When undercover narcotics agent Bob Arctor is given a new assignment, his existential confusion is only slightly increased by the name of his target drug-user.
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influential SF stories.A Scanner Darklyis the novel that cuts closest to the bone, drawing on Dick's own experience with illicit chemicals and on his many friends who died through drug misuse. Nevertheless it's blackly farcical, full of comic- surreal conversations between people whose synapses are partly fried, sudden flights of paranoid logic, and bad trips like the one whose victim spends a subjective eternity having all his sins read to him, in shifts, by compound-eyed aliens. (It takes 11,000 years of this to reach the time when as a boy he discovered masturbation.) The antihero Bob Arctor is forced by his double life into warring double personalities: as futuristic narcotics agent "Fred", face blurred by a high-tech scrambler, he must spy on and entrap suspected drug dealer Bob Arctor. His disintegration under the influence of the insidious Substance D is genuine tragicomedy. For Arctor there's no way off the addict's downward escalator, but what awaits at the bottom is a kind of redemption--there are more wheels within wheels than we suspected, and his life is not entirely wasted. In a just world this harrowing novel, the 20th selection in the Millennium SF Masterworks, would have matched the sales ofTrainspotting. --David Langford
influential SF stories.A Scanner Darklyis the novel that cuts closest to the bone, drawing on Dick's own experience with illicit chemicals and on his many friends who died through drug misuse. Nevertheless it's blackly farcical, full of comic- surreal conversations between people whose synapses are partly fried, sudden flights of paranoid logic, and bad trips like the one whose victim spends a subjective eternity having all his sins read to him, in shifts, by compound-eyed aliens. (It takes 11,000 years of this to reach the time when as a boy he discovered masturbation.) The antihero Bob Arctor is forced by his double life into warring double personalities: as futuristic narcotics agent "Fred", face blurred by a high-tech scrambler, he must spy on and entrap suspected drug dealer Bob Arctor. His disintegration under the influence of the insidious Substance D is genuine tragicomedy. For Arctor there's no way off the addict's downward escalator, but what awaits at the bottom is a kind of redemption--there are more wheels within wheelsthan we suspected, and his life is not entirely wasted. In a just world this harrowing novel, the 20th selection in the Millennium SF Masterworks, would have matched the sales ofTrainspotting. --David Langford
influential SF stories.A Scanner Darklyis the novel that cuts closest to the bone, drawing on Dick's own experience with illicit chemicals and on his many friends who died through drug misuse. Nevertheless it's blackly farcical, full of comic- surreal conversations between people whose synapses are partly fried, sudden flights of paranoid logic, and bad trips like the one whose victim spends a subjective eternity having all his sins read to him, in shifts, by compound-eyed aliens. (It takes 11,000 years of this to reach the time when as a boy he discovered masturbation.) The antihero Bob Arctor is forced by his double life into warring double personalities: as futuristic narcotics agent "Fred", face blurred by a high-tech scrambler, he must spy on and entrap suspected drug dealer Bob Arctor. His disintegration under the influence of the insidious Substance D is genuine tragicomedy. For Arctor there's no way off the addict's downward escalator, but what awaits at the bottom is a kind of redemption--there are more wheels within wheels than we suspected, and his life is not entirely wasted. In a just world this harrowing novel, the 20th selection in the Millennium SF Masterworks, would have matched the sales ofTrainspotting. --David Langford
Masterwork Review ofA Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dickby
Olly_Plimsoll
Advantages: Fantastic writing Disadvantages: None
I've long been a fan of Philip K Dick's writing. It's just so wild and witty and full of fantastic imagery - it's easy to see why Hollywood plunders his work so often (Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall, Imposter, Paycheck). It's just a shame that so much of the tone of his work is generally lost in those adaptations. I was drawn to A Scanner Darkly after 2006's remarkable film adaptation. The story of an undercover policeman's attempts ... ...drug (Substance D), A Scanner Darkly is classic Philip K Dick. Noone is quite as they seem, and reality itself is fluid. Before long Bob Arctor is putting himself under surveillance. Becoming more paranoid and confused, the tone of the novel gradually becomes darker and darker. Only Donna, his aloof girlfriend, seems to be keeping him in touch with reality. The book is a classic - Bob's gradual disintegration is handled incredibly subtly and slowly ...
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27.03.2007
A Scanner Darkly Review ofA Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dickby
earthbound23
Advantages: Interesting depiction of future drug use and relationships Disadvantages: Slightly dated dialogue, introverted like all Phillip K. Dick
...values of modern society, creating a fairly seamless blend of present and future. But mostly, it's about drugs. And that is partly why I would recommend it.
The writing is classic Dick- snappy, looping dialogue, themes of paranoia, conspiracy and shifting interpersonal relationships. But the autobiographical element of the novel is what is most interesting, and that is largely centered around drug use. Despite a final epilogue where Dick laments ... ...much stronger. Bob Arctor is a nuanced everyman, and that makes the books main subject- his mental degradation, all the more interesting and tragic.
One major sticking point for the modern reader is the slightly dated dialogue. It's very 'hip cat' 60's and 70's which stops the book being grounded where it belongs, in the near future from now. Other than that, like all the author's works, it is remarkably foresighted.
I think this is one of Dick's ...
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Advantages: BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT - Did i also say it was BRILLIANT Disadvantages: Yeah, right
...I’m an amateur novelist hence a storyteller).
But I shall get back on track! [do I hear great sighs of relief?] PKD always writes about places that are eerily familiar and yet entirely alien. He is seems (or was being dead - alas) obsessed with insanely totalitarian regimes and here there is another one. The story exists in a world of madness, where drug enforcement officers are the same as drug addicts (they work anonymously so the authorities ... ...the novel. It is a hilarious novel. It is rare that I find myself in hysterics (and I was, and am when I re-read it). It revels in the gloriously insane world of drugs; though it morphs into something else; that something else is intensely, heartbreakingly poignant. It is hard to explain. Somewhere the novel moves into more realistic ground though the tone is almost exactly the same. PKD was himself a drug-taker and at the end of the novel there ...
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18.11.2003
(19.11.2003)
Punished too much Review ofA Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dickby
NeilHudson
Advantages: Highly moving - the author was there. Disadvantages:
"This has been a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did." What they did was try to have a good time, and "A Scanner Darkly" has to be the drugs novel par excellence, a fitting memorial to Dick's former friends whom he watched go mad and die before his eyes.
The story concerns a new drug, Substance D, which has taken over American society. The main character, Fred, is an undercover officer trying to find the ... ...portray the drugs culture in a manner that no realistic book could ever hope to do. No other novel shows how completely everyone - the users, the pushers, the police, the doctors, and even the "straights" who sit apart disgusted at it all, are locked into the same system. ...
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09.09.2000
Disturbing Review ofA Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dickby
sjm6
Advantages: Compelling Disadvantages: Disturbing
...That, however, should not be a surprise as it was written by Philip K. Dick. The writing style is good, the author manages to drag you through a quite disturbing tale and has even written it so that you can feel for some of the characters. This is a book about drugs and drug addiction, and the effects they can have. So if you do not want to read something dark with no real message of hope then this book is not for you. Then again most of Dick's books ...
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When undercover narcotics agent Bob Arctor is given a new assignment, his existential confusion is only slightly increased by the name of his target drug-user.
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