W: LP: GRP: PKD: VALIS and Later Novels

VALIS and Later Novels by Philip K. Dick

After finishing "VALIS", I accidentally skipped ahead to "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer", but I'm only three chapters into the novel, so I'll stop and go back and read "The Divine Invasion" first. But first a few comments on this novel. The novel is written by a man (Philip K. Dick) in the first person from a woman's POV making it somewhat unusual. And right away the reader is thrust into the post-psychedelic era in California, where the lost traded in their drugs for spiritualism. I came across a short passage that exposes one aspect of this New Age movement:

[Quote:]

A terribly thin kid who resembled our friend Joe the Junkie stopped me, saying, "Ticket?"

"You mean this thing?" From my purse I got out the printed card that Barefoot had mailed me upon receipt of my hundred dollars. In California you buy enlightenment the way you buy peas at the supermarket, by size and weight. I'd like four pounds of enlightenment, I said to myself. No, better make that ten pounds. I'm really running short.

"Go to the rear of the boat," the skinny youth said.

[Unquote.]

{UPDATE}

I just started "The Divine Invasion", and on the first page (p.401) I came across a couple of lines that I liked (emphasis mine):

The two of them took the local rail to the school. A fussy little man met them, a Mr. Plaudet; he was enthusiastic and wanted to shake hands with Manny. It was evident to Elias Tate that this was the government. First they shake hands with you, he thought, and then they murder you.