Rated NC-18 (Nerdy Content from a 18-year old): Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
In the world of literature, there is a variety of genres that accompany it, and few get my dopamine levels up more than Science-Fiction. So about a year ago when I found myself without my fix of advanced tech; far-flung futures; and thought provoking philosophies about the present day (or past day if you count earlier texts) I had to make an appointment to see ‘Dr. Phil’.
This Phil to be precise:
The one and only Philip K. Dick.
There are two significant things going about this wonderful visionary. He’s inspired a variety of adaptations under his name; albeit with varying degrees of success, with good ones such as
Minority Report and Total Recall;
and bad ones such as Minority Report and Total Recall.
Another thing about Phillip’s novels is that the names for his literature is more boggling than the work itself. Who could ever not be puzzled by such pragmatic titles such as, um:
Flow my tears the policeman Said? Or...
We Can Remember it for you Wholesale?
However unlike the titles of much of his other texts, this substitutes all that for a simple question: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Well all I can tell you is that probably the nightmares would have something to do with apples. Oh, we’re not talking about those Androids.
Anyway, smart-aleck commentary aside, on with the review.
The year is 2021, and the aptly named World War Terminus has wiped out numerous animal species and has rendered the planet uninhabitable, forcing humanity to emigrate off world to colonies, such as Mars. Animals that have survived the ordeal are increasingly hard to find and even when they are found they’re very expensive. So companies have filled this void by creating robotic replicas that are quite close to the real thing; even going so far as to create artificial humans that blur the line between man and machine and every new arrival from Earth is given one. But alas, the government isn’t too trustworthy of these androids and so they have been banned from Earth entirely. Despite this, the androids choose to flee there anyway and that’s where the bounty hunter Rick Deckard comes in to track down the fugitives and *ahem* “retire” them. Can I just point out the ridiculousness of the androids’ decision to move to Earth, because surely nothing beats the likes of the Red Planet more than a barren, near lifeless world where the authorities want your head in a scrap pile and the only thing to do is slowly die of radiation poisoning, push boulders up a hill in “empathy boxes”, or get berated into emigrating by the talk show Buster Friendly and his Friendly Friends (this superfluous nomenclature is brought to you by The Department of Redundancy Department). If this was a different Philip K. Dick text (We Can Remember it for you Wholesale) I would let it slide (last Total Recall reference, I swear).
For the record, since the novel was the influence the awe-inspiring Blade Runner film, it’s safe to say this has a lot going for it. The plot is one of the sharpest knives in the drawer as there are many twists and turns and a captivating neo-noir tale that will have you on the edge of your seat to keep it from getting dull. Dick’s writing that captivates the bleak and surreal world in such exquisite detail and only makes the story even better. The characters are dynamic and entertaining, with one notable example being Rick Deckard himself as he’s more than just this flat, macho action hero. Stuff like the questions he has about the ethicality about his career makes him look more human than the machines he hunts down. And speaking of questions there’s also a lot of philosophical depth to this text to spruce it up as well. The only weaknesses that this text has is an anticlimactic finale and some slow pacing but that does little to blemish the wool so to speak. If you were to find this in a bookstore, do give this a shot because if you do it won’t be just the androids who’ll be sweetly dreaming of electric sheep.
My Grade: A Nexus-6 out of 7 (because you know, that’s the type of android in the novel)
