Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Del Rey (1977), Paperback
Description
Bob Arctor is a dealer of the lethally addictive drug Substance D. Fred is the police agent assigned to tail and eventually bust him. To do so, Fred takes on the identity of a drug dealer named Bob Arctor. And since Substance D--which Arctor takes in massive doses--gradually splits the user's brain into two distinct, combative entities, Fred doesn't realize he is narcing on himself.
Media reviews
Sunday Times
Einer der eigenständigsten amerikanischen Autoren ..., der das meiste der europäischen Avantgarde wie Nabelschau in einer Sackgasse erscheinen läßt.
User reviews
LibraryThing member KTPrymus
I have a confession to make. This is the first Phillip K. Dick novel I’ve been capable of finishing. I’ve tried two others: the extremely daunting When Androids Dream of Electric Sleep, a novel so abstract an erudite that even Ridley Scott couldn’t finish it prior to making Blade Runner, and
The title of the work is a reference to 1 Corinthians 13:12, a passage which has found much use in science fiction (i.e. Ghost in the Shell). In this instance the mirror through which we see darkly is transformed to a scanner – a three-dimensional surveillance system used, in this case, to monitor the home of several drug users. The interesting twist is that the intended primary target, Bob Arctor, is actually an undercover narcotics officer, and the person assigned to monitor the scanner’s recordings is Bob Arctor himself. Or really it is Fred, who is Bob Arctor but frequently forgets that little bit of information. In this future the police force is terribly corrupt and the only way to keep secret the identity of undercover agents is to have them wear scramble suits at all times while on duty – elaborate high tech disguises that hide their faces and voices from even their colleagues. Since no one in the department knows Bob Arctor is an undercover officer, and he has been steadily increasing his drug trafficking in an attempt to draw out the high level pushers, he becomes a high profile target and Fred is assigned to watch him. Because his own drug use has scrambled his brain a bit – he must, after all, use drugs to fit in with the criminals – Arctor begins to separate Bob Arctor from Fred so completely that eventually Fred even forgets that the person he is watching on the scanner is himself.
You can imagine that this creates a wonderful template for an exploration of personal identity, as well as drug-induced personality disorders and drug culture itself. While the relationships among the minor characters is often confused and seemingly irrelevant there is a great deal of comedic value in their interactions and never do their antics overshadow the deeper meaning of the story. The large conspiracy surrounding the production of the narcotic de jour, Substance D, however, does encroach upon the key narrative a bit, and the ultimate twist that Dick creates at the end seems a bit shallow as it ties up the plot lines but has little relevance to the key relationship between Fred and Arctor. One can’t help but wonder if this conspiracy thread is just the product of Dick’s own drug-induced paranoia. If you can look past this, however, and focus on the humor and the psychology (perhaps even stop reading after chapter 13) you will find it a particularly enjoyable and original read.
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another that was so uninteresting to me I can’t even recall its name. I had nearly given up on him, not being fan of science fiction novels anyway, but I heard great things about Flow, My Tears, the Policeman Said. Unfortunately it was checked out of my library but, having recently seen and loved Richard Linklater’s adaptation of A Scanner Darkly, I opted to give this one a try. This proved to be a very fortunate event.The title of the work is a reference to 1 Corinthians 13:12, a passage which has found much use in science fiction (i.e. Ghost in the Shell). In this instance the mirror through which we see darkly is transformed to a scanner – a three-dimensional surveillance system used, in this case, to monitor the home of several drug users. The interesting twist is that the intended primary target, Bob Arctor, is actually an undercover narcotics officer, and the person assigned to monitor the scanner’s recordings is Bob Arctor himself. Or really it is Fred, who is Bob Arctor but frequently forgets that little bit of information. In this future the police force is terribly corrupt and the only way to keep secret the identity of undercover agents is to have them wear scramble suits at all times while on duty – elaborate high tech disguises that hide their faces and voices from even their colleagues. Since no one in the department knows Bob Arctor is an undercover officer, and he has been steadily increasing his drug trafficking in an attempt to draw out the high level pushers, he becomes a high profile target and Fred is assigned to watch him. Because his own drug use has scrambled his brain a bit – he must, after all, use drugs to fit in with the criminals – Arctor begins to separate Bob Arctor from Fred so completely that eventually Fred even forgets that the person he is watching on the scanner is himself.
You can imagine that this creates a wonderful template for an exploration of personal identity, as well as drug-induced personality disorders and drug culture itself. While the relationships among the minor characters is often confused and seemingly irrelevant there is a great deal of comedic value in their interactions and never do their antics overshadow the deeper meaning of the story. The large conspiracy surrounding the production of the narcotic de jour, Substance D, however, does encroach upon the key narrative a bit, and the ultimate twist that Dick creates at the end seems a bit shallow as it ties up the plot lines but has little relevance to the key relationship between Fred and Arctor. One can’t help but wonder if this conspiracy thread is just the product of Dick’s own drug-induced paranoia. If you can look past this, however, and focus on the humor and the psychology (perhaps even stop reading after chapter 13) you will find it a particularly enjoyable and original read.
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LibraryThing member antao
I'm a big Pynchon fan, too, so don't get me wrong here, but it seems to me like the main difference between Dick's writing style and Pynchon's--or at least, the difference that mostly accounts for Dick being treated as a "pulp" author with some interesting ideas whereas Pynchon is considered a
All of which makes major Dick novels like “Do Androids Dream ofElectric Sheep?” or “Radio Free Albemuth” sort of resemble, IMHO, what “Gravity's Rainbow” might have looked like if Pynchon had been working with editors who expected him to actually keep tight deadlines.
I think Dick was really gifted as a wry satirist, too, and this is something I think he's often under-appreciated for. Probably my favourite single episode in all of Dick's stories I've ever read--and I was quite overjoyed to see this faithfully recreated in the film adaptation--is still the "suicide" sequence from “A Scanner Darkly”. In short, I don't think Dick was ever bad at writing--he just doesn't seem to have had any real interest in the kind of writing that people like James Joyce or William Burroughs (or Pynchon, for whom to my mind it seems that both Joyce and Burroughs were major stylistic influences) were famous for.
If you're into SF, read the rest of this review on my blog.
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major "literary" figure--is simply that Dick tends to write in crisp, straightforward sentences that just directly say what he means to say, whereas Pynchon's writing is (in)famously dense with allusion and rambling esoteric figurative expressions to the point where it can be an intellectual exercise in its own right just trying to figure out what the hell Pynchon is trying to say.All of which makes major Dick novels like “Do Androids Dream ofElectric Sheep?” or “Radio Free Albemuth” sort of resemble, IMHO, what “Gravity's Rainbow” might have looked like if Pynchon had been working with editors who expected him to actually keep tight deadlines.
I think Dick was really gifted as a wry satirist, too, and this is something I think he's often under-appreciated for. Probably my favourite single episode in all of Dick's stories I've ever read--and I was quite overjoyed to see this faithfully recreated in the film adaptation--is still the "suicide" sequence from “A Scanner Darkly”. In short, I don't think Dick was ever bad at writing--he just doesn't seem to have had any real interest in the kind of writing that people like James Joyce or William Burroughs (or Pynchon, for whom to my mind it seems that both Joyce and Burroughs were major stylistic influences) were famous for.
If you're into SF, read the rest of this review on my blog.
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LibraryThing member RandyStafford
This is Dick's best novel. A drug novel, yes, but there is no glorification or moralizing here, just cause and effect and the high price paid for some good times, compassion and tenderness as well as stoner humor and paranoia. And it's the ultimate paranoia of fearing and doubting yourself that
And there are the usual Dick motifs: God in the gutter and trash of our world, the insect as metaphor for the spiritually dead, the ethical dilemmas, and the religious allusions -- not the least being the title which echoes Saint Paul.
And, unlike many of his novels, Dick maintains control of his plot to the end. One senses this novel was plotted start to finish and not ad hoc like some of his work seems to be. And that ending is a strange mixture of cynicism, vague utopianism, and a contemplation of human loss and sacrifice. As usual with Dick, even the villains have our understanding if not sympathy.
This remembrance of his friends and younger days has Dick's blackest humor. And the friend's touch Arctor remembers to his dying day is at the center of this novel.
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gets Dick's best novel length treatment here. Special Agent Fred eventually forgets the man he is watching on surveillance tapes is his undercover ego Bob. It's a conceit successfully pulled off starting with metaphorical alienation, to the disguises Fred's work requires, to the literal brain damage rationalized by quotes from scientific articles on split-brain research. And there are the usual Dick motifs: God in the gutter and trash of our world, the insect as metaphor for the spiritually dead, the ethical dilemmas, and the religious allusions -- not the least being the title which echoes Saint Paul.
And, unlike many of his novels, Dick maintains control of his plot to the end. One senses this novel was plotted start to finish and not ad hoc like some of his work seems to be. And that ending is a strange mixture of cynicism, vague utopianism, and a contemplation of human loss and sacrifice. As usual with Dick, even the villains have our understanding if not sympathy.
This remembrance of his friends and younger days has Dick's blackest humor. And the friend's touch Arctor remembers to his dying day is at the center of this novel.
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LibraryThing member dczapka
This is Dick's masterpiece for good reason, the first of his books I've read that successfully melds the question of identity with a complex, surprisingly coherent plot.
Read as an anti-drug narrative, it is less than effective because it never quite puts forward the idea that drug use is bad
The intricacies of the plot eventually reveal themselves with surprising clarity, unveiling a theme of police-criminal interdependence that's easy to miss. And the kicker of the whole novel is its spot-on, pitch-perfect dialogue, which relentlessly provides the sense (and senselessness) of addiction.
An absolute stunner, and a must-read.
Read as an anti-drug narrative, it is less than effective because it never quite puts forward the idea that drug use is bad
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(particularly in the closing paragraphs) though it clearly wants the reader to recognize that it's damaging.The intricacies of the plot eventually reveal themselves with surprising clarity, unveiling a theme of police-criminal interdependence that's easy to miss. And the kicker of the whole novel is its spot-on, pitch-perfect dialogue, which relentlessly provides the sense (and senselessness) of addiction.
An absolute stunner, and a must-read.
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LibraryThing member iftyzaidi
A dark little novel. I always tend to find Philip K. Dick's novels either uplifting or somewhat depressing and this is one of the later, all the moreso since he drew on his own life for this depiction of the effects of drug use. Some parts are quiet harrowing, though thankfully the story is not
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unremittingly bleak throughout. It follows 'Fred', an undercover Nacotics police officer who even has to hide his identity from his superiors due to corruption in the police department. Fred is also Bob Arctor, a drug user who hangs around with other user friends. However in purchasing large quantities of drugs in an attempt to discover their source, Bob Arctor draws the notice of the police, which results in Fred being assigned to spy on himself. At the same time his drug use is beginning to take a toll on his mind and someone seems to be out to kill him.... This novel is by turns disturbing, darkly humorous, bleak, warm and intense. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kwarizmi
I've been putting off reading this book. I should have put it off more. It's a depressing, tragicomic, eloquent slice of genius pie, P.K. Dick style. It's a cerebral novel that demands your attention. I don't regret reading the book, but it certainly wasn't a pleasant experience. It was king of
I would recommend this book to almost anyone and would not read it again.
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like having a bad tooth pulled.I would recommend this book to almost anyone and would not read it again.
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LibraryThing member KLmesoftly
What a disturbing, intense book! The first thing I did after finishing this novel was hand it off to a friend so I'd have someone to discuss it with. It's definitely not a light read, so don't pick it up if you're not looking for something thought-provoking. It's science-fiction, yes, but also has
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a lot of interesting things to say about drug abuse and addiction and, whether you agree with Dick's views or not, the sociology of crime. Show Less
LibraryThing member amwhitsett
Philip K. Dick is said to be the grand master of all science fiction. I would deviate from that to say that yes, though he rightfully owns that genre, he is truly the master of the psychological novel. This is exemplified with A Scanner Darkly. Dick very effectively brings us to the depths of
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paranoiaa and the confusion of drug-addled consciousness. He manages to successfully split one character into two and to show what it looks like to have your life objectified by hidden scanners--later watched and analyzed by the mirror. This novel is set within a subculture usually handled harshly by any media, that here is held within a gentle, empathic hand. The point gets across alright, but the point is not simply that "drug users are bad people", but that perhaps they're just people--sublime ordinariness--who've made a mistake. As I've seen in all else of Dick's work, the primary component that jumps out at me is empathy. This is exemplified here, not from the pages of plot and dialogue, but from the novel as a whole and the outlook on the culture in question. They are not bad people doing bad things, but ordinary people drowning in a mire. Who might have mercy? Show Less
LibraryThing member xuebi
A Scanner Darkly is a classic novel by one of the masters of sci-fi, Philip K. Dick. In it, he tells the story of Bob Arctor who is a drug addict, getting high with his burnt-out friends on a dangerously addictive new drug called Substance D. At the same time, he is also Fred - an undercover
The difference between fiction and reality, one's perception of it, and crises of identity make this a classic P. K. Dick novel but it really excels as one of the most unnerving and realistic novels of drug addiction written. Semi-autobiographical in nature, A Scanner Darkly portrays the drug culture of 1970s Southern California in which Dick was involved. The various tangential and darkly funny conversations Arctor has with his fellow addicts are evidence of this.
Dick thus does an excellent job of showing how people can descend into a drug-fuelled haze to the total exclusion of everything around them, as they and their friends descend further into a drug-addled state, as well as showing once again how fragile our senses of self are and how easily manipulated they are. Altogether, a frightening yet darkly funny and thought-provoking novel.
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narcotics officer whose newest target is Bob Arctor. Thus Fred/Bob must continue to maintain the pretence of informing on Arctor while keeping his own double identity secret. Yet, because of the large amounts of Substance D he consumes, it grows increasingly difficult for him to differentiate between the two identities. The difference between fiction and reality, one's perception of it, and crises of identity make this a classic P. K. Dick novel but it really excels as one of the most unnerving and realistic novels of drug addiction written. Semi-autobiographical in nature, A Scanner Darkly portrays the drug culture of 1970s Southern California in which Dick was involved. The various tangential and darkly funny conversations Arctor has with his fellow addicts are evidence of this.
Dick thus does an excellent job of showing how people can descend into a drug-fuelled haze to the total exclusion of everything around them, as they and their friends descend further into a drug-addled state, as well as showing once again how fragile our senses of self are and how easily manipulated they are. Altogether, a frightening yet darkly funny and thought-provoking novel.
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LibraryThing member sprunger19
This book was awesome. After reading this I want to read more Philip K. Dick. It was an easy but by no means shallow read. The movie is a very good adaption of the book so you could do one or the other... but I recommend both.
LibraryThing member ehines
The last great Dick novel before the descent into the uninteresting, crackpot world of VALIS. Though there are some strong thematic intimations of his later work here, this book is still grounded in the quotidian: Dick still engages fully with our reality rather than his world-
historical delusions.
historical delusions.
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Distinct in style and feel from earlier and later efforts, which may owe something to the editing/rewriting of his wife Tessa. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheAmpersand
It features full-body scramble suits and a mysterious new drug called "Substance D," but I'm not sure that "A Scanner Darkly" should be classified as science fiction. It might fit more comfortably brief, relatively new canon of junkie lit, and, like most books in this genre, it's pretty much a
"A Scanner Darkly" is certainly more overtly literary than the other two Dick novels that I've read -- "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" and "Ubik" -- and while I've pointed out Dick's shortcomings as a prose stylist before, there are some unquestioningly effective passages here. Dick's explanation of the book's title, which delves into theology and emerges with a surprisingly apt metaphor for neural dysfunction, and the last few brief chapters that describe Bob Arctor's sad fate, are genuinely affecting. It's the author's note to "A Scanner Darkly," in which Dick eulogizes the friends he lost to drug abuse, which is really shattering, though. Unfortunately, Dick can't keep up this tenor for the entirety of the book. The characters we meet in "A Scanner Darkly" are, like many literary drug addicts, disorganized, self-obsessed, and rather unlikable. Readers who must identify -- or at least feel some sympathy for -- the characters they read about might do well to avoid this one. Even so, this novel is an admirably cogent distillation of the experience of all-consuming paranoia. I also get the feeling that Dick felt that the stories of these characters, who many readers would probably consider little more than marginal layabouts, needed to be told. "A Scanner Darkly," then, rescues something of literary merit from a social scene distinguished by lost time and shattered lives.
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bummer of a trip. Dick's real fixation here is paranoia on both a personal and societal scale: he traces both the personal disintegration of his main character, Bob Arctor, and describes the elaborate societal mechanisms that have made it possible for him to be an undercover agent who conceals his "real" identity from both his police contacts and the hapless, pleasure-seeking drug users that he's supposed to be spying on. This isn't to say that "A Scanner Darkly" resembles a political screed: In his author's note, Dick refutes the claim that his story is "bourgeois," and he never brings up the topic of legalization even once. Still, Dick goes to great lengths to show how drug use seems to split everything in two only to set it against itself: left-brain against right-brain, cops against users, and society, ultimately, against itself. There are few characters or institutions in this book that feel comfortable putting their trust in anyone or anything; even their own motives and perception of reality seem suspect. "A Scanner Darkly" is certainly more overtly literary than the other two Dick novels that I've read -- "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" and "Ubik" -- and while I've pointed out Dick's shortcomings as a prose stylist before, there are some unquestioningly effective passages here. Dick's explanation of the book's title, which delves into theology and emerges with a surprisingly apt metaphor for neural dysfunction, and the last few brief chapters that describe Bob Arctor's sad fate, are genuinely affecting. It's the author's note to "A Scanner Darkly," in which Dick eulogizes the friends he lost to drug abuse, which is really shattering, though. Unfortunately, Dick can't keep up this tenor for the entirety of the book. The characters we meet in "A Scanner Darkly" are, like many literary drug addicts, disorganized, self-obsessed, and rather unlikable. Readers who must identify -- or at least feel some sympathy for -- the characters they read about might do well to avoid this one. Even so, this novel is an admirably cogent distillation of the experience of all-consuming paranoia. I also get the feeling that Dick felt that the stories of these characters, who many readers would probably consider little more than marginal layabouts, needed to be told. "A Scanner Darkly," then, rescues something of literary merit from a social scene distinguished by lost time and shattered lives.
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LibraryThing member theokester
I decided to start reading some of the work of Phillip K. Dick and for now I'm relying on the titles available at my local library. When I picked up A Scanner Darkly, I didn't know anything about it other than that they made a "rotoscope" film about a decade ago but I never saw the movie and didn't
The story revolves around the protagonist, a man named Bob Arctor who is a flaky drug user in Southern California living with a bunch of other druggies. He also happens to be an undercover narcotics officer trying to work his investigation up the drug traffic chain to find the big suppliers at the top. The trouble is, Bob actually did start using some of the drugs to maintain his cover and now he's a full-blown addict and is on the verge of a mental breakdown as a result.
There's a lot of internal monolog as both Bob the druggie and Bob the cop and as the book goes on, his psyche becomes more and more segmented to the point that my original reading of the synopsis makes some sense in that Bob the druggie seems somewhat unaware that he's actually a cop and he's very paranoid that he's going to be caught...meanwhile Bob the cop has dissociated himself so much from his other self that he studies and tails the drug user as a separate person. The whole concept is a little trippy (pardon the phrasing) and takes some time to wrap your head around the creative way the scenes play out.
The book is set in the future so there are some sci-fi elements but they are minimal. Remnants of the author's contemporary technology are still in place (the cars, the music, the phones, etc.). Probably the most intriguing piece of futuristic tech is the "scramble suit" that the cop wears when making his official reports or doing other leg work in an official capacity. The scramble suit is a full body suit with high-tech camouflage that "scrambles" the wearer's appearance constantly so that he/she is never recognizable. The technology and use of the suit seems to be yet another factor in Bob's loss of "self" and his mental schism.
A lot of the book is spent with extensive scenes where Bob is talking with his other addict friends in various states of drug use. The language definitely gets R-rated and a lot of times the conversations are semi-random ramblings about life, society, paranoia and corruption. The druggies go back and forth between being super friendly to each other and playing tricks on each other and sometimes being outright antagonistic to one another. I've not personally sat around through lengthy drug-induced conversations but the few times I have interacted with people who have been very drunk or high, their behavior and language seemed very familiar to what was portrayed in this book. The notes at the end of the book indicate that a lot of the content is semi-autobiographical based on Dick's own drug problems and his interactions with fellow users.
Dick indicates that he didn't write the book trying to sell some big anti-drug message but more he wrote it as a sort of memory to his old friends who he's lost over the years to their abuse. It's clear he doesn't condone drug d use and the way the plot plays out it's clear that he'd like to see the drug trade taken down any way possible. More than that though I felt like he was just showing the tragic way that these people's lives are wasted and destroyed and sadly they often get to a point where there is no way to fully recover.
At the end, I can say this was an interesting read. It spun my head in circles at times and left me thinking about things but mostly it just made me sad and frustrated that the drug problem just keeps plugging away even though everybody (at least most people here in the U.S.) are taught and understand from their childhood that truly nothing goocomes of getting into drugs. I understand there are some who "don't have a choice" and that sometimes psychological problems or other influences make a person feel like the risks are outweighed by what they hope to gain. Overall, I felt like this was an okay book but not something I would call a "must read." Still, it left me in a thoughtful place.
***
3 out of 5 stars
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pay enough attention to know the plot. Reading the synopsis on the back of the book was very intriguing...it sounded like sort of weird split-personality situation where the protagonist was a policeman who was hunting after himself. As I started reading the book, I realized that my interpretation of the synopsis was a little bit off, but the book was still intriguing. The story revolves around the protagonist, a man named Bob Arctor who is a flaky drug user in Southern California living with a bunch of other druggies. He also happens to be an undercover narcotics officer trying to work his investigation up the drug traffic chain to find the big suppliers at the top. The trouble is, Bob actually did start using some of the drugs to maintain his cover and now he's a full-blown addict and is on the verge of a mental breakdown as a result.
There's a lot of internal monolog as both Bob the druggie and Bob the cop and as the book goes on, his psyche becomes more and more segmented to the point that my original reading of the synopsis makes some sense in that Bob the druggie seems somewhat unaware that he's actually a cop and he's very paranoid that he's going to be caught...meanwhile Bob the cop has dissociated himself so much from his other self that he studies and tails the drug user as a separate person. The whole concept is a little trippy (pardon the phrasing) and takes some time to wrap your head around the creative way the scenes play out.
The book is set in the future so there are some sci-fi elements but they are minimal. Remnants of the author's contemporary technology are still in place (the cars, the music, the phones, etc.). Probably the most intriguing piece of futuristic tech is the "scramble suit" that the cop wears when making his official reports or doing other leg work in an official capacity. The scramble suit is a full body suit with high-tech camouflage that "scrambles" the wearer's appearance constantly so that he/she is never recognizable. The technology and use of the suit seems to be yet another factor in Bob's loss of "self" and his mental schism.
A lot of the book is spent with extensive scenes where Bob is talking with his other addict friends in various states of drug use. The language definitely gets R-rated and a lot of times the conversations are semi-random ramblings about life, society, paranoia and corruption. The druggies go back and forth between being super friendly to each other and playing tricks on each other and sometimes being outright antagonistic to one another. I've not personally sat around through lengthy drug-induced conversations but the few times I have interacted with people who have been very drunk or high, their behavior and language seemed very familiar to what was portrayed in this book. The notes at the end of the book indicate that a lot of the content is semi-autobiographical based on Dick's own drug problems and his interactions with fellow users.
Dick indicates that he didn't write the book trying to sell some big anti-drug message but more he wrote it as a sort of memory to his old friends who he's lost over the years to their abuse. It's clear he doesn't condone drug d use and the way the plot plays out it's clear that he'd like to see the drug trade taken down any way possible. More than that though I felt like he was just showing the tragic way that these people's lives are wasted and destroyed and sadly they often get to a point where there is no way to fully recover.
At the end, I can say this was an interesting read. It spun my head in circles at times and left me thinking about things but mostly it just made me sad and frustrated that the drug problem just keeps plugging away even though everybody (at least most people here in the U.S.) are taught and understand from their childhood that truly nothing goocomes of getting into drugs. I understand there are some who "don't have a choice" and that sometimes psychological problems or other influences make a person feel like the risks are outweighed by what they hope to gain. Overall, I felt like this was an okay book but not something I would call a "must read." Still, it left me in a thoughtful place.
***
3 out of 5 stars
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LibraryThing member Alexander.Winnefeld
Between all the great imaginative novels PKD has written, this is by far my favorite (and that really says something. I love them all). Less sci-fi than most of his work, the novel is set in the near future amidst a group of junkies addicted to a drug called Substance D. The main protagonist,
This book spoke to me on an emotional level when I first read this as a teenager on a camping site near Amsterdam. I deeply felt with Arctor who is slowly being ground to pieces by a system he does not fully understand, for some greater good he knows nothing about. I have re-read this twice since, and can absolutely see myself re-reading it at least once every decade. I love the scene where Donna furiously rams her enemy, the Coca Cola truck, trying in vain to make it pay for all the fucked-up stuff society does to ordinary people who can't fight back.
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Robert Arctor, is an undercover cop who slowly gets destroyed by addiction. It is full of strange drug trips that are kind of funny - until they gradually stop being fun and everything starts falling apart.This book spoke to me on an emotional level when I first read this as a teenager on a camping site near Amsterdam. I deeply felt with Arctor who is slowly being ground to pieces by a system he does not fully understand, for some greater good he knows nothing about. I have re-read this twice since, and can absolutely see myself re-reading it at least once every decade. I love the scene where Donna furiously rams her enemy, the Coca Cola truck, trying in vain to make it pay for all the fucked-up stuff society does to ordinary people who can't fight back.
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LibraryThing member write-review
When Drugs and Prisons Become State Business
Philip K. Dick merges two things he experienced personally—the drug culture of the late 1960s and 1970s and paranoia about being watched by various policing organizations, particularly the FBI and CIA— into a novel about a cop whose personality splits
Robert Arctor is an undercover narcotics cop in the future (1990s in the novel). He lives in a house he owns with two roomers, both notorious dopeheads. All of them think about narcotics incessantly, obsess on getting high, staying high, and worrying about getting drugs, especially deadly D, a synthetic concoction that produces neurological disorder in users. He's mad for Donna Hawthorne, a woman he can get near and be friends with but can’t have in the way he desires. In his role as Fred, the narc, he wears a scrambler suit when at police HQ, as do his fellow narcs, so as to preserve their anonymity. Soon enough, we see paranoia taking over Robert/Fred to the point where he believes someone is out to get him, possibly his roomers. He has scanners installed in his house to watch their, and his, every move, resulting in a distinct split in his personality. Operating as two people can be quite taxing, to put it mildly. In the end, due to his own heavy use of D, his mind fails him. Worse, unbeknownst to him, he has been a pawn in a much larger game orchestrated by the Feds and betrayed by his greatest desire. In the end, he finds, or more appropriately, loses himself in a rehabilitation home and camp designed to do the exact opposite.
Few have captured what it’s like to be addled by drugs as Dick in this novel. The conversations among the roommates border on lunacy. And they are funny much of the time. Less so is the deception and manipulation in the rehab home, particularly when we realize the goal of rehab is mental destruction.
A Scanner Darkly isn’t really science fiction, certainly not like his novels Martian Time-Slip, The Man in the High Castle, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and others. It more captures a moment of his life in California when he was raging on drugs and in and out of mental institutions. You might consider it Exhibit A in why you want to avoid drugs: for your personal mental health and to avoid a quasi police state intent on tossing the afflicted into private prisons.
Philip K. Dick merges two things he experienced personally—the drug culture of the late 1960s and 1970s and paranoia about being watched by various policing organizations, particularly the FBI and CIA— into a novel about a cop whose personality splits
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in half by living in two states: watcher and watched. The novel breaks down into three acts: Robert/Fred as a cop working undercover to ferret out drug kingpins; Robert/Fred in full blown confusion about his identity and paranoid over his safety; Robert/Bruce in a rehab facility that works to keep his blind to his identity while pushing him ever closer to being a walking vegetable. It’s enough to make you run away from your own medicine cabinet screaming, constantly looking over your shoulder to see who might be watching you. Robert Arctor is an undercover narcotics cop in the future (1990s in the novel). He lives in a house he owns with two roomers, both notorious dopeheads. All of them think about narcotics incessantly, obsess on getting high, staying high, and worrying about getting drugs, especially deadly D, a synthetic concoction that produces neurological disorder in users. He's mad for Donna Hawthorne, a woman he can get near and be friends with but can’t have in the way he desires. In his role as Fred, the narc, he wears a scrambler suit when at police HQ, as do his fellow narcs, so as to preserve their anonymity. Soon enough, we see paranoia taking over Robert/Fred to the point where he believes someone is out to get him, possibly his roomers. He has scanners installed in his house to watch their, and his, every move, resulting in a distinct split in his personality. Operating as two people can be quite taxing, to put it mildly. In the end, due to his own heavy use of D, his mind fails him. Worse, unbeknownst to him, he has been a pawn in a much larger game orchestrated by the Feds and betrayed by his greatest desire. In the end, he finds, or more appropriately, loses himself in a rehabilitation home and camp designed to do the exact opposite.
Few have captured what it’s like to be addled by drugs as Dick in this novel. The conversations among the roommates border on lunacy. And they are funny much of the time. Less so is the deception and manipulation in the rehab home, particularly when we realize the goal of rehab is mental destruction.
A Scanner Darkly isn’t really science fiction, certainly not like his novels Martian Time-Slip, The Man in the High Castle, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and others. It more captures a moment of his life in California when he was raging on drugs and in and out of mental institutions. You might consider it Exhibit A in why you want to avoid drugs: for your personal mental health and to avoid a quasi police state intent on tossing the afflicted into private prisons.
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LibraryThing member jwhenderson
This book tested my ability to follow the story of a protagonist with a deteriorating personality and relate to the culture of drug usage and addiction that led to that. I was unsuccessful relating to that culture in spite of the author's marvelous imagination and his ability to make the descent of
The protagonist is an undercover narcotics agent who poses as drug user Bob Arctor. Bob shares his house with two other users, Barris and Luckman, and has a girlfriend, Donna, who is a small-time dealer. Bob is addicted to Substance D—the “D” standing primarily for Death—and is ostensibly using Donna to find the source of this drug. Bob, using the alias Fred, is assigned to monitor the group at Bob’s house, but by necessity, that means he must monitor himself as Bob or blow his cover. The use of "scramble suits" that modify what others see when someone wears them, and allow Bob to masquerade as Fred, is the primary science fiction element in the novel.
When surveillance of Bob’s house intensifies because of suspicious behavior, so do acts of sabotage occurring against Bob. When the government installs monitoring equipment in his house, Bob and his housemates almost die from somebody tinkering with his car. As Fred, he finds himself reviewing the recordings of Bob and his friends, and in so doing finding himself in difficult discussions with his supervisor and fellow agents about the results. Fred also becomes disassociated from Bob, reaching a point where his/their mind is unable to guess each other’s actions. The title of the novel refers to the surveillance tool and the consequences when Bob/Fred cannot comprehend what he sees. It is also an allusion to the biblical phrase "through a glass darkly" (1st Corinthians 13:12).
The author is at his best in depicting how Substance D has damaged Bob's brain, splitting his personae and resulting in a decline into a state near brain death. Just as this process starts, Barris comes to the police and offers information that will get Bob busted as a major drug dealer-conspirator. Fred’s cover is blown, and he is placed in a detoxification program of "New-Path", where he takes on the name Bruce, his mental functions severely deteriorated.
The novel is loosely plotted, often going on tangents that help reinforce a sense of the drug community’s frame of mind (such as it is!). Along that line, the paranoia that Bob/Fred suffers is never confirmed. Was Barris the one sabotaging Bob’s belongings? Dick refers time and again to the capricious behavior of people on drugs and how one betraying whim does not necessarily link to others. Further, why is New-Path growing Substance D—outright greed and opportunism, or perhaps a means of gaining control of people who otherwise would resist being told what to do?
This is both a story about a community of drug users and one about the split personality of one man. The first chapter focuses on a friend of Bob who must cope with hallucinatory aphids, mirroring Bob’s own descent at the end. In an author’s note, Dick dedicated the book to friends from his own drug-using community, not condemning their choice but fully cognizant of the consequences they suffered. This is a book I would recommend only if you have already read some of Philip K. Dick's better novels like Ubik and The Man in the High Castle (my favorite).
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the protagonist believable.The protagonist is an undercover narcotics agent who poses as drug user Bob Arctor. Bob shares his house with two other users, Barris and Luckman, and has a girlfriend, Donna, who is a small-time dealer. Bob is addicted to Substance D—the “D” standing primarily for Death—and is ostensibly using Donna to find the source of this drug. Bob, using the alias Fred, is assigned to monitor the group at Bob’s house, but by necessity, that means he must monitor himself as Bob or blow his cover. The use of "scramble suits" that modify what others see when someone wears them, and allow Bob to masquerade as Fred, is the primary science fiction element in the novel.
When surveillance of Bob’s house intensifies because of suspicious behavior, so do acts of sabotage occurring against Bob. When the government installs monitoring equipment in his house, Bob and his housemates almost die from somebody tinkering with his car. As Fred, he finds himself reviewing the recordings of Bob and his friends, and in so doing finding himself in difficult discussions with his supervisor and fellow agents about the results. Fred also becomes disassociated from Bob, reaching a point where his/their mind is unable to guess each other’s actions. The title of the novel refers to the surveillance tool and the consequences when Bob/Fred cannot comprehend what he sees. It is also an allusion to the biblical phrase "through a glass darkly" (1st Corinthians 13:12).
The author is at his best in depicting how Substance D has damaged Bob's brain, splitting his personae and resulting in a decline into a state near brain death. Just as this process starts, Barris comes to the police and offers information that will get Bob busted as a major drug dealer-conspirator. Fred’s cover is blown, and he is placed in a detoxification program of "New-Path", where he takes on the name Bruce, his mental functions severely deteriorated.
The novel is loosely plotted, often going on tangents that help reinforce a sense of the drug community’s frame of mind (such as it is!). Along that line, the paranoia that Bob/Fred suffers is never confirmed. Was Barris the one sabotaging Bob’s belongings? Dick refers time and again to the capricious behavior of people on drugs and how one betraying whim does not necessarily link to others. Further, why is New-Path growing Substance D—outright greed and opportunism, or perhaps a means of gaining control of people who otherwise would resist being told what to do?
This is both a story about a community of drug users and one about the split personality of one man. The first chapter focuses on a friend of Bob who must cope with hallucinatory aphids, mirroring Bob’s own descent at the end. In an author’s note, Dick dedicated the book to friends from his own drug-using community, not condemning their choice but fully cognizant of the consequences they suffered. This is a book I would recommend only if you have already read some of Philip K. Dick's better novels like Ubik and The Man in the High Castle (my favorite).
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LibraryThing member grunin
This interesting book is a noir parable about the needle and the damage done, set in a world which combines the drug culture of 1970 with just a pinch of sci-fi. At times it meditates on questions of ultimate perception and identity, but it never bogs down. (Though once quotations from Goethe's
Unfortunately, the slang of the period, combined with almost all the characters being stoned, results in a lot of unconvincing dialog. Dick doesn't transcribe how junkies actually talk (which would be unbearably tedious to read), but he doesn't find an evocative alternative either.
[* WARNING: SPOILERS *]
What I didn't realize until the day after putting the book down, is that the focus of much of the book -- the progressive splitting of the protagonist's psyche -- is a red herring; once the character goes into withdrawal (before the denoument) the subject is dropped permanently. This somewhat diminishes the book in retrospect.
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Faust start popping up -- in German -- you may disagree.)Unfortunately, the slang of the period, combined with almost all the characters being stoned, results in a lot of unconvincing dialog. Dick doesn't transcribe how junkies actually talk (which would be unbearably tedious to read), but he doesn't find an evocative alternative either.
[* WARNING: SPOILERS *]
What I didn't realize until the day after putting the book down, is that the focus of much of the book -- the progressive splitting of the protagonist's psyche -- is a red herring; once the character goes into withdrawal (before the denoument) the subject is dropped permanently. This somewhat diminishes the book in retrospect.
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LibraryThing member BraveNewBks
Only a few years after To Your Scattered Bodies Go, this book shows what sci-fi of that era was actually capable of: a supporting female character with an interesting and complex inner world; multifaceted main characters with very human worries, faults, and ambivalence; and brief glimpses of
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something profound and deeply philosophical, making you feel you didn't waste your time on pure brain candy. It's not an easy book, and I have it four stars instead of three more because I was impressed by it than because I liked it, but it challenged me and I recognize the accomplishment in that. Show Less
LibraryThing member bardsfingertips
I enjoyed this book very much, though I found it to be rather depressing. And, when you read in the manner of how this book is a large piece of PKD's once personal life, it twists the already-stuck knife just a bit more. This is more of a drug culture novel than it is a sci-fi one. The main theme
I certainly enjoyed it; bus as to recommending it, I am uncertain as to its general reception. I think it takes a person who can see past "good & evil" to see what the meat of this novel is truly composed of.
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here is identity and how once can lose that to an addiction.I certainly enjoyed it; bus as to recommending it, I am uncertain as to its general reception. I think it takes a person who can see past "good & evil" to see what the meat of this novel is truly composed of.
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LibraryThing member jimocracy
This one started out seemingly normal and just went more and more off the rails as the story progressed. At times, I was really just sucked into the narrative and was jolted back to reality. Gritty and gripping!
LibraryThing member nmhale
In a surreal and claustrophobic story where paranoia is justified, Dock explores the interconnected worlds of drugs and law enforcement. The novel starts with a scene that sets the tone for the entire book. A man is detailing his big problem. Within paragraphs it becomes apparent that he is a
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little mad; no one else can see the bugs, they are nonetheless enormous, and he is going to extreme and dangerous lengths to rid himself of them. Just when you think he is a complete mental case, his friend comes over and starts helping him collect bugs! Are they real? But the the conversation veers into the territory of buying drugs, and the reader finally had an answer. These men are addicts, and they are on a very bad trip. Show Less
LibraryThing member teagueamania
I found it, newly published, at the Taft Branch of the Orange Public Library (itself a futuristic artifact), and took it home because it was set in Orange County, about five miles and a quarter century from where I lived. All the paranoia and panic of the druggie lifestyle, with a dose of dystopia,
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suggesting the most horrible concept: the future will be no different. Show Less
LibraryThing member SheilaDeeth
It seemed oddly appropriate to read Philip Dick’s Scanner Darkly on my cell-phone. After all, it’s a book envisioning advanced technology; why not use modern technology to enjoy it. The plot also envisions a sadly decayed sociology, with concerns equally valid today, as the lines between guilty
Substance D is a drug that destroys its addicts from within, splitting the mind in two, tearing the self apart. But the law enforcement agents tackling it might themselves be torn in two, part of the problem and the solution; hiding their identities from everyone, even themselves. It leads to cruel dilemmas and even crueler plots.
Scanner Darkly isn’t an easy read, but it’s filled with plausible dialog, deniable confusion, and characters deeply fascinating and flawed. It’s surprisingly easy to pick up the story again, forgetting who’s who just as surely as the characters do, and remembering too. Until that point where the plot begins to reveal itself instead of reveling in decay… until that point where it’s almost impossible to put the book down again because you’ve almost guessed but surely not and then you
have to know.
The novel reads as powerfully today as it must have done when first written. It blends hard realities with hilarious trials and tribulations, and it hides a wounded heart.
Disclosure: I borrowed it and I really enjoyed it.
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and betrayed grow cruelly frayed.Substance D is a drug that destroys its addicts from within, splitting the mind in two, tearing the self apart. But the law enforcement agents tackling it might themselves be torn in two, part of the problem and the solution; hiding their identities from everyone, even themselves. It leads to cruel dilemmas and even crueler plots.
Scanner Darkly isn’t an easy read, but it’s filled with plausible dialog, deniable confusion, and characters deeply fascinating and flawed. It’s surprisingly easy to pick up the story again, forgetting who’s who just as surely as the characters do, and remembering too. Until that point where the plot begins to reveal itself instead of reveling in decay… until that point where it’s almost impossible to put the book down again because you’ve almost guessed but surely not and then you
have to know.
The novel reads as powerfully today as it must have done when first written. It blends hard realities with hilarious trials and tribulations, and it hides a wounded heart.
Disclosure: I borrowed it and I really enjoyed it.
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LibraryThing member VioletDroll
A lot of people misunderstand this wonderful anti-corporate tragicomedy, so I may as well just spoil:
It's about a corporation who operate drug rehabilitation clinics. They also grow a certain plant from which a certain highly addictive amphetamine that causes permanent cognitive impairments is
It's about a corporation who operate drug rehabilitation clinics. They also grow a certain plant from which a certain highly addictive amphetamine that causes permanent cognitive impairments is
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derived. They sell the drug on the streets for 100% profit. Then, when people burn out and get admitted to their clinics, they treat them indefinitely for 100% profit. They've poisoned every level of the system, from individual users to black markets to law enforcement to the clinics themselves: it's all the same company, selling itself to itself forever until the protagonist in his innocence exposes it all. Show Less
LibraryThing member BenDV
I had high hopes for A Scanner Darkly, after PKD's The Man in the High Castle proved to be a very memorable read. It may not have had much of a plot, and become a bit too aimless at times, but it was a really thoughtful novel, with a wonderfully intense ending. A Scanner Darkly seemed to promise
So here's the story; Bob Arctor is an undercover narcotics agent trying to find out who is responsible for the distribution of Substance D, a highly addictive drug which can cause significant brain damage and in extreme cases cause the two hemispheres of the brain to separate (this becomes relevant later in the novel). He gets assigned to observe drug addict and possibly high level dealer...Bob Arctor. Y'see to avoid corruption the police make themselves willfully ignorant of the identity of their undercover agents, resulting in absurd situations like this one. But most of the novel isn't really about that. In fact most of the novel isn't really about anything at all. It just consists of stoners having your typical stoner conversations. Some people have commented on how amusing these are. Perhaps one reason I found the book so hard to get into is that I just don't find these particularly funny; there's the occasional half-smile to be had, that's about it.
I could never get into this novel. There's just something so...flat about it. It doesn't have any sort of tone; despite its many attempts at comedy, more intense, surreal scenes or grittier drama, nothing sticks with me. In an attempt to give a detached account of the lives of drug addicts, Dick has written a novel which evokes no emotions. I never feel as if I know the characters, and I never feel as if I should care about them. There are a couple of memorable moments; firstly, the story of Jerry Fabin, the man who believed his entire body and his house was infested with bugs, seems to be the only part where what Dick was aiming for really worked for me; it's strange, comical and kind of disturbing and depressing. And there is one encounter Arctor has with a drug addict and her abusive partner. Aside from that, I never hated A Scanner Darkly, but the only emotions I felt whilst reading it were frustration and boredom.
As for the plot, I get the feeling PKD wasn't quite sure what he wanted this book to be. The plot moves at a snail's pace for three quarters of the novel, then he tries to shove the whole thing into the last fifty pages. It's not very exciting, or interesting. There is some musing on various things, particularly personal identity, but it just doesn't feel meaningful in the way it was in The Man in the High Castle. I was rather surprised to find out Dick laboured over this book for a long time; I was kind of expecting to learn it was rushed out in a few weeks.
The Author's Note at the end of the novel, however, is pretty affecting. Dick talks about how he based this novel heavily on his own personal experiences with drugs and fellow addicts, and he writes a pretty moving description of how these people got punished for doing something which at its core was fairly innocent; they just wanted to keep having fun in life. They made a mistake, and got punished way too harshly. It's quite a poignant piece of writing, in strong contrast to the rest of the novel.
I feel like I should have some greater reasons for not liking this novel, because Dick clearly considered it quite personal. Yet for me he just doesn't translate much of that feeling onto the page. I'll probably still try more of his novels in the future, but A Scanner Darkly has made me less enthusiastic about PKD's work.
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more of the same, but with a grittier and more surreal style. Things didn't really turn out that way. So here's the story; Bob Arctor is an undercover narcotics agent trying to find out who is responsible for the distribution of Substance D, a highly addictive drug which can cause significant brain damage and in extreme cases cause the two hemispheres of the brain to separate (this becomes relevant later in the novel). He gets assigned to observe drug addict and possibly high level dealer...Bob Arctor. Y'see to avoid corruption the police make themselves willfully ignorant of the identity of their undercover agents, resulting in absurd situations like this one. But most of the novel isn't really about that. In fact most of the novel isn't really about anything at all. It just consists of stoners having your typical stoner conversations. Some people have commented on how amusing these are. Perhaps one reason I found the book so hard to get into is that I just don't find these particularly funny; there's the occasional half-smile to be had, that's about it.
I could never get into this novel. There's just something so...flat about it. It doesn't have any sort of tone; despite its many attempts at comedy, more intense, surreal scenes or grittier drama, nothing sticks with me. In an attempt to give a detached account of the lives of drug addicts, Dick has written a novel which evokes no emotions. I never feel as if I know the characters, and I never feel as if I should care about them. There are a couple of memorable moments; firstly, the story of Jerry Fabin, the man who believed his entire body and his house was infested with bugs, seems to be the only part where what Dick was aiming for really worked for me; it's strange, comical and kind of disturbing and depressing. And there is one encounter Arctor has with a drug addict and her abusive partner. Aside from that, I never hated A Scanner Darkly, but the only emotions I felt whilst reading it were frustration and boredom.
As for the plot, I get the feeling PKD wasn't quite sure what he wanted this book to be. The plot moves at a snail's pace for three quarters of the novel, then he tries to shove the whole thing into the last fifty pages. It's not very exciting, or interesting. There is some musing on various things, particularly personal identity, but it just doesn't feel meaningful in the way it was in The Man in the High Castle. I was rather surprised to find out Dick laboured over this book for a long time; I was kind of expecting to learn it was rushed out in a few weeks.
The Author's Note at the end of the novel, however, is pretty affecting. Dick talks about how he based this novel heavily on his own personal experiences with drugs and fellow addicts, and he writes a pretty moving description of how these people got punished for doing something which at its core was fairly innocent; they just wanted to keep having fun in life. They made a mistake, and got punished way too harshly. It's quite a poignant piece of writing, in strong contrast to the rest of the novel.
I feel like I should have some greater reasons for not liking this novel, because Dick clearly considered it quite personal. Yet for me he just doesn't translate much of that feeling onto the page. I'll probably still try more of his novels in the future, but A Scanner Darkly has made me less enthusiastic about PKD's work.
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Subjects
Awards
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (Finalist — 1978)
British Science Fiction Association Award (Shortlist — Novel — 1978)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1977-01
Physical description
291 p.; 18 cm
ISBN
0345260643 / 9780345260642
Local notes
Omslag: Carlos Ochagavia
Omslaget viser venstre halvdel af et billede af en narkoman og højre halvdel af samme person som narkoagent
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Omslaget viser venstre halvdel af et billede af en narkoman og højre halvdel af samme person som narkoagent
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
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Pages
291
DDC/MDS
| 813.54 |