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 Post subject: A Scanner Darkly (The Novel)
PostPosted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 1:32 am 
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I just finished this, and it's probably in my top ten books now. Simply heartbreaking, especially the afterword. A must read.

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 Post subject: Re: A Scanner Darkly (The Novel)
PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 1:18 am 
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I listened to it read by Paul Giamatti. Pretty good. I added the movie to my Netflix after that. I'm not very hopeful. :|

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 Post subject: Re: A Scanner Darkly (The Novel)
PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 1:33 am 
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The movie is actually very good. The casting was excellent (Keanu is the same, but he kind of works for the part) and the style works for the story.

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 Post subject: Re: A Scanner Darkly (The Novel)
PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 3:34 pm 
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The Maleficent
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Philip Dick had mental illness, btw.

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 Post subject: Re: A Scanner Darkly (The Novel)
PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 4:43 pm 
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malice wrote:
Philip Dick had mental illness, btw.


Don't all great artists?

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 Post subject: Re: A Scanner Darkly (The Novel)
PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 5:24 pm 
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B wrote:
malice wrote:
Philip Dick had mental illness, btw.


Don't all great artists?


He also believed he was in communication with aliens, telepathically.

and yes. I find that comforting, somehow.

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 Post subject: Re: A Scanner Darkly (The Novel)
PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 6:11 pm 
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Was he a scientologist?

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 Post subject: Re: A Scanner Darkly (The Novel)
PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 6:30 pm 
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B wrote:
Was he a scientologist?


That's the same as schizophrenic, yeah?

actually, I don't think he was ever officially diagnosed with mental illness, but he had a lot of mental issues throughout his life, and really DID believe he'd been contacted by aliens.

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 Post subject: Re: A Scanner Darkly (The Novel)
PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 7:41 pm 
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malice wrote:
B wrote:
Was he a scientologist?


That's the same as schizophrenic, yeah?

actually, I don't think he was ever officially diagnosed with mental illness, but he had a lot of mental issues throughout his life, and really DID believe he'd been contacted by aliens.


do you think he'd go for Sharks or Bears?


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 Post subject: Re: A Scanner Darkly (The Novel)
PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 7:43 pm 
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Spike wrote:
malice wrote:
B wrote:
Was he a scientologist?


That's the same as schizophrenic, yeah?

actually, I don't think he was ever officially diagnosed with mental illness, but he had a lot of mental issues throughout his life, and really DID believe he'd been contacted by aliens.


do you think he'd go for Sharks or Bears?


*makes spike "a foe"*

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lennytheweedwhacker wrote:
That's it. I'm going to Wyoming.
Alex wrote:
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 Post subject: Re: A Scanner Darkly (The Novel)
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 4:35 am 
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i just saw the movie tonight. gonna have to bump this book to the top of my queue i think. had read a lot about pk dick but have never read any of his stuff. really enjoyed the movie. interesting read about the autobiographical nature of the novel on wikepedia:

Spoiler: show
Quote:
Between mid-1970 (when his fourth wife Nancy left him) and mid-1972 (when he entered the X-Kalay program; see below) Dick lived semi-communally with a rotating group of mostly teenage drug users at his home in Marin County. During this period, the author ceased writing completely and became fully dependent upon amphetamines, which he had been using intermittently for many years. The character of Donna was inspired by an older teenager who became associated with Dick sometime in 1970; though they never became lovers, the woman was his principal female companion until early 1972, when Dick left for Canada to deliver a speech to a Vancouver science fiction convention. This speech, "The Android and the Human", serves as the basis for many of the recurring themes and motifs in the ensuing novel. Another turning point in this timeframe for Dick is the alleged burglary of his home and theft of his papers.

Because of his firsthand experience, Dick captures the language, conversation, and culture of drug users in the 1960s with a rare clarity. This is further explained in the moving afterword, where Dick dedicates the book to those of his friends—he includes himself—who suffered debilitation or death as a result of their drug use. Mirroring the epilogue are the involuntary goodbyes that occur throughout the story--the constant turnover and burn-out of young people that lived with Dick during those years.

In the afterword, he states that the novel is about “some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did” and that “drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to move out in front of a moving car.”

After delivering "The Android and the Human", Dick became a participant in X-Kalay (a Canadian Synanon-type recovery program), effortlessly convincing program caseworkers that he was nursing a heroin addiction to do so. This is portrayed in his 1988 book The Dark-Haired Girl (a collection of letters and journals from this period, most of an achingly romantic nature). Presumably, this is a source for the vividness and accuracy with which the novelistic clinic is portrayed. It was at X-Kalay, while doing publicity for the facility, that he devised the notion of rehab centers being used to secretly harvest drugs (thus inspiring the book's New-Path clinics).

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