01/2008 Winner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick

GWC Community Book Club Winning Nominees and Polls
#1

One of Philip K. Dick’s best works and the inspiration for the movie Blade Runner, “Androids” is a dystopian, science-fiction novel that ushers in the era of the posthuman. Bounty hunters :cool:, rogue androids :eek:, and electric sheep :confused:, this book remains one of my favorites.

From the “The Android and the Human” - Philip K. Dick

“Whether we accept it unquestioningly or rebel against it, technology, in the hands of the powers that be, has acquired not simply a life of its own, but a life that substantially infiltrates our own lives, changing our character in subtle and meaningful ways. If we succumb unwittingly - or worse still, indifferently - to the totalitarian mechanization of our world, we risk becoming androids ourselves, reduced to humans of mere use - humans made into machines.”

#2

And tie this in with a Blade Runner rewatch. Perfect!

#3

This is one of my favorite books. And with all the symbolism, I find it great to through into an essay. Especially cause I can BS it and almost no prof ever calls me on it.

#4

Great idea and a great book!!!

#5

Oooh, I’m totally voting for this.

#6

The movie was really good guess I’ll have to check out the book

#7

Just as an FYI to everyone: the book is dramatically different than the movie. But though the book takes a very different path, I always felt like I understand the movie a lot better since I read the book.

#8

What an excellent idea…I have never read the story and love the movie. Don’t we have the super duper really true to the director vision coming out soon?

In all seriousness I recently read the history of how this movie came to pass and the process is mind-blowing. A real education on Hollywood and how movies get out there. It will be interesting to see people’s reactions of “The Final Director’s Cut” to the original.

Anywho, awesome idea!

#9

Early December I believe

#10

Middle of December…18th to be exact. I get 2 for my birthday this year…Blade Runner Final Cut and Braveheart Collector’s Edition. Woot!

#11

Listeners/readers have spoken, and this month we’re taking a collective look at Phillip K. Dick’s masterpiece, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – known to many of you by its more common movie name, Blade Runner. And our voters’ timing is inescapably brilliant. Why? This month’s selection coincides with the most recent “ultimate” relase of the movie, the suitcase-enclosed “Final Cut” edition.

First time readers will notice major differences between tome and screen, though surprisingly these differences fit together like perfectly-cut puzzle pieces – as if the screenplay’s story exists within the book’s wider universe. One major (and hotly-debated) discrepancy: the ending. Think of it as the Han-Shot-First, Han-Shot-Last, Han-Shot-At-The-Same-Time of the Blade Runner 'verse.

Here’s the pertinent information:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep%3F
Via Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Do-Androids-Dream-Electric-Sheep/dp/0345404475/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199310792&sr=8-2
Via BN: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=do+androids+dream+of+electric+sheep&z=y

#12

So, I actually listened to an audio book release of this a few months back while on a road trip. All in all, I enjoyed it immensely, but honestly felt as though the two works (book and film) need to be looked at separately. If you’re looking at the movie as a true adaptation of the book, it’s a little weak. They both stand up quite strongly on their own, though.

One part of the book which I really dug was the entire concept of animals as symbols of social status. The idea that you weren’t owning a pet for it to be a fun thing to play with, but rather for the right to be able to say that you are the protector of a member of an endangered species. It’s somewhat sad that this couldn’t have been addressed in the movie, because I feel it’s a story element that adds greatly to the ambience of the entire created world. As Chuck says, though, it still feels like this could easily be a part of the Blade Runner universe which is not addressed, but somewhat implied by the artificial animal business.

As someone who had seen the movie well before reading the book, one slight disappointment in my eyes was the ease with which Deckard dispatched Batty. Part of what made the film so emotionally strong was the Batty’s impact on Deckard & his speech at the end. He really served as a conduit of identification between the audience and the replicants. Without the same depth to his character, the book just seemed much more shallow in terms of issues of identity & the soul. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I think (at least in some ways) the book was focused more on the world that Dick created, whereas the film centered on the characters in it.

#13

I found an interesting study guide to DADoES (although he refers to it as Blade Runner.)

#14

Ah, good ol’ DADoES. I find this the one of the best examples for essays.

Examples of its possible uses:

Slavery
Human Rights (Including both men’s and women’s rights)
What is Human
among others…

And the great thing is, most profs haven’t read it and don’t bother to check. So you can bullcraaaaap the whole thing! :slight_smile:

#15

The Do Androids Dream world is the opposite of Futurama: In Futurama, the owls are like mice – they’re everywhere. In Androids/Blade Runner, they were the first to go.

The edition I have features an intro by sci-fi writer Roger Zelazny (who I haven’t read much but, but recall as being quite good, very clever). Of Dick, he says something to the effect of, “His stories are so distinct that they’re hard to recall, point-by-point – but you always leave with a very vivid, if not specific, impression or feeling of the story.” And that, to me, kinda summarizes the neat relationship between the book and the different cuts of the movie: They’re different, but they all have a similar feel.

From the book to the movie, a lot of images appear in both, but in different contexts. Pretty neat.

Can’t say enough about how cool the five-disc set is. I’m not big on DVD extras, but I’m watching every little bit of what’s included. The documentaries about the making of and the ongoing phenomenon are great. But the neatest, to me, is how they present the alternate scenes: The DVD producers culled a lot of unused narrative audio from Harrison Ford, laid it over the unused scenes, and created – basically – and alternate cut of the movie, which fills in some gaps. Wicked-awesome.

I first saw the flick as a kid, and I was totally mesmerized by it – despite the fact that a ton of themes and plot points totally went over my head. The film just works, you know?

#16

Just finished “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.” I am a pretty fast reader, especially if it is a book I am enjoying; consequently, I finished this book in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down. Some of my thought after reading it:

[spoiler]1. After reading about World War Terminus, I have a better understanding of the visual look to “Blade Runner.” Though you never see any of the people wearing lead suits in the movie.
2. Animals. Surprisingly, this was one of most interesting parts of the book to me. I thought it was cool that the most important possession you could ever own would be a live animal, and how the androids felt no empathy towards them unlike the humans.
3. Rachael—wow, this one surprised me. She knew that she was an android and was able to get several bounty hunters to stop; although in a way she succeeded with Deckard, but not before he got the rest of the rouge Nexus-6 models.
4. Mercer/Mercerism and empathy boxes. This part of the story I have trouble understanding, and may be the part of the story that makes me re-read it so I can get a better understanding. I understand that Mercerism is the new religion/philosophy in the book, and that people somehow use the empathy boxes to connect with mercer, but what was all that talk about fusing with Mercer about? Hopefully someone here on the GWC can clear this portion up for me.[/spoiler]

To anyone who finishes this book, I would recommend the “Old Man’s War” by John Scalzi. Especially if you intrigued by the question: “What is a Human and what makes us one?” after having just recently read both, I felt the two books complemented each other well.

#17

That’s one of the odder parts of the book. This link at WikiP may help.

#18

I have only just started DADoES, but I am liking it so far.

I’ve only seen bits and snatches of the theatrical cut of “Blade Runner.” I saw the director’s cut in a theater once, but don’t have any clear memories of it, so I am looking forward to watching the various cuts again after having read the book with you guys. My main memory is that, a week or so after a friend and I saw it, we were in Atlanta riding the transport at Hartsfield Airport – and the computerized voice telling us which terminal we were arriving at sounded exactly like something out of “Blade Runner”!

#19

That helps, but I am still confused. I will probably end up reading the book again this week.:confused:

#20

I haven’t read much of Dick’s stuff, but if I understand correctly, Dick tends to play fast-and-loose with reality. Which doesn’t exactly explain the whole Mercerism thing, but it helps me understand that there is, in fact, some weirdness going on in his stories.

Regarding the Mercer machines, I look at them as being like an internet-like device. And the Buddy Something talk show host that may or may be a Cylon? Shades of Howard Stern.