Valis, by Philip K. Dick

This story really only has one main character, protagonist Horselover Fat. Fat (as Horselover Fat is referred to throughout the book) is, if anything, an intelligent man. This is revealed throughout the book. Fat does, and has done, many drugs. This leads to his mental breakdown (which this story chronicles), “His psychiatrist once told him that to get well he would have to do two things; get off dope (which he hadn’t done)...” (Dick 9). Fat is a very opinionated man, and he has great passion for what he believes in. More than many things, he is a cynic. His blatant cynicism becomes evident at many places in the book,

It reminds me of a girl I once knew who was dying of cancer. I visited her in the hospital and did not recognize her ... and when I bent close to her to ask her how she felt she answered, when she could understand my question, "I feel that God is healing m

In this exchange we see on obvious cynicism. However, the last sentence shows that cynicism can lead to optimism, in that he is beginning to help Fat. This contradictory tone is quite prevalent throughout the novel.

e." She had been religiously inclined and had planned to go into a religious order. On the metal stand next to her bed she had, or someone had, laid out her rosary. In my opinion a FUCK YOU, GOD sign would have been appropriate; the rosary was not. (Dick 25)

Early on in the story, Fat sees God. Well, it was more of a transaction of information then a sighting, an exchange. Fat had “got” God in the form of a pink laser. Through this laser, God had revealed many of the mysteries of the universe to Fat, “God, he told us, had fired a beam of pink light directly at him, at his head, his eyes; Fat had been temporarily blinded and his head ached for days ... He lived for that light, that one particular color” (Dick 20). After this experience, he (Fat, not God) developed an odd “addiction” to God, “After he had encountered god, Fat developed a love for him which was not normal. It was not what is usually meant in saying that someone ‘loves God.’ With Fat it was an actual hunger” (Dick 20).

Fat believed that he was the only person that was truly sane and rational. This was because God had contacted him and he alone knew the truth. This was an important belief in the novel.

This novel is written in a style that is quite different from your traditional novel. As I stated earlier, there is none of the usual character development, plot line, and importance of setting. Valis is more of an exposition of Dick’s crack-pot theology that is loosely tied to the story of Horselover Fat. Much of it is basically Fat discussing his thoughts on the physical, metaphysical, and mystical.

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