Which is why he was trying to make a silencer.
Perhaps he wasn't consciously planning on it, but unconsciously planning on it.
Notice in the previous scene, Barris is talking about how he thinks he could be murdered by Arctor.
Be excellent to each other... and party on dudes!
I don't think you can plan while unconscious ... even on Substance D.
He may have been planning in his subconscious, though.
The book gives pretty clear indications that Barris was subconsciously doing malevolent things to his housemates, the most obvious being the destruction of Arctor's cephscope (sp? - I don't have the book handy). Barris even fesses up to Arctor that he was the only one who could have done it, though he himself says he has no idea why he would have.
You can also extrapolate that Barris was the one who sabotaged Arctor's car (he had access, knowledge, and the special tools needed) but since it was on a subconscious level he had no problem getting into the car after the fact.
I've seen suns that were freezing and lives that were through.
I wonder exactly what the character of Barris meant to be. Because basically he's there to cause all the paranoia. Hey, maybe he was there to show us that junkie thinks that whatever crazy stuff is happening to him is caused by someone else, not the junk he's taking, moreso, from reading the book I don't remember Barris himself taking anything. It's like he's a junkie, but he's different, and thought of as evil, as if he infiltrated their group to cause them harm. Throughout the book it's not the drugs that are bad, it's Barris.
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Barris is a classic snitch.
He isn't necessarily trying to kill Arctor, but just trying to get him out of the way. Why is a little unclear.
It could be that Barris is onto the fact that Arctor is a narc, so naturally he wants to get rid of him. Or it could be that with Arctor out of the way he could better control the house, the other characters, get together with Donna, etc.
Or it could be that Barris is delusionally paranoid himself as a result of the drugs. He certainly acts that way, but there's the rub; is it real or merely an act?
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In the book, Hank tells Fred that Barris was starting to suspect Arctor was a nark, which is why Barris tried to burn Arctor in various ways.
shareBarris was a sociopath. He was going to watch Ernie choke to death for no reason. He basically went after anyone he felt like. For no reason, he would try to *beep* over people without provocation.
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