Philip K. Dick's VALIS trilogy, inspired by a series of startling mystical experiences in February and March of 1974, blurred the line between speculative fiction and theological investigation. Like his father, Dick was given to phobias, and beset with delusions as a matter of course, but these 2-3-74 experiences led him to completely overhaul his opinion of apparent reality. Remembering Firebright is Dick’s last wife Tessa’s account of these experiences. She cares for him during his relentless breakdowns, making clear that these did not stem from drugs, as many have supposed, but were instead symptomatic of some strange calling, whether madness or divine inspiration. Making matters worse, the U.S. government may have been gathering information about Phil and otherwise tampering with his mental stability in this period of existential uncertainty, causing Dick to question his own sanity, as shown in the inventive characterization of the first book.
VALIS was Dick’s acronym for Vast Active Living Information System, a fictional characterization of one aspect of the triune Christian God, and the novels are his account of a personal attempt to decode apparent reality. Dick passed away before completing the intended “trilogy constellating around a basic theme," the third volume of which was replaced by The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, Dick’s novelization of the neo-theological drama lived out by his acquaintance Unitarian Bishop James Pike, who disappeared in the Dead Sea during a theological expedition in 1969. Tessa’s novel The Owl in Daylight is her attempt at completion of his master stroke as Phil would have intended, informed by hours of intimate conversation about the proposed third volume.
Tessa B. Dick’s behind the scenes account of a defining chain of events in postmodern culture via speculative fiction deserves the attention of Philip K. Dick fans and writers everywhere seeking to understand the world and themselves through writing, as he did.
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