Spray a bug with a toxin and it dies; spray a man, spray his brain, and he becomes an insect that clacks and vibrates about in a closed circle forever. A reflex machine, like an ant. Repeating his last instruction.
Philip K. Dick A Scanner Darkly
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In Philip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly," a striking metaphor illustrates the impact of drugs on humans. The comparison between insects and humans highlights how substances can strip away individuality and agency, reducing a person to a mere reflexive organism. The image of a person as an insect, mechanically responding to commands, suggests a loss of autonomy and critical thinking, akin to a bug caught in a relentless cycle.

This idea raises profound questions about identity and free will. Just as a poisoned bug succumbs to fatal toxins, a person overwhelmed by drug influences becomes trapped in a monotonous loop, echoing the last directive given to them. This reflects a dark commentary on addiction and the dehumanizing effects of substance abuse, suggesting that the user's consciousness is imprisoned, unable to break free from its programmed behavior.

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A Scanner Darkly
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Philip K. Dick
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Other quotes in A Scanner Darkly

Is your name Patty by any chance? Barris asked her, signaling to Charles Freck that everything was under control. No. She pointed to the name written on the badge pinned to her right breast. Beth. I wonder what the left tit is called, thought Charles Freck.
Philip K. Dick A Scanner Darkly
Is your name Patty by any chance? Barris asked her, signaling to Charles Freck that everything was under control. No. She pointed to the name written on the badge pinned to her right breast. Beth. I wonder what the left tit is called, thought Charles Freck.
It's like asking, what's an impostor look like? Arctor said. I talked one time to a big hash dealer who'd been busted with ten pounds of hash in his possession. I asked him what the nark who busted him looked like. You know, the -- what do they call them? -- buying agent that came out and posed as a friend of a friend and got him to sell him some hash.Looked, Barris said, winding string, just like us.More so, Arctor said. The hash-dealer dude -- he'd already been sentenced and was going in the following day -- he told me, 'They have longer hair than we do.' So I guess the moral of that is, Stay away from guys looking the same as us.
Philip K. Dick A Scanner Darkly
It's like asking, what's an impostor look like? Arctor said. I talked one time to a big hash dealer who'd been busted with ten pounds of hash in his possession. I asked him what the nark who busted him looked like. You know, the -- what do they call them? -- buying agent that came out and posed as a friend of a friend and got him to sell him some hash.Looked, Barris said, winding string, just like us.More so, Arctor said. The hash-dealer dude -- he'd already been sentenced and was going in the following day -- he told me, 'They have longer hair than we do.' So I guess the moral of that is, Stay away from guys looking the same as us.
If the front door is opened, Barris said, during our absence, my cassette tape recorder starts recording. It's under the couch. It has a two-hour tape. I placed three omnidirectional Sony mikes at three different-- You should have told me, Arctor said. What if they come in through the windows? Luckman said. Or the back door? To increase the chances of their making their entry via the front door, Barris continued, rather than in other less usual ways, I providentially left the front door unlocked. After a pause, Luckman began to snigger. Suppose they don't know it's unlocked? Arctor said. I put a note on it, Barris said.
Philip K. Dick A Scanner Darkly
If the front door is opened, Barris said, during our absence, my cassette tape recorder starts recording. It's under the couch. It has a two-hour tape. I placed three omnidirectional Sony mikes at three different-- You should have told me, Arctor said. What if they come in through the windows? Luckman said. Or the back door? To increase the chances of their making their entry via the front door, Barris continued, rather than in other less usual ways, I providentially left the front door unlocked. After a pause, Luckman began to snigger. Suppose they don't know it's unlocked? Arctor said. I put a note on it, Barris said.
The guilty, he reflected as he drove amid the heavy late-afternoon traffic as carefully as possible, may flee when no one pursues-he
Philip K. Dick A Scanner Darkly
The guilty, he reflected as he drove amid the heavy late-afternoon traffic as carefully as possible, may flee when no one pursues-he
Having nothing else to do or think about, he began to work out theoretically the life cycle of the bugs, and, with the aid of the Britannica, try to determine specifically which bugs they were.
Philip K. Dick A Scanner Darkly
Having nothing else to do or think about, he began to work out theoretically the life cycle of the bugs, and, with the aid of the Britannica, try to determine specifically which bugs they were.
One more in a long line, a dreary entity among many others like him, an almost endless number of brain-damaged retards. Biological life goes on, he thought. But the soul, the mind-everything else is dead. A reflex machine. Like some insect. Repeating doomed patterns, a single pattern, over and over now. Appropriate or not.
Philip K. Dick A Scanner Darkly
One more in a long line, a dreary entity among many others like him, an almost endless number of brain-damaged retards. Biological life goes on, he thought. But the soul, the mind-everything else is dead. A reflex machine. Like some insect. Repeating doomed patterns, a single pattern, over and over now. Appropriate or not.
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Other quotes in drugs

O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! - Cassio {Act II, Scene iii}
William Shakespeare Othello
O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! - Cassio {Act II, Scene iii}
Dope.They sell that shit to schoolkids.It's worse than that.How's that?Schoolkids buy it.
Cormac McCarthy No Country for Old Men
Dope.They sell that shit to schoolkids.It's worse than that.How's that?Schoolkids buy it.
Clockers asks--almost in passing, and there's a lot more to it than this--a pretty interesting question: if you choose to work for the minimum wage when everyone around you is pocketing thousands from drug deals, then what does that do to you, to your head and to your heart? {Hornby's thoughts after reading Clockers by Richard Price}
Nick Hornby The Polysyllabic Spree
Clockers asks--almost in passing, and there's a lot more to it than this--a pretty interesting question: if you choose to work for the minimum wage when everyone around you is pocketing thousands from drug deals, then what does that do to you, to your head and to your heart? {Hornby's thoughts after reading Clockers by Richard Price}
Junk sickness is the reverse side of junk kick. The kick of junk is that you have to have it. Junkies run on junktime and junkmetabolism. They are subject to junk climate. They are warmed and chilled by junk. The kick of junk is living under junk conditions. You cannot escape from junk sickness anymore than you can escape from junk kick after a shot.
William S. Burroughs Junky
Junk sickness is the reverse side of junk kick. The kick of junk is that you have to have it. Junkies run on junktime and junkmetabolism. They are subject to junk climate. They are warmed and chilled by junk. The kick of junk is living under junk conditions. You cannot escape from junk sickness anymore than you can escape from junk kick after a shot.
I don't spot junk neighbourhoods by the way they look, but by the feel, somewhat the same process by which a dowser locates hidden water. I am walking along and suddenly the junk in my cells moves and twitches like the dowsers wand: 'Junk here!
William S. Burroughs Junky
I don't spot junk neighbourhoods by the way they look, but by the feel, somewhat the same process by which a dowser locates hidden water. I am walking along and suddenly the junk in my cells moves and twitches like the dowsers wand: 'Junk here!
You need a good bedside manner with doctors or you will get nowhere.
William S. Burroughs Junky
You need a good bedside manner with doctors or you will get nowhere.
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