"Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick (published 1968)

Review edited and updated from yesterday, 12/04/18, today: 12/05/18

"Everything is true,' he said. 'Everything anybody has ever thought." - Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982) as well as Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 (2017) both prove to be excellent films to be watched in conjunction with reading Philip K. Dick's science fiction novel, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, published first in 1968. The films are extremely futuristic, visually, both films taking a cyberpunk-ish/noir aspect of the story which is not easy to grasp in the novel. Dick's novel, in contrast, feels a little dated. The described technology and world is not as digitalized; the book seems more grainy, more blurred, still with remnants of the 1950s (think of the word used for the self-replicating trash/junk: "kipple"). This factors in to why watching the movies would be helpful if one would like to understand the book. The story itself, that of Rick Deckard's job to "retire" (kill) androids and the meaning of this in terms of his relation to the world and reality itself, is clarified by the films' narrative storytelling. Dialogue and action and character are harder to, literally, read. That being said, once the basic narrative is gathered and pieced together, Dick's original plot, subplots, and literary complexity in Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? is phenomenal.

The structure of this world is one in which humans can "set" their emotions to whatever they feel is necessary to continue getting up each day and living. Someone can tune into their personal "empathy box" to make themselves depressed, if they feel they deserve it. Or they can force on an interest in something if it'll make their spouse more comfortable, for example, say the feeling of wanting to watch TV. Or they can tune into "anxiety" or "happiness" depending on the suitability for the day.

Another aspect of the story is that there is hardly anything real anymore. Most animals are extinct, and to find and purchase a real animal means prestige plus the happiness that comes with owning something real. Deckard, the main character, who owns a fake sheep, is ashamed of his electronic sheep and wants something truly alive. One of his most basic raison-detres, if not the only one, is to own a real animal, and when his company offers him one thousand dollars for every android he kills, he takes the job as bounty hunter, with the thought of owning a biological and organic creature as his incentive.

Plenty can be extrapolated from this text, particularly if the focus is on the androids themselves, which were created to help out on the offshore colonies; desolate pieces of land, like on Mars, where people got to live if they could. But, a lot of these androids went rogue on Earth, nine in particular, and Deckard has been assigned to kill them by first determining whether or not each is, in fact, an android, by administering a Voight-Kampf test, a sort of empathy test measuring the nervous system for appropriate reactions. Empathy is what separates the androids from humans, and, as the story goes on, it is clear how cunning (and subsequently "intellectual") androids will act in order to ensure their survival on Earth.

An interesting plot device is introduced with Dick's concept of the "special": a specific subset of human who is extremely naive, unable to piece important information together to get a real grasp on reality, lacking in self-confidence, yet, extremely sensitive and kind without much concern for one's own safety. Because of these deficiencies, specials are not allowed to work real jobs, and end up in abandoned suburbs strewn with kipple. One such example of a special is J.R. Isidore, who attempts to help three rogue androids hide from the bounty hunters by keeping them safe in his apartment complex. Confidence awoken by having a important role in someone else's life, whether android or not, Isidore is shook out of his depressed, tiny worldview into something much larger and, much more menacing. Comparing the "special" to the androids is an important marker for critical thinking in this text, and one might be inclined to say that the special, because of his superior empathy, for things as small as a spider, is more deserving of trust, despite not being the best bet in a survival-of-the-fittest scenario.

Buster Friendly and his Friendly Friends is a television show/radio show that almost everyone on Earth watches. It is hilarious and very addicting, and Buster Friendly always has special guests on, jabbering away about whatever. This could be an on-the-nose representation of how society has become so immersed with entertainment television and oftentimes neglects the present, tactile moment in order to get a "fix" by listening to and watching something that is obviously a distraction.

Mercerism is another concept in this book which can be said to represent something, that being religion. Everyone loves this man named Mercer, and when each person holds the "antennae" of the empathy box, they get to interact with this sad man living on the edge of reality, who keeps trying to climb up this dusty hill despite the emotional and physical pain he's going through. But he gets nowhere. When Mercer is revealed to be a fake, and when Dick explains who this character really is, it is both funny and profoundly sad, and tinged with symbolism too vast to be written about here.

Questions to be asked which I may address at another time after giving this book (and others like it) more thought: how does empathy become a human fault when it comes to a human's relationship with the androids, or android singular, who are known to be cruel and even malicious? What is this fascination with the idea of a "real" pet? And, does it have to do with the idea of productivity? Of producing real milk (A cow? A goat?) Or real kittens? What is the sickening feeling called/how can we interpret the sensation when one realizes that an android is purely working from a calculating hive mind of mechanism and not an organic human body with a nervous system? Lastly, are androids justified in their quest to live among humans? Are android emotions worthy of human trust?

Again, I'll mull over these questions, and write, at another point in time, for a more in depth look at these concepts. I'm going to read some peer-reviewed articles on this novel too, and see what I can come up with.

I'm going to go ahead and allow myself, if you please, to feel content and happy that Deckard finally got some rest by the end of the book, a good wife, and a good cup of coffee, and like him, I'll drift off to dreamland, where, hopefully, there will be no electric sheep. And I'll cuddle with my real life cat and be grateful that humanity is nowhere really near this future just yet.