A Scanner Darkly

Phillip K Dick is one of those authors that most people have probably heard of, but never actually read. Like, everyone knows “Blade Runner” and “Total Recall.” But how many of you out there have actually read “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” Or “We can Remember It for You Wholesale?” The books that inspired those movies? I’d bet good money that it’s not a big number. And that’s probably for the best, because all those films are EXTREMELY loose adaptations. As they have to be. Because when you actually sit down and read Dick’s work, you realize that he was all concept, no plot. And that his meandering, unfocused prose was clearly the product of a paranoid, drug-addled mind. I bring all this up because “A Scanner Darkly,” is emblematic of all of the worst, most annoying aspects of Dick’s writing. It’s rambling, doesn’t really have a plot or climax, and what few sci-fi elements are there—like “scramble suits” that render people’s faces and voices unrecognizable—take a back seat to scenes of junkies acting crazy, and people navel-gazing about nothing. The book is also very clearly a product of the early 70s, the time when it was written. People say, “you’re jiving me,” refer to each other as “bad mothers,” and there is so, so much homophobia and sexism. And I really want to emphasize that 90% of this book is just people acting paranoid and strung out. There’s a guy who thinks he’s covered with bugs, even though he’s not. There’s a junkie who’s always cooking up elaborate schemes, like trying to extract cocaine from Coca Cola. And while there are some potentially interesting story ideas here — What if your dealer was an undercover cop? What if the rehab center you went to was producing the drugs? — you have to wade through so much ugly, gross, and boring bullshit that it just isn’t worth it. Now, to give Dick some credit, the sci-fi concepts he cooked up in that amphetamine-fueled noggin of his are interesting. Even in this book. Like, what would police work look like in a world where, by necessity, everyone wears a scramble suit, and you never actually know who any of your coworkers are? There’s real potential there. And a more focused storyteller could use those ideas to craft a leaner, more exciting narrative. Like, maybe you could have someone steal the scramble suit to infiltrate the police. Maybe the cops, in their paranoia, kill the wrong person, because they have know way of knowing who’s inside the outfit. And then there’s fallout from that. Like I said, there’s real potential there. And I can understand why so many filmmakers took Dick’s concepts, and used them to build better narratives. The ideas are good. But the execution is lacking. (less)

Walt and Jesse should sell this stuff