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A Scanner Darkly
Node created on White Cosmic Wizard - 1.26 - Dreamspell 13 Moons Magnetic Moon Year
A Scanner Darkly is a 1977 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. The semi-autobiographical story was set in a dystopian Orange County, California in the future of 1994. The book can be considered Dick's master statement on drug abuse, in light of his extensive portrayal of drug culture and drug use.
Explanation of the novel's title
The "scanner" of the title is a holographic recorder/projector on which the main character views clips of his own life but doesn't recognize them. It is also a reference to a Biblical verse in 1 Corinthians 13 that includes "we see as through a glass darkly", and thus refers to the main character's weak grasp on reality. Ingmar Bergman's 1961 film, Through a Glass Darkly, lifts its title from the same passage. Furthermore, the initials of Scanner Darkly are also the initials of Substance D.
Substance D
Use of SD over an extended period can cause the user's consciousness to separate into two distinct parts. The drug also appears to facilitate the inducement of shared delusions, manifesting as folie à deux. The source of Substance D remains a mystery throughout most of the novel, though various theories are proposed. It is speculated that: SD is imported from the U.S.S.R. as a Communist scheme to destroy American resistance to Communism; that it was sent to Earth by aliens intent on either enlightening mankind or reducing humans to a zombie-like slave race; that it is involved in a government or corporate plot. At the end of the book, we find out that Substance D is an organic substance, derived from little blue flowers that are grown on large plantations, hidden between rows of corn as cover. Ironically, the drug is harvested by the brainwashed inmates of SD drug rehabilitation centers who are suffering from neurocognitive deficits as a result of their drug addiction.
A Scanner Darkly (film)
The animated film A Scanner Darkly was authorized by Dick's estate. It was released in July 2006 and stars Keanu Reeves as Fred/Bob Arctor and Winona Ryder as Donna. Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson, both noted for drug issues, are also cast in the film. Directed by Richard Linklater, the film was produced using the process of rotoscoping, something Linklater had employed in an earlier movie, Waking Life. First shot in live-action, the footage was then painted over, with attention to stylistic consistency — a lengthy undertaking that caused the film to miss its initial September 2005 release date. Producers say some “hip dialogue” was changed to make the movie more comprehensible to viewers, but that most of the original dialogue is intact. The film, like the novel, takes place in a near future setting; the trailer features the line, “Seven years from now everything you do will be recorded.”
Philip K. Dick also gives the name of the species of the flower, which helps to show the relevant meaning of the story and the nature of both the drug and the character's struggle. The name is Mors ontologica, which could roughly be translated to "the death of knowledge of existence." However, it should be translated as "ontological death", or, "death is being itself".~
Plot
In the near future (seven years from now), America has lost the war on drugs.
Rotoscoping
A Scanner Darkly was filmed digitally using the Panasonic AG-DVX100 and then animated with Rotoshop, a proprietary graphics editing program created by Bob Sabiston. Rotoshop uses an animation technique called interpolated rotoscope, which was previously used in Linklater's film Waking Life. Linklater discussed the ideas and inspiration behind his use of rotoscoping in a UK documentary about him in 2004, linking it to his personal experiences of lucid dreaming. Rotoscoping in traditional cell animation originally involved tracing over film frame-by-frame. This is similar in some respects to the rotoscope style of filmmaker Ralph Bakshi. Rotoscope animation, however, makes use of vector keyframes, and interpolates the in-between frames automatically. Sabiston and his team managed this unprecedented animation pipeline initially, but at the time of his departure, art direction in the studio was still not established and the film's production process was extended well past its initial September 2005 release date target. Each minute of animation required 500 hours of work.
External links:
Philip K Dick | A Scanner Darkly - film