Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep- Final Thoughts

After finishing the second half of "Do androids Dream of Electric Sheep," I have a few things to say.


I do enjoy PKD's writing /themes, but I actually have a lot of negative things to say about his writing style.
Personally, I think he uses some odd terms and names for "futuristic" themes. Also, it was like breaking the 4th wall when Pris tells Isidore that she likes to read old science fiction novels.

But, seriously, "Kipple?" Pics? Vidcalls? Buster Friendly and his Friendly Friends? All this stuff that is characteristic to the universe sounds like baby-named gibberish. It almost makes me feel silly talking about the book to my friends, because the names for things are so.....asinine.

I don't know if maybe PKD did this on purpose? Maybe he is just an extremely eclectic guy and thinks Kipple is a cute word. Or maybe he uses these names to contrast with the mature themes of social science fiction. I dont know. I do know I was suprised by his writing style.

PKD seems to write in a very "thick" way. Nearly all of the novel is dialogue. between two or more characters of in Deckard's head. Not much narrating at all. Which I like. But I don't like that it took me around 3 days to read such a relatively small book.

Overall, I was very surprised by this book. I have seen the film adaption "Blade Runner" and from what I remember of it, it is only faintly like this novel. A few scenes are nearly exact, but the development of Deckard is front and center, Isidore isnt even in the movie (is he?), and he was my favorite character.
I plan on watching the movie soon, and seeing the similarities.

Also I have to say, this book seems oddly similar to another novel we will read, "A Scanner Darkly", my favorite book of all time. But equally surprisingly, I didn't really like "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" in comparison. I am looking forward to reading PKD's short stories as I have never so much as touched them.

On the main storyline, I feel there are 3 major things PkD is trying to get across.

- The first is Empathy.
- The second is the Media as society's main outlet.
- Third, Classes of people and the ever ascent upwards.

I was actually surprised there was very little commentary about drugs, drug use and etc. The faux-religion "Mercerism" nearly replaces the usual drug themes that are in a few of his other novels. People blindly follow the outlined ways to act set about by Mercerism. I guess the commentary of drugs and consumption can be applied to the media as well. The media in this novel is very important. As with our reality, the media is the most apparent manifestation of our societal standards and objectives. By "media" I mean Buster's talk show, and the invented Mercerism.

The topic of empathy is interesting to me, but at the same time, difficult to pinpoint. Everyone in this universe is completely absorbed in two things: Empathy from themselves and from others and, Keeping up with the Jones'. Even androids, who almost seem to be defiant about the whole empathy thing. Keeping animals is a "fell swoop" of societal success. If a person has a real, live animal, then they are viewed as empathetic and capable of caring for it. So through the basis of valuing perceived empathy, animals have become a prized possession. At the same time, people have a severe lack of empathy for others. If people are emigrating to colony planets, then why are these 'empathy filled' people making specials and andriods stay behind, to their death? That doesn't seem very empathetic.

Here is one thing I thought was very interesting:

Ascent upwards is a recurring theme. Physically ( their houses seem to be underground), Socially (keeping up with the Jonses'), and Philosophically (the "ascent" of Wilbur Mercer). However, all these things directly relate to humans. Moreover, humans don't really see androids as able to ascend with them. However, towards the end of the book, Rachel Rosen tells Deckard the plan of the Rosen association. She tells him that The rosen association wants to continually make the androids better and more human, until there is no test that can distinguish them.

Isn't that ascension? 

Additonally, Deckard has a realization at the end of the novel that "androids have thier lives, too". This leads us to believe he sees them as equal, at least.

Which leads me to the title of the book. I think it is pretty clear that all these androids Deckard was set out to kill did not want to die. They planned. They had hobbies. they had "lives".

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-Grace

Dp Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? A reading response.

After reading the first 11 chapters of "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep", I have a few things to say about it.

Firstly, I have not seen the adapted film "Blade Runner" in over 4 years. I remember very little about it except for the general appearance of characters and the tone of the setting.

One thing I particularly got from this reading is the sense of "dog eat dog". This society is eat or be eaten, kill or be killed. The classes of society seem to be very highly regarded or very lowly regarded, with little in between.

Along with the middle class being non-existent, the race to own objects (in this case real animals) is full-throttle. The main character, and presumably the whole of society is totally invested their lives in working upwards, ever ascending to a "better" state of social existence. this is done by social acheivements, personal ownership of items, and by occupation.

I don't think I would like living in this world because it is highly competitive and easy to fall into a life of depression and the feeling of inadequacy.

I look forward to finishing the book, and giving a greater in-depth response about the differences between being human/ being non human, and the topic of ethics.