Let me just tell you the tone of this post: I hated A Scanner Darkly; the book, not the movie, mind you.
I picked up the book once I saw the movie was close to release. I was quite excited to see the movie because 1. it was done Richard Linklater of Dazed and Confused fame 2. It had a trippy sci-fi twist to it and 3. it was done with Linklater’s acting/animation technique. I spent the last week burning through the book so I could enjoy the movie. But after finishing the book, I think I’ll skip the movie.
From here on down, there may be spoilers.
The story follows a guy named Fred who is an undercover cop working his way through a drug ring. His drug-addicted alter-ego, Bob Arctor, lives with 2 drug-addicted friends. They spend their time getting stoned and paranoid about the world around them. In the end life goes to hell and Fred/Bob enters rehab.
Did you catch the sci-fi part of the story? Yeah, neither did I. If you skip a paragraph in chapter 7 you might have missed it. When I started reading it I was hoping it would be a story about cops and drug addicts in an altered time period, much like Snow Crash and Neuromancer. Nope. Darkly was written in 1977 and is based in 1994. So the most amount of sci-fi that happens is everything is recorded on cassette and crack houses are bugged with “scanners” a.k.a. cameras. The book is dated at best.
But Darkly isn’t known for it’s sci-fi feel, but more for it’s gritty tale of despair as Fred slips away from reality and more into drug addiction. After reading books like Trainspotting and A Million Little Pieces (say what you will) the description of addiction in Darkly just doesn’t cut the mustard. It’s too simplistic, too knee jerky. One minute Bob knows his name, the next he doesn’t.
I was hoping to enjoy the book and be disappointed with the movie. I mean, that’s the whole purpose of reading the book before the movie, right? The movie versions ALWAYS suck. But after finishing the book I’m not too sure I want to see the movie, even out of curiosity. I think I’ll pass on it.
