_Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep_ (PKD) review

[D B Davis]

Dick, Philip K "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" New York: Doubleday, 1968.

Keywords: androids, electricsheep, empathy, mercerism, voightkampff

Synopsis:

This dystopic story is primarily set in a post-apocalyptic San
Francisco. Near its beginning, the story briefly moves to the city of
Seattle, where the Rosen Association headquarters building is located.
Rural Oregon is briefly used near the end of the story.
World War Terminus left behind a pall of radioactive dust in the
Earth's lower atmosphere. The pathogen's all but exterminated life on
Earth.
Living creatures are rare and expensive status symbols. A catalog
named _Sydney's_ lists the supposed fair market value of creatures.
People of modest means make do with fake electric animals.
Mercerism's the dominate religion on Earth. It's a religion created
by a dour Wilbur Mercer that values empathy above all else. Mercer's
nemesis is a comedian named Buster Friendly, whose show appears all of
the time on television and radio. Friendly mocks and ridicules Mercerism
at every opportunity.
Although a sizable remnant human population remains on Earth, the
government encourages normal people, "regulars," to emigrate to other
planets in the Solar System before the radioactive motes turn regulars
into "specials." "Emigrate or degenerate" is the government's pitch.
The emigration option's not available to bounty hunter Rick Deckard
because Deckard's job requires him to stay on Earth and hunt down
androids, which are known as "andys." Androids are manufactured by the
Rosen Association for use in off-world colonies. Andys are generally not
allowed on Earth. Deckard hunts down fugitive andys on Earth and
"retires" them.
Deckard uses a Voight-Kampff apparatus to distinguish andys from
humans. The Voight-Kampff measures 'a primary autonomic response, the
so-called "shame" or "blushing" reaction to a morally shocking
stimulus.' Humans instantaneously react but andys need a measurable
delay to think about how they ought to react.
Deckard owns an electric sheep. He dreams of the day when he can
afford to purchase a living sheep. When you preprend this pretext the
story's title becomes, "If humans dream of living sheep, do androids
dream of electric sheep?"
The Van Ness Pet Hospital repairs broken electric animals. A dim
witted special by the name of John R Isidore works there. Isidore's
abundant empathy makes up for his lack of intellect. He lives in the
same apartment building as the young and attractive Pris, who works for
Rosen Associates.
The Nexus-6 is Rosen's latest and most human android. Six Nexus-6s,
including the most intelligent Roy Batty, have escaped from Mars and are
on Earth. Deckard's job is it find them and retire them.

Review:

This story is a study in empathy. With each reading, it heightens my
own awareness of empathy's role in real life. "What the world needs now
is empathy." In the story empathy separates humans from andys.
This is also a story of loss. Animals are extremely rare. Although
PKD uses nuclear warfare to achieve his post-apocalyptic vision, our
present day world achieves it without the nuclear fireworks. Thousands
of dead sharks have recently washed up in San Francisco Bay. (Did
Fukushima's radioactive poison play a role?)
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
- T S Eliot
In the end, this is a dystopic story. It's disturbing. It makes
readers think about uncomfortable aspects of daily existence, about how
the small hypocrisies add up to something very ugly. It's also morally
ambiguous. It's classic PKD and well suited for my own tastes.
If you want sweetness, light, unicorns, and skittles you need to
avoid this story. If you want shiny technology, this story's not for
you.

Thank you,

--
Don

[a425couple]

On 10/16/2017 10:17 AM, D B Davis wrote:
> Dick, Philip K "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" New York: Doubleday, 1968.

> Review:
> This story is a study in empathy. With each reading, it heightens my
> own awareness of empathy's role in real life. "What the world needs now
> is empathy." In the story empathy separates humans from andys.

> This is also a story of loss. Animals are extremely rare. ---

> In the end, this is a dystopic story. It's disturbing. It makes
> readers think about uncomfortable aspects of daily existence, about how
> the small hypocrisies add up to something very ugly. It's also morally
> ambiguous. It's classic PKD and well suited for my own tastes.
> If you want sweetness, light, unicorns, and skittles you need to
> avoid this story. If you want shiny technology, this story's not for
> you.

Very thought provoking and interesting comments.
Thank you for posting.

[Titus G]

Yes. My thanks as well. I have been enjoying the insightful and succint
PKD reviews as well despite it being decades since I read them (with the
exception of recent rereads of A Scanner Darkly and Flow My Tears).

[D B Davis]

IIRC, you mentioned _Flow My Tears_ in a previous thread. At any rate,
it's on its way to me now.

_A Scanner Darkly_ was read by me a couple of years ago. Unfortunately,
no book review was written by me at that time.

Maybe you guys noticed my book review obsession as of late. My obsession
started with "Polity and Custom of the Camiroir" (Lafferty), (which also
needs a review written by me). It was maddening to recall some of the
details of the story and yet not remember the title of story, at least
not until Butch Malahide kindly refreshed my memory. In the past it was
too easy to read a story with the intention of writing a review later,
only later never came ... until now.

My newest mission in life is to review every single story read by me.
A searchable database of all of my reviews will also be built. That's
why each my reviews contains a line of keywords.

Then it's on to the TBR stack. Every single Cook and Niven in that stack
will be read. Then it's time to move on to all the other novels and
short story anthologies sitting around waiting for my attention. Not one
more sfnal book will be acquired until all of the TBR stack's read. PKD
and _Galaxy's Edge_ (which arrives every two months by subscription) are
exempt.

Thank you,

--
Don