Tiff

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a great novel. It is a fairly easy read, very clear and straightforward. Along with other writers during this time (that I know of, and excluding Norman Mailer), like Kurt Vonnegut or George Orwell, Philip Dick employs a very plain language. This is not to say that any of these men wrote simplistic literature, but that their writing is simply easier to read and comprehend. It doesn’t run circles around you and make no perceivable sense like some Modernist poetry from the first half of the twentieth century. Published in 1968, it seems to me very plausible science fiction. It is not impossible that we could experience another, completely destructive world war like World War Terminus, which in the book has lead to a perpetual fallout of radioactive dust: “The morning air, spilling over with radioactive motes, gray and sun-beclouding, belched about him, haunting his nose; he sniffed involuntarily the taint of death” (8). This dust has killed off all living things, although it works a bit slower on humans. It has given animals an incredible amount of significance. To find a live one means a stipend from the government, but this is so rare that there are animal dealers who sell them at astronomical rates. Social status depends so much upon owning an animal that there is a market for electric animals. The owning of an animal occupies Rick Deckard’s (main character) mind constantly. It is an obsession.

Also not impossible is that humanoid robots will one day be a part of our society. To my knowledge, they are not currently prevalent, but who knows? They could be out there somewhere. And as they become more advanced, why not more advanced than ourselves, capable of just about anything, and without the one thing that separates adjusted humans from sociopaths - empathy? Especially if they are chafing in their position of slavery and unwilling to part with their lives. Dick presents a terrifying future, one which is scarily realistic.

A little ways into Blade Runner I found myself thinking, “This is a pretty good adaptation….” I was impressed. Sure, there is a lot that is incorrect, but the feeling, the atmosphere, of the film is very appropriate. Now, the version I watched was Ridley Scott’s director’s cut. According to the back of the DVD case, this is slightly different from the 1982 release: “This new version omits Deckard’s voiceover narration, develops in slightly greater detail the romance between Deckard and Rachael (Sean Young) and removes the ‘uplifting’ finale”. From what I am told, there is still another version, and I am unsure as to how this differs even further.

Now I must address the problems – maybe not problems, but inconsistencies with the novel. As I said, I find Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? to be rather believable science fiction. And I feel that the movie goes a bit far at times. It feels like someone tried too hard to make it look futuristic. Especially with things like fluorescent umbrella sticks and strange costumes like the one Zhora (equivalent of Luba Luft in book) wears before she smashes through about fifteen glass windows. The amount of neon lighting is overpowering, which I find odd because I imagined a place more desolate and gray, not so shiny or crowded. I imagined a city lived from rooftop to rooftop, without the bazaar-like ground level where we first find Rick Deckard, the bounty hunter who is to kill the androids. But I must say that the opening shot (one that reminds me of the opening of Alien) is just absolutely breathtaking. Somehow, everything large just looks even more grand in Scott’s movies. He also seems to do well with these enormous settings dark and dripping with water.

The differences in human names and places are not so significant, although they do exist. There is no Iran Deckard – Rick’s wife in the book. Maybe she existed at one time. Photos (as physical manifestations of memories) play a rather important part in the film, especially for the androids with implanted pasts. Deckard also seems to have an obsession with photos (those of his victims and possibly his own). There is also J.F. Sebastian (J.R. Isidore in novel) who is not a chickenhead, or special, unable to pass an IQ test and unable to emigrate to Mars, but a genetic designer for the Tyrell Corporation (Rosen in book). Unfortunately though, he has some kind of growth or aging defect, which still renders him unable to move to Mars like any ’normal’ human. His sympathies for the humanoid robots still exist, but the importance lies in the fact that he has had a hand in their creation, and not because they are simply outcasts like himself. His character is more intelligent but is still taken advantage of – although such is the consequence of the androids being more advanced.

The androids are quite different, specifically Roy Batty (Roy Baty) and Rachael Tyrell (Rachael Rosen). Batty is not nearly as clever or deadly in the novel, where he only exists toward the end and is quickly killed by Deckard. In Blade Runner, he is terrifying from the beginning. In the end, he dies of his own accord; I suppose his time just runs out (android lifespan = four years). And before he gives up the ghost he clearly overpowers and outsmarts Deckard. In fact, Batty saves Deckard’s life. In the movie, where it is not so apparent in the book, humans are completely dominated and are out of their minds with fear of the androids. Rachael Tyrell, an android with an implanted past, is in my opinion a much less compelling character. The awkward love scene of the film is nowhere to be found in the book. In one of the greatest gets I’ve ever read, Rachael sleeps with Deckard so that he will have trouble retiring Pris, an android who is supposed to be the same type as Rachael. Of course, he has fallen in love with her. The Rosen Corporation hopes that his seduction will swear him off of the further bounty hunting of their robots. Instead, Rachael Tyrell is soft and helpless, not at all what the other androids are like. She and Deckard attempt to run away together in the end, and although we don’t see what actually happens, we have an inkling that she will probably die.

Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? New York: Ballantine Books, 1968.

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