A Scanner Darkly is a study in the nature of the writing. I am certainly no expert critic, philosopher, or writer, but I cannot help but feel that the act of writing a novel is inherently self-reflective. Writers write to capture the essence of culture and experience; what does A Scanner Darkly say about its author? Biographical criticism is often, for good reason, looked down upon, but so much of PKD's work is essentially tied to the drug use and psychological issues Dick was so famed for possessing. Where poetry is so often connected to a political movement or personal agenda, the modern era in literature of "nothing outside the text" seems to be fervently followed in most classrooms, much to my chagrin.

I had the opportunity to attend a literary conference at the University of Wyoming. There, the keynote address was given by Dr. Ron Schuchard of Emory University. His presentation was a biographic criticism of T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland. In his address, Dr. Schuchard touched on a crucial event of Eliot's life that are most evident in his poetry: the sexual betrayal of Eliot by his wife and mentor. Perhaps my perspective is simply off; maybe many critics already look beyond Derrida's incestuous criticism. However, I cannot help but feel, in my experiences of digging through databases for topical sources, that so much of what is essentially the human component in telling a story is abandoned for the critical approaches of dead scholars.