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Synopsis A masterpiece of psychedelic sci-fi paranoia, Philip K. Dick's A SCANNER DARKLY was published in 1977 and set in the then-future world of Orange County circa 1994. Playing insidiously with Dick's obsessions with identity and madness, the novel's antihero is a drug dealer named Bob Arctor, who has become so addled by his addiction to the psychotropic drug Substance D (aka The Slow Death), that his brain divides into separate identities, and he fails to realize that he is actually an undercover narcotics agent named Agent Fred. Since Agent Fred utilizes an identity scrambling outfit, Arctor's junkie friends also cannot recognize that the two people are one and the same. Eventually, Agent Fred is pulled out of the situation by another undercover agent, and must spend time in a rehabilitation center, where he discovers the secret origin of Substance D. The novel was semi-autobiographical, reflecting Dick's addiction to methamphetamines and his strange rehab experiences at the cult-like Synanon program. The novel was made into an animated film by Richard Linklater in 2006, using voice-acting by Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Winona Ryder., Fred is an agent who is so far undercover, even his boss doesn't know his true identity. Because his job requires him to ingest drugs, he has developed a split personality named Bob who has a thriving career dealing an addictive substance which makes people uninterested in human contact.
| Size | | Length: | 278 pages | | Height: | 8.0 in | | Width: | 5.8 in | | Thickness: | 0.5 in | | Weight: | 8.0 oz |
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