Assignment 6

The blog topic of my choice will be about my favorite book; “A Scanner Darkly” by Phillip K. Dick. I read the book this past summer and I would have to say it’s the best book I have read, right before “Slaughterhouse-five” by Kurt Vonnegut. The book was written in 1977 and was semi-autobiographical. The book is in the setting of a dystopia and focuses mainly on the drug problems a man and a few others face. A cop named Fred takes the identity of a drug dealer named Bob Arctor, who heavily takes a drug called Substance D. His love for this other drug dealer named Donna Hawthorne starts to go as his brain starts to spilt into two combative entities. He eventually is taken to a rehab facility named “New Path” by Donna. Finally, Fred/Arctor realizes what Substance D is exactly and the book ends. This book is very interesting and is written to show the damages of drugs. Dick creates a dystopian setting where the government is constantly using surveillance on its citizens. Drugs are made out to ruin the youth and the government tries to halt that spread by being very invasive. Phillip K. Dick created a very surreal version of American society and made a lot of social problems known in this novel. A movie was recently made about this book. It starred Keanu reeves, Robert Downy Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Winona Ryder. The film won one award and was nominated for six other awards.