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A review by tits_mcgee
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? / A Scanner Darkly - Folio Society Edition by Philip K. Dick
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A trippy masterpiece, one of my favourite books ever by one of the most prophetic authors to have lived, and it only gets better when you re-read it.
Dick plays with the neurons in your brain, mixes them up, makes you paranoid; eventually you lose your grip on reality, unsure of what is real, just like the protagonist of this book: Bob Arctor – a narcotics agent so deep undercover and tripping so hard on drugs that he falls under his own scrutiny, his mind fragmenting to the point that he doesn’t realise he is his own suspect.
The prose is a deliberately evolving reflection of Arctor’s state of mind; he navigates through the plot as Substance D slowly takes a hold of him, causing paranoia and decay of the brain, and thus the prose style follows that deterioration, getting weirder and weirder until eventually the whole book is one phantasmagorical stupor.
Dick handles the topic of drugs masterfully, taking parts of his own life and dumping them onto the pages for us all to see, which meanders around a plot to make it coherent. Really though, it is an autobiography; a confession; a tale of human beings existing in a world that rejects any kind of mental damage.
“There is no moral in this novel; it is not bourgeois; it does not say they were wrong to play when they should have toiled; it just tells what the consequences were.”
The character interaction in is pure gold, rich and relatable (if you’ve ever been a stoner or a junky). The characters descent into oblivion, their often hilarious ramblings - that’s what this book is about.
The book its self is dedicated to a bunch of people Dick knew, many of whom have died or suffered horrible consequences from drug addiction. A Scanner Darkly doesn’t hold back either, you can tell these people are real and so are the consequences, though it is thoroughly garnished with Dick’s dark sense of humour and enough whimsy to keep the darkest of horrors at bay.
Everyone should read this book. It is marketed as a sci-fi novel, but really it deserves to be uncategorised, it is a character study, slice of life type of deal, one that fans of any genre can appreciate.
10/10
Dick plays with the neurons in your brain, mixes them up, makes you paranoid; eventually you lose your grip on reality, unsure of what is real, just like the protagonist of this book: Bob Arctor – a narcotics agent so deep undercover and tripping so hard on drugs that he falls under his own scrutiny, his mind fragmenting to the point that he doesn’t realise he is his own suspect.
The prose is a deliberately evolving reflection of Arctor’s state of mind; he navigates through the plot as Substance D slowly takes a hold of him, causing paranoia and decay of the brain, and thus the prose style follows that deterioration, getting weirder and weirder until eventually the whole book is one phantasmagorical stupor.
Dick handles the topic of drugs masterfully, taking parts of his own life and dumping them onto the pages for us all to see, which meanders around a plot to make it coherent. Really though, it is an autobiography; a confession; a tale of human beings existing in a world that rejects any kind of mental damage.
“There is no moral in this novel; it is not bourgeois; it does not say they were wrong to play when they should have toiled; it just tells what the consequences were.”
The character interaction in is pure gold, rich and relatable (if you’ve ever been a stoner or a junky). The characters descent into oblivion, their often hilarious ramblings - that’s what this book is about.
The book its self is dedicated to a bunch of people Dick knew, many of whom have died or suffered horrible consequences from drug addiction. A Scanner Darkly doesn’t hold back either, you can tell these people are real and so are the consequences, though it is thoroughly garnished with Dick’s dark sense of humour and enough whimsy to keep the darkest of horrors at bay.
Everyone should read this book. It is marketed as a sci-fi novel, but really it deserves to be uncategorised, it is a character study, slice of life type of deal, one that fans of any genre can appreciate.
10/10