A Scanner Darkly

The novel’s main protagonist, Arctor, is Dick’s avatar of delusion and identity confusion. He is introduced as an undercover narcotics agent, but once he begins surveilling his prime suspect, he loses touch with himself and with reality. Arctor, as Fred, is expected (and permitted) to indulge in some drug use in order to maintain his cover, but the insidious Substance D soon has him in its grip, distorting his cognitive function, making him confused and paranoid. He begins to see Arctor as separate from himself, a third party who exists in his own space and time. He believes unequivocally in his mission and that Arctor will lead him to the source of Substance D. His confusion becomes so deep that he begins to refer to himself in the third person, his identity blurring and overlapping with the target of his investigation. One of Dick’s recurring themes is The Nature of Reality, and he dives into Arctor’s psyche to explore this idea, especially the connection between perception and psychedelics. Arctor’s interior monologues are tangential and oblique, veering between paranoia and dead certainty. The voices outside of his head—Hank, the agency’s psych team—are the voices of reality, but those voices are filtered through Arctor’s delusional perceptions, leaving the reader uncertain as to who’s the reliable adult in the room.