I couldn't believe what I was seeing when I went to see "Constantine" in the theater, and before the movie began I saw an oddly animated preview where the word "Scanner" was spoken, then I saw what was distinctly a scramble suit. I yelped "Oh my god A scanner darkly!" to the people in the seats next to me, and was later vindicated by the films title appearing on screen. I was terribly excited. I've admittedly not read a lot of Philip K. Dick's works, but of the ones I have Scanner is my favorite. I was terribly enthusiastic after seeing the trailer. Of course after I saw the movie I had gone to see (which was just short of awful) I had time to think. "Wait a minuet, they never faithfully adapt Dick novels!" Of course in the case of Blade Runner that didn't turn out to be such a bad thing, but the others were pretty insulting. Dicks family claims in this link that this one is going to be different:

http://www.philipkdick.com/films_scanner-061204.html

So that’s hopeful. I do believe I heard some direct quoting from the book going on in the trailer. I'll have to go back to check specifically, but I think that the girl speaking at the end is halfway to revealing the movies ending.

Anyway, what do you all think? I think that this is one of Dick's most coherent novels, it had a plot with a great hitch, strong themes which are of modern political importance, and I don’t know about you but the rotoscoping process they used gets my rocks off. I think this could be good. What do you think? Watch the trailer:

http://movies.yahoo.com/movies/feature/ascannerdarklyqt.html

Saw the trailer for it yesterday. Looks...interesting. More for the way it looks than anything else.

Seriously people, you can go on for 25 pages about "Star Wars vs. Star Trek" but none of you have read "A Scanner Darkly"? Take some pride in the richness and diversity of science fiction people! Everything doesn’t have to be a goddamned space opera. This is the reason a lot of folks don't take science fiction seriously as literature, you are all too busy clamoring for the latest Star Wars novel churned out by hacks like Michael Stackpole instead of reading the good shit. Can we try to do a little better than professionaly polished fan fiction, people?

I admit I have not heard of a Scanner Darkly before this thread and it's safe to assume that not many pople have. I also admit that Star Wars and Star Trek are quite shallow SciFi universes compared to many others, but there's no reason in not liking it. Hell, I don't even know why I'm defending it, give me a Warhammer 40k novel any day of the week.

Continue unmolested. :D

Dick is modernly considered (but apparently not in his time) one of the best science fiction authors of all time, and Scanner is one of his best books. If I had the power I would downgrade the nerd membership card of anyone who hasn't read at least a little dick. Maybe I'm just a sci-fi elitist. Either way, check out

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679736654/qid=1109982240/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/104-2345373-4599928?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

A scanner darkly on Amazon.com. You can read the first chapter and check out the reviews like: "Perhaps the most unnerving drug novel ever written, as well as an industrial-grade stress test of identity, this novel explores the perverse symbiosis of cop and criminal, observer and observed."

Now if that doesn’t sound more interesting than arguing over weather or not the Borg collective could assimilate Q, or if Luke Skywalker's fall to the dark side and redemption from it makes him a grey Jedi instead of light or dark, then (insert something biting and witty here relating to your mental capacity) (note: my spell check flagged both Borg and Jedi… they wanted me to capitalize them, which made me snort in nerdish glee.)

SpyMoose,

Simply because you're correct, that doesn't make you an elitist. Indeed, anyone who hasn't read a P.K.Dick story should have their card taken away. Good Sci-fi stimulates thought. Those Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. stories (they are not novels) have more in common (according to contemporary literature classification systems) with romances than with Sci-fi.
Oh, and before the shlock fans start the attack, there is such a thing as aesthetics. So don't bring up the pedantic 'it's a matter of taste' argument (sic).

Well on behalve of all human kind, I apologise for the fact everyone is different :rolleyes:

Well on behalve of all human kind, I apologise for the fact everyone is different :rolleyes:

I just feel that more scifi fans should climb the ladder, you know what I mean? I've got a goodly collection of the professionaly written fan fiction myself, but I outgrew it somewhere early in highschool and became curious about more challenging literature, stuff that made me think the way my english teacher always said literature is supposed to. I was affraid when I started exploring this that I would have to leave scifi behind, but to my delight I discovered that scifi exists on a whole other level when you want to be intelectualy stimulated by it. Being smarter than other people is one of the primary benifits of being a nerd, and it kills me when folks don't know of authors who I concider thetical to my nerdom.