ピンクの光を横断する : フィリップ・k・ディックの『ヴァリス』のラカン的読解

This paper analyzes Philip K. Dick’s VALIS (1981) through Lacanian psychoanalysis, arguing that the novel’s fractured structure, use of biography, contradictory narration, and lack of resolution are not products of the author’s mental illness but rather constitute a formal depiction of fractured subjectivity. The pink light that structures the split between Dick’s two narrative avatars, Horselover Fat and Phil, functions as a signifier of the Lacanian Real—a kernel that resists Fat’s compulsive attempts to comprehend it through his idiosyncratic theology. The inconsistency of Fat’s theories, as well as the narration that seems to slip between Fat and Phil, dramatizes the nonsensical signifier around which the Lacanian subject forms often contradictory thoughts. Furthermore, the split that produces Horselover Fat characterizes him as a psychic wound resulting from the traumatic encounter with the Lacanian Real, which is why Fat pursues the impossible task of comprehending both the nature of the pink light and what he deems an evil universe. However, in the final sections of the novel, Fat’s search continues, but its libidinal energy shifts: Fat no longer seeks a definitive answer in despair, but instead derives energy from the search itself. This shift is interpreted as the “traversing of fantasy,” in which the subject reconfigures his relation to desire. Ultimately, the paper argues that VALIS warrants reassessment as an effective depiction of fractured subjectivity, rather than as a failed product of mental illness.