Customer Reviews

A Scanner Darkly [Graphic Novel]

5 star:		(97)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

There is an old adage about writing: "Write what you know"--as quoted verbatim from Hemmingway, among many others, this proverb is a key to mastering the craft. One's best work originates from principle experience, core emotions; the rest is just window-dressings, technique for transition. Philip K. Dick, one of the most prolific authors of science fiction for the later half of the twentieth century, wrote about what he knew: paranoia, `big brother', psychological disruptions, drug abuse; and the sci-fi `trimmings' of aliens, techno-dystopias, etc. usually served as interesting backdrops. As a mad, bad, meth-snortin' horsemeat lovin' pulp master, the dominant themes Dick experienced during his relatively short(ened) life appear again and again in the bulk of his work, though rarely so coherently expressed as in his tragic masterpiece, _A Scanner Darkly_.

The `basics:' Bob Arctor is a drug dealer who is also Fred, a narc working undercover with the LAPD to bust a big time drug dealer named...Bob Arctor. Bob/Fred's drug of choice, Substance D(eath), gradually splits the user's brain into two separate halves, corroding the interaction between the hemispheres and rendering one a split-personality veering chaotically close to schizophrenia. Bob doesn't realize he's Fred, and vice-versa (except in moments of rare epiphany). As anyone who has read VALIS can attest, the real-life events from which this story is based occurred to Dick in the beginning of the `70's, and most of his fiction afterward were attempts for him to glean and get down the life-shattering experience. _A Scanner Darkly_ was debatably his most successful attempt, and certainly his most lucid.

For all the futuristic flourishes, the bulk of _A Scanner Darkly_ basically describes the everyday existence of Orange County drug users. The dissipation of the body and slow decay of the mind; the rupturing of the moral core for the immediate high; life on the downward spiral--it's all documented here, in harrowing fashion. Among the endless repetitive conversations and breakdown-ruminations, there are a few moments of outstanding imagery-the Connie/Donna face-melt and the flower-field being the most prominent in recollection--the first hideous, the second serene--both chilling to the bone given the circumstances.

Never a literary stylist, Dick's simple prose veered from elegant to downright amateurish, making some of his lesser/cryptic works a bit of a slog, yet in this particular volume, the author's heart can be found in the characters, environments, and overall pathos; the feel of catharsis is prevalent throughout and made abundantly clear in the coda:

"They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed--run over, maimed, destroyed--but they continued to play anyhow."

A melancholic, mad masterpiece.

The movie version of "A Scanner Darkly" was one of the most original films I saw last year. I loved it; the animation was innovative and fascinating, while the movie itself was hypnotic. Philip K. Dick has been responsible for writing the novel versions of several recent great films (including "Minority Report") and I was curious to read some of his work. After reading "A Scanner Darkly" I discovered why Richard Linklater made the film version the way he did. The subject matter of the film, its atmosphere could be caught in a live-action film; but I doubt it would have been as good. The book is great! Whether it's better than the movie or not, I really can't say...I barely paid attention to the plot of the movie, it was the animation that kept my eyes glued to the screen. The book is very close to the movie; Fred is an undercover narcotic agent trying to bust Bob Arctor, a man who's believed to be a big-time drug dealer of Substance D (as in death), a drug that causes split personalities in people. Scanners (hidden cameras) have been installed in Arctor's house so the police can have 24-hour surveillance; There's only one problem; Fred is Bob Arctor. He's doing surveillance on himself. His fellow workers don't know this because employees where a scramble suit (a suit which scrambles their facial features and vocal patterns, the movie couldn't have done a better job with it). Bob's life is relatively simple; He hangs out at his house all day dropping D with his two drug-addicted roommates James Barris (the most memorable character in both film and novel) and Ernie Luckman and hangs out with his drug-dealing girlfriend Donna. The only real BIG differences between novel and film are that in the movie, a character named Charles Freck (who plays a small but memorable role in the book) takes the place of a character named Jerry Fabin. And the ending of the book is more drawn out than it is in the film. Hopefully, I've made it clear that this is not a novel of science fiction but rather a novel about drugs. Science fiction does play a small role, but it doesn't deserve top billing. But drugs aren't 100% of it either. The book also captures the paranoia people felt after the Watergate scandal and it does all of it so well. This is a terrific book and is worthy of a read. I guarantee that if you see the movie you'll realize how good the translation to screen was.

GRADE: A-

I have always felt that PKD was the type of author who could really blow me away with his mind-expanding ideas. Unfortunately his other novels that I previously read struck me as overrated, as the ideas failed to gel into coherent stories. However, he hits the bullseye with "A Scanner Darkly" which has to be one of best novels. Taking place in a dysfunctional near-future, the story revolves around the new drug called Substance D. (The only glitch in this book is that PKD places the story in the 1990's, and PKD's vision of the future from back in the 70's is a bit distracting in its inaccuracies). Substance D causes a disconnect between the left and right sides of the brain, causing a split personality syndrome in which both of the user's selves are active simultaneously and compete with each other. The main character, Bob Arctor, is an undercover cop who poses as a dealer, and his undercover self has been assigned to watch his dealer self. At first he realizes the bureaucratic mistake, but as he falls deeper and deeper into the world of Substance D, Bob can no longer perceive the difference between his two selves and descends into a schizophrenic nightmare. Bob's deteriorating state becomes a very disturbing tract from PKD on the nature of one's identity, the destruction of the self through drug abuse, and the reality or un-reality of the self's replacement. Also, in PKD's future the drug war becomes a class war, as the "straights" need the users as a class of non-persons to manipulate and to experiment on. This may just be the way users see the world, and PKD shows us that it may not be a farfetched conspiracy theory. This is a truly troubling look into the world of damaged and ruined minds, from a man who just may have been there himself.

Ironically, this book was the first by PKD written not under the influence of any nefarious narcotic substances. He said that he expected to not be able to write completely sober but that he found the writing experience to be exactly the same as when he wrote on speed.

About the book. As most already know, the story is about a man named Bob Arctor who works as a nark with the alias "Fred" and gets the assignment to surveil himself (because of "scramble suits", the identities of superiors and other undercover agents are all hidden from each other). He is then able to watch and listen to himself and his two roommates secretly. Meanwhile he continues taking his drug of choice - Substance D, which with extreme use separates the two hemispheres of the brain. Soon Fred is unable to distingish himself from Bob.

This is an outrageous premise for a story and PKD does not fail to deliver clever, funny and mindbending sequences at a rapid rate. The three main characters are all very different personalities and Dick does not just describe these junkies as being identical, which is what an uninspired mainstream writer would do. Each character is very unique and entertaining. The use of science and technology by Dick is rampant here, but he doesn't overdo it as to bore you. He simply describes how the brain functions or how certain surveillance equipment works so you can understand what is happening.

A Scanner Darkly is, as you clearly find out over the last 50 or so pages, an anti-drug book. By showing how the characters interact and how the drugs they all take cause each one to fail in their lives, Dick basically says that when you are using, you are being used - by the drug and by everyone around you who is using also and that this is a miserable, depressing existence that always ends badly.

As a fan of PKD's work, I found this book to be much different than his other work in that the characters were more real and believeable to me. The dialogue was always interesting and nothing seemed forced or fake. Maybe this is because he based most of these characters on people he had known in his life and was just having them act as they would in real life. Whatever the reason, I was very much into the characters and the story as a whole.

The only drawbacks to the book was the ending, which, while necessary, was just a little drawn out. Like he was hammering you over the head with it. Also, this was supposed to take place in 1994 and he didn't really take into account money and other things like music. Everyone was listening to Simon and Garfunkle and the Stones, etc. Sure the Stones are still somewhat popular but I think that you shouldn't use real pop culture names in stories that take place in the future. Plus you should triple the cost of everything, depending on how far into the future we're talking about. This isn't nitpicking because suspension of disbelief is crucial and things like the above can bring you back to reality quickly.

Overall, a fascinating look into the drug culture with a very bizarre twist that will leave you anxious for what's coming next and very amused up until the end.

Reading this book is akin to the pleasure of being lost in the city you live in and suddenly realizing that you are only three blocks from home. After every page in this novel, I was dragged further from coherence and deeper into the split ego of a cop who is an addict trailing an addict who is a cop. The very fiber of reality is arbitrary; good and evil tango to a song hummed by insanity. As one follows Arctor's attempts to reconcile his addiction, his past and his future, it seems that ultimately we are empathizing with madness: it is impossible to offer consolation, just learn what you can and get the hell out.

I have never experimented with mind-altering drugs, and after reading this I don't think I have to. In the 3 or 4 days it took me to read this, I was completely submerged in the world in which Arctor plodded, eager to reach resolution. If you are looking for a narrative style like none other and characters that seem to stare at you from the pages, get this book. Be forewarned: Stories of this kind have been known to cause compulsive reading habits.

I have read almost everything Philip K Dick has written (I Say "almost" because he was one of the most prolific authors of the genre) and this was the one which affected me the most. It is basically the story of an undercover narcotics cop, Bruce, pretending to be a drug user, Bob, living with a group of other screwed up drug users and taking large quantities of drugs. The descent into psychosis, triggered by both the drug use and the deception, (posing as an imposter) mirrors Dick's own and, though totally predictable, it is the inevitability of the grim end which provides the drama. Bob starts off in a bad way but, as his drug use accelerates, the lines between his two identities, Bob & Bruce, cop & "criminal", drug addict & narc begin to blur. Dick explores the familiar (for him) territory of Kantian philosophy in a way which anyone with familiarity with psychotropic drugs will recognise as the voice of experience. The book is full of Dick's razor humour and the ending is all the more poignant for the affection that I, at least, felt for the cast of hopeless, helpless head cases. The dedication at the end made me want to cry. I love this book

Though sometimes crushingly depressing, A Scanner Darkly also hums with humor, humanity and deep insight. And although I felt, at times, deep contempt for the dingy, drug-obsessed lives of the characters in this novel, I was also regularly surprised by their tenderness toward one another. Their strange considerations and unexpected priorities. The underlying intelligence of even their most drug-addled conversations. The moments of naivete from even the most hard boiled characters.

By showing us how each charcter is slowly (or not-so-slowly) losing their mind to Substance D, Philip K. Dick is also implying that there is *much* to be lost. That even in their most depraved state--individuals are complex, surprising, and mysterious, even to themselves.

The effect, ultimately, is that it's impossible not to compare their lives to your own. What are the risks and rewards of *your* most compulsive behaviors? How do you justify them to yourself? What have you lost as a result of your compulsions?

And finally, the oldest question of all: what is reality? Is a recording of life an accurate depiction of it? Or does our inevitable need to manipulate that recording mean that we will forever struggle to know what is real and what isn't?

Philip K. Dick asks these questions through character depictions that are both chilling and heartening. I highly recommend this book for readers who are unafraid to explore the darker elements of human nature.

PKD has been quoted as saying that he only writes one story, with the same character every time, in the same predicament. I never see that in his work: especially in A Scanner Darkly, he develops his characters masterfully through 3rd and 1st person observation that draws you in from the first sentence.

One can truly feel for Bob Arctor / Fred with his gradual descent into eventual insanity. His brain is slowly splitting into 2 separate hemispheres through his abuse of the futuristic drug "Substance D" that bears a striking resemblance to some kind of cross between heroin and LSD. One of his personas deals the deadly drug, and the other is a Narc trying to catch the dealer that is actually himself. His surveillance is puzzling at first, but the reader catches on that he is actually watching himself as the plot develops. PKD illustrates Bob's mind jumping from place to place with interjections of seemingly meaningless gibberish in German. The other characters in the book are expertly developed, their paranoia of law enforcement a key element of humor (and despair) especially with people who have experienced these type of junkies before.

I am very partial to this book because it takes place in Santa Ana, the city I have lived in for so many years. Arctor walks down streets that are familiar to me, that I have seen with my own eyes and felt with my own feet. The context is no longer foreign to me; it is hauntingly familiar. Ironically, I have lost this book twice (or maybe it was stolen by some junkie I might have known) and have re-purchased it each time. I am on my third copy, and have read it 4 times: each time it seems to morph into something I haven't read before.

The character of Arctor seems to hold more of a striking resemblance to PKD than any character he has ever created, even when he has written himself into the story.

Not primarily a science-fiction novel, but a chronicle of the drug-crazed sixties based on personal experience. Includes a lot of very funny and witty conversations between the various drug addict characters. A Scanner Darkly is also a deeply felt elegy for Dick's friends who died or went crazy from drug use. The protagonist, Robert Arctor (actor), is an undercover drug agent assigned to spy on himself. He eventually becomes so alienated from himself from drug use that he doesn't even realize that he is spying on himself; he can't recognize himself or even remember his own name. Dick draws here on the tradition of the Double, found in Dostoevsky, Poe, Freud, and others. Classic questioning of our understanding of identity, showing how fragile and inessential our self is. Plenty of cosmic speculations on the soul, and many great moments of paranoia in which the reader and protagonist can't tell what's real or not. Often entertaining, this is not up to the high standards of Dick's best work, but still better than 90% of the science fiction novels out there.

In my teens and early twenties I was a passionate reader of classic science fiction. In those days I read most of the greats--Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Bradbury, etc. And, of course, I read Philip K. Dick. The Man in the High Castle remains one of my favorites.

I had read A Scanner Darkly probably twenty years ago. I decided to read it again before I watched the movie on DVD. I'm glad I did. There's a lot to like about this book. The plot is clever and it still speaks powerfully to the drug culture and government/corporate intrigue. Plus, there are some nice science fiction touches. I'm particularly fond of the scramble suit.

On the other hand, some of the cultural touches (which Dick lifted from his own experience of the drug culture of the seventies) are starting to show their age. Some of the dialogue, in particular, could be lifted right out of a B-movie from the era. It's a bit jarring in a book with so many nice futuristic flourishes.

In the end, however, a reader shouldn't let that stand in the way of experiencing this novel. It may be one of the best looks at drug culture ever put down on paper. It certainly is one of the best drug culture novels in the science fiction mode of which Dick was a master.