Status
Available
Call number
Series
Collection
Publication
Del Rey (1987), Edition: Reprint, 272 pages
Description
Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:A masterpiece ahead of its time, a prescient rendering of a dark future, and the inspiration for the blockbuster film Blade Runner By 2021, the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who cant afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacra: horses, birds, cats, sheep. Theyve even built humans. Immigrants to Mars receive androids so sophisticated they are indistinguishable from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans can wreak, the government bans them from Earth. Driven into hiding, unauthorized androids live among human beings, undetected. Rick Deckard, an officially sanctioned bounty hunter, is commissioned to find rogue androids and retire them. But when cornered, androids fight backwith lethal force. Praise for Philip K. Dick The most...… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member atimco
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick is a classic sci-fi/futuristic novel, and I'm still dithering as to whether or not it deserves it. Granted, I'm not a sci-fi person by any means, so my opinion on that score probably doesn't matter anyways. I read this in one sitting because I
Basically, Earth has been trashed and most people have emigrated to colonies on Mars and other planets, where they are served by robots (or androids) that are designed to look and act exactly like people. Occasionally these androids rebel, killing their masters and escaping to Earth, where they pose as humans. Rick Deckard is an agent who "retires" androids... that is, kills them (it's sort of the opposite of The Matrix). The tests to determine human from android have to constantly evolve to keep pace with the android technology, which is terrifyingly advanced.
The culture of the story is developed in fits and starts. It starts with Richard "dialing in" the mood that he wants for the day. We learn about how the people still living on Earth have a powerful desire to own real, live animals — and how they keep electric imitation animals to fill that void, since real animals are now so rare and expensive. There is also what seems like a religion, called "Mercerism," based on the life experiences of a man called Wilbur Mercer. People dial in and experience empathy with his everlasting trek up a mountainside where he will be killed (sound familiar?). And empathy is what sets humans apart from androids.
I was a little disappointed in how the world-building was executed. There were a lot of great concepts and it was definitely "shown" rather than "told," but it kept going off on seemingly unrelated tangents, and never returning to finish developing each idea. I wanted to know more about life on other planets, about the whole dialing-in your mood thing, and who put Mercerism in place. Is this story about mind-control, moral dilemmas, religious lies, disenfranchised minorities, or just plain action?
The writing was fair. I've heard this book criticized as having a good plot and bad writing, but nothing really stood out to me as desperately needing an editor. It was serviceable prose. I've yet to see the film, but I've heard it's good. Any opinions on that score?
This was a fascinating story with lots going on, but it just felt unsatisfactory at the end. It still hadn't decided what kind of story it was. Dick raises a lot of questions he doesn't answer, which is a writer's prerogative, I suppose. But I found myself wanting more cohesion. Maybe I'm just not used to the genre. I would recommend this book to mature readers (younger readers probably shouldn't be confronted with some of the themes here). Though probably less striking now than it was when it was first published in 1968, I found it fairly enjoyable and thought-provoking.
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had two hours free, but also because the story moves quickly and I found myself very interested in what was going to happen next. Basically, Earth has been trashed and most people have emigrated to colonies on Mars and other planets, where they are served by robots (or androids) that are designed to look and act exactly like people. Occasionally these androids rebel, killing their masters and escaping to Earth, where they pose as humans. Rick Deckard is an agent who "retires" androids... that is, kills them (it's sort of the opposite of The Matrix). The tests to determine human from android have to constantly evolve to keep pace with the android technology, which is terrifyingly advanced.
The culture of the story is developed in fits and starts. It starts with Richard "dialing in" the mood that he wants for the day. We learn about how the people still living on Earth have a powerful desire to own real, live animals — and how they keep electric imitation animals to fill that void, since real animals are now so rare and expensive. There is also what seems like a religion, called "Mercerism," based on the life experiences of a man called Wilbur Mercer. People dial in and experience empathy with his everlasting trek up a mountainside where he will be killed (sound familiar?). And empathy is what sets humans apart from androids.
I was a little disappointed in how the world-building was executed. There were a lot of great concepts and it was definitely "shown" rather than "told," but it kept going off on seemingly unrelated tangents, and never returning to finish developing each idea. I wanted to know more about life on other planets, about the whole dialing-in your mood thing, and who put Mercerism in place. Is this story about mind-control, moral dilemmas, religious lies, disenfranchised minorities, or just plain action?
The writing was fair. I've heard this book criticized as having a good plot and bad writing, but nothing really stood out to me as desperately needing an editor. It was serviceable prose. I've yet to see the film, but I've heard it's good. Any opinions on that score?
This was a fascinating story with lots going on, but it just felt unsatisfactory at the end. It still hadn't decided what kind of story it was. Dick raises a lot of questions he doesn't answer, which is a writer's prerogative, I suppose. But I found myself wanting more cohesion. Maybe I'm just not used to the genre. I would recommend this book to mature readers (younger readers probably shouldn't be confronted with some of the themes here). Though probably less striking now than it was when it was first published in 1968, I found it fairly enjoyable and thought-provoking.
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LibraryThing member sturlington
I enjoyed this novel much more than the other Philip K. Dick (henceforth PKD) novel I have read, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, I think because it is a more linear, straightforward story that still gives the reader a lot to think about. And the book is only minimally like its famous movie
The story is set on a near-future Earth that has been ruined by nuclear war. Most animal species have become extinct or nearly so. The few remaining people who haven't emigrated to colonies on Mars hold animal life in such esteem that it is considered a status symbol to own a living animal, and even stray insects are collected and kept from harm. The irony is that the main character, Rick Deckard, is a hunter -- not of animals or men, but of organic androids. His job as bounty hunter is to track down those androids that have killed their human owners on Mars and returned to Earth to live in hiding, pretending to be human. The androids are so realistic that they can only be detected using a psychological test that reveals whether they feel empathy for other living beings; "andys," as they are called, aren't capable of empathy, which is why bounty hunters like Deckard feel it's okay to kill them.
The story covers about one day in Deckard's life, during which he is tracking down and "retiring" four highly advanced andys of the Nexus 6 line, one of whom nearly killed his boss. In the course of his assignment, he meets and becomes involved with Rachael Rosen, a Nexus 6 android and employee of Rosen Industries, which makes them. Deckard's experiences hunting the andys and with Rachael lead him to question his profession and even to feel empathic toward the androids, which shakes his core belief system.
What's most interesting about this novel is its take on the importance of empathy, especially in contrasting the human characters with the non-empathic androids they're trying to kill. The experience of empathy has become a religious pursuit for most humans, as they use machines to empathically connect with one another and a spiritual leader named Mercer, and as they empathically connect with the animals in their care.This concept of empathy set against such a bleak vision of the future is particularly effective when contrasted with our current disregard for the planet and its rich variety of life while we still have it. We learn to value life only when it's gone, but even so, we still feel compelled to destroy, to the point where we have to invent something -- the androids -- that we can feel okay about killing. When Deckard begins feeling empathy for them, he no longer knows who he is.
Two things I noticed. PKD invented some wonderful words and phrases for this story. My favorite was "disemelevatored," meaning to get off the elevator. I also noticed that he used the phrase, "So it goes," twice when referring to the meaninglessness of life and death, yet this novel was published a full year before Slaughterhouse-Five. Great minds, I suppose.
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version, Blade Runner, so you can read it without fear of spoilers.The story is set on a near-future Earth that has been ruined by nuclear war. Most animal species have become extinct or nearly so. The few remaining people who haven't emigrated to colonies on Mars hold animal life in such esteem that it is considered a status symbol to own a living animal, and even stray insects are collected and kept from harm. The irony is that the main character, Rick Deckard, is a hunter -- not of animals or men, but of organic androids. His job as bounty hunter is to track down those androids that have killed their human owners on Mars and returned to Earth to live in hiding, pretending to be human. The androids are so realistic that they can only be detected using a psychological test that reveals whether they feel empathy for other living beings; "andys," as they are called, aren't capable of empathy, which is why bounty hunters like Deckard feel it's okay to kill them.
The story covers about one day in Deckard's life, during which he is tracking down and "retiring" four highly advanced andys of the Nexus 6 line, one of whom nearly killed his boss. In the course of his assignment, he meets and becomes involved with Rachael Rosen, a Nexus 6 android and employee of Rosen Industries, which makes them. Deckard's experiences hunting the andys and with Rachael lead him to question his profession and even to feel empathic toward the androids, which shakes his core belief system.
What's most interesting about this novel is its take on the importance of empathy, especially in contrasting the human characters with the non-empathic androids they're trying to kill. The experience of empathy has become a religious pursuit for most humans, as they use machines to empathically connect with one another and a spiritual leader named Mercer, and as they empathically connect with the animals in their care.This concept of empathy set against such a bleak vision of the future is particularly effective when contrasted with our current disregard for the planet and its rich variety of life while we still have it. We learn to value life only when it's gone, but even so, we still feel compelled to destroy, to the point where we have to invent something -- the androids -- that we can feel okay about killing. When Deckard begins feeling empathy for them, he no longer knows who he is.
Two things I noticed. PKD invented some wonderful words and phrases for this story. My favorite was "disemelevatored," meaning to get off the elevator. I also noticed that he used the phrase, "So it goes," twice when referring to the meaninglessness of life and death, yet this novel was published a full year before Slaughterhouse-Five. Great minds, I suppose.
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LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick was a fantastic science fiction read with themes revolving around man’s humanity. First published in 1968, this iconic novel is set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco as bounty hunter Richard Deckard tracks down and “retires” runaway
The world has suffered through a nuclear war and is vastly changed. Most people have been killed or have moved to Mars. Those that remain are “specials”, people disfigured by fallout or whose brains have been affected leaving them with low intelligence, other people who are needed to work on earth and those who cannot afford to leave also remain. Most species have been eliminated or endangered by radiation poisoning so owning an animal is a status symbol. To show one’s empathy for animals is to show that you are human. Androids are devoid of empathy and testing them for this is one way to root out these hidden beings who are trying to pass as human.
I was absolutely fascinated by this tale. Set in the year 2019 (which seemed in the future when the book was written), this world is an unhealthy, dreary place with it’s fake religion, mood amplifiers and a non-stop 24 hour television show. The story totally held my attention while at the same time the author left many unanswered questions that give the reader a lot to ponder upon. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is a complex, dark and disturbing read that in light of the world situation today seems all that more relevant.
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androids. I have seen the 1982 film based on this book, but I have either forgotten it or it was very loosely based on the actual story.The world has suffered through a nuclear war and is vastly changed. Most people have been killed or have moved to Mars. Those that remain are “specials”, people disfigured by fallout or whose brains have been affected leaving them with low intelligence, other people who are needed to work on earth and those who cannot afford to leave also remain. Most species have been eliminated or endangered by radiation poisoning so owning an animal is a status symbol. To show one’s empathy for animals is to show that you are human. Androids are devoid of empathy and testing them for this is one way to root out these hidden beings who are trying to pass as human.
I was absolutely fascinated by this tale. Set in the year 2019 (which seemed in the future when the book was written), this world is an unhealthy, dreary place with it’s fake religion, mood amplifiers and a non-stop 24 hour television show. The story totally held my attention while at the same time the author left many unanswered questions that give the reader a lot to ponder upon. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is a complex, dark and disturbing read that in light of the world situation today seems all that more relevant.
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LibraryThing member Poquette
One day in the life of an android bounty hunter — that is the frame of this witty, philosophical science fiction novel, which was written in 1968 but is set in the year 2021. By 2021 colonization of Mars has been underway for several years — even before World War Terminus, which has turned
Inevitably, androids on Mars who are the functional equivalent of slaves, will occasionally go rogue, kill their "masters" and anyone else who gets in their way and commandeer a ship back to Earth. Thus the need for bounty hunters.
A group of six of these fugitive androids have made their way back to Earth and are on the loose in the San Francisco area, and it is the duty of our hero bounty hunter to find, test and destroy these creatures. Many ethical questions are raised in the course of this intriguing novel, and it is not surprising that the bounty hunter would be transformed in the course of carrying out his mission.
In addition to the interesting premise of the novel, the problem of reading a book written in 1968 and set in 2021 reveals many incongruities related to how the author thought the world would be in 2021 and the way it actually is in 2015. In Philip K. Dick's imagination, the world has not only very humanlike android helpers and space migration, but it also has videophones, hover cars, laser guns and — in the absence of real animals — electric sheep, goats, rabbits, etc., to substitute for pets. However, it does not foresee personal computers, laptops and notebooks, the Internet or cell phones, much less smart phones.
Despite these anomalies, or perhaps because of them, we have here an engrossing exploration of the many questions raised in a post-nuclear holocaust environment where an artificial being whose intelligence makes it competitive with human beings must be dealt with. It is left to the reader to come up with answers.
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planet Earth into an irradiated dust bowl where massive extinctions have transformed animal ownership into the equivalent of what luxury car ownership was to the American of 1968. People who qualifiy as to age and intelligence are lured into migrating to Mars by the promise of being provided with a fully functioning almost human android upon arrival at the red planet. People whose numerical age is too high or whose numerical IQ is too low are left to live out their days on Earth where civilization has been all but destroyed and the population decimated. It is illegal for an android to be running around free on Earth. They are made strictly for use on Mars. Androids have reached such a high level of development that the only way to distinguish them from humans is by administering a highly sophisticated empathy test or a postmortem bone marrow examination. Inevitably, androids on Mars who are the functional equivalent of slaves, will occasionally go rogue, kill their "masters" and anyone else who gets in their way and commandeer a ship back to Earth. Thus the need for bounty hunters.
A group of six of these fugitive androids have made their way back to Earth and are on the loose in the San Francisco area, and it is the duty of our hero bounty hunter to find, test and destroy these creatures. Many ethical questions are raised in the course of this intriguing novel, and it is not surprising that the bounty hunter would be transformed in the course of carrying out his mission.
In addition to the interesting premise of the novel, the problem of reading a book written in 1968 and set in 2021 reveals many incongruities related to how the author thought the world would be in 2021 and the way it actually is in 2015. In Philip K. Dick's imagination, the world has not only very humanlike android helpers and space migration, but it also has videophones, hover cars, laser guns and — in the absence of real animals — electric sheep, goats, rabbits, etc., to substitute for pets. However, it does not foresee personal computers, laptops and notebooks, the Internet or cell phones, much less smart phones.
Despite these anomalies, or perhaps because of them, we have here an engrossing exploration of the many questions raised in a post-nuclear holocaust environment where an artificial being whose intelligence makes it competitive with human beings must be dealt with. It is left to the reader to come up with answers.
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LibraryThing member msf59
The year is 2021. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter. His job is to find rogue androids, that have illegally returned to Earth and “retire” them immediately. Since these androids are so far advanced and look and act completely human, this is no easy task.
Philip K. Dick has created a dark and
I’ve always been a big fan of the film version, “Blade Runner”, but it is only very loosely based on the book, which made the reading experience surprisingly fresh and entertaining.
This is my first attempt at this acclaimed author’s work and it left a strong impression and a desire to seek out more of his books. Highly recommended.
Philip K. Dick has created a dark and
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disturbing future, where most life forms have gone extinct and owning an animal of any sort is a sacred honor. The story is told in a dry hard-boiled style, which fits in perfectly with this cold dystopian world.I’ve always been a big fan of the film version, “Blade Runner”, but it is only very loosely based on the book, which made the reading experience surprisingly fresh and entertaining.
This is my first attempt at this acclaimed author’s work and it left a strong impression and a desire to seek out more of his books. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member Kara
I'm a classic sci-fi kind of girl, and this is a classic sci-fi kind of book.
The world has changed into something dramatically different than it is today, and there are androids and electric sheep (ha, surprise) and mood-altering machines. But the story, at its heart (and like lots of great science
In college, a professor once said that the only real philosophy being written in modern times is in science fiction. This work is a great example of that.
The world has changed into something dramatically different than it is today, and there are androids and electric sheep (ha, surprise) and mood-altering machines. But the story, at its heart (and like lots of great science
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fiction), is about what it means to be human, and that's what's so appealing about this book. It tackles questions like: "what makes us human?" and "how can we be sure what we're experiencing is real?"In college, a professor once said that the only real philosophy being written in modern times is in science fiction. This work is a great example of that.
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LibraryThing member benjamin.duffy
It seems to me that a lot of science fiction writers, even well-known and popular ones, aren’t great writers. They’re great at concept and imagination, but not always that good at conveying their imaginings to the reader. One example would be Larry Niven, whose Ringworld quartet I finished a
After reading Philip K. Dick’s Adjustment Team, I was prepared to put him in the same category, as that book was built on an interesting premise, but just felt skeletal and under-written. Fortunately for me, I decided to read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and see if I was wrong. I was. The book is richly written, nicely paced, and while the dialogue is slightly wooden, that actually fits well in a story where most of the characters are androids, psychopaths, or mentally retarded – it added an uneasy, off-kilter feel to character interactions that worked nicely with the atmosphere of the book. I also found the religious and philosophical aspects of the story very interesting, not to mention unique, which is pretty hard to accomplish.
I was of course very familiar with Blade Runner, the film inspired by this book, but I did my best not to let that affect my expectations. As it turns out, the book is very different in feel to the film, being desolate and post-apocalyptic rather than claustrophobic and noir-ish. There’s also a pretty heavy dose of cultural satire with a feel somewhat like Stephen King’s The Running Man or the film Robo-Cop. Except for the shared names of a lot of the characters, it would have been easy to forget the movie was even based on the book.
I highly recommend this book, whether you've seen the movie, liked it, or not. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is an intriguing, thought-provoking creature all its own.
PS - One interesting thing is that the titular electric sheep actually feature significantly in the plot. It’s not just some metaphor, as I assumed it would be. Crazy.
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couple of years ago. As captivated as I was by his world-building, I was equally frustrated by his storytelling. The pacing hitched and jerked like an old truck, racing through some parts while draaaaaaaagging through others, and the description was so vague that it was often like looking at Niven’s (presumably amazing) world through a small, dirty window.After reading Philip K. Dick’s Adjustment Team, I was prepared to put him in the same category, as that book was built on an interesting premise, but just felt skeletal and under-written. Fortunately for me, I decided to read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and see if I was wrong. I was. The book is richly written, nicely paced, and while the dialogue is slightly wooden, that actually fits well in a story where most of the characters are androids, psychopaths, or mentally retarded – it added an uneasy, off-kilter feel to character interactions that worked nicely with the atmosphere of the book. I also found the religious and philosophical aspects of the story very interesting, not to mention unique, which is pretty hard to accomplish.
I was of course very familiar with Blade Runner, the film inspired by this book, but I did my best not to let that affect my expectations. As it turns out, the book is very different in feel to the film, being desolate and post-apocalyptic rather than claustrophobic and noir-ish. There’s also a pretty heavy dose of cultural satire with a feel somewhat like Stephen King’s The Running Man or the film Robo-Cop. Except for the shared names of a lot of the characters, it would have been easy to forget the movie was even based on the book.
I highly recommend this book, whether you've seen the movie, liked it, or not. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is an intriguing, thought-provoking creature all its own.
PS - One interesting thing is that the titular electric sheep actually feature significantly in the plot. It’s not just some metaphor, as I assumed it would be. Crazy.
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LibraryThing member TheCriticalTimes
Is it science fiction or literary fiction? One thing is for sure, it is a great well thought through novel and was one of the first to make science fiction both main stream and accepted as a literary form of expression.
We meet Decker a police employee who hunts Androids (Andys). It is somewhere in
As with many science fiction writers Philip K. Dick had to introduce concepts and terminology that makes his version of the future seem legitimate and real. He chose to use the ideas as needed and explain when necessary. This gives the novel a very fluid feel and sounds as if it is a contemporary work from that imaginary period. That also means that you need a strong stomach for little details that not always explained.
There are many ideas and literary inspirations from other works in this novel and it isn't difficult to see views of Orwell's 1984 as well as Camus' The Stranger. Both representing novels about existentialism and the importance of free choice and individual thought. It is tempting to compare the novel to the movie Blade Runner but the two seem so completely distinct that doing so would do a disservice to both. If there is one thing that does link the two, then it is a sense of highly stylized dystopianism, where the imaginary rendered view of the future almost seems disturbingly real.
We meet Decker a police employee who hunts Androids (Andys). It is somewhere in
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the future and most of humanity has emigrated to Mars. Earth is a mostly lifeless planet where humans pay exorbitant amounts of money to own a real animal, regardless of what kind of animal. For those who can't afford the real thing there are always better than life substitutes. Existentially confused Decker is given the assignment to retire six android of the type nexus-6, a model virtually indistinguishable from real humans. The only tell tale sign being that they exhibit less empathy towards living things. As Decker starts to hunt for the six dangerous androids he slowly loses the conviction that human means good and android means bad. He starts to see both as separate entities, each with a right to live.As with many science fiction writers Philip K. Dick had to introduce concepts and terminology that makes his version of the future seem legitimate and real. He chose to use the ideas as needed and explain when necessary. This gives the novel a very fluid feel and sounds as if it is a contemporary work from that imaginary period. That also means that you need a strong stomach for little details that not always explained.
There are many ideas and literary inspirations from other works in this novel and it isn't difficult to see views of Orwell's 1984 as well as Camus' The Stranger. Both representing novels about existentialism and the importance of free choice and individual thought. It is tempting to compare the novel to the movie Blade Runner but the two seem so completely distinct that doing so would do a disservice to both. If there is one thing that does link the two, then it is a sense of highly stylized dystopianism, where the imaginary rendered view of the future almost seems disturbingly real.
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LibraryThing member isabelx
This was such a sad book, much more so than the film "Blade Runner".
In the aftermath of a global wars, the earth is devastated and contaminated with radioactive dust, and there are virtually no animals life left living in the wild. Most of the survivors have emigrated, while those who are left
At the end, when Deckard even admitted that the androids were actually alive, and it was only legally that they weren't, I started to wonder if it was only their very short lives and lack of a childhood that meant that they never had a chance to develop empathy and become fully human.
There were many confusing things in this book:
I found myself wondering why the bounty hunters needed to do the empathy tests on suspected androids, since they are described as exuding coldness and emptiness, and even a chickenhead like J R Isidore can tell almost immediately that there is something wrong with them.
Rachael said that no bounty hunter except Resch had ever carried on retiring androids after being with her, but how could this happen without the authorities noticing the correlation between visits to the Nexus Corporation and bounty hunter resignations/nervous breakdowns? And if she was only a couple of years old, how many bounty hunters would she have met in that time anyway?
Also, since Resch was a human, how come he didn't realise that the police station where he worked was a fake police station run entirely by androids and acting as a kind of safe house for them? I mean he had even suspected that his boss and Polokov were androids, but kept on working there anyway - that really didn't make sense. And if the fake police station was set up to protect androids, why did they employ a human bounty hunter anyway? Did he ever get sent out to retire anyone? Maybe an android who wasn't discreet enough, and was putting the rest of the androids at risk?
As for the Mercer machine, its users can't have been fusing with Mercer himself, as he was an actor playing a role, and wasn't suffering at all. So I guess the machine gave them access to a fake 'emotion track' (I mean sort of like a sound track) along with the visuals, since the book did describe them as feeling Mercer's pain, as well as the emotions of the other people using the machine at that moment. I tend to think that the injuries suffered were psychosomatic, like stigmata, due to everyone using the machine at that time being in communion with each other and amplifying Mercer's pain.
It was strange as well, that the Mercer machine encouraged empathy and the sharing of your happiness with other people, while the Mood machine was all about totally fake emotions.
In the aftermath of a global wars, the earth is devastated and contaminated with radioactive dust, and there are virtually no animals life left living in the wild. Most of the survivors have emigrated, while those who are left
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dial positive moods on the mood machines to get themselves through the day and prevent themselves sinking in to an all-consuming depression. It is extremely moving how much care is lavished on the few surviving animals (and even on the electric fakes), with everyone carrying specimen jars around in case they find a spider or insect.At the end, when Deckard even admitted that the androids were actually alive, and it was only legally that they weren't, I started to wonder if it was only their very short lives and lack of a childhood that meant that they never had a chance to develop empathy and become fully human.
There were many confusing things in this book:
I found myself wondering why the bounty hunters needed to do the empathy tests on suspected androids, since they are described as exuding coldness and emptiness, and even a chickenhead like J R Isidore can tell almost immediately that there is something wrong with them.
Rachael said that no bounty hunter except Resch had ever carried on retiring androids after being with her, but how could this happen without the authorities noticing the correlation between visits to the Nexus Corporation and bounty hunter resignations/nervous breakdowns? And if she was only a couple of years old, how many bounty hunters would she have met in that time anyway?
Also, since Resch was a human, how come he didn't realise that the police station where he worked was a fake police station run entirely by androids and acting as a kind of safe house for them? I mean he had even suspected that his boss and Polokov were androids, but kept on working there anyway - that really didn't make sense. And if the fake police station was set up to protect androids, why did they employ a human bounty hunter anyway? Did he ever get sent out to retire anyone? Maybe an android who wasn't discreet enough, and was putting the rest of the androids at risk?
As for the Mercer machine, its users can't have been fusing with Mercer himself, as he was an actor playing a role, and wasn't suffering at all. So I guess the machine gave them access to a fake 'emotion track' (I mean sort of like a sound track) along with the visuals, since the book did describe them as feeling Mercer's pain, as well as the emotions of the other people using the machine at that moment. I tend to think that the injuries suffered were psychosomatic, like stigmata, due to everyone using the machine at that time being in communion with each other and amplifying Mercer's pain.
It was strange as well, that the Mercer machine encouraged empathy and the sharing of your happiness with other people, while the Mood machine was all about totally fake emotions.
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LibraryThing member sporkdelis
I am not much of a hard-core sci-fi reader– at least I don’t think I am. After reading this book I suddenly have my doubts. This is a heart wrenching, mind-bending beautiful piece of literature. It has the feel of an old Detective movie (having never read any old pulp fiction), but a very
The story follows bounty hunter Rick Deckard on the longest day of his career.
Deckard lives on Earth after World War Terminus left it destroyed by nuclear clouds and dust. The buildings are mostly deserted and become more and more empty every day as humans migrate to Mars. On Mars they are given a large amount of land and Android slaves to keep it for them. The only people who aren’t invited are those who are too old or too stupid to join the humans there. If you are labeled a Chickenhead or an Anthead you can emigrate if you agree to be sterilized.
Rick Deckard, like most of the remaining humans on Earth is a follower of Mercerism. Mercerism is all about the feeling of empathy for all things. One way to experience empathy is to own and care for animals. It is unheard of for a person not to own an animal, but the real thing is so expensive that many people buy animatronic animals that eat and breathe and do all of the same things a real animal does just to keep up appearances. Deckard owns an electric sheep. The electric sheep is a replacement for a real one he bought that suddenly died one day. The electric one is a sad replacement, and only makes Deckard depressed. It appears that this is a common enough occurrence that he and his wife have electronic devices that they can program to make them feel a certain way– everything from loving devotion to one’s husband to wanting to watch T.V. no matter what is on. One final addition to Mercerism is an “Empathy Box” with two handles that you grab in order to experience the myth of Wilbur Mercer along with any other human being in the universe who is using the box at that exact time. It is the epitome of empathy.
Rick Deckard is called into work to go after several androids that have killed their owners and escaped to Earth. One of them has shot the senior bounty hunter so the job is now Deckard’s.
The Androids are all part of a growing group of androids angry with their inability to feel empathy– their inability to be a part of Mercerism. This is in fact the flaw that separates them from humans, and they are found out by taking a simple test to look at their biological response to social situations that go against the empathetic Mercerist culture. The big problem is that these escapees are the newest models of androids, and the police are not convinced that Deckard could tell the difference between them and humans with the present monitoring tools. He is sent off to test his skills against the manufacturer’s androids. Rick Deckard passes the test better than expected as the android herself, Rachel, doesn’t even know that she is an android. With that he runs off to find the missing androids and “retire” them. If he can get all six in one day he will have killed a record number and have enough money to get a real animal to make him feel right with the world again.
Then we are introduced to John Isidore. Isidore is a Chickenhead living in an empty apartment building with his own apartment slowly turning to “kipple.” He works doing delivery and pick-up for a mechanic that fixes the artificial animals– calling himself a vet for the sake of appearances.
Isidore lives alone with only the T.V. and Buster Friendly, the eternal T.V. host, to comfort him. That is until he finds that thee is a new tenant in his building.
This is the base of a surreal and surprising novel. The question of whether we really feel any connection with other things, and why and if this feeling should be regulated to living things, and why that’s the way it all is runs through the whole story. Rick Deckard’s confusion over his empathy for the androids he had to retire and his lack of empathy for his artificial sheep, and his lack of empathy for Fellow bounty hunter Resch all make for a story that makes you wonder where the next twist will take you.
The story is especially pertinent to life today. We are constantly reaching out to the internet and the twitters and facebooks in search of this feeling of community in what we feel is a world devoid of real human interaction, but we really are just forming bonds with machines. We don’t have the excuse of nuclear war and radioactive dust, we only have laziness, insecurity, and an inability to deal with the immediacy of real life. Rick Deckard feels this loneliness painfully even with his wife who obviously loves him, and he seems to love back. She and all other humans seem to suffer from this feeling of disconnection, using the empathy boxes and the animals to soothe this feeling of loneliness in a slowly dying world.
I can’t help but wonder if we too are mourning a dying world. We don’t have any tools to fix this feeling, and we only come up with fixes that really push us as humans further apart.
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sincere emotional core.The story follows bounty hunter Rick Deckard on the longest day of his career.
Deckard lives on Earth after World War Terminus left it destroyed by nuclear clouds and dust. The buildings are mostly deserted and become more and more empty every day as humans migrate to Mars. On Mars they are given a large amount of land and Android slaves to keep it for them. The only people who aren’t invited are those who are too old or too stupid to join the humans there. If you are labeled a Chickenhead or an Anthead you can emigrate if you agree to be sterilized.
Rick Deckard, like most of the remaining humans on Earth is a follower of Mercerism. Mercerism is all about the feeling of empathy for all things. One way to experience empathy is to own and care for animals. It is unheard of for a person not to own an animal, but the real thing is so expensive that many people buy animatronic animals that eat and breathe and do all of the same things a real animal does just to keep up appearances. Deckard owns an electric sheep. The electric sheep is a replacement for a real one he bought that suddenly died one day. The electric one is a sad replacement, and only makes Deckard depressed. It appears that this is a common enough occurrence that he and his wife have electronic devices that they can program to make them feel a certain way– everything from loving devotion to one’s husband to wanting to watch T.V. no matter what is on. One final addition to Mercerism is an “Empathy Box” with two handles that you grab in order to experience the myth of Wilbur Mercer along with any other human being in the universe who is using the box at that exact time. It is the epitome of empathy.
Rick Deckard is called into work to go after several androids that have killed their owners and escaped to Earth. One of them has shot the senior bounty hunter so the job is now Deckard’s.
The Androids are all part of a growing group of androids angry with their inability to feel empathy– their inability to be a part of Mercerism. This is in fact the flaw that separates them from humans, and they are found out by taking a simple test to look at their biological response to social situations that go against the empathetic Mercerist culture. The big problem is that these escapees are the newest models of androids, and the police are not convinced that Deckard could tell the difference between them and humans with the present monitoring tools. He is sent off to test his skills against the manufacturer’s androids. Rick Deckard passes the test better than expected as the android herself, Rachel, doesn’t even know that she is an android. With that he runs off to find the missing androids and “retire” them. If he can get all six in one day he will have killed a record number and have enough money to get a real animal to make him feel right with the world again.
Then we are introduced to John Isidore. Isidore is a Chickenhead living in an empty apartment building with his own apartment slowly turning to “kipple.” He works doing delivery and pick-up for a mechanic that fixes the artificial animals– calling himself a vet for the sake of appearances.
Isidore lives alone with only the T.V. and Buster Friendly, the eternal T.V. host, to comfort him. That is until he finds that thee is a new tenant in his building.
This is the base of a surreal and surprising novel. The question of whether we really feel any connection with other things, and why and if this feeling should be regulated to living things, and why that’s the way it all is runs through the whole story. Rick Deckard’s confusion over his empathy for the androids he had to retire and his lack of empathy for his artificial sheep, and his lack of empathy for Fellow bounty hunter Resch all make for a story that makes you wonder where the next twist will take you.
The story is especially pertinent to life today. We are constantly reaching out to the internet and the twitters and facebooks in search of this feeling of community in what we feel is a world devoid of real human interaction, but we really are just forming bonds with machines. We don’t have the excuse of nuclear war and radioactive dust, we only have laziness, insecurity, and an inability to deal with the immediacy of real life. Rick Deckard feels this loneliness painfully even with his wife who obviously loves him, and he seems to love back. She and all other humans seem to suffer from this feeling of disconnection, using the empathy boxes and the animals to soothe this feeling of loneliness in a slowly dying world.
I can’t help but wonder if we too are mourning a dying world. We don’t have any tools to fix this feeling, and we only come up with fixes that really push us as humans further apart.
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LibraryThing member beserene
Philip K. Dick’s novel is a modern classic of science fiction. The basis for the film “Blade Runner”, this book lays the foundation for many of the tropes that now are common in the genre. The idea of the android, concepts of artificial intelligence, and questions of humanity are all refined
What may surprise readers who have been previously familiar with “Blade Runner” is the commentary on religion and spirituality which features strongly throughout the book. Though it’s been years since I watched the film, I don’t recall that portion of the novel being carried over. In a lot of ways, however, it’s absolutely essential to understanding the world, and therefore the commentary, that PD has constructed. There is more to that commentary that meets the eye and, even days later, I’m still thinking about the meanings that I may have missed. That continuing occupation of a reader’s thoughts is one of the reasons that this novel and indeed so many of Philip Dick’s writings have become classics of the genre. This is one book that deserves, and demands, multiple readings. An absolutely necessary read for fans of the genre.
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here, in PD’s characteristically sharp, often ironic fashion. Like many science fiction writers before and since, Philip Dick envisions a world where human beings have shot themselves in the collective foot – disaster on a national and global scale has struck and those left to struggle onward are herded (like, yeah, sheep) within the comforting illusions created by controlled and controlling media, government, etc. What may surprise readers who have been previously familiar with “Blade Runner” is the commentary on religion and spirituality which features strongly throughout the book. Though it’s been years since I watched the film, I don’t recall that portion of the novel being carried over. In a lot of ways, however, it’s absolutely essential to understanding the world, and therefore the commentary, that PD has constructed. There is more to that commentary that meets the eye and, even days later, I’m still thinking about the meanings that I may have missed. That continuing occupation of a reader’s thoughts is one of the reasons that this novel and indeed so many of Philip Dick’s writings have become classics of the genre. This is one book that deserves, and demands, multiple readings. An absolutely necessary read for fans of the genre.
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LibraryThing member johnnyapollo
This is the first time I've read this book since sometime in the early 80's - I "discovered" PDK then - having picked up some old Ace paperback books. I vividly remember thinking when Bladerunner came out in the theaters that the adaptation was very good. I happened on this paperback version at an
Besides some of the updating (in the book the colonies were on Mars, not distant solar systems - also part of the impetus for leaving Earth was due to radioactive dust that periodically sweeps the planet, causing genitic mutation) there were quite a few concepts missing or only hinted at in the movie version. The dust has basically killed off most of the animal life on the planet, so many creatures are extinct. Because of this animal like has become extremely precious, and most inhabitants obtain a real animal as pets that are kept on the roofs of buildings. The first animals to go extinct was the owl - which the movie gives a nod to in one scene at the Tyrell Corporation. Decker (who's first name is Rick - I don't believe he's ever called by his first name in the movie and it's used prominently in the book) had a real animal which died - to keep from being looked down upon, he has bought an electric sheep as a pretense - part of the title derives from that I think.
In the movie the Androids are fighter types as survivers for wars in distant solar systems - the book's "andies" are basically servent-class, given free to colonists as an incentive to depart. Another noticeable departure is that in the movie the planet is over-populated, while in the book most of humanity is left, so there are whole buildings in the burbs that are empty but for the "chickenheads" (derogative for genitically mutated humans that have sub-normal intelligence caused by the dust). The andies are actually more intelligent than humans but they are limited in expansiveness, having a lack of normal empathic response - the tests used in both the movie and book tests the empathic response and that's one way the andies are detected.
There's no mention of the term "Bladerunner" in the book - I didn't realize that. Also, once you read the book you understand the "chickenhead" character John Isadore (Sebastian in the movie), who was a Tyrell Corporation employee in the movie, but drove an veterinary truck (actually a front as the company he worked for fixed electronic animals in the book). As a sub-intelligent human he's easily persuaded to help the andies in the book - his character in the movie is "sick" and due to that has no friends. The motivations are similar.
One of the biggest changes was the Pris character - in the book she's the same model as Rachel so they should have looked the same. Another really major change was the religious aspect of the book - pretty much all the inhabitants worship "Mercer" - an old man who walks uphill and is hit by rocks - humans use an empathy machine to experience a mind-meld with everyone else "jacked in" as they collectively experience Mercer - this goes in-hand with other mood ehhanceing devices used in the book. Once can dial a specific number for peace, etc.
In the book Rick Deckard is married and his wife Iris figures prominently - completely left out of the movie - as is the electric sheep and later real goat that Rick buys using the proceeds of the first three andy "retirements."
Well enough about differences - what came to mind to me is how movie adaptations end up changing our memories of books, even favorite books. After watching the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies I now picture the actors in the books roles, and the plots subtley get changed to the movie version. This happens even after multiple readings before and after - I'm guessing that the mind has an easier time synthesizing video and audio input than the written word, so the imagery inscribed on our brains is easily edited by the updated multi-media input.
I think the book version is easily a good read as a stand-alone entity. If you're looking for something different it's well worth reading. Just try not to take too much baggage with you as you delve into the words - I think you'll enjoy it as much as I did.
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estate sale for a quarter, so I thought it would be a good time to reread. I've read some other reviews before and knew beforehand that some things had been changed - the reread was very eye opening.Besides some of the updating (in the book the colonies were on Mars, not distant solar systems - also part of the impetus for leaving Earth was due to radioactive dust that periodically sweeps the planet, causing genitic mutation) there were quite a few concepts missing or only hinted at in the movie version. The dust has basically killed off most of the animal life on the planet, so many creatures are extinct. Because of this animal like has become extremely precious, and most inhabitants obtain a real animal as pets that are kept on the roofs of buildings. The first animals to go extinct was the owl - which the movie gives a nod to in one scene at the Tyrell Corporation. Decker (who's first name is Rick - I don't believe he's ever called by his first name in the movie and it's used prominently in the book) had a real animal which died - to keep from being looked down upon, he has bought an electric sheep as a pretense - part of the title derives from that I think.
In the movie the Androids are fighter types as survivers for wars in distant solar systems - the book's "andies" are basically servent-class, given free to colonists as an incentive to depart. Another noticeable departure is that in the movie the planet is over-populated, while in the book most of humanity is left, so there are whole buildings in the burbs that are empty but for the "chickenheads" (derogative for genitically mutated humans that have sub-normal intelligence caused by the dust). The andies are actually more intelligent than humans but they are limited in expansiveness, having a lack of normal empathic response - the tests used in both the movie and book tests the empathic response and that's one way the andies are detected.
There's no mention of the term "Bladerunner" in the book - I didn't realize that. Also, once you read the book you understand the "chickenhead" character John Isadore (Sebastian in the movie), who was a Tyrell Corporation employee in the movie, but drove an veterinary truck (actually a front as the company he worked for fixed electronic animals in the book). As a sub-intelligent human he's easily persuaded to help the andies in the book - his character in the movie is "sick" and due to that has no friends. The motivations are similar.
One of the biggest changes was the Pris character - in the book she's the same model as Rachel so they should have looked the same. Another really major change was the religious aspect of the book - pretty much all the inhabitants worship "Mercer" - an old man who walks uphill and is hit by rocks - humans use an empathy machine to experience a mind-meld with everyone else "jacked in" as they collectively experience Mercer - this goes in-hand with other mood ehhanceing devices used in the book. Once can dial a specific number for peace, etc.
In the book Rick Deckard is married and his wife Iris figures prominently - completely left out of the movie - as is the electric sheep and later real goat that Rick buys using the proceeds of the first three andy "retirements."
Well enough about differences - what came to mind to me is how movie adaptations end up changing our memories of books, even favorite books. After watching the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies I now picture the actors in the books roles, and the plots subtley get changed to the movie version. This happens even after multiple readings before and after - I'm guessing that the mind has an easier time synthesizing video and audio input than the written word, so the imagery inscribed on our brains is easily edited by the updated multi-media input.
I think the book version is easily a good read as a stand-alone entity. If you're looking for something different it's well worth reading. Just try not to take too much baggage with you as you delve into the words - I think you'll enjoy it as much as I did.
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LibraryThing member andreablythe
Following a devastating nuclear war, the earth has begun to be emptied of life. Many died in the blasts from the bomb, while others died as the poisonous began to drift over the surface of the planet. Those left behind made the choice to either evacuate the earth, journeying to colonies on Mars and
Rick Deckard feels lost and hopeless when his pet sheep dies. The artificial replacement, though nearly exact in its duplication and requiring the same amount of care, leaves him feeling empty. His one hope is to "retire" enough androids to be able to purchase a new animal. As a bounty hunter, it is his job to hunt down androids who have fled the off-planet colonies and try to gain freedom by passing as humans on earth. The new series of Nexus 6 androids are the hardest to spot and hunting them may cost him his life.
The mystery and the threat of the androids, the noir-ish tone, and the fabulous writing launched me into the story from page one. I could have read it in one sitting if my time had allowed me.
More than the realistic array of characters and the well plotted story, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is also deeply layered, with its biggest question being, What makes a human human? If an android is indistinguishable from a living, breathing human, then what is the point of being human? And all the while your questions what is real and what is manufactured, you begin to wonder does it matter what is real?
The book provides no solid answers. The book tricks you several times, reality seeming to effectively slip, the ground unsettled -- as it should be for a world slowly fading out. I often cared as much for the androids as I did for the humans in this story and often found my loyalties lying with both humans and androids.
I closed the final page with a smile on my face and the desire to just sit and think for a while. Then I wanted to immediately read the book again.
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other planets with the promise of highly engineered androids to help them and keep them company, or to stay on the dying earth with the risk of being changed by the irradiated dust. People on earth, terrified of the loneliness, cluster together into cities and prize above all the ability to keep live animals as pets. Rick Deckard feels lost and hopeless when his pet sheep dies. The artificial replacement, though nearly exact in its duplication and requiring the same amount of care, leaves him feeling empty. His one hope is to "retire" enough androids to be able to purchase a new animal. As a bounty hunter, it is his job to hunt down androids who have fled the off-planet colonies and try to gain freedom by passing as humans on earth. The new series of Nexus 6 androids are the hardest to spot and hunting them may cost him his life.
The mystery and the threat of the androids, the noir-ish tone, and the fabulous writing launched me into the story from page one. I could have read it in one sitting if my time had allowed me.
More than the realistic array of characters and the well plotted story, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is also deeply layered, with its biggest question being, What makes a human human? If an android is indistinguishable from a living, breathing human, then what is the point of being human? And all the while your questions what is real and what is manufactured, you begin to wonder does it matter what is real?
The book provides no solid answers. The book tricks you several times, reality seeming to effectively slip, the ground unsettled -- as it should be for a world slowly fading out. I often cared as much for the androids as I did for the humans in this story and often found my loyalties lying with both humans and androids.
I closed the final page with a smile on my face and the desire to just sit and think for a while. Then I wanted to immediately read the book again.
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LibraryThing member ctpress
The movie Blade Runner is loosely based on Do Androids.. We are on earth after a nuclear disaster where most people have escaped to other planets. The bounty hunter Rick Deckard is out to find and "retire" six fugitive androids passing for humans. This chase is exciting - and as they are so
This idea should really be enough to hold ones attention and explore interesting ideas. But other things are thrown in - the idea of an artificial reality game called Mercerism - treated by many as a religion - this was very confusing and irritating - also the whole idea about people obsessed with having a real pet-animal in stead of artificial ones…..a goat on a roof-top? it was comical, difficult to take serious.
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identical to humans the novel cleverly plays with the idea of what is real and unreal/artificial. Deckard even starts to question his own identity and if he's placed in a real world or a game. This idea should really be enough to hold ones attention and explore interesting ideas. But other things are thrown in - the idea of an artificial reality game called Mercerism - treated by many as a religion - this was very confusing and irritating - also the whole idea about people obsessed with having a real pet-animal in stead of artificial ones…..a goat on a roof-top? it was comical, difficult to take serious.
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LibraryThing member dste
This book is really good. The post-apocalyptic Earth is a really interesting setting, especially with the changes in the culture. Things like the mood organ and the much-referenced catalogue made for a richer and more realistic future, in my opinion. Sure they also had hovercars and space travel,
The plot was also exciting, but what I really like about this book is that it has substance. You can dig deeper into it and think about how similar the androids are to humans or the potential benefits of Mercerism or whether, given the situation, it would be better to stick around on Earth or take a space ship to the colony on Mars. The fact that there weren't necessarily clear answers makes the whole book seem even more real.
I thought the ending was especially well done, and the part with the spider was awful, very difficult to read, which meant it was also very powerful.
The one thing that didn't quite make sense to me was why, if androids sometimes escape, the manufacturers don't have a better way to track them down. A big part of the main character's job as a bounty hunter is trying to tell the androids apart from humans. If this can be so tricky, why don't they build in some inconspicous identifying feature, like a special tattoo or an internal tracking chip? Of course, that would have made the story much less interesting, but I couldn't help wondering.
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but it didn't come across as though the author was saying, "Oh, look! Isn't technology amazing!" Too often in books, tv, etc. it seems like the future is supposed to be just like the present, but with jetpacks. This book wasn't like that.The plot was also exciting, but what I really like about this book is that it has substance. You can dig deeper into it and think about how similar the androids are to humans or the potential benefits of Mercerism or whether, given the situation, it would be better to stick around on Earth or take a space ship to the colony on Mars. The fact that there weren't necessarily clear answers makes the whole book seem even more real.
I thought the ending was especially well done, and the part with the spider was awful, very difficult to read, which meant it was also very powerful.
The one thing that didn't quite make sense to me was why, if androids sometimes escape, the manufacturers don't have a better way to track them down. A big part of the main character's job as a bounty hunter is trying to tell the androids apart from humans. If this can be so tricky, why don't they build in some inconspicous identifying feature, like a special tattoo or an internal tracking chip? Of course, that would have made the story much less interesting, but I couldn't help wondering.
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LibraryThing member mattclark
Have read this many times. It's a fascinating exploration of what it means to be alive, and what makes life valuable. The human characters consider empathy - towards "living" things - as their distinguishing feature. But they all use make liberal use of a "mood organ" to electronically generate
Dick really dives in deep here, comparing the androids to humans, "chickenheads", insects... and in most cases showing that there is little difference apart from their manufactured beginnings. Is it honorable for the manufacturers to continue to improve their products, to make them as close to human as possible? The androids continually surprise, supposedly lacking empathy but each of them showing signs of empathy towards each other or the humans around them. Are they really any less empathetic than humans? The humans are pretty much self-interested, with preservation of non-human species a commercial transaction and religious obligation rather than true empathy.
Highly recommended!
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emotions, and show a distinct lack of empathy toward people affected by fallout, and of course to the androids who they do not consider truly alive. Deckard's job is to "retire" escaped androids, who have all the signs of life, but lack empathy.Dick really dives in deep here, comparing the androids to humans, "chickenheads", insects... and in most cases showing that there is little difference apart from their manufactured beginnings. Is it honorable for the manufacturers to continue to improve their products, to make them as close to human as possible? The androids continually surprise, supposedly lacking empathy but each of them showing signs of empathy towards each other or the humans around them. Are they really any less empathetic than humans? The humans are pretty much self-interested, with preservation of non-human species a commercial transaction and religious obligation rather than true empathy.
Highly recommended!
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LibraryThing member ClosetWryter
This is the book that started the classic movie "Blade Runner" with Harrison Ford and its two distinct endings.
LibraryThing member LARA335
I haven't seen 'Blade Runner' so came to this without any preconceptions, just intrigued by the weird title. And I don't think androids do. And this is why I really liked this novel- it raised so many questions, leaving me to use my imagination to fill in the many blanks. It jumped in with the
It takes courage and confidence for a writer not to give all the info, and left me
much to think about regarding the purpose of religion, status, the point of empathy and the importance of all the living things we share this planet with.
Must dig out the film...
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action without explaining itself, giving a back-story. I wanted to know why the 'war' happened, and what life was like on Mars, and why did humans stay there but some androids wanted to come back to earth, and, and, and...It takes courage and confidence for a writer not to give all the info, and left me
much to think about regarding the purpose of religion, status, the point of empathy and the importance of all the living things we share this planet with.
Must dig out the film...
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LibraryThing member duong111
What makes us human, human? Is it the way we function? Or is it due to our ability to produce or feel emotions? These are the questions I’ve never asked myself before but after reading Phillip K. Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I begin to question the differences between
In the beginning of the novel, the reader is introduced to Deckard as a husband who constantly yearns for a high-achieving status through his possession of a real animal. Throughout the novel, his jealousy (a very common trait in every human being) is seen through the interaction with his neighbor, refusal to share his joy through the empathy box, and his greed to own a rare species. The way he looks at these animals is the same way our society looks at materialistic objects (or in other words, described in the novel as “kipple”). Often, we find ourselves struggle to be satisfy with what we have; similarly to us, Deckard continuously shows his disapproval of his fake sheep and his marriage that lacks affection and compassion. He constantly searches for other things that in which he believes to give him “satisfaction” and “happiness.” Through Deckard’s greed, readers can associate his characteristic and desire to achieve social status as something very common in everyday life. However, we also see the development of his character as emotions and empathy become more evident.
Deckard is first presented as someone that lacks emotions and empathy. In fact, he is nothing less than the androids themselves. The irony lies in the fact that his occupation requires for him to “retire” an object that is so similar to his current being. And so this tie back to the question I presented before. “How are we any different?” Towards the middle of the novel, Deckard goes on several different quests to destroy each of the Nexus-6 Android but finds himself romantically linked (physically and emotionally) to a female android. This doesn’t come surprising that he finds the android to be even more attractive than his wife, Iran. One of the reasons, why this has occurs is because Iran is the complete opposite of her husband. She is willing to deal with depression and shows act of compassion— traits that Deckard fails to possess. Their contrasting persona pushes Deckard further away from his wife and more towards an inanimate character. It seems as though he prefers the image of perfection rather than a human being that is flawed but real. The irony comes in when this “attractive” female android kills the one thing Deckard treasures the most—his goat. Here, Dick demonstrates the destruction that follows human’s unnecessary wants and needs.
In addition, the attraction that Deckard has towards the android also presents another human flaw- our constant obsession with acquiring something we cannot keep. Deckard is aware that the android only has a four year life span and yet he admits to his desire in marriage with the woman android had she been able to possess the same life span as a human being. Here, desire can be linked to the dreams that people have today. For instance, we are always thinking about the future and what we want to accomplish. Whether it’s a high-paying career or a soul mate that suits our needs and interest, we also acknowledge our inability to attain what we have once we have it. And yet our dreams make us extremely humane and we continue to travel different routes in order to grab it. Dick does an amazing job with connecting the symbols presented in the novel to the functioning of the people in our society. From high-achieving status to the findings of our real identity, DADES will continue to work to create strong messages about our contemporary culture today.
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humans and robots (or in this case, Androids). Taking place after the World War terminus, the existences of the world we are all familiar with no longer exist. The novel takes us into this science fiction world in which animals are a representation of wealth, envy, and status while people constantly seek for their true identity. Dick makes it evident that empathy is the biggest factor in determining the humans from the Androids. He gives us the impression that as a living being, we are affected by our environment and feelings are often involved in our daily lives. By contrasting with the humans, he made the android a symbolic figure of non-empathy. Ironically enough, there’s not a huge difference between the two. One of the components I focused on in this novel is the characterization of the main character, Rick Deckard and how his character serves as significance to the message that Dick may want his readers to receive. In the beginning of the novel, the reader is introduced to Deckard as a husband who constantly yearns for a high-achieving status through his possession of a real animal. Throughout the novel, his jealousy (a very common trait in every human being) is seen through the interaction with his neighbor, refusal to share his joy through the empathy box, and his greed to own a rare species. The way he looks at these animals is the same way our society looks at materialistic objects (or in other words, described in the novel as “kipple”). Often, we find ourselves struggle to be satisfy with what we have; similarly to us, Deckard continuously shows his disapproval of his fake sheep and his marriage that lacks affection and compassion. He constantly searches for other things that in which he believes to give him “satisfaction” and “happiness.” Through Deckard’s greed, readers can associate his characteristic and desire to achieve social status as something very common in everyday life. However, we also see the development of his character as emotions and empathy become more evident.
Deckard is first presented as someone that lacks emotions and empathy. In fact, he is nothing less than the androids themselves. The irony lies in the fact that his occupation requires for him to “retire” an object that is so similar to his current being. And so this tie back to the question I presented before. “How are we any different?” Towards the middle of the novel, Deckard goes on several different quests to destroy each of the Nexus-6 Android but finds himself romantically linked (physically and emotionally) to a female android. This doesn’t come surprising that he finds the android to be even more attractive than his wife, Iran. One of the reasons, why this has occurs is because Iran is the complete opposite of her husband. She is willing to deal with depression and shows act of compassion— traits that Deckard fails to possess. Their contrasting persona pushes Deckard further away from his wife and more towards an inanimate character. It seems as though he prefers the image of perfection rather than a human being that is flawed but real. The irony comes in when this “attractive” female android kills the one thing Deckard treasures the most—his goat. Here, Dick demonstrates the destruction that follows human’s unnecessary wants and needs.
In addition, the attraction that Deckard has towards the android also presents another human flaw- our constant obsession with acquiring something we cannot keep. Deckard is aware that the android only has a four year life span and yet he admits to his desire in marriage with the woman android had she been able to possess the same life span as a human being. Here, desire can be linked to the dreams that people have today. For instance, we are always thinking about the future and what we want to accomplish. Whether it’s a high-paying career or a soul mate that suits our needs and interest, we also acknowledge our inability to attain what we have once we have it. And yet our dreams make us extremely humane and we continue to travel different routes in order to grab it. Dick does an amazing job with connecting the symbols presented in the novel to the functioning of the people in our society. From high-achieving status to the findings of our real identity, DADES will continue to work to create strong messages about our contemporary culture today.
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LibraryThing member schwi101
In “Androids”, Phillip Dick uses the idea of simulacra to create a connection to the problems individuals are having when finding their our identity. This problem arises due to the fact people are basing their ideas off of the “unreal” or choices selected by others. When we are unable to
Increasingly throughout the novel the representation becomes more real then the real object itself. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter who must destroy the androids that have migrated to Earth from Mars, illegally. After reading farther in to the novel we realize the problem Deckard is faced with. He must decide if it is morally correct to “retire” the Nexus-6‘s even though they are organic beings that act and speak the same as humans. The only thing that differs them from humans is their mechanical brain and lack of empathy. This in turn blurs the line between them being human or machinery, who do not have the right to live. In the beginning, Deckard is able to force himself to accept the androids as mechanical beings in order to “retire” them but eventually Deckard questions his own identity and the choices he has been making because the androids are so real. By the end of the novel, Deckard classifies the androids as real human beings who he is “killing” and decides he will quite his job. The idea that the unreal is real completely undermines Deckard’s work. He must find his own identity and beliefs through his own experience instead of accepting the views of others, just as we must do in today’s society.
When we are constantly questioning what is real and what is not we look to others to find the truth. In reality this furthers us from our own identity because we are following others views. In the novel, there are objects such as the mood organ and the empathy box. The mood organ allows the characters to dial in a mood and feel what they wish. This becomes a common tool for the characters. They cannot “feel” anything unless it is dialed in. Deckard’s wife dials in a “six-hour self-accusatory depression” twice a month just so she is able to feel upset. This device furthers themselves from their self because they cannot feel on their own. The other device that seems to be used to “feel” anything is the empathy box. Nothing can be real unless they are able to share their feelings with others. The characters have lost a sense of self and cannot “feel” for themselves because they are not connected to themselves. These devices can be closely related to Facebook and Twitter. Our society constantly puts up status’ to express what they are experiencing. They continuously update their status’ to tell the world how this experience has affected them so they can feel connected. In truth, this disconnects them from themselves. When reading everyone else’s status they are tuning into other’s lives when they should be focusing on their own.
Buster Friendly is the talk show host for one of the only channels on t.v. in “Androids”. He in fact is an android but everyone in the novel tunes in to listen to what Buster Friendly has to say. This is easily connected with the idea that in today’s society we accept what the media has to say instead of making our own decisions for ourself. The media places these ideas into our head which our not our reality but their representation of reality. When we accept these ideas that the media has brought to our attention like the t.v. ads saying “emigrate or degenerate! The choice is yours!” (Dick 8) we are not making our own decisions which takes away from us forming our own identity.
Overall, I believe Dick successfully uses the idea of simulacra within “Androids” to point out the reality that we let a mask of ourselves form because we do not take the time to decipher our own path and find our true identity.
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decipher the real from the unreal we are in a constant state of confusion. This constant state forces us to try to discern what is real and unreal. But when unable to do this, we tend to accept others views or put on a mask to hide our own thoughts. By doing this layers are being made in between our true identity and the mask we have created. This process is quite dangerous to ourselves, since in the end we will be unable to find happiness in the mask we have created. Increasingly throughout the novel the representation becomes more real then the real object itself. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter who must destroy the androids that have migrated to Earth from Mars, illegally. After reading farther in to the novel we realize the problem Deckard is faced with. He must decide if it is morally correct to “retire” the Nexus-6‘s even though they are organic beings that act and speak the same as humans. The only thing that differs them from humans is their mechanical brain and lack of empathy. This in turn blurs the line between them being human or machinery, who do not have the right to live. In the beginning, Deckard is able to force himself to accept the androids as mechanical beings in order to “retire” them but eventually Deckard questions his own identity and the choices he has been making because the androids are so real. By the end of the novel, Deckard classifies the androids as real human beings who he is “killing” and decides he will quite his job. The idea that the unreal is real completely undermines Deckard’s work. He must find his own identity and beliefs through his own experience instead of accepting the views of others, just as we must do in today’s society.
When we are constantly questioning what is real and what is not we look to others to find the truth. In reality this furthers us from our own identity because we are following others views. In the novel, there are objects such as the mood organ and the empathy box. The mood organ allows the characters to dial in a mood and feel what they wish. This becomes a common tool for the characters. They cannot “feel” anything unless it is dialed in. Deckard’s wife dials in a “six-hour self-accusatory depression” twice a month just so she is able to feel upset. This device furthers themselves from their self because they cannot feel on their own. The other device that seems to be used to “feel” anything is the empathy box. Nothing can be real unless they are able to share their feelings with others. The characters have lost a sense of self and cannot “feel” for themselves because they are not connected to themselves. These devices can be closely related to Facebook and Twitter. Our society constantly puts up status’ to express what they are experiencing. They continuously update their status’ to tell the world how this experience has affected them so they can feel connected. In truth, this disconnects them from themselves. When reading everyone else’s status they are tuning into other’s lives when they should be focusing on their own.
Buster Friendly is the talk show host for one of the only channels on t.v. in “Androids”. He in fact is an android but everyone in the novel tunes in to listen to what Buster Friendly has to say. This is easily connected with the idea that in today’s society we accept what the media has to say instead of making our own decisions for ourself. The media places these ideas into our head which our not our reality but their representation of reality. When we accept these ideas that the media has brought to our attention like the t.v. ads saying “emigrate or degenerate! The choice is yours!” (Dick 8) we are not making our own decisions which takes away from us forming our own identity.
Overall, I believe Dick successfully uses the idea of simulacra within “Androids” to point out the reality that we let a mask of ourselves form because we do not take the time to decipher our own path and find our true identity.
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LibraryThing member endersreads
One is more impressed when one reflects upon the fact that this novel was first published in 1968.
The sense of post-apocalyptic destruction was real for me; quite depressing. I had just finished Kevin J. Anderson's "Ground Zero". Fallout that creates chickenheads. It hits too close to home. I
I believe Mercerism was the World Religion Dick based upon Christianity. Was it the Antichrist's religion or the Returned Christ's religion? Very interesting about Buster's revelatory news expose. Something in me suspects the latter, giving Dick's alleged real-life trip to the Roman Empire. Mercer told Deckard that it was the curse, the defeat of Creation that caused men to do bad, knowing it was bad. Mercer speaks of the sin nature; he nearly directly quotes Romans 7:15. I wonder if Dick had read Romans, as he claimed to not have read Acts. When Buster proclaimed Mercer fake, showing brushstrokes, he revealed not that Mercer did not exist, but that Mercer was only a man in a leading role with a greater power guiding him. Pure preaching and great stuff.
The Androids you must feel...empathy for. It was an epiphany when the Nexus-6 Rachael drunkenly stated that she felt empathetic towards herself. That is consciousness in the midst of evolving. I suspect that Earth and Mars will be transformed by the next generation of the Rosen Association's products.
I loved the animal quest side-scenes. It was so novel! Yet, like the entire novel, it was quite dark and depressing, as the setting of a post-nuclear world war should be.
The sense of post-apocalyptic destruction was real for me; quite depressing. I had just finished Kevin J. Anderson's "Ground Zero". Fallout that creates chickenheads. It hits too close to home. I
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think that radioactive dust is here today, only it's not radioactive dust—it's of a varied nature and borne from the muderous Android logicians in power. In our Universe, they won, so to speak.I believe Mercerism was the World Religion Dick based upon Christianity. Was it the Antichrist's religion or the Returned Christ's religion? Very interesting about Buster's revelatory news expose. Something in me suspects the latter, giving Dick's alleged real-life trip to the Roman Empire. Mercer told Deckard that it was the curse, the defeat of Creation that caused men to do bad, knowing it was bad. Mercer speaks of the sin nature; he nearly directly quotes Romans 7:15. I wonder if Dick had read Romans, as he claimed to not have read Acts. When Buster proclaimed Mercer fake, showing brushstrokes, he revealed not that Mercer did not exist, but that Mercer was only a man in a leading role with a greater power guiding him. Pure preaching and great stuff.
The Androids you must feel...empathy for. It was an epiphany when the Nexus-6 Rachael drunkenly stated that she felt empathetic towards herself. That is consciousness in the midst of evolving. I suspect that Earth and Mars will be transformed by the next generation of the Rosen Association's products.
I loved the animal quest side-scenes. It was so novel! Yet, like the entire novel, it was quite dark and depressing, as the setting of a post-nuclear world war should be.
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LibraryThing member TheAmpersand
Post-apocalyptic landscapes and unnervingly realistic androids are science-fiction staples these days, and I don't imagine that they were particularly earth-shattering concepts in 1969, either. Still, the author's carefully considered philosophical preoccupations set this one apart from your
While this novel is both readable and involving, I don't think Dick is exactly a born prose stylist, even though he does give us the word "disemelevatored." I might be misreading things, but I'm not sure that the book's last few scenes work as well as they should, either: there are a few mystical touches there that don't quite fit with the book's overall tone. And, of course, it's hard to read the book that inspired "Blade Runner" without thinking of the movie, which has become an SF icon in its own right. I was, I admit, surprised to find that Deckard's own humanity isn't called into question in "Do Androids Dream..." nearly as often as it is in its film adaptation. Since this was my first time reading Phillip K. Dick, though, I was positively thrilled to encounter a writer with such a wide-ranging imagination and such engaging ideas about the society in which he lived. Recommended.
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average space-traveling dime novel. Sure, it's possible to read this one as a detective noir with a few laser guns thrown in, but there's no reason you should. Dick isn't afraid to take on the big topics, and he has a genuine gift for creating large-scale metaphors that effectively express his most daring ideas. In other words: his poisoned, decrepit, and hopelessly cluttered planet Earth also makes for a wonderful analogy for overextended late-stage capitalism, and the constant emotional and philosophical tension he maintains between his nominally human and supposedly artificial characters is yet more evidence that the best science fiction can interrogate the nature of personhood just as well as -- if not better than -- a top-shelf literary novel. There's so much going on in this novel once you look beyond its nods to genre convention. While this novel is both readable and involving, I don't think Dick is exactly a born prose stylist, even though he does give us the word "disemelevatored." I might be misreading things, but I'm not sure that the book's last few scenes work as well as they should, either: there are a few mystical touches there that don't quite fit with the book's overall tone. And, of course, it's hard to read the book that inspired "Blade Runner" without thinking of the movie, which has become an SF icon in its own right. I was, I admit, surprised to find that Deckard's own humanity isn't called into question in "Do Androids Dream..." nearly as often as it is in its film adaptation. Since this was my first time reading Phillip K. Dick, though, I was positively thrilled to encounter a writer with such a wide-ranging imagination and such engaging ideas about the society in which he lived. Recommended.
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LibraryThing member danes102
Phillip Dick uses the society of “DADOES” to predict and mock how the future society will intern become. Using clear symbols, Dick brings up issues of people becoming sucked in to a false sense of reality, and even materialism. It is interesting that the book was first published in 1968 and
Dick uses the main character uses symbols such as the mood organ, the androids and Deckard’s journey to establish this false sense of reality within the story. The mood organ is used so that the people can dial a mood they desire. This helps the people conceal or hide from how they truly feel. Because the society relies so much on this mood organ, it results in everyone being fake because they are either afraid or do not want to deal with the reality of their life. This is the same in society today where people have access to medication to alter their state of mind and bury their true feelings deep down inside of them. This is a problem because it leads to much of society to being something that its not. This can be hard for others to distinguish who is real and who is fake. This issue also comes up in the novel as well because Deckard is out to kill androids, who are fake representations of humans. It is hard for him to tell the difference between humans and androids because they blend so well into society. This can relate to our current society as well. Our society tends to look up to celebrities and people with money. Most people only see them through media, movies, or television. It would be interesting to see them and get to know who they really are off camera or in a normal setting. Some of them put on a “mask” which is their way to blend in to society. Dick makes a valid point in that is hard to discern what is real from fake, and that now society thinks the fake has become the reality.
Another issue Dick mocks is society’s need to have materials to fit in to a certain social stature. In the society of “DADOES” Deckard displays a strong need for an animal. He is not proud of the sheep he has not only because there are better animals out there, but it is also a fake one. He makes an effort to tell no one that it is fake because society looks down upon fake animals. Constantly throughout the story Deckard wants to buy a new animal and one that is actually real and alive. This is seen in society today where certain brands cost so much more than others just because of the company name on them. Sure there may be the same exact item, but it will be a not as good because of the brand. Dick also mocks the fact that everyone “wants to keep up with the Jones’s” so to speak. Deckard like most people in today’s society wants the latest and greatest. Everyone is so eager to own the best, most expensive thing around. What people don’t realize is that there is new technology coming out almost every year it seems, and then they go out and buy the next thing. What happens to their old stuff? It gets recycled or put away never to be seen again. Dick symbolizes this through kipple in the novel. It is described as unwanted material that was left behind and continues to grow more and more every day. It is an interesting connection, I saw it as materials that people no longer use continue to pile up and multiply day by day like bacteria does. There’s no stop to the growth it is an everlasting cycle that we continue to contribute to through our wasteful spending habits on crap we do not need.
It is interesting that Dick predicts aspects of today’s society in a novel written in 1968. Sure it is fictional novel, but it is an accurate representation of what direction our society might head in the future. What I took from the novel was to not get caught up in the phony aspects of society. Doing this makes it a lot harder to discern the reality from false truths that society presents to us. Reality lies within oneself not what society says is real.
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still applies to where our society is heading today. Dick uses the main character uses symbols such as the mood organ, the androids and Deckard’s journey to establish this false sense of reality within the story. The mood organ is used so that the people can dial a mood they desire. This helps the people conceal or hide from how they truly feel. Because the society relies so much on this mood organ, it results in everyone being fake because they are either afraid or do not want to deal with the reality of their life. This is the same in society today where people have access to medication to alter their state of mind and bury their true feelings deep down inside of them. This is a problem because it leads to much of society to being something that its not. This can be hard for others to distinguish who is real and who is fake. This issue also comes up in the novel as well because Deckard is out to kill androids, who are fake representations of humans. It is hard for him to tell the difference between humans and androids because they blend so well into society. This can relate to our current society as well. Our society tends to look up to celebrities and people with money. Most people only see them through media, movies, or television. It would be interesting to see them and get to know who they really are off camera or in a normal setting. Some of them put on a “mask” which is their way to blend in to society. Dick makes a valid point in that is hard to discern what is real from fake, and that now society thinks the fake has become the reality.
Another issue Dick mocks is society’s need to have materials to fit in to a certain social stature. In the society of “DADOES” Deckard displays a strong need for an animal. He is not proud of the sheep he has not only because there are better animals out there, but it is also a fake one. He makes an effort to tell no one that it is fake because society looks down upon fake animals. Constantly throughout the story Deckard wants to buy a new animal and one that is actually real and alive. This is seen in society today where certain brands cost so much more than others just because of the company name on them. Sure there may be the same exact item, but it will be a not as good because of the brand. Dick also mocks the fact that everyone “wants to keep up with the Jones’s” so to speak. Deckard like most people in today’s society wants the latest and greatest. Everyone is so eager to own the best, most expensive thing around. What people don’t realize is that there is new technology coming out almost every year it seems, and then they go out and buy the next thing. What happens to their old stuff? It gets recycled or put away never to be seen again. Dick symbolizes this through kipple in the novel. It is described as unwanted material that was left behind and continues to grow more and more every day. It is an interesting connection, I saw it as materials that people no longer use continue to pile up and multiply day by day like bacteria does. There’s no stop to the growth it is an everlasting cycle that we continue to contribute to through our wasteful spending habits on crap we do not need.
It is interesting that Dick predicts aspects of today’s society in a novel written in 1968. Sure it is fictional novel, but it is an accurate representation of what direction our society might head in the future. What I took from the novel was to not get caught up in the phony aspects of society. Doing this makes it a lot harder to discern the reality from false truths that society presents to us. Reality lies within oneself not what society says is real.
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LibraryThing member hoffm130
Philip K. Dick’s novel, ¬Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, is still an effective novel that relates to the flaws in today’s society despite the fact that is was written as a commentary on the 1960’s cold war era. Dick portrays the postmodern age through several different usages of
Dick uses the mood organ as one of his symbols, as a reflection of human the emotion. It is the contrast between what is real and what is artificial. The mood organ is proof that humans are incapable of understanding their own emotions and try and force themselves to feel a specific way. With this mood organ it shows us that humans are always wishing for a different mood, we always want what we cannot have. This is suggestive of today’s postmodern era with humans constantly taking medication to force a certain mood. It is a fallacy of their true emotion, therefore creating an unrealistic world of forced emotion. How is one to know when there is real compassion or empathy coming from a human when there is possibility they are hiding behind a pill? It is similar to not knowing whether or not the androids were robots or humans. The only test was to check for empathy, but humans in today’s society often cannot even be tested for empathy when they are hiding behind a pill.
It is easier for humans to stand behind a hidden identity then to have to find their true identity themselves. Isidore states, “Your have to be with other people…in order to live at all.” This comes with the conceptions that in order for us to really be human and live up to our species we must depend on other people. In doing so, do we have to lose our personal identity? When we begin to depend on the thoughts and standards that those around us are placing we are merely becoming a robot of society and lose our identity and individuality. However, it is easier to mimic what we see in a magazine or on the television then to look inside ourselves and figure out what we believe and what we are truly passionate about. Rick had his wife Iran at home with him, and it was not until the end of the novel that he realized her importance because he was so rapped up in the need to live up to societies standards of looking rich and owning some type of animal. Rick could have had his identity fulfilled with just being pleased by his wife if he would have taken the time to figure himself out previously.
The human condition is known for its selfishness and greed and Dick plays this theme out very well. Iran was focused on the mood organ and wanted to be on Mars where she felt she belonged. In today’s society, to parallel the postmodern era beliefs, there is a constant need to know what is happening around you and not be satisfied in the place you are in. I believe this come from not being able to connect with the “real” world around us. Once Iran was able to do so and let go of her personal issues she was able to have happiness without her mood organ.
Overall Dick’s novel ¬Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, despite the original intentions, is a reflections of today’s post modern era, as well as the human condition.
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symbolism. This idea of expressing illusory versions of identity to create a misconception just to fit into the image society that sets and pressures. This also plays into the idea that we as humans are never comfortable going against the norms of society unless we are comfortable with are own personal identities. Dick uses the mood organ as one of his symbols, as a reflection of human the emotion. It is the contrast between what is real and what is artificial. The mood organ is proof that humans are incapable of understanding their own emotions and try and force themselves to feel a specific way. With this mood organ it shows us that humans are always wishing for a different mood, we always want what we cannot have. This is suggestive of today’s postmodern era with humans constantly taking medication to force a certain mood. It is a fallacy of their true emotion, therefore creating an unrealistic world of forced emotion. How is one to know when there is real compassion or empathy coming from a human when there is possibility they are hiding behind a pill? It is similar to not knowing whether or not the androids were robots or humans. The only test was to check for empathy, but humans in today’s society often cannot even be tested for empathy when they are hiding behind a pill.
It is easier for humans to stand behind a hidden identity then to have to find their true identity themselves. Isidore states, “Your have to be with other people…in order to live at all.” This comes with the conceptions that in order for us to really be human and live up to our species we must depend on other people. In doing so, do we have to lose our personal identity? When we begin to depend on the thoughts and standards that those around us are placing we are merely becoming a robot of society and lose our identity and individuality. However, it is easier to mimic what we see in a magazine or on the television then to look inside ourselves and figure out what we believe and what we are truly passionate about. Rick had his wife Iran at home with him, and it was not until the end of the novel that he realized her importance because he was so rapped up in the need to live up to societies standards of looking rich and owning some type of animal. Rick could have had his identity fulfilled with just being pleased by his wife if he would have taken the time to figure himself out previously.
The human condition is known for its selfishness and greed and Dick plays this theme out very well. Iran was focused on the mood organ and wanted to be on Mars where she felt she belonged. In today’s society, to parallel the postmodern era beliefs, there is a constant need to know what is happening around you and not be satisfied in the place you are in. I believe this come from not being able to connect with the “real” world around us. Once Iran was able to do so and let go of her personal issues she was able to have happiness without her mood organ.
Overall Dick’s novel ¬Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, despite the original intentions, is a reflections of today’s post modern era, as well as the human condition.
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LibraryThing member schre108
In Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep we are able to see a reflection of Jean Baudrillard’s idea of the simulacra, the idea of simulation to a point where the imitation becomes more realistic than the genuine. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep we see the simulacra
The first android we encounter in the novel is Rachael Rosen, at first we do not know that she is not a human and are led to believe she is. She is described as being “a young woman…black haired and slender” (39), she also has “small even teeth, as white as her eyes and hair were black” (41). Rachael’s physical description leads us to believe that she is another human being. Dick uses this technique in the novel to fool us into believing that this alternate reality is valid. He creates characters that are relatable and very real, even though they are not humans. Dick even gives Rachael and other androids human emotional and habitual characteristics. When Rick Deckard is observing Rachael Rosen he notices that “her eyebrows lifted in distaste—and wariness. [Rick] perceived [Rachael’s] skeletal tension” (58). Dick not only has the androids look real physically, but tries to have them act like humans and have human reactions. Baudrillard states that: "the distinctions between the image and the representation begin to break down because of mass production and the proliferation of copies. Such production misrepresents and masks an underlying reality by imitating it so well, thus threatening to replace it (e.g. in photography or ideology); however, there is still a belief that, through critique or effective political action, one can still access the hidden fact of the real".
Philip Dick uses this idea in his novel in order to construct a world inside the world he has already created. He does this because having a reproduction of what is real makes it easier for relationships in the story. Rick Deckard would not be able to retire or kill androids if they were actually living. Having something like an android produces the same effect that killing an actual human being would have on the reader without it affecting the characters in the book. By killing androids, Rick has nothing to lose and can therefore continue to retire them for profit. Having an imitation makes it easier to invest feelings in what Rick is doing because there is no fear of loss of life or of relations to something realistic that could actually disappear. Human kind thrives on feelings and connections we make with one another, so Philip Dick is playing with the concept that we wouldn’t have that. Does that still make us human? Or does it make us something that reflects a human in every possible way except one? This is the idea of fiction novels, creating a world that seems so real that we feel as though we are living inside of it even though we know that none of it is genuine. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep we are able to see the idea of a simulation of a human being, something that is so similar that we are not able to tell the difference between the two. And yet, the two are so different in every way they act, talk, move and think.
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expressed as a representation that determines what is real and authentic. In Dick’s novel, there is no distinction between what is legitimate and what is just a mere portrayal of reality. An example of this is how Dick describes the androids in the novel. There is no difference between a real human being and an android other than their life expectancies. It can also be argued that androids do not have empathy because it is through this fashion that we are able to tell the difference between a human and an android through the Voigt-Kampff test. However, we see that Rachael wants to save the androids left near the end of the novel and can infer that she possesses some form of empathy for other beings. The first android we encounter in the novel is Rachael Rosen, at first we do not know that she is not a human and are led to believe she is. She is described as being “a young woman…black haired and slender” (39), she also has “small even teeth, as white as her eyes and hair were black” (41). Rachael’s physical description leads us to believe that she is another human being. Dick uses this technique in the novel to fool us into believing that this alternate reality is valid. He creates characters that are relatable and very real, even though they are not humans. Dick even gives Rachael and other androids human emotional and habitual characteristics. When Rick Deckard is observing Rachael Rosen he notices that “her eyebrows lifted in distaste—and wariness. [Rick] perceived [Rachael’s] skeletal tension” (58). Dick not only has the androids look real physically, but tries to have them act like humans and have human reactions. Baudrillard states that: "the distinctions between the image and the representation begin to break down because of mass production and the proliferation of copies. Such production misrepresents and masks an underlying reality by imitating it so well, thus threatening to replace it (e.g. in photography or ideology); however, there is still a belief that, through critique or effective political action, one can still access the hidden fact of the real".
Philip Dick uses this idea in his novel in order to construct a world inside the world he has already created. He does this because having a reproduction of what is real makes it easier for relationships in the story. Rick Deckard would not be able to retire or kill androids if they were actually living. Having something like an android produces the same effect that killing an actual human being would have on the reader without it affecting the characters in the book. By killing androids, Rick has nothing to lose and can therefore continue to retire them for profit. Having an imitation makes it easier to invest feelings in what Rick is doing because there is no fear of loss of life or of relations to something realistic that could actually disappear. Human kind thrives on feelings and connections we make with one another, so Philip Dick is playing with the concept that we wouldn’t have that. Does that still make us human? Or does it make us something that reflects a human in every possible way except one? This is the idea of fiction novels, creating a world that seems so real that we feel as though we are living inside of it even though we know that none of it is genuine. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep we are able to see the idea of a simulation of a human being, something that is so similar that we are not able to tell the difference between the two. And yet, the two are so different in every way they act, talk, move and think.
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Subjects
Awards
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 1968)
Locus All-Time Best (Science Fiction Novel — 51 — 1998)
The Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (Science Fiction and Fantasy)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1968
Physical description
272 p.; 4.2 inches
ISBN
0345350472 / 9780345350473