The Representation of Women in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

[Francis A. Miniter]

Until I began reading _The Symptom of Beauty_ by Francette Pacteau
(Harvard U. Press, 1994) a couple days ago, I had not noticed that
Deckard's wife Iran, in _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_ , is the
only human woman in the novel (other than the very peripheral role of
Miss Marsten, his boss's secretary). All the rest, Rachel Rosen, Luba
Luft, Pris Stratton, and Irmgard Baty (who is not much developed in the
story and will not be discussed here), are androids. Before discussing
this further, though, let me say a few words about Pacteau's book.

Pacteau treatise is a philosophic/psychoanalytic analysis of "the eye of
the beholder", the subject which conjures the concept of beauty, and in
particular, as it relates to the representation of feminine beauty in
art, film and literature, with all of the gender issues that such
representation (almost always from the male gaze) involves.

In her first chapter entitled "The Portrait of Laura", she addresses the
artistic representation of an existing woman, which is regularly an
idealization of the reality. On the page opposite the start of the
chapter, she places a still from the movie "Laura", from the single most
important scene in the film, in which the police detective, having
fallen asleep in Laura's living room while contemplating, indeed
obsessing over, the portrait of Laura, wakes to find Laura standing in
front of him, with the portrait on the wall beside her. In the
portrait, Laura is wearing an evening gown and all her hair and face and
posture are rendered to their utmost. The real Laura, standing in front
of him, has come in out of rain. She is wearing a rain hat and
raincoat, both of which have slumped from being soaked. Her hair is
barely visible, her face is far from radiant, and her posture shows
fatigue. The reality bears little resemblance to the idealization.

In her second chapter, Pacteau pushes on to the consideration of works
in which the male character creates an artificial idealized woman, as in
the ancient (and modern) story of Pygmalion and Galatea, wherein the
sculptor's statue comes alive at his kiss, or the famous 1927 film
_Metropolis_ . The issue of creation and artifice of the male creator
(as opposed to the biologic creation by woman) is explored by her. And
it is at this point that Philip K. Dick's book struck me.

For in Dick's novel, we have the issue of feminine representation
presented both from the aspect of Dr. Eldon Rosen, the inventor of the
Nexus-6 androids, and from the perspective of a careful observer,
Deckard. The Nexus-6 androids are so human-like that the only sure way
to verify their status as androids is a bone marrow analysis, performed
routinely after the "retirement" of each in order to be certain that a
human was not killed. On the other hand, we learn during the story that
Rachel and Pris are identical, clones of one another or of another exemplar.

The novel begins with a domestic scene. Deckard and his wife are waking
up one morning. She wants to sleep. They argue, especially over the
use of their new Penfield artificial brain stimulator, which she has
programmed for a depression later in the day. The argument is resolved
and they make love. The story ends, a day later, again with a domestic
scene. Deckard has come home after "retiring" the androids, exhausted,
with Iran looking after him. (About half way through the day, he made
another stop home to bring a real, live goat that he bought with his
earnings - at the start of the story, all they had was an electric
sheep.) So the novel is framed by sexual domesticity between two human
beings, each of which evidences an unmistakable desire to please the
other.

Rachel Rosen is the first of the female androids he encounters, only he
does not know that she is one at first. She is first described as
follows: "Black-haired and slender, wearing the new huge dust-filtering
glasses, she approached his car, her hands deep in the pockets of her
brightly striped long coat. She had, on her sharply defined small face,
an expression of sullen distaste." She makes a striking appearance and
later offers to assist Deckard in his hunt. Much later, Deckard accepts
her offer, immediately after bringing the goat home to his wife.
Deckard and Rachel meet at a hotel, have sex, and then, he rejects her,
recalling her limited lifespan, and sends her away as he goes to look
for the then three remaining androids.

Luba Luft disturbs Deckard in another way. She is an opera singer and
an extremely good one. Deckard hesitates and another bounty hunter
kills her. Afterwards, Deckard reflects: "She was really a superb
singer, he said to himself as he hung up the receiver, his call
completed. I don't get it; how can a talent like that be a liability to
our society? But it wasn't the talent, he told himself; it was she
herself." Deckard begins to question whether he is actually feeling
empathy toward an artifice, and he has the other bounty hunter test him
on the equipment. The test shows that as to female androids, he indeed
has an empathetic response. And here we have Deckard approaching the
situation of the detective in _Laura_ or that of Pygmalion to his statue
Galatea. Luba Luft is like the sirens of The Odyssey, whose voices are
so irresistible that Odysseus has to have his men lash him to the mast
and plug their ears with wax so they all can survive the temptation.

Deackard's encounter with Pris is very brief. She is trying to kill him
and he realizes that she is identical to Rachel, whom he has just had
sex with. The hesitation resulting from this awareness nearly kills
him. We first encounter Pris when she answers the door of the apartment
building where she is hiding to J. R. Isadore, a man of diminishing
intelligence, we are told, due to the radioactive dust in the air. She
is naked from the waist up, and poor Isadore is swept away from the
start. His feelings for her diminish rapidly later, however, when,
after he shows her a spider that he found (spiders are rare due to the
radioactivity), she proceeds to cut off its legs one by one to see if it
can still walk. Isadore may not be all that bright, but he does know
suffering when he sees it and detests the cruelty she inflicts on the
spider.

Meanwhile, as Deckard is retiring the last three androids, Rachel has
gone to Deckard's home and killed the goat. Is it revenge for rejection
or because Deckard is killing her twin or both? The motive is not made
clear. What is clear is the expression of negative emotions.

Deckard passes his test. He survives the temptation that day to
appreciate artifice above nature. He comes home to his physically and
emotionally imperfect wife. There is no hint of regret. He has avoided
the Pygmalion trap.


Francis A. Miniter

[David Matthews]

I remember it from the movie not sure if it was in book also but I did like the description of some of the female androids as "Your basic pleasure model."

Dave M

[Francis A. Miniter]

Hi Dave,

That was in the movie, but not in the book. When reading the novel, I
was wondering if I would find that phrase and so I was looking for it.


Francis A. Miniter

[Transition Zone]

I saw mention of the movie "Metropolis" from the 1920's. I always
wanted to see that movie, but I either never had the chance or could
never find it.

(it came up during a college class I once took - maybe related to the
famous film producer, playwright, film director, author, and
photographer Wim Wenders, or other aspects of maybe just the past Euro
film industry or something like that)