VALIS by Philip K. Dick, Chapter 9
AI Overview Description
A 43-minute narration of Chapter 9 of Philip K. Dick’s VALIS (1981). The chapter centers on a science fiction film also called Valis: Kevin’s trip to the theater, the drive home, and the long night at the apartment where three friends try to work out what they just saw.
My Book Review
PKD’s last published novel. A philosophical treatise, the notion that we’re still living in the first century after Christ’s death, the contention that the Vast Active Living Intelligence System (VALIS) is a plasmate that lay dormant until the discovery of the Nag Hammadi manuscript (which includes the Gospel of Thomas) and beamed Phil with a pink light in 1974 — which gave rise to his exegesis (a journal of illumination or madness) and ultimately this novel.
The two best scenes were his conversation with a psychologist while in the nut house due to the shrink’s electric performance [Dr. Leon Stone in Chapter Five] and his plot description [Chapter Nine] of a sci-fi film also entitled, ‘Valis’ (as well as its ensuing post watch analysis amidst buddies), which reminded me of the writing style I used in one of my, ‘Nineteen Stories’ short, peppery 4th wall breaking descriptions like, ‘Character inadvertantly stumbles into heroine on an escalator’, and ‘dimly lit sounding music rises behind a fog at dawn’. Dick’s apotheosis spiritually.
Timestamps
- 00:00: Introduction: Intimations of Immortality
- 00:55: The Travel Agency and the Fifth Savior
- 01:55: Kevin’s Invitation: A Film Called Valis
- 02:40: The Marquee: Valis, with Mother Goose
- 05:08: The Film: Ferris Fremont’s America
- 10:13: Brady’s Collapse
- 12:45: Lasers and Phosphene Light
- 15:18: The Drive Home: “You Saw the Pink Light?”
- 20:26: Two Men in Black
- 23:00: Who Is Mini?
- 25:37: The Taxi and the Beer Can
- 26:57: Back at Fat’s Apartment
- 27:39: “It’s Like a Conspiracy”
- 30:49: The Information Transfer
- 36:02: Shot in Hollywood
- 38:38: A Different Film Each Time
- 41:58: Whale Songs and Kevin’s Visions
- 43:07: Outro
The Series
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Joseph Voelbel designs learning curriculum and writes about money, systems, and meaning. Author of Pay Attention to Bitcoin (2024), a crash-course primer on sound money, Nineteen Stories (2017), an exploration of the unknown, and This Plant Will Grow (2026), a children's book about a plant that becomes a rainforest.