A Scanner Darkly
A Scanner Darkly is Philip K. Dick's 1977 novel, set in a near-future Southern California seven years on from its writing and based, as Dick explained in an unusually direct afterword, on the lives and deaths of his own friends in the Orange County drug-using community of the early 1970s. Bob Arctor is a deep-cover undercover agent for the Orange County Sheriff's Department's narcotics division. He lives in a run-down ranch house with two heavy users of Substance D, the highly addictive new drug that has flooded the region, and reports back to his superiors through a special device called a scramble suit, which masks his face and voice with an ever-shifting composite identity. Through a bureaucratic accident, Arctor has been assigned to investigate the heavy Substance D user named Bob Arctor, watching tapes of his own daily life. As his addiction progresses and the brain-hemisphere split that Substance D produces accelerates, the divide between the agent and the suspect becomes harder to hold.
Also by Philip K. Dick
What you might want to know about A Scanner Darkly
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
An undercover narcotics agent in a near-future California is assigned to surveil a target who turns out to be himself. The deeper he sinks into the drug scene, the less of him is left.
Partially. Philip K. Dick drew on his own years of drug use in 1970s California and the friends he lost to addiction. The novel's afterword lists real people Dick knew, dedicating the book to those who suffered or died from drug use.
Yes. Richard Linklater directed a 2006 rotoscope-animated film adaptation starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Winona Ryder. The film is widely considered one of the most faithful Philip K. Dick adaptations.
A Scanner Darkly was written by Philip K. Dick, published in 1977 by Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
A Scanner Darkly is 278 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, A Scanner Darkly takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
A Scanner Darkly is a standalone novel by Philip K. Dick, not part of a series.
A Scanner Darkly is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
