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Comment by residualmind | Hacker News Reader

From the screenplay of A Scanner Darkly (I don't know if something similar is in the original PKD story)

ERNIE LUCKMAN ... this guy appeared on tv, claiming to be a world-famous imposter. He said he'd posed at one time or another as a great surgeon, a theoretical submolecular high-velocity particle research physicist, a Finnish novelist, a deposed president of Argentina...

BOB ARCTOR He got away with it? Never got caught?

ERNIE LUCKMAN See, the guy never really posed as any of it. He only posed as a worldfamous imposter. Turns out he just pushed a broom at Disneyland, until he read about this actual world-famous imposter, and he thought, I can pose as all those things, then he thought, hell, I'll just pose as an imposter. Save a lot of time, a lot easier. Made almost as much money as the real imposter with books and movie rights.

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Pretty close to the original:

--- from the book --- "--this guy," Luckman was saying, manicuring a box full of grass, hunched over it as Arctor sat across from him, more or less watching, "appeared on TV claiming to be a world-famous impostor. He had posed at one time or another, he told the interviewer, as a great surgeon at Johns Hopkins Medical College, a theoretical submolecular highvelocity particle-research physicist on a federal grant at Harvard, as a Finnish novelist who'd won the Nobel Prize in literature, as a deposed president of Argentina married to--"

"And he got away with all that?" Arctor asked. "He never got caught?"

"The guy never posed as any of those. He never posed as anything but a worldfamous impostor. That came out later in the L.A. _Times_--they checked up. The guy pushed a broom at Disneyland, or had until he read this autobiography about this worldfamous impostor--there really was one--and he said, 'Hell, I can pose as all those exotic dudes and get away with it like he did,' and then he decided, 'Hell, why do that; I'll just pose as another impostor.' He made a lot of bread that way, the _Times_ said. Almost as much as the real world-famous impostor. And he said it was a lot easier." ---

One of my favorites from PKD. The movie was actually a really good representation of the book.

I was hoping they would take advantage of animation to make it so you couldn't tell Bob Arctor is really Fred at first, and they gradually look more and more like each other, until they are the same. In the book, it's not clear to the reader they are the same person at first (unless you have a paperback edition that gives it away on the back of the book!).... just as Bob himself (the viewpoint character) literally doesn't realize he's watching himself on the surveillance cameras. Because he's kind of going crazy.

I was disapointed they didn't bother with that. Except for that, I agree, a good adaptation of one of my favorite PKD books. It is such a weird book.

The quote about the imposter is funny cause Bob Arctor is an imposter himself...

But the first time Fred is introduced in chapter 2 it is clear that Bob Arctor is Fred. He's in the scramble suit at the Lion's club and He's introduced as Fred to the audience, but the Narrator calls him Bob Arctor:

> In his scramble suit, Fred, who was also Robert Arctor, groaned and thought: This is terrible.

Wow, I must have just been a dense reader when i read it the first time!

I like it better the way I read it even though it apparently wasn't written that way, ha!

There still is something to say maybe about how the book still tells different parts by describing the person as "Fred" or "Bob" depending on what role he's playing, something you lose in a movie that doesn't have textual narration like that. Maybe it at least made it more clear that Bob doesn't realize he's both people, even if the reader does? I forget how/how early this was clear in the movie. I should both read and watch it again!

Sounds like a plot from Stanisław Lem's fictitious criticism of nonexistent books!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem%27s_fictiti...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudepigrapha

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Literature_in_the_America...

I don't remember - but looks like something similar is in the book:

https://books.google.no/books?id=EBAcBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT125&dq=Sc...

If Abagnale is lying about his past should I feel scammed? The question feels very meta - like some Zen paradox.

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