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A review by naleagdeco
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
4.0
I love Philip K Dick; when I discovered his work maybe 10-15 years ago it felt like someone had finally written works centred around the obsessions and weirdnesses I thought where mine alone to bear. For some reason I skipped this book, maybe I thought seeing the movie was enough.
I ended up reading this for a friends-at-work book club, and it made me incredibly sad. Other Dick books (including and especially VALIS) have a science fiction or gonzo veneer that allows you to suspend your disbelief and imagine the content drifting back to earth, to you, but this book is barely science fiction. In many ways the science fiction aspects are there just to simplify some of the procedurals.
Basic premise: The story of a a circle of friends all caught up in abusive drug cycles, and the protagonist is a double agent trying to find the source of the guaranteed fatal and addictive drug Substance-D. Things get ambiguous.
I've noticed this is a book that people I know really hate or love. The ones that hate it often find it alien or too real; the ones that love it definitely recall very real moments in their lives or their friends' lives. It also helps I think if you understand the disorientation that Dick portrays so well, either via depression/paranoia (as I do) or via other forms. One thing I do think it does a reasonable job of doing is laying out. for those with empathy, and empathy for the characters, an understanding that they aren't just to be sneered at or pitied. They all have their own reasons for being in this situation. They are generally all three dimensional, with goodnesses and loves and weaknesses inside their flawed comic incompetencies.
Reading this book with people who feel chills of alienation at this book, this book has been a surprisingly good way of getting people to realize that avenue for empathy, even if this book possibly turns them off other Dick works because they decide the distancing of science fiction settings would not clear or darken the clarity of the author-characteristic themes that Dick lays down so nakedly here.
In may ways I feel this is the wrong Dick book to start with if people want to be gently coaxed into Philip K. Dick works. It's not very exciting, it doesn't have an exotic setting, or some of the craziness one can be entertained by. Conversely though, this and Valis to me feel like Dick's most important works when it comes to understanding a large segment of ourselves, as people suck in this actual reality.
I ended up reading this for a friends-at-work book club, and it made me incredibly sad. Other Dick books (including and especially VALIS) have a science fiction or gonzo veneer that allows you to suspend your disbelief and imagine the content drifting back to earth, to you, but this book is barely science fiction. In many ways the science fiction aspects are there just to simplify some of the procedurals.
Basic premise: The story of a a circle of friends all caught up in abusive drug cycles, and the protagonist is a double agent trying to find the source of the guaranteed fatal and addictive drug Substance-D. Things get ambiguous.
I've noticed this is a book that people I know really hate or love. The ones that hate it often find it alien or too real; the ones that love it definitely recall very real moments in their lives or their friends' lives. It also helps I think if you understand the disorientation that Dick portrays so well, either via depression/paranoia (as I do) or via other forms. One thing I do think it does a reasonable job of doing is laying out. for those with empathy, and empathy for the characters, an understanding that they aren't just to be sneered at or pitied. They all have their own reasons for being in this situation. They are generally all three dimensional, with goodnesses and loves and weaknesses inside their flawed comic incompetencies.
Reading this book with people who feel chills of alienation at this book, this book has been a surprisingly good way of getting people to realize that avenue for empathy, even if this book possibly turns them off other Dick works because they decide the distancing of science fiction settings would not clear or darken the clarity of the author-characteristic themes that Dick lays down so nakedly here.
In may ways I feel this is the wrong Dick book to start with if people want to be gently coaxed into Philip K. Dick works. It's not very exciting, it doesn't have an exotic setting, or some of the craziness one can be entertained by. Conversely though, this and Valis to me feel like Dick's most important works when it comes to understanding a large segment of ourselves, as people suck in this actual reality.