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A Scanner Darkly Philip K Dick 9780679736653 Books

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A Scanner Darkly Philip K Dick 9780679736653 Books

PKD wrote some of the weirdest books. I can't even begin to describe this one. While the plot centers on an undercover narc pursuing a junkie (both turn out to be the same person), it's so difficult to put into words exactly how this drama takes place. It's occuring in a world we could live in, except drugs are so much more prevalent, and the way PKD illuminates people, and their thoughts is simply unparalleled. I really enjoy his books because the subject matter is fascinating, but his characters really develop, they explore the depths of their minds and it makes for interesting thoughtscapes and interpretation. This book, like the others I've read, ends in the weirdest way, as though PKD comes to terms with psychosis; the chapters shorten, dialogue becomes less intense.

I can't say anymore. Read this. Read all his books.


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A Scanner Darkly Philip K Dick 9780679736653 Books Reviews

A difficult and depressing novel about addicts, narcs who become addicts, dealers who are narcs, and users in all senses of the term. The hard part was reading from the point of view of the addled minds of the drug abusers, trying to make sense of what's objectively real and what's a hallucination or warped perception. The boring parts, for me, were the repetitions of those bizarre perceptions, the explanations by non-addicts of the biological causes of the misperceptions, and the explanations of the world by the increasingly deranged addicts. The depressing part was feeling the well-intentioned addicts crumble and the manipulation of them revealed at the end. What I don't get is why this is set in the then-future of 1994 without modifying the '60s and early '70s hippy drug culture or almost anything else except adding scramble suits and holographic scanners. The constant male valuing of women first and foremost, if not exclusively, for their sexuality also got to me.
Now I don't always dig Philip K. Dick because frankly sometimes his endings leave me frustrated and I have therefore started reading him very cautiously. Many of this well known works are just ramblings of a drug addicted and bipolar brain, which were made into great movie and TV adaptations by solid writers who corrected his flaws. However, A Scanner Darkly is not a story going nowhere. I picked up the book after watching the movie by the great Richard Linklater. I must say the movie stays pretty faithful to its source and the book does not disappoint. This is a sad but important work about drug addiction. Its semi-autobiographical, which makes it all the more relevant and haunting. Pick it up and be amazed by all the "wondrous little things" that Dick throws at you.

A word about the book quality itself. I had wanted the book with the movie cover on it (yes, I am one of those people!!) and the seller did not disappoint, some seller don't even return the book if the cover is wrong. The book itself was in a great shape and was delivered fast, sturdy packing and all!!
PKD was a visionary. And a master storyteller. He truly was one of the greats. But even the greats can't turn every at-bat into a home run.

For me, "A Scanner Darkly" is PKD's missed at-bat. It begins with a solid premise that makes a few predictions about technology and social development (with the promise of accompanying commentary) that's flavored by scenes of drug use. However, it quickly devolves into psychology and thinly veiled (or not veiled at all) references to PKD's own experiences with drugs, at times eschewing the plot altogether. The flimsy narrative that desperately wants to connect the disparate scenes of drug use and altered perceptions grows more and more anemic as the novel progresses. By the end of the book, it's no longer a story complimented or accentuated by situational recollection; it's a pseudo-memoir with a strangled, dystopian ending tacked on to complete the symbolism. Or metaphor. Or... whatever it was.

I'm willing to accept that this book is a genuine 'misunderstood' classic and that I was just one of the saps who couldn't appreciate it for the masterpiece that is. That statement was made with no sarcasm, by the way; that's an honest assessment of my own limitations regarding the appraisal of this particular brand of literature.

For me, "A Scanner Darkly" works as a sci-fi flavored version of "Fear and Loathing." In terms of strange, surreal randomness, it's tough to beat. As an exercise in facing down his drug-induced demons from days gone by, I can only imagine the degree of success PKD felt he had upon completion of this novel; I hope it helped. This was clearly an ordeal he had to work through, which is made all the more sobering in the book's afterword (which, by the time you've taken the journey the story puts you through, is pretty brutal).

Many of his observations are still remarkably on point, however. Here are a few for good measure

"If I had known it was harmless I would have killed it myself."

"The guilty, he reflected as he drove amid the heavy late-afternoon traffic as carefully as possible, may flee when no one pursues- he had heard that, and maybe that was true. What for a certainty was true, however, was that the guilty fled, fled like hell and took plenty of swift precautions, when someone did pursue someone real and expert and at the same time hidden. And very close by. As close, he thought, as the back seat of this car."

"If you were diabetic," he said, "and you didn't have money for a hit of insulin, would you steal to get the money? Or just die?"

"To survive in this fascist police state, he thought, you gotta always be able to come up with a name, your name. At all times. That's the first sign they look for that you're wired, not being able to figure out who the hell you are."

"He liked that; he liked to get rid of time."
PKD wrote some of the weirdest books. I can't even begin to describe this one. While the plot centers on an undercover narc pursuing a junkie (both turn out to be the same person), it's so difficult to put into words exactly how this drama takes place. It's occuring in a world we could live in, except drugs are so much more prevalent, and the way PKD illuminates people, and their thoughts is simply unparalleled. I really enjoy his books because the subject matter is fascinating, but his characters really develop, they explore the depths of their minds and it makes for interesting thoughtscapes and interpretation. This book, like the others I've read, ends in the weirdest way, as though PKD comes to terms with psychosis; the chapters shorten, dialogue becomes less intense.

I can't say anymore. Read this. Read all his books.