We're all dreaming, Arctor said. If the last to know he's an addict is the addict, then maybe the last to know when a man means what he says is the man himself, he reflected. He wondered how much of the garbage that Donna had overheard he had seriously meant. He wondered how much of the insanity of the day--his insanity--had been real, or just induced as a contact lunacy, by the situation. Donna, always, was a pivot point of reality for him; for her this was the basic, natural question. He wished he could answer.
In Philip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly," the character Arctor reflects on the nature of addiction and self-awareness. He considers the idea that just as addicts may be the last to recognize their addiction, individuals might also struggle to understand the authenticity of their own words and actions. This notion leads him to question how genuine his statements to Donna were and whether the chaotic feelings he experienced throughout the day...
