© James Pyles

Philip K. Dick’s 1977 novel A Scanner Darkly is about drug addition and the physical, mental, and legal consequences it brings about. The character Bob Arctor/Fred is prey, predator, and victim.

The book is also autobiographical since it (through fiction) chronicles Dick’s own experiences with addiction and the drug culture in the 1970s.

I’m not much of a fan of Dick’s writing. Oh, I’ve read his “big hits” including The Man in The High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but I felt the stories didn’t live up to the hype. I know I’m probably in the minority with that opinion, but so be it.

For my money, “Scanner” is Dick’s best novel. It’s not just the writing or the story. It’s how Dick took a destroyed part of his life and turned it into something, not only useful, but reorganized and creative. I really admire him for that. I think most of us wish we could do that with the parts of our lives we see as “damaged” or (Heaven help us) “destroyed.”

Most of the story takes place in Orange County, California in the early 1990s. It’s ironic, since I lived in Orange Country from 1983 through 1994. Of course, Dick didn’t predict the future very well, but that wasn’t his point. Still, there was an additional sense of familiarity with me when he described the locales and geography.

Bob Arctor is addicted to the (fictional) drug Substance D. So are most of his friends. He’s also an undercover cop named “Fred” who wears a “scatter suit” which conceals his identity when he’s on the job. He starts out understanding the two sides of his role but as the drug continues to erode his brain, they split. He comes to believe that Arctor and Fred are two separate people.

It’s hardly a surprise that Dick captures the sense of paranoia and disconnection from reality in Arctor and the others. I think anyone who has ever abused or been addicted to substances including alcohol will recognize just a little bit of themselves in some of the characters. It’s eerie.

Arctor’s life continues to deteriorate throughout the book until his cover is blown and he becomes almost totally unfunctional. His police superior lets Arctor’s friend (and would be lover) Donna take him to a drug rehab program called “New Path.” At that point, it’s revealed to the reader (but never to Arctor) that Donna, who has been Arctor’s drug dealer and companion, is an undercover Federal agent.

The novel would have been informative, entertaining, and insightful if it stopped there, but the final horror of Arctor’s life is played out in the last several pages of the story. Arctor/Fred was set up from the beginning by law enforcement and particularly by Donna. His mind has been destroyed but enough of his “reflexes” as a cop remain.

New Path’s income stream is abundant and anonymous. The Feds have long suspected that they make their money by growing the plant that is distilled into Substance D (the misdirection is that everyone thinks Substance D is made in a lab).

But they can’t prove it. New Path only assigns inmates to work on their farms who they deem total burnouts and thus harmless. That’s Arctor/Fred (now called “Bruce”) to a “T.” Bruce discovers a small, blue flower growing in the corn fields of a New Path owned farm. He knows he’ll be going back to the city for Thanksgiving and Christmas. He hides one of the flowers in his shoe, presumably to turn over to Donna or her New Paths operative Mike who has befriended Bruce.

That’s where the story ends. It’s Arctor/Fred/Bruce’s final heroic act and it’s only done by reflex. Whoever he was before is forever destroyed.

The Author’s Note on the last three pages of the book is dedicated to the people Dick was associated with and loved during the time they were doing drugs. He based the characters in the novel on most of them (except himself, he said he’s the novel).

One person killed himself and several others died from various causes. Of those still alive when the book was published, all of them suffered disabilities or ailments including brain damage, permanent psychosis, permanent vascular damage, and so on.

Philip K. Dick died due to complications from a stroke at the age of 53. In a sense, this novel could be considered his epitaph and his name the final one on the list of those to whom he dedicated “Scanners”.