This interview with Tod Machover by Peter Stenshoe has been transcribed and edited by Frank C. Bertrand and published recently on Scribd. There’s a wealth of wonderful information here about a series of eerie coincidences in the genesis of VALIS. Tod speaks about why Philip K. Dick’s most personal novel resonated so deeply with him:
I think he is probably one of the most visionary authors that’s been around in the last fifty years or so. The part of his message I think that resonated most with me, and I think is very important, is one I think he struggles with in Valis and all those books at the end of his life, is how is it possible to keep some sense of hope when the world and most of our personal situations are in such an extreme state of pain. And the particular situation that I think he describes in Valis, I mean to me it’s what the whole pink light experience and his reaction to it means, is we live in a world that is becoming in fact more and more fragmented, more and more complex…And I think the pink light is realizing how deep the fragmentation is. I think that what Dick’s whole life work represents is the courage to keep looking for how things stick together. And I do believe that that is the task of our times and will be for the future, to not give up that search….
You can read the full interview here.
VALIS, the opera, is available here.
Opera of the Future 