Philip K. Dick, Early 1960s
Photo by Arthur Knight. Public domain
I'll begin this review of A Scanner Darkly at the place where it ends, in the Author's Note. On the last two pages of the book, Philip K. Dick, writes:
This has been a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did.
What they did was take drugs. Uppers, downers, meth, coke, acid...name your mind-altering, life-changing drug. At the very end of his 'Note' the author provides a list of friends who were damaged by drugs. This isn't part of the novel. It's real. The people are real. They were the author's friends. Next to each name the author lists the damage drugs inflicted:
The author states that he did drugs, and he places himself among those who were punished for 'playing'. He writes:
For a while I myself was one of these children playing in the street; I was, like the rest of them, trying to play instead of being a grown up, and I was punished. I am on the list below, which is a list of those to whom this novel is dedicated.
I wondered as I read the list of those damaged, which damage did the author suffer? Psychosis? Pancreatic damage? Brain damage? How much of his acknowledged psychological issues were attributable to drug use? Was the stroke that killed him partly precipitated by drug use? He died rather young...53. I cannot answer these questions, although he does assert that he was 'punished'.
In A Scanner Darkly the author (hereinafter referred to as PKD) introduces a new drug into the plot that is more devastating even than the drugs known to us today. Substance D is instantly addictive and causes irreversible brain damage. The longer an addict is on it, the greater the damage--until the brain is mush.
The first line in the book throws us right into a drug psychosis. The author doesn't clue us in that we are experiencing a psychotic state along with the character. Just as the character cannot distinguish real from not real, neither can we. This character, Jerry, is in the final stages of decline.
Jerry is convinced that aphids have taken over his body, his house, even his dog. When perpetual showers and spraying himself with insecticide don't get rid of the bugs, he plans to seal off all the windows in the house and fill the place with cyanide. His housemates realize they have to take him to a government run clinic, immediately. The government-run clinics are where all end-stage addicts are sent. The clinic is never called rehab, because there is no coming back from Substance D.
Certainly A Scanner Darkly is about more than drugs and addiction. Readers and characters suffocate in a universe of paranoia. This is not only drug induced, but is also a reflection of a government that spies on everyone. Girlfriend, housemate, dealer...all may be undercover agents. Reinforcing the paranoia is the unreliability of objective perception.
Undercover narcotics agents wear a special suit that disguises identity. It's not that agents look like someone else when they are wearing the suit. It's that the agents look like everyone else. The suit was developed to incorporate the visages of all the people in the world. Anyone wearing the suit will have a fluid appearance, one that is never the same for more than an instant.
Some of the Books Philip K. Dick Wrote, on a Book Shelf
Image credit:Skblzz1. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
If you are looking for a pleasant read, skip this book. If you are looking for a brilliant read, then put this book on your to do list. After I started reading, I would go back every time I had a few free moments. The book weighed on me. It is frustrating, sad, disorienting, and irresistible.
With all the horrible things that happen in this book, with all the trickery and deception, PKD manages to maintain a posture of kindness. There is empathy, tolerance and forgiveness. These qualities made the book readable for me.
Though the author regards his benighted characters with a kind eye, there are a few malevolent individuals. Barris, for example. It's not clear by the end of the book if Barris is truly evil or if he is just part of a plot by the government to ensnare more important people.
The book is confusing, but the reader never feels lost. The brilliance of PKD's writing is exactly his ability to draw us into the confusion, without throwing us completely off the rails.
The main character is an undercover drug detective. In order to perform his duties he has to take drugs, especially the mind-destroying Substance D. As he takes the drugs, his mind is increasingly affected. We go down that path with him, as he loses track of his identity.
Eventually, the character splits. As a narcotics detective--Fred--he spies on his drug-addicted self--Bob. 'Fred' watches surveillance tapes of 'Bob', but doesn't realizes he's actually watching himself. He has become essentially two unrelated people.
Before I read this book I watched the movie (prompted to do so by a 
How does a filmmaker convey the mental disintegration of a character without a tedious superabundance of internal dialogue? The filmmakers manage by using a novel film technique in which the perceptual uncertainty is manifest on the screen. Check out the trailer here:
The film is brilliant and uses much of the original dialogue. However, I enjoyed the book more. In a book, an author has the luxury of explaining the action, and the character's motivation.
PKD writes in his Author's Notes that he and his friends were punished too harshly for 'playing'. However, he doesn't entirely let himself or the others off the hook. He doesn't absolve them of responsibility for their addiction. He clearly presents the decision to take drugs as a choice. This is true in life (according to PKD) and in the book.
Life is too bland, too boring. Drugs offer a more vivid alternative. The lead character, for example, was married with two children at one point, before we meet him in the book. That wasn't a life he enjoyed however. He bumped his head one day and had revelation. He wanted out. He hated his marriage, his wife, his kids. That's how he became an undercover narc and that's how his decline into drug addiction began.
When I read this description, the abandonment of the bland, I thought of a classic movie about addiction, in this case alcoholism. In the Days of Wine and Roses the lead male character introduces his girlfriend to liquor and to the alcoholic lifestyle. He eventually chooses to 'dry out'. He tries to save his girlfriend, to free her from the alcoholic lifestyle. She doesn't want to be free of alcohol. She explains that life without alcohol is drab, colorless, ugly. She wants the rose-colored glasses that alcohol gives her. She makes a choice.
Conclusion
After reading A Scanner Darkly I started another PKD book, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said. I had to stop. The main character was plunged almost immediately into a crisis. It was a dark place and I didn't want to stay there again, so quickly.
Philip K. Dick was a genius, but he was a tortured genius and that psychic distress bleeds into his work.
I recommend both the movie, A Scanner Darkly and the book. I read it in PDF format on the website Internet Archive. It is available on Amazon, and is on the shelf at several local libraries in my area. Paperback version has 304 pages.
In 1977 this author gave a speech in Metz, France. In that speech he explained some of the beliefs that inspire his work. Here is a YouTube video of the speech. I've not listened to it, so I can't recommend it, but my son, who is an avid fan of the author, does recommend it.
Thank you for reading my blog. Peace and health to all.
