article is about the Christian scriptures. ... The word epistle is from the Greek word epistolos which means a written letter addressed to a recipient or recipients, perhaps part of exchanged correspondence. ... Greek philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry. ... The Pre-Socratic philosophers were active before Socrates or contemporaneously, but expounding knowledge developed earlier. ... Pythagoras of Samos (Greek: ; between 580 and 572 BCâ€“between 500 and 490 BC) was an Ionian (Greek) philosopher[1] and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. ... Xenophanes of Colophon (Greek: ÎžÎµÎ½Î¿Ï†Î¬Î½Î·Ï‚, 570 BC-480 BC) was a Greek philosopher, poet, and social and religious critic. ... Heraclitus of Ephesus (Ancient Greek - HerÃ¡kleitos ho EphÃ©sios (Herakleitos the Ephesian)) (about 535 - 475 BC), known as The Obscure (Ancient Greek - ho SkoteinÃ³s), was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, a native of Ephesus on the coast of Asia Minor. ... Empedocles (Greek: , ca. ... Parmenides of Elea (Greek: , early 5th century BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher born in Elea, a Hellenic city on the southern coast of Italy. ... PLATO was one of the first generalized Computer assisted instruction systems, originally built by the University of Illinois (U of I) and later taken over by Control Data Corporation (CDC), who provided the machines it ran on. ... Aristotle (Greek: AristotÃ©lÄ“s) (384 BC â€“ 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ... Blaise Pascal (pronounced ), (June 19, 1623â€“August 19, 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. ... Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788 â€“ September 21, 1860) was a German philosopher. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Idealized portrait of BÃ¶hmes from Theosophia Revelata (1730) Jakob BÃ¶hme (1575â€“1624) was a Christian mystic born in eastern Germany, near GÃ¶rlitz. ... Presumed portrait of Paracelsus, attributed to the school of Quentin Matsys. ... A psychologist is a scientist and/or clinician who studies psychology, the systematic investigation of the human mind, including behavior and cognition. ... Carl Jungs partially autobiographical work Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana edition Carl Gustav Jung (IPA: ) (July 26, 1875, Kesswil â€“ June 6, 1961, KÃ¼snacht) was a Swiss psychiatrist, influential thinker, and founder of analytical psychology. ...

The action of VALIS is set firmly in the American popular culture of its time, with references to the Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa and Linda Ronstadt as well as the fictional rock musicians Eric Lampton and Brent Mini. However, the novel also contains a number of high culture references such as the poets Vaughan, Wordsworth and Goethe, and the classical composers Handel and Wagner. In particular, the novel contains several extended discussions about Wagner's metaphysical opera Parsifal. Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco, California. ... Frank Vincent Zappa[1] (December 21, 1940 â€“ December 4, 1993) was an American composer, musician, and film director. ... Linda Marie Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946 in Tucson, Arizona) is a popular vocalist with multiple Grammy Awards, numerous multi-platinum albums, an Emmy Award, a Tony Award nomination who has recorded over 30 studio albums. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Henry Vaughan (April 17, 1622 - April 28, 1695) was a Welsh Metaphysical poet and a doctor, the twin brother of the philosopher Thomas Vaughan. ... William Wordsworth (April 7, 1770 â€“ April 23, 1850) was a major English romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their 1798 joint publication, Lyrical Ballads. ... Johann Wolfgang Goethe , IPA: , later von Goethe, (28 August 1749 â€“ 22 March 1832) was a German polymath: he was a poet, novelist, dramatist, humanist, scientist, theorist, painter, and for ten years chief minister of state for the duchy of Weimar. ... George Frideric Handel, 1733 George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685 â€“ 14 April 1759) was a German-born British Baroque composer who was a leading composer of concerti grossi, operas and oratorios. ... Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 â€“ 13 February 1883) was a German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or music dramas as they were later called). ... Parsifal is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner. ...

Black Iron Prison

The Black Iron Prison is a concept of an all-pervasive system of social control postulated in the Tractates Cryptica Scriptura, a summary of an unpublished Gnostic exegesis included in VALIS. Gnosticism is a blanket term for various religions and sects most prominent in the first few centuries A.D. General characteristics The word gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis (γνῶσις), referring to the idea that there is special, hidden mysticism (esoteric knowledge...

See also: Guy Debord, Doublethink, Fascism and George Orwell. Guy Ernest Debord (December 28, 1931, in Paris â€“ November 30, 1994, in Champot) was a writer, film maker, hypergraphist and founding member of the groups Lettrist International and Situationist International (SI). ... Doublethink is an integral concept in George Orwells dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, and is the act of holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously, fervently believing both. ... Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a mass movement) that considers individual and other societal interests subordinate to the needs of the state, and seeks to forge a type of national unity, usually based on, but not limited to, ethnic, cultural, or racial attributes. ... Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903[1][2] â€“ 21 January 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. ...

Derivative works

The novel VALIS was adapted in 1987 as an electronic opera by composer Tod Machover, and performed at Centre Georges Pompidou, with live singers and video installations created by artist Catherine Ikam. Tod Machover (1953 â€“) is the son of a pianist and a computer scientist. ... Centre Georges Poopy Doo Doo (constructed 1971â€“1977 and known as the Pompidou Centre in English) is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the IVe arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles and the Marais. ...

In 2004, in the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Philip K. Dick's alleged epiphany, described in the Exegesis and dramatized in VALIS, an art exhibition was organized in Vienna by multimedia artist's group XDV, which had several interactive artworks inspired by the descriptions of his experiences.

Radio station CIBL-FM 101,5 in Montreal, Canada broadcasted a late-night radio show called "L'Eglise de VALIS internationale / Church of VALIS internationale," from 1997 to 2007. The show's producers claimed to retransmit messages sent to them from VALIS. CIBL-FM is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec. ... Nickname: Motto: Concordia Salus (well-being through harmony) Coordinates: , Country Canada Province Quebec Founded 1642 Established 1832 Government - Mayor GÃ©rald Tremblay Area [1][2][3] - City 365. ...

It is also worth noting that the graphic novel The Invisibles carries a strong VALIS influence. The Invisibles is an adult comic book series that was published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics from 1994 to 2000. ...

Film version

In February 1, 2004, Variety announced that Utopia Pictures & Television had acquired the rights to produce three of Philip K. Dick's works: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, VALIS and Radio Free Albemuth.^[1] is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Variety is a daily newspaper for the entertainment industry. ... Utopia Pictures & Television is a production company and film distributor whose credits include the three movies based off of the novel, Shiloh. ... Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 â€“ March 2, 1982) was an American writer, mostly known for his works of science fiction. ... Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said is a Philip K. Dick novel in which Jason Taverner, who is a Six (a genetically improved superhuman) as well as a singer and television star, lives in a future American police state. ... jacket cover A posthumously published novel by Philip K. Dick, written in 1976, Radio Free Albemuth (originally titled VALISystem A) was his first attempt to deal in fiction with his experiences of early 1974. ...

Contents

Plot summary

Horselover Fat

Philip K. Dick

Exegesis

Rhipidon Society

Main characters

Philosophical and cultural references

Black Iron Prison

Derivative works

Film version

See also

References

External links

Contents

Plot summary GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Horselover Fat

Philip K. Dick

Exegesis

Rhipidon Society

Main characters

Philosophical and cultural references

Black Iron Prison

Derivative works

Film version

See also

References

External links

Plot summary