Free Valis by Philip K. Dick Page B

up under the ground."
    Amazed, Fat said, "She's decomposing and yet she's still giving birth?"
    "Only to monsters," Dr. Stone said.

    About this time two new propositions entered Fat's mind, due to this particular conversation.

    1)
    
    
    Some of those in power are insane.
    2)
    
    
    And they are right

    By "right" read "in touch with reality." Fat had reverted back to his most dismal insight, that the universe and the Mind behind it which governed it are both totally irrational. He wondered if he should mention this to Dr. Stone, who seemed to understand Fat better than anyone else during all Fat's life.
    "Dr. Stone," he said, "there's something I want to ask you. I want your professional opinion."
    "Name it."
    "Could the universe possibly be irrational?"
    "You mean not guided by a mind. I suggest you turn to Xenophanes."
    "Sure," Fat said. "Xenophanes of Colophon. 'One god there is, in no way like mortal creatures either in bodily form or in the thought of his mind. The whole of him sees, the whole of him thinks, the whole of him hears. He stays always motionless in the same place; it is not right
    --
    '"
    "'Fitting,'" Dr. Stone corrected. "'It is not fitting that he should move about now this way, now that.' And the important part,
Fragment 25.
'But, effortlessly, he wields all things by the thought of his mind.'"
    "But he could be irrational," Fat said.
    "How
    
    
    would we know?"
    "The whole universe would be irrational.
    "
    Dr. Stone said, "Compared with what?"
    That, Fat hadn't thought of. But as soon as he thought of it he realized that it did not tear down his fear; it increased it. If the whole universe were irrational, because it was directed by an irrational -- that is to say, insane -- mind, whole species could come into existence, live and perish and never guess, precisely for the reason that Stone had just given.
    "The Logos isn't irrational,
    "
     Fat decided out loud. "What I call the plasmate. Buried as information in the codices at Nag Hammadi. Which is back with us now, creating new homoplasmates. The Romans, the Empire, killed all the original ones."
    "But you say real time ceased in 70 a.d. when the Romans destroyed the Temple. Therefore these are still Roman times; the Romans are still here. This is roughly
    --
    " Dr. Stone calculated. "About 100 a.d."
    Fat realized, then, that this explained his double exposure, the superimposition he had seen of ancient Rome and California 1974. Dr. Stone had solved it for him.
    The psychiatrist in charge of treating him for his lunacy had ratified it. Now Fat would never depart from faith in his encounter with God. Dr. Stone had nailed it down.

5

    Fat spent thirteen days at North Ward, drinking coffee and reading and walking around with Doug, but he never got to talk to Dr. Stone again because Stone had too many responsibilities, inasmuch as he had charge of the whole ward and everyone in it, staff and patients alike.
    Well, he did have one brief dipshit hurried interchange at the time of his discharge from the ward.
    "I think you're ready to leave," Stone said cheerfully.
    Fat said, "But let me ask you. I'm not talking about no mind at all directing the universe. I'm talking about a mind like Xenophanes conceived of, but the mind is insane."
    "The Gnostics believed that the creator deity was insane," Stone said. "Blind. I want to show you something. It hasn't been published yet; I have it in a typescript from Orval Wintermute who is currently working with Bethge in translating the Nag Hammadi codices. This quote comes from
On The Origin
of the World.
Read it."
    Fat read it to himself, holding the precious typescript.

    "He said, 'I am god and no other one exists except me.'
    
    
    But when he said these things, he sinned against all of
    
    
    the immortal (imperishable) ones, and they protected
    
    
    him. Moreover, when Pistis saw the impiety of the chief
    
    
    ruler, she was angry. Without being seen, she said,
    
    
    'You err, Samael,' i.e. the blind god.' 'An