#51

This is not the first Dick I've enjoyed (oh, don't even); seemed a timely read what with the flick forthcoming.

Two fun things to know about Philip K.:

A His religious experience (illustrated by R. Crumb)

B His robot head was stolen out of checked luggage

Typically Dick's books shred what we view as 'reality,' and alternate modes of perception and memory and time and consciousness seep in at the seams. A Scanner Darkly ingeniuosly continues this mind-fuck tradition. Officer Fred is a narc out to bust illegal drug runners and users. He's infiltrated the burn-out community posing as a user named Bob Arctor, and is working his way up toward big suppliers. But using too much Substance D has begun to zap his cranium in astonishing ways, and when his boss asks him to start surveiling his own alter-ego, things get haywire. My favorite bits are those featuring druggies talking bullshit. I love druggies talking bullshit, especially when Phil Dick is doing the imagining. Some of his rants are worthy of Stanley Elkin.