Okay. Philip K Dick is a genius. The science fiction, the plot, all just beautiful.
PKD is great at world building in very short books. Neither Androids or Scanner were particularly long books. And the worlds, although apocalyptic, were not very similar to each other.
One friend mentioned part of this is that PKD does not get bogged down in trying to explain too much. Technology is apparent and just assumed to work, given some vaguely technical background, but never challenged or dissected. I think it’s something I’d like to be aware of as a technique and critique, applying the ideas to my own book of fantasy.
Where Scanner focused on Drug addiction, Androids discusses empathy, evolving technology, the fine line between humanity and cold, calculating, nothing.
First a really interesting metaphor for slavery. The escaped droids flee to Earth, attempting to blend in or hide. They are “retired” by the bounty hunters who have to think of this as not human, lest they fail to complete their jobs. Rachel Rosen is almost tasked as a reverse bounty hunter, meant to give empathy to the detectives to defer them from their tasks. While the Empathy Test is infallible, clearly the human presenting the test isn’t.
But as we get to learn more about the Nexus 6 types, PKD purposefully blurs the line between human and droid. They are thinking, feeling creatures. They have a level of self-preservation and cooperation.
I have this vague belief, finishing the book, the Androids were distinctly not human. I don’t necessarily think that doesn’t mean they don’t have rights, but they there is clearly some barrier, some Uncanny Valley, that keeps them from being actual living things. This I think is exemplified when the trio cruelly cut the legs of the wild spider. All just for entertainment.
Also when, cornered by Rick Deckard, he describes them as “giving up” and surrendering when faced with death, a parallel to the spider that struggles even when hobbled by the droids or Mercer after the rock is thrown. Life does not go softly into the night.
But that doesn’t prelude them from gaining empathy from real humans. Rick shows it by bringing the toad back. The cat owners, by replacing the cat. The chickenhead by caring for Pris. Rick by sleeping with Rachael.
The Droids are meant to be not human but not unsympathetic. They, like everyone, are fleeing in hopes of a better life.
I love the “keeping-up-with-the-Jones” that the animals play for the humans. Not only does the electric sheep work as a veneer for the wealth of the Deckards, but also the upsell move from the animal sales lady.
Then how, even with 4 retired droids giving him a goat, he still has to make money to make the payments. Then on top of that, he has it cruelly taken away.
The empathy box. The snorting Snuff. The emotion regulator. All of them echo A Scanner Darkly’s rampant use of substances to control emotions.
More similarities, they both seem to work in the very fringes of government work. Bounty hunter. Undercover drug cop.
I have only guesses at who or what Mercer is and what the function of the empathy box is. Why does it throw rocks at them? Where does the injury come from? Why does is take emotions from people? Why does Mercer appear to Rick? Does it have to do with the emotion based trap they laid? What about the oyster shaped device that Rick got from Rachael to use on the Droids?
I do plan to watch Blade Runner, the final directors cut and its reboot and some subsequent supplementary materials. It’s a very important film, as it does become a major influence in how futuristic science fiction pieces are down. I’m interested to see how the discussion and then the viewing will each change our opinions on the text.
I'm going to give this book a 4.20/5.00 Look, some serious issues with plot and simplistic language. PKD does build a great world, and the philosophy questions are top notch. It's a classic totally worth reading.