Editing A Scanner Darkly (section)

==Background and publication==
''A Scanner Darkly'' was one of the few Dick novels to gestate over a long period of time. By February 1973, in an effort to prove that the effects of his amphetamine usage were merely [[psychosomatic]], the newly clean-and-sober author had already prepared a full outline.<ref>{{cite web| last = Dick| first = Philip K.| title = Letter to Scott Meredith| work = Letters| publisher = Philip K. Dick Trust| date = 1973-02-28| url = http://www.philipkdick.com/new_letters-scanner2.html| access-date = 2007-06-06| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070602020522/http://www.philipkdick.com/new_letters-scanner2.html| archive-date = 2007-06-02| url-status = dead}}</ref> A first draft was in development by March.<ref>{{cite web| last = Dick| first = Philip K.| title = Letter to Scott Meredith| work = Letters| publisher = Philip K. Dick Trust| date = 1973-03-20| url = http://www.philipkdick.com/new_letters-scanner3.html| access-date = 2007-06-06| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070602020727/http://www.philipkdick.com/new_letters-scanner3.html| archive-date = 2007-06-02| url-status = dead}}</ref> This labor was soon supplanted by a new family and the completion of ''[[Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said]]'' (left unfinished in 1970), which was finally released in 1974 and received the prestigious John W. [[Campbell award (best novel)|Campbell Award]].<ref name="WWE-1975">{{cite web
| url = http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1975
| title = 1975 Award Winners & Nominees
| work = Worlds Without End
| access-date=2009-09-27
}}</ref> Additional preoccupations were the [[Philip K. Dick#Paranormal experiences|mystical experiences of early 1974]] that eventually served as a basis for ''[[VALIS]]'' and the ''[[The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick|Exegesis]]'' journal; a screenplay for an unproduced film adaptation of 1969's ''[[Ubik]]''; occasional lectures; and the expedited completion of the deferred [[Roger Zelazny]] collaboration ''[[Deus Irae]]'' in 1975.

Because of its semi-autobiographical nature, some of ''A Scanner Darkly'' was torturous to write. Tessa Dick, Philip's wife at the time, once stated that she often found her husband weeping as the sun rose after a night-long writing session. Tessa has given interviews stating that "when he was with me, he wrote ''A Scanner Darkly'' [in] under two weeks. But we spent three years rewriting it" and that she was "pretty involved in his writing process [for ''A Scanner Darkly'']".<ref>{{cite web| last = Knight| first = Annie | title = About Philip K. Dick: An interview with Tessa, Chris, and Ranea Dick| publisher = Deep Outside SFF| date = 2002-11-01| url = http://www.farsector.com/hot_content1.htm| access-date = 2007-06-06}}</ref> Tessa stated in a later interview that she "participated in the writing of ''A Scanner Darkly''" and said that she "consider[s] [her]self the silent co-author". Philip wrote a contract giving Tessa half of all the rights to the novel, which stated that Tessa "participated to a great extent in writing the outline and novel ''A Scanner Darkly'' with me, and I owe her one half of all income derived from it".<ref>{{cite web | title = An interview with Tessa Dick| url = http://dickien.fr/dossiers/tessadick/interview-tessa-dick.html}}</ref>

There was also the challenge of transmuting the events into "science fiction", as Dick felt that he could not sell a mainstream or literary novel after several previous failures.{{Citation needed|date=December 2007}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dick|first=Philip K|title=The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings}}</ref> Providing invaluable aid in this field was [[Judy-Lynn del Rey]], head of Ballantine Books' SF division, which had optioned the book. Del Rey suggested the timeline change to 1994 and emphasized the more futuristic elements of the novel, such as the "scramble suit" employed by Fred (which, incidentally, emerged from one of the mystical experiences). Yet much of the dialogue spoken by the characters used hippie slang, dating the events of the novel to their "true" time-frame of 1970–72.

Upon its publication in 1977, ''A Scanner Darkly'' was hailed by [[American Library Association|ALA]] Booklist as "his best yet!" [[Brian Aldiss]] lauded it as "the best book of the year", while [[Robert Silverberg]] praised the novel as "a masterpiece of sorts, full of demonic intensity", but concluded that "it happens also not to be a very successful novel... a failure, but a stunning failure".<ref>"Books", ''Cosmos'', September 1977, p. 39.</ref> [[Spider Robinson]] panned the novel as "sometimes fascinating, sometimes hilarious, [but] usually deadly boring".<ref>"Galaxy Bookshelf", ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'', August 1977, p. 141.</ref> Sales were typical for the SF genre in America, but hardcover editions were issued in Europe, where all of Dick's works were warmly received. It was nominated for neither the Nebula nor the Hugo Award but was awarded the British version (the [[BSFA]]) in 1978<ref name="WWE-1978">{{cite web
| url = http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1978
| title = 1978 Award Winners & Nominees
| work = Worlds Without End
| access-date=2009-09-27
}}</ref> and the French equivalent (Graouilly d'Or) upon its publication there in 1979.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.thephildickian.com/awardwinners.html| title = thephildickian.com – Award Winning Authors<!-- Bot generated title -->| access-date = January 2, 2007| archive-date = October 18, 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101018202744/http://www.thephildickian.com/awardwinners.html| url-status = dead}}</ref> It also was nominated for the Campbell Award in 1978 and placed sixth in the annual [[Locus Award|Locus poll]].<ref>[http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit38.html#1337 Locus Index to SF Awards] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150327043746/http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit38.html#1337 |date=March 27, 2015 }}</ref>

The title of the novel refers to the Biblical phrase "[[1 Corinthians 13#"Through a glass, darkly"|Through a glass, darkly]]", from the [[King James Version]] of 1 Corinthians 13. Passages from [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]]'s play ''[[Goethe's Faust|Faust]]'' are also referred to throughout the novel. The [[Through a Glass Darkly (film)|same-titled film]] by [[Ingmar Bergman]] has also been cited as a reference for the book,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Philip K. Dick: Canonical Writer of the Digital Age |last=Kucukalic |first=Lejla |publisher=Routledge |year=2009 |isbn=9780203886847 |location=New York |pages=118}}</ref> the film depicting the similar descent into madness and schizophrenia of its lead character portrayed by [[Harriet Andersson]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Through a Glass Darkly|website=[[IMDb]] |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055499/|access-date=2019-04-18}}</ref>