Philip K. Dick

· b. December 16, 1928 in Chicago; d. 1982

· sometimes wrote under pseudonym, Richard Phillips

· lived most of life in California, San Francisco Bay area

· radio announcer for classical music, operated a record store, attended U of California at Berkeley, dropped out of university because compulsory ROTC conflicted with his pacifist views

· married six times with 3 children

· pub. ~110 short stories; ~36 novels, radio scripts,

· won Hugo Award, John W. Campbell award

· often focus on alternative universes, nature of reality, relationship between machines and humans

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

· nominated for Nebula Award 1968

· note large differences between the novel and film

· adaptation as “analogy”- uses the original as point of departure

Differences in novel

· Decker is married to Iran

· character named Isidore, the ‘chicken head’

· see hierarchical society based on ability to reproduce with safety

· live animals have high, monetary value (Sidney’s Animal and Fowl Catologue); they are so rare they come with instruction manuals (181)

· Mercerism

· Buster Friendly and His Friendly Friends – media control of human existence

· thalamic mood adjuster to control emotional output in humans – Penfield mood organ - Rick and Iran’s “fight” (4); expect familiar domestic dispute about differing priorities, but twist is that it is about buying a real sheep vs. electric one (note: different species of animal react differently to radiation; sheep among the most vulnerable

· every aspect of life is mechanized, even emotion; reference to “A merry little surge of electricity…”(3 emphasis mine) – shows conjunction of machine and emotion

· novel introduces us to world so bleak that people remaining on earth routinely dial in a positive mood to avoid thinking about the “absence of life”(5); dial in a “481” which is “Awareness of the manifold possibilities…” (6). Iran schedules her depression and automatic recovery:

“So I put it on my schedule for twice a month; I think that’s a reasonable amount of time to feel hopeless about everything, about staying here on Earth after everybody who’s smart has emigrated, don’t you think?” (5-6).

· environmental and political situation more clearly spelled out - “Emigrate or Degenerate” to avoid radioactive fallout of World War Terminus, the Ajax model Mountibank Lead Codpiece,

Novel/Film

· pub. 1 year before man landed on the moon

· both novel and film are concerned with nature of what it is to be human

· title: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? begs question of what is the meaning of humanity?; suggest simulation of human activity occurs at every level

· persecution of androids is seen an inhumane; Iran calls her husband “a murderer hired by the cops” (4).

· Mercerism - principles of equity “for you to have two horses and me none, that violates the whole basic theological and moral structure of Mercerism”

( 11). “There is no salvation” (178)

· Irmagard feels empathy for Isidore when Pris mocks him:

“’Don’t call him [chickenhead], Pris,” Irmagard said; she gave Isidore a look of compassion. “think what he could call you”’ (159).

· Is a ‘look of compassion’ the same as experiencing compassion? how do we ever know?

· parallels with Frankenstein – hubris of scientist; creation becomes autonomous, ambiguity of feelings of creator to creation

· Jenna Tiltsman: we feel sympathy and fear/disgust for replicants; we feel similarly toward Deckard – can’t decide with whom to identify

· additionally, other distinctions are blurred as boundaries collapse

· Ultimately, we question is Deckard human or replicant? (see second ending and suggestion that his memories are implants)

· we identify humanness through ability to feel emotion - Voigt-Kampf test; yet we know in the novel that Deckard dials in feelings and in the film, has a sexual relationship with the replicant, Rachel

· if we have seen the ‘world’ through Deckard’s eyes, were we seeing a replicant or a human view?

· the role of the camera

· Sharon Gravett: “refusal to authorized one particular reading”

· on the one hand, Genesis retelling: replicants as new Adam and Eve, Tyrell as ‘God’ in his penthouse pyramid; replicants denied knowledge of their date of demise; exiled for assuming aspects of the divine; but earth is NOT Eden;

· parallels repeatedly drawn between Batty and Deckard; authorized killers, both experience remorse (Batty confesses to Tyrell, Deckard quit his job), both injured in the hand; Batty as Christ figure with nail in his palm, doves, Deckard saves Rachel and flee to become new Adam and Eve

· also see Batty/Deckard as Esau, Adam, Christ, Stan and Jacob

· notions of masculinity: what is it to be male in this world? (reproduction, sex, violence, emotion are all re-fashioned)