The Divine Invasion by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
SLEEPERS AWAKE TO HYPER-REALITY
I listened to the Audio Version of this book.  Valis One was incredibly rich, full of literary nuggets.  The Divine Invasion,  the sequel,  is an interesting adventure.I like this book more than VALIS... but both works are needed to understand the full vision and exegesis of Philip K. Dick.   His exegesis of the Church is quit funny. for example the main narrator says "I am God's legal father."   I can see where Douglas Adams may have got his ideas for the great computer and the ultimate answer of Life The Universe and Everything: 42.
This type of book requires one to let the book evolve, and not attempt to confine it within an A-B=C plot line. The reader starts out in a simple pulpy reality of melodramatic science fiction.  The melodramatic scene begins to unravel, as one ascends.   The roller coaster takes you to a realm full of  chaotic characters and scenes as imagined in Disney's Haunted House.  We turn in the dark, and descend on a roller coaster built incredibly tall.   So the descent takes us into a totally paranoid alternate
reality. By the book’s end, there is nothing trustworthy left in the world.’ said Australian critic Bruce Gillespie.
  So, if you like your plot lines straight, and easy than Philip K. Dick may upset your settled reality. If however you understand that Phillip K. Dick will throw you for a loop, one  will enjoy the confusion.The book was a tremendous journey into the lines between reality and make believe.


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Men Naked in the Woods

Ken Dowling interviewed Chuck Palahniuk,  here is an excerpt.  You can find the interview on Chuck's Website.

"I think that young men are completely in the wayside right now. Everything has changed for them.  They are being given no resources.  It seems the only thing they can do is  lash out.  Young men are screwed at this point in history.  They are repeatedly demonized.  There's such a high rate of suicide.  It kills me."

The reason I reprinted it was to share the issue he brought up; an issue that I think the United States must address if it is to get healthy again: Note the original appeared in Hustler Magazine and may be a temptation that some of my brothers can not handle.  Not that I can, but I was not tempted (this time) by the Minions of Babylon.

Confucius once said that a bear could not fart at the North Pole without causing a big wind in Chicago. By this he meant that all events, therefore, all men are interconnected. In an unbreakable web. What one man does, no matter how seemingly insignificant vibrates through the strands and effects every man.

Philip Jose Farmer - Riders of the Purple Sage

Devil's Gate Haiku

We walk to Zion,
like the Mormons pushing carts
through bitter winters.