A Scanner Darkly

Arctor’s speech to the Lion’s Club shifts between a plea for empathy and a get-tough-on-crime approach. How do these approaches correspond to each of his dual identities?

Dick frequently writes about vast, faceless bureaucracies. What are some examples in A Scanner Darkly? What do the fictional technologies that enable those bureaucracies metaphorically imply about their natures?

Dick’s characters rail against the “straight” world. What is it about that world they find so abhorrent? What larger statement is Dick making about the American middle-class?

Dick’s prose style is often rambling and tangential. How does this stylistic choice reflect the themes of the novel?

Arctor compares Jerry Fabin’s damaged brain to his damaged cephalochromoscope. In what ways does Dick consider the brain to be just another machine?

When Arctor observes his housemates through the holo-scanner, it triggers his paranoia. What are some events he witnesses that initiate it, and why do they have this effect on him?

Dick’s future dystopia is set in 1994, just 17 years after the book was published. How is his future different from today? How is it the same?

A subtle theological thread runs through the narrative. What are some examples of that? How does religion fit into Dick’s dystopian world?