A Scanner Darkly is a BSFA Award winning 1977 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. The semi-autobiographical story is set in a dystopian Orange County, California, in the then-future of June 1994. It includes an extensive portrayal of drug culture and drug use (both recreational and abusive).
The title echoes the Biblical phrase Through a Glass Darkly, from 1 Corinthians 13.
The protagonist is Bob Arctor, member of a household...
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A Scanner Darkly is a BSFA Award winning 1977 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. The semi-autobiographical story is set in a dystopian Orange County, California, in the then-future of June 1994. It includes an extensive portrayal of drug culture and drug use (both recreational and abusive).
The title echoes the Biblical phrase Through a Glass Darkly, from 1 Corinthians 13.
The protagonist is Bob Arctor, member of a household of drug-users, who is also living a parallel life as Agent Fred, an undercover police agent assigned to spy on Arctor's household. Arctor/Fred shields his true identity from those in the drug subculture, and from the police themselves. (The requirement that narcotics agents remain anonymous, to avoid collusion and other forms of corruption, becomes a critical plot point late in the book.) While supposedly only posing as a drug user, Arctor becomes addicted to "Substance D" (also referred to as "Slow Death," "Death," or "D"), a powerful...
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