tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post3239093471105129482..comments2024-03-11T11:06:36.576-07:00Comments on Total Dick-Head: VALIS DiscussedRagle Gummhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951340313214410331noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-11872398415015903852012-06-12T20:54:59.868-07:002012-06-12T20:54:59.868-07:00Valis is a revelation. PKDick's experience par...Valis is a revelation. PKDick's experience parallels Robert Anton Wilson's receiving transmissions from Sirius and even Timothy Leary.All 3 speak of an encounter with a transcendental experience what Terence McKenna calls THE SINGULARITY<br /><br />Dan<br />www.thephilipkdickfilmfestival.comavatarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05882783779101855424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-19178293626250908952012-05-01T17:08:28.654-07:002012-05-01T17:08:28.654-07:00Having just re-read this book i'll chuck in a ...Having just re-read this book i'll chuck in a quick two cents (but maybe no sense knowing me, anyhoo...)<br />Valis is, of itself, a maddening, hilarious, flawed, tragic, stultifying and electrifying piece of work - it is both profoundly trivial and trivially profound (but isn't that the essence of PKD maybe?). <br /><br />the concept of Valis is less important than its effects - (i mean Valis could just as easily be called Ubik or Chew-Z or Substance D or - gah memory fail - that thing in Pot Healer, whatever or the i-ching and it would make no difference at the end of the day) which ripple through the narrative (though centring mostly on Horselover and Phil) in tangible psychic shockwaves.<br /><br />ok, well, cool - the downside maybe is that the agency at work here (Valis) is more oblique than say Drugs in Scanner and the novel thereby is an even more insular work. <br /><br />It is also becoming a book that knowledgeable readers come to forearmed; there is now the exegesis, there are the biographies of Dick, there is the internet to explore Dick's gnostic preoccupations... this is (IMO) a little unfortunate since the novel itself is transformed under such high powered scrutiny (into what? a dark glass perhaps).<br /><br />Taken on its own terms Valis is a pretty unique read (and re-read). And it's popularity is certainly on the rise and rightly so.<br /> <br />None of the characters in it emerge with much dignity left though - it must be said - and Phil's black take on women and marriage has not shifted one iota since the 50s.wytchcroftnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-61454654011238073932011-03-12T10:51:51.199-08:002011-03-12T10:51:51.199-08:00I just finished reading this book. I love PKD and ...I just finished reading this book. I love PKD and this book was amazing, I (thought) I understood the vast majority of the novel and it was all going well until the last 2 chapters and now I'm in total confusion. Is PKD trying to make you decide for yourself if he's just insane or if there's some truth to what he has discussed throughout the novel?<br /><br />ThanksAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-69397407451636098172009-02-19T22:00:00.000-08:002009-02-19T22:00:00.000-08:00Without hesitate, I bought Tibia Gold , in the ga...Without hesitate, I bought <A HREF="http://www.mmodo.com/product/Tibia_Gold.html" REL="nofollow"> Tibia Gold </A>, in the game I can find myself. So I buy <A HREF="http://www.mmodo.com/product/Tibia_Gold.html" REL="nofollow"> Tibia coins </A>. At present, think the happy day I spend in tibia, I am eager to enter it, and buy <A HREF="http://www.mmodo.com/product/Tibia_Gold.html" REL="nofollow"> Tibia money </A>. Own <A HREF="http://www.mmodo.com/product/Tibia_Gold.html" REL="nofollow"> tibia gp </A>, it means that you own the life of happiness. So I will not leave <A HREF="http://www.mmodo.com/product/Tibia_Gold.html" REL="nofollow"> Tibia Platinum </A>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-60728834855067134202008-05-02T23:57:00.000-07:002008-05-02T23:57:00.000-07:00Valentine even plays backseat screenwriter and giv...<I>Valentine even plays backseat screenwriter and gives us this scene for the biopics:<BR/><BR/>"EXT. - FIRST CENTURY ROME - A CROWDED ROMAN MARKETPLACE - DAY. Philip K. Dick, attired as a poor Roman artisan, is frantically running from a pair of Roman soldiers. They almost apprehend him, but he pushes over a basket of fish and gets away. The Roman soldiers slip on the fish, and one of them falls in the street."</I><BR/><BR/>Valentine is relating a scene Phil experienced (in a dream IIRC) and mentioned in an interview or wrote about in the Exegesis or somewhere. I've reread Paul William's Only Apparently Real and Sutin's Divine Invasions plus read or listened to some odds and ends of PKD stuff from various other sources in the last couple weeks and recognize this as almost a verbatim PKD quote put in third person.<BR/><BR/>Think in the next couple sentences Phil finds a doorway with the Christian fish symbol over it and enters to hide from his pursuers.<BR/><BR/>Haven't read the Gnosis article yet but imagine Valentine expected readers would recognize the source.<BR/><BR/><I>Was PKD inspired to write VALIS by his mystical experiences? Well it certainly seems that way, but if this inspiration was so complete why did Dick have to write Radio Free Albemuth first, only to have it rejected by his publisher?</I><BR/><BR/>Sutin wrote quite a bit about the evolution and writing of these two works which may be of interest to you. Rickmann may have info available too--his books are in my BTRR pile but I haven't gotten to them yet expect for some index entry hunting and browsing but strongly suspect they have material relating to this.<BR/><BR/>Think I'll go read the Gnosis article now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-78505274091003877162008-04-30T03:20:00.000-07:002008-04-30T03:20:00.000-07:00Well, I've had enough of movies 'based on the work...Well, I've had enough of movies 'based on the work of Philip K Dick'. Don't get me wrong, I loved <I>Blade Runner</I> and <I>A Scanner Darkly</I>, and even have a soft spot for <I>Screamers</I> and <I>Impostor</I> but films are a different art form from books (NS,S) - there's always something missing, even in the best adaptations. And as for the worst, well...<BR/><BR/>In the end I can only see them as money-making exercises aimed at the 'captive market' of PKD fans. So I'll stick to the books from now on.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-34107137456826452612008-04-28T17:31:00.000-07:002008-04-28T17:31:00.000-07:00i think other than the entries i read here on tota...i think other than the entries i read here on total dick head(both blog entries and their responses) its one of the better articles on pkd and the forthcoming movies on his life. probably not very accurate but very entertaining. and in my opinion they get the concept of someones ideas, art, work, love and life being complicated duplicitous and larger than we can comprehend. i guess you'd have to live their life to know what was going on with them. reading pkd imo is like a zen koan and a taoist story rolled into one. it entertains, perplexes and enlightens me. i hope that the stories he wrote can do the same for more people. even if it takes a movie for them to get interested.sclrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14269957937233679929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-40581050875846375982008-04-28T17:28:00.000-07:002008-04-28T17:28:00.000-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.sclrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14269957937233679929noreply@blogger.com