For this installment of Chattin The Classix, we tackled our first volume of science fiction, Philip K. Dick's (henceforth PKD) Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep (henceforth DADES), which inspred the 1982 film Blade Runner. PKD was known to experiment with hallucinagenics in pursuit of cracking open the nature of human existence, and inspired legions of followers known as "dickheads." DADES follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter charged with retiring androids as he nagivgates issues of empathy in the time of nuclear apocalypse. Don't worry, we manage to include Snoop Dogg, Freud and post-apocalyptic sexual politics in the discussion.
Meredith: what would happen if an android could get pregnant?!
Is robot a recessive or dominant gene?
Emily: well in DADES a human boning an android is against the law
Meredith: what if you didn't know!
"Officer, she said she was a human!"
Emily: that would be an interesting sequel
thru Rachael's eyes
so Sci Fi (Science Fiction in laymen’s terms): it’s a bit of an intimidating genre to get into
Meredith: I agree!
I think it was wise to start with PKD
Emily: yes! He seems to be a giant of the genre but also sort of accessible to non-virgins
Meredith: the cover says that he's a prophet and kafka-esque
Emily: my cover has Harrison Ford on it
Meredith: oof
I’d get into that
Emily: you've seen the movie, right?
Meredith: well so
I think we should not call Blade Runner "the movie"
it used DADES as a base
not an adaptation
there's no mention of Mercerism at all in the film
Meredith: but there is mention of Harrison ford kissing Rachael truly madly deeply
Emily: ok so let’s talk about Mercerism
Meredith: I mean obvi a commentary on religion in general
Was it a scam? Was it only real if you believed in it? Did Deckard become Mercer?
Emily: right... I think he meant to show that all beliefs are available if you want them to be, but once you look behind the curtain, as it were, it’s all a ruse
that’s what I got
also
maybe I’ve been reading too much about Scientology, but it really reminded me of that
like with the mood-meters or whatever
just like in Scientology they have the e-meters to read your mood, sort of like confession
Meredith: yes! also just saw The Master, which everyone called PTA's "scientology movie"
also it was interesting: the sort of penance that people make to Mercer, where they feel his pain and connect to him
Emily: right, exactly... they're supposed to empathize with his immense suffering
Empathy: obviously an enormous theme of the book & the one thing that separates humans from androids
Meredith: yesss
identity, too
it's interesting that some of the androids knew that they were androids
and some didn't
Emily: right! Like Rachael?
Meredith: Yes! Which is worse? To feel like you know what it's like to be a human even though you're missing a huge component? or to know you ain't
and then
the scene with the other bounty hunter, Phil Resch
I loved that part
where Luba Luft called someone to have Deckard taken in
and his whole world, for a moment, got turned into this paranoia of the unknown
how am I not myself
but then Phil Resch was very concerned that he actually was an android!
They both were scared!
Emily: or when Rachael says: "it's an illusion that I-- I personally-- really exist; I’m just representative of a type"
which arguably could apply to us all
Aren’t we all just representative of a type?
I think the metaphysical aspects of PKD’s work is pretty undeniable
but I love how it dovetails with the emotional element, the empathy
Meredith: like what's it mean to be human?
Emily: yeah.
also
the Buster Friendly element, the mass media, pro-consumerist talk show, is a rival to Mercerism, which the androids don’t have access to, because they can’t feel the pain of Mercer
Some background info: “SF critic Darko Suvin is credited with articulating the concept of the novum (“new thing”) in SF; the novum is the speculative element that is explored and which becomes one of the defining elements of the work, such as time travel, nanotechnology, faster-than-light travel, etc.” from :
"novum" being elements of the plot in relation to SF
Meredith: Let's talk about kipple
it's just like left over crap but it's kind of taken over
it's not garbage
but "useless stuff"
"More than just clutter, Kipple is a spiritual and transcendent reflection of humanity's desire to collect commodities and then let them degrade and degenerate as they collect. Kipple is worthless, but it is also dangerous because it builds on itself and it encourages and causes everything around it to degrade as well."
That’s from some questionably accurate resource
hah
Emily: “I found that orienting my reading mind to another universe was difficult... not that PKD is extra-jargon heavy but still challenging for the newb
Meredith: so is it just the human audience that really wants Rachael to fall in love with Deckard? even though we know it won't work
Emily: yes! And is it just the human audience that was convinced that she was in love?
I was convinced!
Meredith: right. but it was impossible
Emily: totally, I don’t know why I thought it was, I was sold. I liked the scene where she meets him in a snakeskin jacket and bra and short shorts
Meredith: poor thing is not affected by booze
jk
there's also the scene where the other bounty hunter, Phil Resch, finds it very easy to kill andies
and this makes Deckard question whether or not Resch is actually human
he IS human, just doesn't give a fuuuuuuck
because the andies were a threat to their society
it's almost a catch 22
Retire the shit out of the androids, but if you don't feel a lil guilty, are you really human?
I guess you probably shouldn't sleep with them
Emily: but, Deckard does have empathy!
Meredith: right! such a human
me: ok also, so Rachael is basically sort of put in place specifically to sleep with the bounty hunters?
I didn’t pick that up when I was reading it,
which maybe = cultural elapse IRL?
we learn that she slept with this Phil Resch
in my mind, I’m like oh she liked both of them
but in 1968
a woman sleeping with more than one dude has to be a prostitute
another review I read of it noted the archaic gender roles despite taking place in "the future"
which I thought was interesting and a pretty valid critique of SF. technological advancement, nuclear holocaust and women are still subservient
Meredith: ah interesting
it's funny because it still felt dated to me
like the nagging mopey wife
Emily: and the female secretaries
Meredith: the hot chick that he cheats on his wife with
the acceptance of him cheating
woman as object, fo sho
Pris, too
her initial character, or how Isidore sees her, is damsel in distress
little does he know that she wants to laser the shit out of his face
but she needs Roy to help!
Emily: yes, true. plus, Rachael and Pris are just prototypes of each other
the male androids aren’t all twins
Meredith: yes!
I like how that's talked about in Blade Runner
there are only a few models
that one is the small kewt one
Emily: Right, plus you have Sean Young and Darryl Hannah
to distinguish between
lets talk about the literary quality of the work
PKD constructed this world, but were you drawn in?
Meredith: all 250 pages of it
there were points that I was drawn into, but I definitely didn't get much imagery
were you?
Emily: at times. I think the most affecting scene, or the one that really revealed PKD's talent as a writer and for creating tension was the one where the androids are hanging in Isidore's apt waiting for Deckard and they pull the legs off the spider, one by one.
It’s pretty grisly, and lets us into the dark side of the androids
Meredith: yesssss
absolutely
Emily: at that point, we don’t know who to root for-- we don’t really want to see them die but also we don’t sympathize with them
Meredith: I didn't feel much empathy for them
J.D. Isidore, yes.
Emily: right! the "Special,” or a human who had been mentally destroyed by the nuclear fallout of the world war
a "chickenhead"
BUT! we learn he has feelings, plus is still a moral being
Meredith: yes!
resents being called a chickenhead
the spider thing was really gruesome to read
for lots of reasons
a, it was endangered
b. CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
c. worth $$$ that Isidore could use, being a chickenhead and all
Emily ok so the ending:?
Meredith: more subservient wife shit, kinda
I mean, Rachael is clearly acting like an android
what a bitchy thing to do!
Emily: right... I just thought it was a weird way for it to end... its Sci-Fi but has the most conventional movie ending EVAR
like, go to sleep and I’m going to order the fake frog some fake flies to eat so you can feel ok about things?
Meredith: riiiiight.
Emily: and we the readers are supposed to take solace in the fact that their marriage is back on track
Meredith: there there husband
exactly
even though she has to dial in a 4 to feel happy around him
or in general
that was interesting, even in 1968, it was almost like talking about Prozac (TM) nation
Emily: right, exactly!
Sci-Fi always depicts the fears of its age
maybe PKD predicted an emotionless future
he was right
Meredith: ooof
Emily: plus, nuclear holocaust which of course was a HUGE issue at the end of the 60s
and still is
Meredith: OH that old thing
Emily: plus, fear of extinction, the idea that the earth is unfit for its own inhabitants
Meredith: there was palpable fear throughout about identity and extinction
Mercer sez "It's the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. it is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; this is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life. Everywhere in the universe"
Emily: Ultimate Truths
I think that the lesson of Mercer that he was a charlatan but also right about some things?
Meredith: right. so what was the deal with Buster outing him as a fraud?
Emily: I think he was trying to turn the masses against him
Meredith: also, Freud! Robots! The Uncanny!
“uncanny” as the class of frightening things that leads us back to what is known and familiar
Emily: like close enough to be spooky?
sort of like how humans find animals that look like us weird and unsettling?
“Basically, the Uncanny is what unconsciously reminds us of our own Id, our forbidden and thus repressed impulses perceived as a threatening force by our super-ego ridden with oedipal guilt as it fears symbolic castration by punishment for deviating from societal norms”
- from wiki page
“After Freud, Jacques Lacan, in his seminar 1962–1963 "L'angoisse" ("Anxiety"), utilized the Unheimlich "via regia" to enter into the territory of Angst. Lacan showed in a very clear manner how, the same image which seduces the subject trapping him in the narcissistic impasse, may suddenly, by a contingency, show that it is dependent on something, some hidden object, and so the subject may grasp at the same time that he is not autonomous (5 December 1962).”
it always comes back to Lacan
Meredith: miss u, college
Also Uncanny:
Emily: DOGGS IN SUNGLASSES
Emily: Blade Runner has this totally epic dénouement involving Deckard and lead male andy who looks like Dolph Lundgren but isn’t
and it’s raining and it’s just the best climax evr in an action film
and then in DADES, Deckard kills the last 3 andys with basically no fanfare whatsoever. I know it’s unfair to compare a novel and cinema
Meredith: in the book he's all "might as well just get this over with"
Emily: yes! and in Blade Runner it’s a total battle to the death. he just knocks them off in DADES
Meredith: but Roy has EMOTION in Blade Runner
because his hot andy girlfriend was just killed in front of him
but in DADES, he doesn't have emotion
IT'S UNCANNY
because he is incapable of feeling that empathy. but we think he does
because we're projecting our own empathy
Emily: it’s like the book is a test asking US IF WE'RE HUMANS OR WE'RE ANDROIDS
Meredith: I DON'T KNOW ANYMORE
Emily: EXACTLY
the book is forcing us to question ourselves!
DO WE HAVE EMPATHY?
R WE HUMANS OR R WE ORGANICLY BASED HUMANOID LIFE FORMS?
Meredith: at http://www.cinerama.com/ in belltown Seattle, they have the outfit worn by J.R. Sebastian (the character based on Isidore from DADES)
it looks Joker-y
and dusty
like he's got kipple in his pockets
Emily: is it fair to compare a novel to the power of cinema?
Meredith: NO, DUH
I felt more of a class commentary in DADES
Deckard is doing this important work saving the human race and is still living a shit life because he doesn't have the money to afford a real sheep
Emily: and of course the real animal is a status symbol
Meredith: which
oh man
back to sexist norms again but Iran, his wife, keeps him thinking that they scored this sweet, real frog in the nuclear wasteland of Oregon, and they pretend it's real
she doesn't want him to feel emasculated by a robotic frog
because he's a man
and should be earning moneys
Emily: fake frog--> class --> p33n size
fake frog = castration as Freud would say
Kind of feel like Freud was so obsessed with castration that I wonder if he actually didn’t have a penis?
Meredith: probably very very small
or maybe his mom cut it off while his father watched? In which case, everything he thinks is totally warranted. Otherwise, stfu?
Emily: YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST, FOLKS:
FREUD, STFU
Meredith: keep your psychoanalysis off my body
Emily: I love seeing that bumper sticker in earnest. Like, the laws version.
I laugh but also pump my fist in solidarity
Meredith: I’ll wear it
Next time on Chattin The Classix: Sex! Betrayal! Russians! Tolstoy's about to get rocked.
Next time on Chattin The Classix: Sex! Betrayal! Russians! Tolstoy's about to get rocked.
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