![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Title: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Author: Philip K. Dick
Genre: Science fiction
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: Post apocalyptic bounty hunter tries to suss out who is an android and who isn't while undergoing an existential crisis.
Thoughts: Philip K. Dick has some of the same problems as Grant Morrison--an overflowing abundance of ideas that sometimes then start to get in the way of each other.
The main plot, in which Deckard tries to hunt down androids he increasingly considers to be people, is engrossing. Subplots involving Deckard's deeply broken marriage, his desperate desire to own a living animal, and mentally disabled driver's attempts to still be treated like a human being are equally affecting. But a shadow-police station that leads Deckard to question his own humanity is a loose end that flaps irritatingly in the breeze. (Who set it up? How does no one else notice? Why was such a promising thought experiment abandoned so quickly to go back to the main plot?) The Rosen Corporation's motivations remain murky at best (although there are hints). And the Mercerism elements are confusing and never really gelled for me. Deckard almost comes to a mystical epiphany and never quite makes it; so do I.
But it's no wonder this was source material for one of science fiction's most iconic movies. The postapocalyptic setting is both devastating and haunting. The tiny details--the fate of a single spider--reveal both the inhumanity of the androids and also the inhumanity of the humans. (Really, is Isidore's boss any better than Pris?) The idea of reprogramming moods seems repugnant--but in a world this blighted, is there really any choice?
Author: Philip K. Dick
Genre: Science fiction
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: Post apocalyptic bounty hunter tries to suss out who is an android and who isn't while undergoing an existential crisis.
Thoughts: Philip K. Dick has some of the same problems as Grant Morrison--an overflowing abundance of ideas that sometimes then start to get in the way of each other.
The main plot, in which Deckard tries to hunt down androids he increasingly considers to be people, is engrossing. Subplots involving Deckard's deeply broken marriage, his desperate desire to own a living animal, and mentally disabled driver's attempts to still be treated like a human being are equally affecting. But a shadow-police station that leads Deckard to question his own humanity is a loose end that flaps irritatingly in the breeze. (Who set it up? How does no one else notice? Why was such a promising thought experiment abandoned so quickly to go back to the main plot?) The Rosen Corporation's motivations remain murky at best (although there are hints). And the Mercerism elements are confusing and never really gelled for me. Deckard almost comes to a mystical epiphany and never quite makes it; so do I.
But it's no wonder this was source material for one of science fiction's most iconic movies. The postapocalyptic setting is both devastating and haunting. The tiny details--the fate of a single spider--reveal both the inhumanity of the androids and also the inhumanity of the humans. (Really, is Isidore's boss any better than Pris?) The idea of reprogramming moods seems repugnant--but in a world this blighted, is there really any choice?
