joecooper's Full Review: Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream Of Electric She...
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? is one of those books that I’d been meaning to get a hold of and read for years. What first drew it to my attention was the fact that Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford, was based on this book by Philip K. Dick. Blade Runner repeatedly blows me away, so I figured that the book that spawned it was worth a read one day. However, what made the movie isn’t what makes the book what it is.
The book, even in its descriptions, doesn’t provide the stunning visuals of a futuristic Earth like Scott’s film did. While certainly futuristic in many respects, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? is more an intense delivery of moralistic questions, contained within an entertaining story. Once you come to grips with it, you’ll love the book for what it is.
My kingdom for a goat! – The story
It’s the year 2021 and planet Earth is but a shadow of the beautiful place that it once was. Devastated by nuclear conflict, most of the planet’s human population has been forced to emigrate to an increasing number of off-world locations, including Mars. There’s very little option. In the same way that many people leave the city for a better life out on the outskirts, so to have millions of people moved away from Earth. Life on the home planet has just become increasingly unpleasant, with radioactive dust genetically altering people and plant and animal life virtually extinct. However, there does remain a significant amount of people on Earth who for various reasons can’t or haven’t yet emigrated to better celestial abodes.
The “can’t emigrate” people consist of negligent souls who failed to wear their lead codpieces and have thus sustained genetic damage at the hands of the radioactive dust that flitters from place to place. These people that didn’t wear their metal undies also suffer a degradation of their IQ. Failing to pass the IQ test required to emigrate, these “chickenheads” are forced to stay on Earth and make the best of it. Joining the chickenheads are many eligible emigrants that for one reason or another haven’t had the opportunity to leave, and the people that work amongst the infrastructure that supports these people. Amongst them is Rick Deckard, a police officer.
In order to facilitate the development of places such as Mars, mankind has created an increasingly intelligent series of androids. These androids for all intensive purposes resemble and act like human beings, and are used ‘off-world’ to perform dangerous and burdensome tasks. However, once in a while androids, like slaves of old, decide to break their shackles, murder their master, and flee, often back to Earth where they try to blend in and create a life for themselves. This is where Deckard comes in.
Deckard’s a second-string bounty hunter with the San Francisco Police Department. After the #1 bounty hunter has been put in hospital by a group of new Nexus-6 androids, Deckard is assigned the job of hunting and ‘retiring’ (killing) the runaway robots. However, Deckard has emotional problems, including a growing empathy towards androids. Where once he thought of androids as dangerous machines that needed to be eliminated, he’s now beginning to see them as perhaps deserving of life, regardless of the fact they were assembled in laboratory plants. Thus Deckard has a moral dilemma as he tries to ‘do his job’ and make the exorbitant loan repayments on his new pet goat.
The title is apt – The strange style
Philip K. Dick is regarded as an arthouse Isaac Asimov by many Sci-Fi literature aficionados. I’d best describe his style as a cross between Jules Verne or H.G Wells and Salvador Dali.
Dick (nice name) wrote Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? in the 1960s. Accordingly it now has that quaintness that we associate with Wells and Verne. That is, Dick conveys a vision of the future that, whilst very interesting, proves to be inaccurate as we quickly approach the actual future date he writes of (2021). Whilst he fits future Earth out with hover cars, and interplanetary passenger travel, he hasn’t included such items as cordless phones.
Additionally, the story has the distinct feeling of being surreal – very dreamlike in an almost disturbing manner. Rick Deckard’s wife provides the best example. Whilst her husband dashes about in his hovercar retiring runaway androids, Iran Deckard sits at home in their apartment using/abusing two very strange household appliances.
One appliance is a gizmo with two handles that she grasps and it throws her into a strange trance whereby she can share in the suffering of a messiah called Wilbur Mercer. Wilbur Mercer was or is a Jesus-like figure that climbed a barren hill whilst being stoned by an unseen hostile force. As well as sharing in Mercer’s experience while grasping the handles, right down to taking physical wounds from the stones thrown, one can feel the presence of all the other souls that are at home grasping the handles on their very own gizmo. It’s very strange, but in an interesting way.
The other device, which adds a surreal aspect to Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? is a doohickey that pumps out vibes to change your mood. You can set it for “confident”, “elation” or anything else you feel your day requires. Iran Deckard sets the device for a regular dose of the deepest darkest depression imaginable. So, whilst a stock standard story of hunting runaway robots takes place, it all occurs on a strange stage, which I’ve only just scratched the surface in this review.
Joe’s final word
I found Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? a great read, as soon as I relinquished my Blade Runner perceptions. Whilst sharing a basic plot and the main moralistic question (do androids deserve to live and be happy?) the book and the film it spawned are remarkably different entities. Enjoy the book for it is, and likewise with Blade Runner the movie. You wont picture Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard in the book, but nor will you discover the weird and wonderful 2021 that the book conveys in the movie.
As it’s not really a spoiler, I’ll disclose the meaning of the book’s title. In Dick’s 2021, real live animals are a very rare commodity and it’s every person’s goal and dream to own one as a pet. Rick Deckard, as a second-string police bounty hunter, isn’t on a great salary so he and his wife own an electric sheep, which was much more affordable than the real thing. While it’s enough to fool the neighbours, Rick is depressed by his lack of a real animal, and dreams of owning one. Thus the title, I guess. If humans dream of owning a real sheep, then Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?
Science Fiction - General Fiction - "The most consistently brilliant science fiction writer in the world." John Brunner THE INSPIRATION FOR BLADERUNNE...More at Barnes and Noble
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was published in 1968. Grim and foreboding, even today it is a masterpiece ahead of its time.By 2021, the World W...More at HotBookSale
The most consistently brilliant science fiction writer in the world. --John BrunnerTHE INSPIRATION FOR BLADERUNNER. . . Do Androids Dream of Electric ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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