Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

i've read this book a few times since the first go-round in high school, and it never fails to alarm me the different things i see in it every time, and the way in which i grow progressively more and more jaded. the first time i read this i was nearly destroyed by a plot point that seems fitting and inevitable now. of course it would happen that way. of course fucked up things like that happen. duh. but that first time i was babysitting, alone in the near-dark, and i couldn't stop shaking, and thinking that such things happen but they shouldn't and i will do everything in my power to be the kind of person who attempts to make sure they don't.

its important to have this reminder of that ideal, which i still hold dearly to me. no matter show more how jaded and bitter i think i may be. show less

Post-apocalyptic landscapes and unnervingly realistic androids are science-fiction staples these days, and I don't imagine that they were particularly earth-shattering concepts in 1969, either. Still, the author's carefully considered philosophical preoccupations set this one apart from your average space-traveling dime novel. Sure, it's possible to read this one as a detective noir with a few laser guns thrown in, but there's no reason you should. Dick isn't afraid to take on the big topics, and he has a genuine gift for creating large-scale metaphors that effectively express his most daring ideas. In other words: his poisoned, decrepit, and hopelessly cluttered planet Earth also makes for a wonderful analogy for overextended show more late-stage capitalism, and the constant emotional and philosophical tension he maintains between his nominally human and supposedly artificial characters is yet more evidence that the best science fiction can interrogate the nature of personhood just as well as -- if not better than -- a top-shelf literary novel. There's so much going on in this novel once you look beyond its nods to genre convention.

While this novel is both readable and involving, I don't think Dick is exactly a born prose stylist, even though he does give us the word "disemelevatored." I might be misreading things, but I'm not sure that the book's last few scenes work as well as they should, either: there are a few mystical touches there that don't quite fit with the book's overall tone. And, of course, it's hard to read the book that inspired "Blade Runner" without thinking of the movie, which has become an SF icon in its own right. I was, I admit, surprised to find that Deckard's own humanity isn't called into question in "Do Androids Dream..." nearly as often as it is in its film adaptation. Since this was my first time reading Phillip K. Dick, though, I was positively thrilled to encounter a writer with such a wide-ranging imagination and such engaging ideas about the society in which he lived. Recommended. show less

My reactions to re-reading this novel in 1999. Spoilers follow.

I appreciated, as I almost always do, Dick's black humor and skillful characterization and dialogue I was still affected by the scene where Isidore tries to repair an ailing cat he mistakes for an android, and where Roy Batty tortures a spider (Baty’s casual cruelty was more noticeable on re-reading and, the first time, I missed his mystical preoccupations). This time around more of a sense of desperation, loneliness, and despair came through. Deckard just wants (like Isidore) to make a connection with something. When his wife (their fights over the mood organ settings are hilarious) is unavailable, he seeks sex and companionship with android Rachael. Isidore knows Pris is show more an android, but doesn’t care. She is close enough to human to do. The sense of Deckard being destroyed by his job comes through powerfully. The possibly hallucinatory visions of Mercer tell him that it is the nature of things that he has to do something that corrodes his identity. He is unlike the creepy bounty hunter Phil Resch who likes to kill androids but fears, at one point, that he is an android . Mercerism is shown to be a fraud, and the androids do come off as at least disturbingly callous and sometimes clinically savage (Baty doesn’t sexually enjoy torturing the spider but derives a little-boy like thrill mingled with curiosity) yet Dick seems to say, with Isidore’s affection for Pris and the comforts of the debunked Mercer and Deckard’s fake toad, that even fake life can provide comfort in the tombworld (a rather gnostic concept) that Mercer, and, ultimately, all of us inhabit as the universe runs down.

I always liked this novel but appreciated it more this time and realized it does make a point and decision about its moral quandaries. show less

Most folks engaged in conversation about Blade Runner, the movie version of Philip K. Dick’s [Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?], are obsessed with which version is best: the version with Harrison Ford’s voice over or Ridley Scott’s Director’s Cut. The real conversation should be about what is the essential quality that defines humanity, as that is what Dick intended.

In a post-apocolyptic world choked with radioactive dust, humans must pass tests to determine if they possess the level of intelligence for immigration to colonization efforts on Mars and other worlds. One of the perks of immigration is the gift of a human-like android. But androids are illegal on Earth, and they are hunted by bounty hunters like Rick Deckard. show more Deckard identifies illegal androids who have returned to Earth by giving them an empathy test, measuring their natural capacity to feel for other living things, especially animals.

Dick’s quirky novel can pass for merely science fiction if that’s what you’re looking for. But just under the surface, Dick probes issues of social control and moral absolutes. The philosophy coursing through the veins of the story demand repeated and close reading.

Bottom Line: A quirky and fun science fiction read on one level and a deeply philosophical treatise on the nature of humanity on another level.

4 bones!!!! show less

Philip K. Dick’s novel is a modern classic of science fiction. The basis for the film “Blade Runner”, this book lays the foundation for many of the tropes that now are common in the genre. The idea of the android, concepts of artificial intelligence, and questions of humanity are all refined here, in PD’s characteristically sharp, often ironic fashion. Like many science fiction writers before and since, Philip Dick envisions a world where human beings have shot themselves in the collective foot – disaster on a national and global scale has struck and those left to struggle onward are herded (like, yeah, sheep) within the comforting illusions created by controlled and controlling media, government, etc.

What may surprise show more readers who have been previously familiar with “Blade Runner” is the commentary on religion and spirituality which features strongly throughout the book. Though it’s been years since I watched the film, I don’t recall that portion of the novel being carried over. In a lot of ways, however, it’s absolutely essential to understanding the world, and therefore the commentary, that PD has constructed. There is more to that commentary that meets the eye and, even days later, I’m still thinking about the meanings that I may have missed. That continuing occupation of a reader’s thoughts is one of the reasons that this novel and indeed so many of Philip Dick’s writings have become classics of the genre. This is one book that deserves, and demands, multiple readings. An absolutely necessary read for fans of the genre. show less

Probably my favourite Philip K. Dick book, Goodreads' favourite too by the look of it. As you are probably aware the classic sci-fi movie Blade Runner is based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Great as the movie is when I first saw it I was very disappointed as it bears very little resemblance to this book. The film makers jettisoned most of what makes this book so special and focused only on the android hunting aspect though at least it does explore the moral issues involved. The movie’s visuals are certainly stunning, and the world of Blade Runner is beautifully designed. However, it not the world of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is set in a dystopian Earth much dilapidated after show more “World War Terminus”, most of the populace have already emigrated to the colony on Mars. This is not a post apocalyptic setting, however, as government, the police, and businesses are still functioning though everything seems to be quite shabby. Radioactive dust has killed off most of the animals and the dust is still everywhere, not to mention the masses of “kipple”, basically rubbish that seem to grow by itself.

This coveting of animals is one very crucial aspect of the book not used in the film adaptation. Ownership of real animals (as opposed to electric ones) is a status symbol, much more so than fancy cars which nobody seems to be interested in. The protagonist Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter for the San Francisco Police Department whose job is to hunt down and exterminate androids that escaped their life of servitude on Mars to live among humans on Earth in the guise of humans. His dream is to own a large real animal, but at his salary he has to settle for the eponymous electric sheep.

The questionable morality of hunting down androids is nicely explored here. They are machines but they are also living, thinking beings, they have souls, or in more secular term, sentience. Human life on Earth is generally miserable but they do have some interesting ways of alleviating their mood. The most direct way is by the “Penfield mood organ” with a dial for adjusting moods to numerous settings, then there is the “empathy box” that let you live the life of a Messiah while you are plugged in; entertainment on TV is basically just one show “Buster Friendly and his Friendly Friends” somehow broadcasting live 24/7.

This is one of the most well written Philip K. Dick books, Dick’s writing style is often criticised as poor or clunky, and his dialogue is often said to be stilted. I think his critics are missing the charms of his minimalist prose style which is an ideal vehicle for the bizarre stories he had to tell. His admittedly stilted dialogue seems to be very fitting for the universe his often eccentric characters occupy. Also now and then he suddenly slipped in the odd poignant passages like “You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is 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.”. He was quite capable of writing elegant prose when it suited him. However, the stories and the ideas were more important to him.

Some of the dialogue is also oddly hilarious:
“I can't stand TV before breakfast.”
“Dial 888,” Rick said as the set warmed. “The desire to watch TV, no matter what's on it.”
“I don't feel like dialing anything at all now,” Iran said.
“Then dial 3,” he said.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? has some of Dick’s best characterization. The characters are more vivid than most of his other books. Deckard and the “chickenhead” (brain damaged) J.R. Isidore are particularly believable and sympathetic. The androids are generally rather callous but quite pitiful all the same. There are also moments where reality seems to wobble wonderfully in the patented PKD style but this time without the aid of any hallucinogen.

I can not praise this book enough, it really is one of the all-time greats. It is a pity that Hollywood is now planning to make Blade Runner 2 instead of making - for the first time - a faithful adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

Note: Interestingly Dick foresaw an android model called "Nexus 6", but I bet he did not imagine they would look like this. show less

Philip K. is always intriguing. I have read this before but never did a review and with the new movie coming out, I got the itch to re-read it.

At a glance, the story seems straightforward. A cop/bounty hunter is conscripted to hunt down and “retire” some rogue androids that escaped to Earth from Mars colony. This is an Earth saturated with radioactive dust from a worldwide nuclear event called World War Terminus. This has driven most of humanity to emigrate to other planets. Those that stay are either immune to the effects of the radiation or become “chickenheads” or “antheads,” referring to their diminished intellectual capacity. The poverty is severe and the dearth of wild animals makes life extremely sacred. Even the show more thought of consuming meat or making leather disgusts and outrages people and is against the law. Owning an animal has become such a social status must that it most people opt for electric animals so that they can keep up with the Joneses even if it’s an ersatz revering of life.

then we have the androids. They are biologically designed humanoids that fulfill the role of slave and do lots of the “dirty work,” especially on other planets where conditions can be harsh. But the new Nexus-6 models might be too intelligent for their own good, especially since their minds are not tempered by empathy or compassion. There is a very disturbing scene where one of the androids slowly and casually mutilates a spider to test a hypothesis.

Philip K. bounces us from scenes like that to scenes where we feel very empathetic and maybe even sorry for the androids. He really digs at the question of the value of life and where that value ends and begins. One of the andys states succinctly that real insects are afforded more respect and rights that they are. He turns the tables nicely when one of the androids kills a living thing seemingly out of revenge. Isn’t revenge empathic in an inside-out way? Or was it some kind of natural selection process the android was performing?

He also leads us down a pathway bounded by questionable reality. Androids can be programmed with false memories and Deckard experiences a prolonged encounter that makes everyone question whether or not they are an android. Only empathy and nerve reaction tests can distinguish between human and android -but even that is put into question in the first few chapters of the book. Humans can also jack into a shared virtual reality so not virtual that when they are struck with rocks, they bruise and bleed. They hold the handles of an “empathy box” and struggle up a hill with someone called Mercer who is stoned to death by the time he reaches the top. Humans all over the planets “fuse” when they experience this which leads to a peaceful and violence-free society based on Mercerism. At one point, Mercer sheds the virtual life and becomes a bit more than that, even with Deckard thinking his fusion has continued outside the box. Philip K. has someone he is speaking with even remark that he looks like Mercer lending to the confusion. In the end, the icon for Life and Peace, Mercer, is discovered to have been handing out electric animals and possibly a faked experience with some homeless person paid to play a bit part to help control humanity.

Mind-bending as always but also morals-bending. Reading this really does pose some unique questions to our notions of humanity, compassion, and quality of life. show less