In 2006 Philip K. Dick’s novel A Scanner Darkly was given a film adaptation for the first time. The movie was designed under a very unique style with the technology of rotoscoping and helps add to the bizarreness of Bob Arctor’s life. The director did a wonderful job at maintaining the complex story of A Scanner Darkly, but also made odd decisions like fusing two characters from the book into one character for the movie. Besides shifting when each scene occurs, the film portrays the novel incredibly well and only leaves out the small character details that a person would only find in the book.
The oddest difference between the novel and the film is the lack of an entire character named Jerry Fabin. He never plays an important role in the book, but is the character that is first introduced to the reader. It is not uncommon for characters to be left out of movies when there is so much to be told, but the director decided to fuse the aspects and traits of Jerry Fabin into another character by the name of Charles Freck. This fusing only means that the scene where Jerry collects aphids in the book is transferred over to Charles in the movie. It actually helps the story to flow better because it shows how Charles is already deep into his Substance D addiction early on in the movie. The novel has him turn himself in to a New-Path rehabilitation centre arbitrarily with no previous knowledge of him being a heavy addict. It is a subtle enough change that actually helps make part of the story more logical.
Not a lot of things differ between the book and movie when it comes to events, as it is just the order of sequences that do not share similar qualities. For one reason or another, certain situations in the movie present themselves in a different timeframe than that of the book. This never detracts from the experience for it is still the same story from the novel, it just happens to be told in a different manner. The only problem changing the sequence of events is that some parts of the story are lost. Entire scenes in the novel, such as when Arctor visits an old friend, are never visited in the movie and makes characters like Arctor feel flat.
The characters are portrayed fairly well though, giving off a sense of oddity and murkiness that is associated with drug users. Some characters like Luckman have a different feel about them compared to their novel counterpart in a sense of style and mannerisms. The movie also makes many of the characters to say and do things that heavily foreshadow what their role will be later on in the story. This is due to the time restraints of the movie and actually appears more as homage to individuals who have already read the book.
A Scanner Darkly is both an excellent novel and film for roughly the same reasons. Each tells a story of a man who has been unfairly punished, but does it in a way that subtly differs from one another. Even with scene changes and character details missing, the film stays true to almost all of the intricate details found in the book and is a must see.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Final Based on the Book Essay
A Scanner Darkly is a very powerful book. Following the life of Bob Arctor as he spirals into a fatal addiction to Substance D, the protagonist is what makes the story as interesting as it is. A sporadic, but detailed plot and a controversial theme add to the uniqueness of the novel while the setting never really captures you.
The story contains a number of interesting characters, but clearly has one main protagonist who drives the novel to its devastating conclusion. This person is Bob Arctor, a man who can be assumed that he is in his late 30’s to early 40’s and is someone who doesn’t hold any real significance in the world. While once having a family and living a normal life, he decided to throw it all away so something new would happen. He then joined the undercover police force to snoop out drug dealers, but wound up become an addict himself. His life became twisted and warped as his brain begin to fight with itself and the worst part was that it was all planned out to happen by the federal government.
The most interesting part of Arctor is the fact that he leads two lives. When at home or with friends, Bob Arctor is a regular guy who is looking for a good time. No one knows that he is secretly working undercover as Fred, the agent who is trying to advance higher up in the drug ring so to arrest someone important. As Fred he wears a scramble suit, a device that allows your identity to remain a complete secret. These two personas are forced to be oblivious and as Arctor falls into addiction, they do begin to take on different personalities. This is a result of Substance D, the drug that Arctor indulges in the most. Slowly throughout the novel, Arctor begins to mistake one thing for another. The drug causes a split between brain hemispheres, so when Arctor’s left hemisphere can’t understand something, his right hemisphere tries to fill in the holes. This deterioration even causes him to start speaking him German periodically, though he never realizes what he is doing.
Eventually Fred’s boss Hank feels the need that Arctor’s house needs to be watched and instructs Fred to do it. This forces Arctor to watch himself and while at first he is repulsed by the idea, he begins to grow a fondness for always knowing what’s going on in his home. This further adds to the split between Fred and Arctor, as Fred becomes disgusted by Arctor and forgets who he really is. Once the addiction is so bad for him, he is taken to a New-Path rehabilitation clinic to withdraw. By this point in novel, Arctor is just a mess. The after effects of Substance D, coupled with his growing paranoia of his friends and frustration with the fact that his girlfriend won’t put out for him, Arctor breaks down and essentially dies. He is reborn in the New-Path clinic as Bruce, a simple man who cleans bathrooms and doesn’t do much else.
This sad conclusion would normally be the result of having too much of a good thing, but it was unfortunately all preplanned by the government so Arctor may somehow be able to figure out what really happens in New-Path.
As Bob Arctor, an undercover narcotics officer, slowly becomes addicted to “Substance D”. His world begins to warp around him he loses his sense of reality and breaks down until he is forced into New-Path, a drug rehabilitation clinic. He never realizes that he had been set up by the federal government in an attempt to take down the rehabilitation clinic, for they are the ones distributing Substance D.
Arctor works as an undercover agent and poses as a drug user, but ultimately becomes addicted to the drug Substance D. This starts the conflict between his parallel lives, that as Fred the undercover agent and that of Bob Arctor the drugged out freak. As he becomes more involved with the substance abuse, a series of progressively worse events occur. When he nearly dies in a car crash, he starts to feel threatened by his friend Barris. The police division he works for then installs scanners into Arctor’s house and it is Fred’s duty to watch them. The thought of having to watch himself and his friends gives Arctor relief and he soon finds himself engrossed with watching the feeds.
After being suspected of becoming an addict, Fred is asked to take medical examinations where they proceed to explain how Substance D has caused his brain to compete with itself. This competition turns him into a mess and he is soon unable to tell whether he is Fred or Arctor. After his drug withdrawal begins his girlfriend, who is also an undercover federal agent, takes him to New-Path in order to complete her assignment. By this point Arctor isn’t able to understand what is happening around him. At New-Path Arctor finds drug manufacturing evidence, but never realizes that he was supposed to.
A Scanner Darkly deals with a wide variety of themes and ideas throughout its story. Philip K. Dick uses the characters to portray the life of a drug addict and how they are punished too harshly for their crimes, often being left to die or withdraw into insanity.
As the characters in the book, the most prominent being Bob Arctor, use a number of illegal drugs, their lives become twisted and destroyed. The author never tries to declare whether using the drugs is a good thing or not, for the reason Arctor takes them is to make sure that his undercover police position is never found out. This makes his intent justified, but his act illegal. The fact that Arctor is an undercover nark ties in with a second prominent theme. Philip provides many examples to where people portray themselves differently to get what they needed, often wearing metaphorical masks depending on what the situation needs. It’s the idea that every person you interact with my just be acting to get something out of you, a paranoid but not completely unrealistic thought.
The end of the story is where both of these themes mesh together into something more easily understandable. The reader discovers that Arctor had been set up to become an addict so he could infiltrate a drug rehabilitation centre and discover if they’re the ones creating Substance D. The catch is that it was Arctor’s girlfriend Donna who was part of the set up, devised by the Federal government. Arctor is never even told what is going to happen to him and has to live with the pain of withdrawal, all so the feds may be able to take down the organization; a small price to pay for the sake of the greater good.
A Scanner Darkly takes place in a city on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The time period is never given, but rather explained as being a few years into the future. This allows the author to make it a very surreal yet realistic American setting and makes the futuristic technologies never feel out of place. Over the several months in which encompass the novel, the main characters never deviate too far from Bob Arctor’s home and only a few key locations are ever introduced.
In the suburbia where Arctor and his friends reside, there is a clear emphasis on how the drug users are kept out of the “straight’s” areas. The streets and malls are littered with both in-uniform and undercover police agents who either make the people feel very safe, or very uncomfortable. While excursions are made throughout the story, it is within Arctor’s cluttered home where the plot advances the most. What was once a prim and proper three bedroom, two-bathroom residences becomes a complete dump covered in old newspapers and junk. This is due to the relaxed nature of everyone living inside and their ignorance towards the house’s appearance.
Other locations that are visited infrequently would be Donna’s house, the under cover police station and the apartment building which holds the holo-scanner feeds. Some crucial events do take place in these settings, but are rarely revisited. The final key spot that help conclude the story is the New-Path clinic in Santa Ana, where Arctor is taken to withdraw from Substance D. He is then moved from this residence to go to the Napa Valley farm facility, where he finds the blue flower that is used in the creation the drug.
As the book comes to an end, the reader is left to think about the unfairness that is dealt towards Bob Arctor. He is a character who was given a punishment far greater for the crime he did. Even though the setting where it takes place in isn’t particularly interesting, you never feel like it takes away from the amazing experience you get from reading A Scanner Darkly.
The story contains a number of interesting characters, but clearly has one main protagonist who drives the novel to its devastating conclusion. This person is Bob Arctor, a man who can be assumed that he is in his late 30’s to early 40’s and is someone who doesn’t hold any real significance in the world. While once having a family and living a normal life, he decided to throw it all away so something new would happen. He then joined the undercover police force to snoop out drug dealers, but wound up become an addict himself. His life became twisted and warped as his brain begin to fight with itself and the worst part was that it was all planned out to happen by the federal government.
The most interesting part of Arctor is the fact that he leads two lives. When at home or with friends, Bob Arctor is a regular guy who is looking for a good time. No one knows that he is secretly working undercover as Fred, the agent who is trying to advance higher up in the drug ring so to arrest someone important. As Fred he wears a scramble suit, a device that allows your identity to remain a complete secret. These two personas are forced to be oblivious and as Arctor falls into addiction, they do begin to take on different personalities. This is a result of Substance D, the drug that Arctor indulges in the most. Slowly throughout the novel, Arctor begins to mistake one thing for another. The drug causes a split between brain hemispheres, so when Arctor’s left hemisphere can’t understand something, his right hemisphere tries to fill in the holes. This deterioration even causes him to start speaking him German periodically, though he never realizes what he is doing.
Eventually Fred’s boss Hank feels the need that Arctor’s house needs to be watched and instructs Fred to do it. This forces Arctor to watch himself and while at first he is repulsed by the idea, he begins to grow a fondness for always knowing what’s going on in his home. This further adds to the split between Fred and Arctor, as Fred becomes disgusted by Arctor and forgets who he really is. Once the addiction is so bad for him, he is taken to a New-Path rehabilitation clinic to withdraw. By this point in novel, Arctor is just a mess. The after effects of Substance D, coupled with his growing paranoia of his friends and frustration with the fact that his girlfriend won’t put out for him, Arctor breaks down and essentially dies. He is reborn in the New-Path clinic as Bruce, a simple man who cleans bathrooms and doesn’t do much else.
This sad conclusion would normally be the result of having too much of a good thing, but it was unfortunately all preplanned by the government so Arctor may somehow be able to figure out what really happens in New-Path.
As Bob Arctor, an undercover narcotics officer, slowly becomes addicted to “Substance D”. His world begins to warp around him he loses his sense of reality and breaks down until he is forced into New-Path, a drug rehabilitation clinic. He never realizes that he had been set up by the federal government in an attempt to take down the rehabilitation clinic, for they are the ones distributing Substance D.
Arctor works as an undercover agent and poses as a drug user, but ultimately becomes addicted to the drug Substance D. This starts the conflict between his parallel lives, that as Fred the undercover agent and that of Bob Arctor the drugged out freak. As he becomes more involved with the substance abuse, a series of progressively worse events occur. When he nearly dies in a car crash, he starts to feel threatened by his friend Barris. The police division he works for then installs scanners into Arctor’s house and it is Fred’s duty to watch them. The thought of having to watch himself and his friends gives Arctor relief and he soon finds himself engrossed with watching the feeds.
After being suspected of becoming an addict, Fred is asked to take medical examinations where they proceed to explain how Substance D has caused his brain to compete with itself. This competition turns him into a mess and he is soon unable to tell whether he is Fred or Arctor. After his drug withdrawal begins his girlfriend, who is also an undercover federal agent, takes him to New-Path in order to complete her assignment. By this point Arctor isn’t able to understand what is happening around him. At New-Path Arctor finds drug manufacturing evidence, but never realizes that he was supposed to.
A Scanner Darkly deals with a wide variety of themes and ideas throughout its story. Philip K. Dick uses the characters to portray the life of a drug addict and how they are punished too harshly for their crimes, often being left to die or withdraw into insanity.
As the characters in the book, the most prominent being Bob Arctor, use a number of illegal drugs, their lives become twisted and destroyed. The author never tries to declare whether using the drugs is a good thing or not, for the reason Arctor takes them is to make sure that his undercover police position is never found out. This makes his intent justified, but his act illegal. The fact that Arctor is an undercover nark ties in with a second prominent theme. Philip provides many examples to where people portray themselves differently to get what they needed, often wearing metaphorical masks depending on what the situation needs. It’s the idea that every person you interact with my just be acting to get something out of you, a paranoid but not completely unrealistic thought.
The end of the story is where both of these themes mesh together into something more easily understandable. The reader discovers that Arctor had been set up to become an addict so he could infiltrate a drug rehabilitation centre and discover if they’re the ones creating Substance D. The catch is that it was Arctor’s girlfriend Donna who was part of the set up, devised by the Federal government. Arctor is never even told what is going to happen to him and has to live with the pain of withdrawal, all so the feds may be able to take down the organization; a small price to pay for the sake of the greater good.
A Scanner Darkly takes place in a city on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The time period is never given, but rather explained as being a few years into the future. This allows the author to make it a very surreal yet realistic American setting and makes the futuristic technologies never feel out of place. Over the several months in which encompass the novel, the main characters never deviate too far from Bob Arctor’s home and only a few key locations are ever introduced.
In the suburbia where Arctor and his friends reside, there is a clear emphasis on how the drug users are kept out of the “straight’s” areas. The streets and malls are littered with both in-uniform and undercover police agents who either make the people feel very safe, or very uncomfortable. While excursions are made throughout the story, it is within Arctor’s cluttered home where the plot advances the most. What was once a prim and proper three bedroom, two-bathroom residences becomes a complete dump covered in old newspapers and junk. This is due to the relaxed nature of everyone living inside and their ignorance towards the house’s appearance.
Other locations that are visited infrequently would be Donna’s house, the under cover police station and the apartment building which holds the holo-scanner feeds. Some crucial events do take place in these settings, but are rarely revisited. The final key spot that help conclude the story is the New-Path clinic in Santa Ana, where Arctor is taken to withdraw from Substance D. He is then moved from this residence to go to the Napa Valley farm facility, where he finds the blue flower that is used in the creation the drug.
As the book comes to an end, the reader is left to think about the unfairness that is dealt towards Bob Arctor. He is a character who was given a punishment far greater for the crime he did. Even though the setting where it takes place in isn’t particularly interesting, you never feel like it takes away from the amazing experience you get from reading A Scanner Darkly.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Setting: Santa Ana New-Path residence, McDonalds and Farm Facility in Nappa Valley
Character:
Bob Arctor: Bruce doesn’t know how to function properly anymore, though is still able to have a basic life. He can talk, but usually just repeats what is heard and doesn’t think for himself. At times, a word or sentence would trigger a memory, but even then he wouldn’t know what to make of it. He’s a character who truly has had the worst happen to him. Having to endure his life is worse than the sweet salvation that death could have brought him. Within his broken mind, hope still lays in the form of reactions. His character has completely changed yet maintained to who he once was. While not the sarcastic, humourous that he was once he still provides that humour in new forms.
Donna Hawthorn: Donna shows her true self as a woman who has to do terrible things to help society. She’s fed up with having to be so cold towards people and wants out of it all. She knows that her outward appearance is warm, but inside she feels nothing.
Plot: While in the residence, Bruce is drawn towards the children’s playroom and enjoys being around the kids. He befriends a girl named Thelma who he talks to, but eventually realizes in impaired and wonders what it is like for her. The man that wishes to help him, Mike, actually turns out to be Donna’s partner for the federals and is an inside man. He meets with Donna at a McDonalds to discuss Arctor’s tragic fate and how he is being used to try and see if New-Path is the one distributing Substance D. After their conversation, Mike realizes how Arctor must have felt, trying to get close to a woman who was more like a spirit than anything else.
Arctor eventually meets an old woman named Donna, whose name triggers a memory that he can’t quite understand. It’s this reaction that the feds wish for. Two months later, he gets reassigned to work in the Nappa Valley doing farm work. This happens because Mike talks to the Executive Director of New-Path and says it’d be good for Bruce. Once Bruce is in the Valley, he is shown around the different sites and told what to do. In the corn fields, he sees something and bends down. He finds blue flowers everywhere and swears he saw death growing from the ground. The flowers happen to be the same flowers that Substance D is made from and is what Donna and Mike wanted Arctor to find. The Executive Director states that Bruce shouldn’t worship the flowers because they aren’t his god anymore, though they once were. When no one is around, Bruce takes a flower and states that “it’s a present for my friends.”
Setting: In Hank’s office; in Donna’s car driving towards New-Path; In a forest on the side of the road, out of sight from cops; New-Path residence in Santa Ana.
Character:
Arctor: Arctor is now a mess, he doesn’t know who he is, what his past was and has trouble just thinking. Withdrawing from Substance D has made him very ill and leaves him with little energy. While at New-Path, he is given the name of Bruce and blindly obeys orders that he is given. He’s unable to think for himself much anymore, but every now and then acts upon his own thoughts.
Donna: It turns out that Donna is actually an undercover federal agent, this explains why she wouldn’t get close to Arctor. She feels terrible for pulling Arctor along and wishes she could be with him.
Plot: Fred goes back to talk with Hank and Barris about Arctor and after some tapes are played, evidenced is gathered and Barris is taken away. Hank talks to Fred about his results and how he is Arctor, Fred is in disbelief. Hank suggests that he should go withdraw in the mountains alone, but Arctor decides he should go to New-Path and Donna picks him up outside. She takes him to a forest while on the way to New-Path to talk to him, the pain of withdrawing made Arctor vomit and soil himself. They discuss about Tony Amsterdam, a man who shot up and saw God and could never live with himself after that because he knew he’d never see him again. A cop comes and Donna saws that she’s an undercover agent for the federal police and shows him her badge. The cop leaves and Donna takes Arctor to New-Path. After leaving him, she drives onto a freeway to tail a Coca-Cola truck and shoots at the bottles it has on it.
Arctor is instructed to clean the bathrooms of the residence. Arctor just does what he is told and barely talks to anyone. New-Path gives him a new name, Bruce, so he can start a new life. He later meets Mike, a man who was once like Bruce and says that he can help him if he ever needs it.
Theme: A theme that has been growing over the course of the novel is how the mind is what forms reality and it’s willingness to bend and accept things is truly amazing. As Arctor has abused Substance D, his perception of what is real has changed. He took on different identities to do what he needed to. After D had split his mind, he saw everything “reversed” but didn’t know whether what he was seeing was real or if what he used to see was real. The mind is able to accept what it sees so it can continue to function, just as how Arctor became Bruce to continue living.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Setting: Room 203 of the police psychology testing lab, police cafeteria, Hank’s office.
Character:
Arctor: Arctor has completely lost it by now, he’s no longer able to think straight and believes he is just Fred and no longer Arctor. He knows that his brain is almost burned out, but still wants to help his friends, that way people remember them.
Barris: Jim now reveals that he has been monitoring Arctor, trying to get him arrested by false information. His real intentions still aren’t known, or even why he’s trying to burn Arctor. He’s fairly nervous being around the cops in Hank’s office.
Plot: Fred heads to the medical examination room where he sees two new psychiatrists and goes through a number of tests for several hours. After having a blood test, one of the psychiatrists talks to Fred about having seen him last week, but Fred isn’t able to comprehend which doctor it is. He then is free to go and heads to Hank’s office where Jim Barris is waiting to provide evidence that Arctor is acting against the government. After talking to Barris about the evidence, Fred heads back to the examination room where they talk to him about his results and how his addiction to Substance D has made the two hemispheres of his brain have started to compete. This makes it impossible for Arctor to understand "what’s real and what’s reversed." Before going back to Hank’s office to inspect Barris’ evidence, Fred heads to the cafeteria to get some food. He has a run in with two good-looking women who mistake him for someone named Pete. Fred realizes he can do what he pleases in the scramble suit and pretends to be Pete for a while. After the women leave, he figures someone else will take his job and Fred doesn’t want this. He thinks about stealing the holo-scanner equipment so he can continue watching Arctor and his friends just in case something bad happens to them.
Theme: Even when the human mind is completely destroyed and confused, people are still able to make out as to what the right thing to do is. This drive to do what’s right is usually mistaken for madness though.
Character:
Arctor: Arctor has completely lost it by now, he’s no longer able to think straight and believes he is just Fred and no longer Arctor. He knows that his brain is almost burned out, but still wants to help his friends, that way people remember them.
Barris: Jim now reveals that he has been monitoring Arctor, trying to get him arrested by false information. His real intentions still aren’t known, or even why he’s trying to burn Arctor. He’s fairly nervous being around the cops in Hank’s office.
Plot: Fred heads to the medical examination room where he sees two new psychiatrists and goes through a number of tests for several hours. After having a blood test, one of the psychiatrists talks to Fred about having seen him last week, but Fred isn’t able to comprehend which doctor it is. He then is free to go and heads to Hank’s office where Jim Barris is waiting to provide evidence that Arctor is acting against the government. After talking to Barris about the evidence, Fred heads back to the examination room where they talk to him about his results and how his addiction to Substance D has made the two hemispheres of his brain have started to compete. This makes it impossible for Arctor to understand "what’s real and what’s reversed." Before going back to Hank’s office to inspect Barris’ evidence, Fred heads to the cafeteria to get some food. He has a run in with two good-looking women who mistake him for someone named Pete. Fred realizes he can do what he pleases in the scramble suit and pretends to be Pete for a while. After the women leave, he figures someone else will take his job and Fred doesn’t want this. He thinks about stealing the holo-scanner equipment so he can continue watching Arctor and his friends just in case something bad happens to them.
Theme: Even when the human mind is completely destroyed and confused, people are still able to make out as to what the right thing to do is. This drive to do what’s right is usually mistaken for madness though.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Setting: In a cab, driving around the city. Charles’ house, Arctor’s house and the apartment where the holo-scanners are.
Character:
Arctor: Arctor finally realizes that he can’t see into himself anymore, after much thinking and self doubting, he states that he can only see murk. Soon, Fred and Arctor become two different people, they’re both the same but neither recognize the other. Arctor periodically will start speaking in German, showing that his brain has turned to mush.
Charles Freck: Charles says that he’s fed up with what’s happening to his friends and himself, and decides to off himself.
Plot:
Arctor heads to the key smith’s shop to pay the money that way he doesn’t get burned by Barris. After making up a story and convincing them that he was a good person, he heads home in a cab and thinks about how to take down Barris. His thoughts race and he doubts what he thinks, going from hating Barris, to respecting him for trying to help him, Arctor. Once he arrives home, he continues to think and his dialogue provides the title of the book, asking what a scanner sees, clearly or darkly? He then comically opens a sex book, reads off a philosophical sentence and hopes that the scanners don’t zoom into the cover of the book.
Charles decides to kill himself by taking a bunch of tabs of D and drinking some wine. He gathers up some items that he figures architects will find to represent him which takes longer to get together than he’d imagined. At the last minute, he decides to get a nicer wine instead of the cheap stuff he had and then does the deed. Unfortunately, he discovers that he was ripped off and was given some psychedelic tabs that he had never taken before and instead of quiet suffocation, hallucinates. A creature from between dimensions, covered in eyes and sporting fancy clothing, stands before Charles with a scroll and reads to him all of his sins throughout all eternity. Charles thinks to himself "At least I got a good wine."
Fred observes more tapes at the holo-scanner apartment, but thinks that Arctor is a different person from himself. After watching Arctor and Luckman discuss nonsensical things, he gets a call saying that he has another appointment with the psychiatrists. Fred becomes fed up with listening to Arctor and his friends, saying that he’d never do something like that. He takes a break, drops some death and realizes he can’t tell time anymore, then blames it on Arctor.
Theme: After so much stress and drug abuse, the mind begins to think differently. It splits apart and takes on different personalities thinking it’s one thing when really it’s another.
Character:
Arctor: Arctor finally realizes that he can’t see into himself anymore, after much thinking and self doubting, he states that he can only see murk. Soon, Fred and Arctor become two different people, they’re both the same but neither recognize the other. Arctor periodically will start speaking in German, showing that his brain has turned to mush.
Charles Freck: Charles says that he’s fed up with what’s happening to his friends and himself, and decides to off himself.
Plot:
Arctor heads to the key smith’s shop to pay the money that way he doesn’t get burned by Barris. After making up a story and convincing them that he was a good person, he heads home in a cab and thinks about how to take down Barris. His thoughts race and he doubts what he thinks, going from hating Barris, to respecting him for trying to help him, Arctor. Once he arrives home, he continues to think and his dialogue provides the title of the book, asking what a scanner sees, clearly or darkly? He then comically opens a sex book, reads off a philosophical sentence and hopes that the scanners don’t zoom into the cover of the book.
Charles decides to kill himself by taking a bunch of tabs of D and drinking some wine. He gathers up some items that he figures architects will find to represent him which takes longer to get together than he’d imagined. At the last minute, he decides to get a nicer wine instead of the cheap stuff he had and then does the deed. Unfortunately, he discovers that he was ripped off and was given some psychedelic tabs that he had never taken before and instead of quiet suffocation, hallucinates. A creature from between dimensions, covered in eyes and sporting fancy clothing, stands before Charles with a scroll and reads to him all of his sins throughout all eternity. Charles thinks to himself "At least I got a good wine."
Fred observes more tapes at the holo-scanner apartment, but thinks that Arctor is a different person from himself. After watching Arctor and Luckman discuss nonsensical things, he gets a call saying that he has another appointment with the psychiatrists. Fred becomes fed up with listening to Arctor and his friends, saying that he’d never do something like that. He takes a break, drops some death and realizes he can’t tell time anymore, then blames it on Arctor.
Theme: After so much stress and drug abuse, the mind begins to think differently. It splits apart and takes on different personalities thinking it’s one thing when really it’s another.
Setting: Along side the road at night, Arctor gets picked up by Donna and they go to her place. Mainly in Arctor’s house, later in the apartment containing the holo-scanner stations.
Character:
Barris: He is clearly trying to burn Arctor for some reason and is crazy. It’s not like he’s trying to kill anyone, but at the same time he is.
Arctor: He’s having self-doubts and is spiraling into depression because of Donna and Barris. He feels like he has to keep being Fred in order to help anyone. The situation with the random girl turning into Donna shows that his substance D abuse is effecting his everyday life.
Plot: After Arctor observes the tapes from the holo-scanners, he heads home and runs into Donna. She tells him that she has his tabs of D and they head back to her place. She plans on having Arctor take her to a concert then asks if he wants to go to a drive-in movie. Once back at her place, they do some hash and talk. Arctor asks if he can get close to her and she freaks out and tells him he’s ugly. Arctor gets mad and leaves, but Donna follows. They walk outside and talk for a bit where Donna pretty much shoots Arctor down to be with him. He decides to call a heroin addict to have a one-night fling with and the two have sex. He later wakes up to find that the girl looks like Donna and Arctor freaks out only to discover that the girl looks normal again.
Bob goes back to the holo-scanners and proceeds to watch tapes on Barris’ activities. He discovers that Barris is not only trying to sell toxic mushrooms, but is also trying to burn Arctor. He does this by aggravating a straight and pretending to be Arctor. Arctor decides that he has to diffuse this situation first before trying to stop Barris himself.
Theme: Arctor feels he has to continue doing what he does, even if it has bad repercussions for him. This can be seen as a theme of trying to do what’s right, even if the outcome is terrible, but how to help others, you must hurt youtself.
Character:
Barris: He is clearly trying to burn Arctor for some reason and is crazy. It’s not like he’s trying to kill anyone, but at the same time he is.
Arctor: He’s having self-doubts and is spiraling into depression because of Donna and Barris. He feels like he has to keep being Fred in order to help anyone. The situation with the random girl turning into Donna shows that his substance D abuse is effecting his everyday life.
Plot: After Arctor observes the tapes from the holo-scanners, he heads home and runs into Donna. She tells him that she has his tabs of D and they head back to her place. She plans on having Arctor take her to a concert then asks if he wants to go to a drive-in movie. Once back at her place, they do some hash and talk. Arctor asks if he can get close to her and she freaks out and tells him he’s ugly. Arctor gets mad and leaves, but Donna follows. They walk outside and talk for a bit where Donna pretty much shoots Arctor down to be with him. He decides to call a heroin addict to have a one-night fling with and the two have sex. He later wakes up to find that the girl looks like Donna and Arctor freaks out only to discover that the girl looks normal again.
Bob goes back to the holo-scanners and proceeds to watch tapes on Barris’ activities. He discovers that Barris is not only trying to sell toxic mushrooms, but is also trying to burn Arctor. He does this by aggravating a straight and pretending to be Arctor. Arctor decides that he has to diffuse this situation first before trying to stop Barris himself.
Theme: Arctor feels he has to continue doing what he does, even if it has bad repercussions for him. This can be seen as a theme of trying to do what’s right, even if the outcome is terrible, but how to help others, you must hurt youtself.
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