Through A Scanner Darkly

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 then-future of June 1994. Dick twists American society into a very surreal setting, by expanding on several social problems of growing interest during the 1960s.

In 1994 I was using a Minolta 9, shooting 35 mm film and had my negatives developed and prints made at the local supermarket. Much later I invested in a Polaroid film scanner and an Epson 1270 printer. I struggled with Photoshop and the complexities of scanning negatives with SilverFast software. My negatives were still processed at the supermarket, as to this day, I have vague memories of a high school dare gone bad, resulting in an explosion and a very angry lab partner. However I was determined to make my own prints, to avoid the cost and poor quality of supermarket 8x10's. Needless to say my first prints were terrible and many long days and nights were spent learning color management and the role of printer profiles. A few years later I bought a Linfof Kardan camera. I used 4x5 inch slides which had to be loaded into film holders while sitting in the bathtub, windows covered in plastic and shower curtain drawn. These were scanned on a flatbed scanner. I even overcame my high school phobia and started mixing my own chemicals. I was more than ready to give this all up when I bought my first high quality (for me) digital camera.

Fifteen years later I have been struggling with ways to improve my productivity and tick off items from my lifetime "to do" list. I am at the age where time is running out "to do" some of the things on the list. If not now, maybe never. I will be doing a bicycle ride along the Blue Ridge Parkway with my brothers in September. We will be cycling about seven hundred miles in eleven days over very hilly terrain. I have five months to train, lose weight and build strength and endurance. There will be long days in the saddle. I had been struggling with the idea of hours lost from other endeavors, namely photography. And then I dusted off the scanner.

The scanner is perfect. For three dimensional objects it works best at night, in the dark with the cover open. No lighting equipment to set up. Subject matter, hmm wonder how this orange slice would look. Those raisins, nuts and sunflower seeds left in a shirt pocket from an afternoon ride could be interesting. Sure I'll always have a camera in my Camelback, but I can't stop every two miles. I need miles, gotta build a base. But I can keep my eyes open each time I stop for a snack. Found objects can be tossed in a bag and scanned at home. I am happy, this looks like a plan!

The creature, called Swamp Thing, was originally conceived as Alec Holland mutating into a vegetable-like creature, a "muck-encrusted mockery of a man". However, under writer Alan Moore, Swamp Thing was reinvented as an elemental entity created upon the death of Alec Holland, with Holland's memory and personality intact. He is described as "a plant that thought it was Alec Holland, a plant that was trying its level best to be Alec Holland."

Alan Moore's Swamp Thing had a profound effect on mainstream comic books, being the first horror comic to approach the genre from a literary point of view since the EC horror comics of the 1950's, and broadened the scope of the series to include ecological and spiritual concerns while retaining its horror-fantasy roots.

Waldo County, situated in mid-coast Maine along scenic Penobscot Bay, has genuine New England character evidenced by working port towns and quaint rural villages. Visitors are awed by the area's unspoiled beauty. From striking coastal views to sweeping mountain vistas, dramatic natural settings abound. In addition great care has been taken to preserve and refurbish numerous historic landmarks, homes and buildings. Consequently, the Maine of yesteryear is still found here.

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