VALIS: God Debate Mirroring Real World

While reading VALIS, I noticed how close in absurdity the debate about God's existence mirrors the real world. Full disclosure: I'm a practicing Catholic, but I have difficulty accepting things about the actions of God, or his presence, as absolute fact. I feel bad, and scared every so often, about my failure to believe in full. I hold a cautionary view: I hope God is real, because death and ceasing to be for eternity sounds like absolutely the worst thing in the world.

After revealing myself as someone who is not entirely convinced or unconvinced about the existence of God, it annoys me to see the fully convinced Christians (and other religious types, I suppose) and atheist spouting off about how right they are and why the other side is stupid.

We see this reflected in VALIS, with Fat and Kevin representing the sanctimonious Christian and the stubborn atheist, respectively. Fat talks endlessly about how he has seen God and must broadcast it to everyone who will be damned if the don't believe, while Kevin makes a flimsy argument about his dead cat disproving God. The absolute head-smashing refusal of either side to acknowledge the other mirrors the real world, both with the Bible verse-quoting people who do not practice what the preach to the counterculture arrested adolescent atheists who make unoriginal jokes about the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

In the end, it is best to just tune everyone out and read a book, until you see this debate in a book like VALIS.

An Introverted Perspective

As I was reading A Scanner Darkly, I developed quite a likeable disposition toward Bob Arctor (a.k.a. Fred), which is more than I can say about the other characters we encountered in the other novels so far. I connected with Arctor because of his want to not be bothered by all the matters and people in the world, only doing so because it is part of his job. For instance, after he receives his assignment to spy on himself from Hank, he goes home and just lays down, trying to find quiet moments where no one can bother him or tell him what to do, before he succumbs to the work.

In less dramatic circumstances, that is my natural response to undesirable tasks. Some of my more pleasant memories are coming home or getting back to my dorm room after getting through a rather unpleasant day where I thought I either embarrassed myself or I got annoyed at a superior, much like Arctor/Fred was annoyed at Hank. After all, no matter how unpleasant the outside world may be, there is always a place that is reserved just for me and no one else.

Arctor's behavior is the mark of a true introvert, which allows him time for self-reflection and reflection on others. In these times, we not only get a deeper understanding of his views, but we also receive hints on how he may react to solve his issues. It'll be interesting to see if his character continues to progress from just another jaded man to a game-changing character. (And yes, it is nearly 1:40 in the morning, so please ignore the probably incoherent mess of ideas established in the last two sentences. Consider them talking points to develop much further.)