Philip Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
[presentation I gave, in Douglas Kellner's "Cultural Studies" seminar, feb 27]
- Blade Runner movie (windows media)
- Philip Dick book
Philip Dick's name is funny. That's not what this presentation is about.
As a fan of Blade Runner, what is obvious about Dick’s novel is the content missing from the film. The book alternates between deadly serious and comic. Central to the book is the concept referenced in the title, of not only fake humans, but fake animals.Voiceover
The original, director’s cut of Blade Runner did not have a voiceover. Ridley Scott was opposed to it, as was Harrison Ford (who attempted to sabotage the voiceover with a cheesy film noir voice). They wanted the sense of confusion, alienation. Yet the studio insisted on something more, to guide the audience. The book, with an omniscient narrator, feels more like the studio version. One difference is the book’s protagonist thinks about silly things. Irrelevant things. And he especially obsesses about purchasing an animal. None of this fits well into a sci-fi noir movie. Side note: I like the Blade Runner director’s cut better, without the pedantic voiceover, and recommend it to anyone. It is a bit too serious, though.
Fake animals
Rick Deckard is owner of an electric sheep. This sheep is programmed to replicate the behavior of a real sheep. Deckard used to have a real sheep. Animals are actively traded around the world. Few exist outside of zoos and private homes, so there is a known market, which operates strictly based on supply and demand. Books are published and consulted for trading, books which have recorded every negotiated sale price. Deckard was unable to buy a replacement sheep because of the sheer cost. He has a fake sheep, programmed with “an oat algorithm” so his neighbors do not realize the truth.
Special
In the future, not only have most people abandoned earth, most animals are extinct. In an exaggerated mutt combining today’s environmental warnings with daily casualty reports from Iraq, the book’s television reports include daily updates of which specias have become extinct. This creates a sense of impending doom among people. Coupled with government warning about the dangers of staying on earth (as opposed to leaving for a space colony), people have real fears of their own extinction. Nobody sees this as a problem to solve, exactly. Their responses are purely remedial. They were lead-lined codpieces, to protect their reproductive abilities, and reluctantly make plans to leave earth.
All the while, they hope to not be exposed to so much fall-out radiation or toxin as to be classified “Special.” Deriving from today’s schooling category of “special education,” in this future, a special is a person whose brain has been damaged by radiation. This is perhaps the only thing worse than death. People are tested often to assure non-special status. A Special is not allowed to hold a normal job, and is actively discriminated against in all aspects of life. Even at a space colony, the Special would be hated. A Special seems to be viewed as almost contagious, as if the damaging isotopes are being re-emitted. Conversations in the book are abandoned mid-sentence when a normal realizes the other person is Special.
Religion
He wants people to not know it’s fake because of the dominant religion, Mercerism. They believe that to achieve enlightenment, a person must feel pure empathy. That means caring for people, but also caring for an animal. Only by providing food, shelter, and love to a helpless creature will the believer be saved. Almost everyone follows this tenet, though it logically requires that most people are spiritually doomed, because the animal population is much lower than that of humans. Of course, while Deckard is concerned for his own salvation, he seems to worry more about how is perceived by others. Hence, the electric sheep is a reasonable temporary replacement.
So as the book deals with the question of how to tell whether an apparent human is an android or not, we also learn the differences between real and robotic animals. And the principle difference is spiritual. Yes, the fake animals behave different in some ways, but this is irrelevant. The important thing is the “soul,” which cannot be faked.
Implicit is the suggestion of a human soul, which androids lack, which ultimately makes it okay to kill them. Mercerism says that androids cannot feel empathy, so they are inherently evil. It is not a sin to kill an android, because the android can act only out of self-interest.
Advertising
Advertising is important in the book. Advertisements are everywhere, and explained in the prose. In the film, television commercials and billboards are everywhere, too, but they seem to blend in to this post-apocalyptic world. We are numb to them, as we are to the advertisements in our world. With the book, though, there is something fundamentally different. The author calls your attention to an object, essentially forcing you to read it or listen to it. The point here seems to be the ridiculousness of our objects now, and the problem of our numbness to them. Though the reader is highly aware, the characters of the novel barely notice advertising. They are bombarded with messages, mostly ones warning them about the health hazards of remaining on earth, yet there is no rush to move to the space colonies. Just as in our world, the effectiveness of commercials seems to decrease as the quantity and variety increase.
At the same time, everything is clearly commodified. Even things that seem like people turn out to be products. Rosen Corporation makes money by creating fake people, and Deckard makes money by destroying fake people. Isidore, a Special, makes money by repairing fake animals, and the Happy Dog Pet Shop makes money by distributing them. Whoever runs Mercerism makes money by selling billions of Empathy Boxes, the required devotional tool. Everything, even spirituality, is an object with a price listing in a book. Small references are made to this pan-objectification. Deckard talks about “the tyranny of the object,” with things being only as real as measurements indicate. I'm not sure what that means. Any ideas?
Comments