D.A.D.o.E.S.

So… is it a dystopian fiction or not?

Well, on the first look there are some aspects, which we aren’t used to from the classics like 1984 or Brave New World:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? focuses around the question of what it means to be human in a world which is shaped by artificial life and human-made enviromental disasters. The political aspect of the government hunting the androids seems more like a mean to be able to centre the plot around the mentioned question.

The ‘rebellion‘ (the androids) do not encourage the reader to necessarily sympathize with them. As it is shown in the interactions with the spider at Isidore’s place, the androids show not a lot of empathy towards animals or humans. However, they seem capable of feeling some kind of empathy, which is shown by the relationship between the androids: “Luba Luft and I had been close, very close friends for almost two years.“(Dick 156)

Our main protagonist (Deckard) is not an active part of the rebellion portrayed in the book. Actually, he works as their nemesis by enforcing the rules of the government. Although he shows more than once doubt in the process of ‘retiring‘ androids, he is driven by his goal of buying a real animal and to maintain his status. (Claeys 269)

The reader enters immediatly into an imaginery future gone wrong. The consequences of the World War have caused an ecological collapse. Even though the fallout is not one of the centres of the novel, its effects are still visible thoughout the story. From the wearing of a protective led codpiece to the advertisment of emigrating to Mars.(Claeys 270)

While we dont follow the escape of the androids from Mars, through the perspectives of Deckard and Isidore we learn more about the androids view on their oppression and their goal. Although they dont plan to overthrow the existing government, they still display a theme of rebellion (Uhlenbruch 9). Moreover, they suffer from “slavery and/or oppression as a result of human action.“ (Claeys 290)

Similar to 1984 and Brave New World, the world of Do Androids Dream of Electric sheep? shows a future, which goes “[…] beyond present-day science and technology“ (Claeys 290).

Mercerism: An ‘Internet-Religion‘?

This is a small presentation I made about this topic. Sadly the quality of my microphone was not good enough to add something to it. I hope the slides are good enough and speak for themselves. If you have any questions regarding the points made in the video, you can write a comment or ask me via Moodle :).

Works Cited:

Claeys, Gregory. Dystopia: a natural history. Oxford University Press, 2016.

Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Doubleday, 1968.

Galvan, Jill. "Entering the Posthuman Collective in Philip K. Dick's" Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"." Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 24, No. 3, 1997, pp. 413-429.

Uhlenbruch, Frauke. The nowhere Bible: Utopia, dystopia, science fiction. Vol. 4. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2015

Pictures:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-rachael-killed-goat-junghyun-chae-1 (accessed: 30.01.2025)