VALIS

Earlier this summer I read Philip K. Dick for the first time. VALIS was good and thought-provoking, but very strange.

The protagonist is named Horselover Fat, and is possibly or likely an author surrogate (according to the VALIS wikipedia page: "Horselover" echoes the Greek etymology of the name Philip, while in German, Dick's surname means "fat").

Fat is hit with a beam of pink light which blasts a dense stream of information into his head. He becomes obsessed with the "religious" information he has gained, and begins to write a treatise. His band of friends is unusually sarcastic and bitter, and there is a lot of interesting tension as a result.

Many of the more philosophical aspects of the book were of great interest to me. I returned it to the library so I don't remember exactly what was on these pages, but I wrote down page numbers of sections that interested me: 69, 118, 136, and 170. If anyone reads this soon (same edition!) we can discuss.