This week I wrote about someone resurrected in a future society where death has been outlawed. I don’t like it and didn’t really know where I was going with it, so I’ve broken my streak of good stories. I finished something though!
I also read VALIS by Phillip K. Dick. It’s about a man who has a vision of a pink light beaming information into his head, and who starts to believe that he is talking to God, and is living in the past in Roman times, but that our world is overlaying that time. It’s very crazy and full of lots of bizarre stuff but it somehow manages to hold together. I enjoyed it a lot, and then enjoyed it even more when I found out that it was based on real experiences that PKD had (or thought he had). His visions led him to an obsession to find an explanation to what happened to him that lasted the rest of his life. During those eight years he wrote a journal of his thoughts that grew to over 8000 pages, sometimes he would write over 100 pages in one sitting, staying up all night writing. Published sections of it can be read in The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick.
Anyway, the book was really good and had lots of philosophical insights and interesting thoughts. I’d recommend it to people interested in philosophy and theology as well as sci fi fans.
The ebook I got also came with the sequel, The Divine Invasion, so I read that as well. Contrary to VALIS, this came off to me as a bunch of insane rambling. The story makes hardly any sense and focuses lots of time on long theological diatribes that seem to have nothing to do with anything. I had a real hard time getting through it and wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re just really into PKD’s crazy beliefs.
A lot of my time this week got sucked up by my new obsession, which is learning to play Go. I’m going to focus more on splitting up my time this week between writing and obsessing on Go strategies, so hopefully I’ll have a better story next week.
Jonas David 