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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

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  • 06-01-2003 1:31pm
    #1
    TinCool
    Registered Users Posts: 2,894 ✭✭✭


    I bought this book over the Christmas as I'm a big fan of Blade Runner and only now have I gotten around to reading the Philip Dick book that it was based on.

    I have to say it's a very good book, it's totally different to the movie (I know that BR was only losely based on the book), Deckard is married, has an obsession with animals, Roy Batty has a sister, the replicants (andys) don't come across as being as intelligent/strong as they are in BR, there's the whole area of Mercerism, there's no hinting towards whether Deckard could be an andy himself (only that he never took the void kempff test), JR Isidore/Sebastian doesn't work for Tyrell Corp.

    The main theme of the movie is Deckard's hunt for the replicants and falling in love with Rachael. In the book, its more to do with interactivity between humans and androids, values etc.

    Anyone have any thoughts on this book in comparison to BR ?


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    #2
    LoLth
    Registered Users Posts: 10,339 ✭✭✭✭LoLth


    Loved both the book and the film.

    The book was better IMO, *AS a book* just as I thought the film was better as a film. (that make sense? - ie a film with the same story as the book would not have been as good as the film we have and vice versa).

    Also that global obsession with animals makes sense of the quite weird title. After all, deckard has an electronic sheep and sees it as the lowest he can go as an animal owner (which all humans should be). So do androids dream of having the same rights as the lowest of the humans? The idea of mercerism was excellent and quite scarily similar to many other predictions about the progression of business/religion. The main problem I had was after seeing the film I tended to overlay Dick's characters with my memory of characters form the film, which didn't really fit the story properly.


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    #3
    OSiriS
    Registered Users Posts: 1,657 ✭✭✭OSiriS


    The book itself was based on a previous short story he had written, although I can't remember the name of it:/ It was featured along with another 24 short stories in the 5th book of his collected short stories entitled "we can remember it for you wholesale" (the short story later made inth the film "Total Recall") I can't remember too much about "do androids dream of electronic sheep", only that it was a fantastic read. Alot of his other stories are well worth a look at.


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    #4
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users Posts: 14,714 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    I'm pretty sure that short story was called "The Little Black Box" or something like that. Dick admitted that his attempt to expand on the themes in the short story didn't live up to his treatment in the book. That's another great thing about the short story collections, you get Dick's commentary on his own stories and some of it is very well written and insiteful, rarely to the detrement of the story concerned.

    Can't say I've read everything by him but by in large I think he's a better short story writer. He tends to run out of steam in the novels. In comparison stories like "Retreat Syndrome" and "Strange Memories of Death" zip along but leave you feeling stunned for quite some time. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" is an exception. It's the best novel of his I've read.

    I was never a fan of the film. I like the music and the way it is shot, but I thought the whole thing just didn't hang together well. I had no sympathy for the replicants and little more for Deckard. It just completely failed to engage me.


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