VALIS - Part 1 Reflection

Valis is weird. I don't mean that lightly either. In the past PKD novels we've read for class, characters experienced drugs and the mentality brought along with that. Here we are presented with both the inter and outer workings of a man as he starts his decline into insanity. The narrator is Horselover Fat, telling us the story of Horselover Fat. At the beginning, it seems as if he is one person looking back at an event. As the story pushes on, the narrator removes himself from Fat--sometimes saying 'I' then correcting himself to say 'Fat' instead-- and often says he was one of the people talking and debating Fat on various things. As Fat becomes convenced that God has talked to him, the narrator toys with the idea. He says that he adopts views suiting who he is talking with, even though he is talking to himself at times. Fat saw the laser pointer light shone on the narrator's arm at one point and it reminded him of when he had seen God.

The novel itself is insanely interesting. Unfortunately, it is just as hard to follow as it is interesting. It seems to be one part narrative, two parts philosophical paper.  At times I'm so distracted by the ideas Fat is cooking up that I lose track of where exactly our characters are or in which setting the conversation is taking place. I'm hoping that things will become clearer as I progress in the novel.