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Leonard Gaya's Reviews > Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
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Do Androids is one of the most famous novels by P. K. Dick, probably due to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, which was loosely adapted from it. I was quite surprised to see that, apart from the general plotline and a few character names, the movie has very little to do with the novel.
A couple of things that are fascinating in PKD's work (not depicted in the film) are (i) the relationship between men and (mostly robotic) animals in a post-nuclear war environment where most animals are extinct, and the human population has migrated to Mars, and (ii) the religious-like experience of "mercerism" where people get fused, through an Empathy Box (a sort of game console), with a mysterious man called Wilbur Mercer, who endlessly climbs a hill, while being stoned by surrounding onlookers... Perhaps some kind of Sisyphus or Jesus walking towards the Golgotha?
A couple of things that are fascinating in PKD's work (not depicted in the film) are (i) the relationship between men and (mostly robotic) animals in a post-nuclear war environment where most animals are extinct, and the human population has migrated to Mars, and (ii) the religious-like experience of "mercerism" where people get fused, through an Empathy Box (a sort of game console), with a mysterious man called Wilbur Mercer, who endlessly climbs a hill, while being stoned by surrounding onlookers... Perhaps some kind of Sisyphus or Jesus walking towards the Golgotha?
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.
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February 20, 2017
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Sep 10, 2018 04:50AM
Sensible comparison here! I had not to this point connected the dots between Mercer and Sisyphus!
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Weird video game, right? :)
Weird video game alright, Leonard! One you can't win over the bargain... Is that... the ultimate Dark Souls ? ;)
Wow, I said almost exactly the same thing � only much more long-windedly! Nice review, Leonard.
Indeed! Just read your own excellent review. Les grands esprits se rencontrent ! I'm guessing you're currently through the 1st volume of the LoA omnibus edition? Got the same here. And I need to catch up with you! ;)
Exactly so! I'm not usually a big fan of the covers/fonts used on those LoA editions, but this one is a beautiful set (and surprisingly quick to read, too).
Excellent. I’ll dust my set asap, then... I believe a reread of Ubik is long overdue, as far as I’m concerned, so I guess I’ll take it from there on. I have also been wanting to read Martian Time-Slip, which is one of the early novels, but for some odd reason I don’t remember seeing it in the LoA. I’ll have to get that one separately.
It's in my vol. II.
Oh, you're abs right, silly me! I meant to say Time Out of Joint. But I guess this one was written before the 60s, so it makes perfect sense that it's not included in a volume titled "Novels of the 1960s"... Anyway, next stop for me, that or Ubik, depending on mood and barometric pressure, I guess. I'll see you there. :)
Yes, the book and the novel are quite different.
Yes, Ivana. I guess PKD is not easily “adaptable� as is (perhaps his stories a bit too dry or too weird?). See for instance the Man in the High Castle TV series: widely embroidered as compared to the book.
Leonard wrote: "Yes, Ivana. I guess PKD is not easily “adaptable� as is (perhaps his stories a bit too dry or too weird?). See for instance the Man in the High Castle TV series: widely embroidered as compared to t..."He is definitely not easily adaptable. I'm trying to imagine what a good adaptation of this book would look like and all I can think of is some melancholic film with cheesy voice over featuring some of my fav lines. I wouldn't be able to come up with a good way to do it. It might be done perhaps, especially now that many things predicted in the book came true (isn't collective merging a bit like social networks nowadays and the mood machine like the pills?) but maybe there is no need. Sometimes adaptations can be completely different and still be great. I think Blade Runner is one of those films. It is more inspired by the book than based on it but I liked it.
I haven't seen the Man in the High Castle TV series but yes I imagine it must be different from the book.
You are right. Ridley Scott’s film is a masterpiece, indeed. But in any case, each work has its own merits. I believe that the fact that a book is not easily transposable or translatable into another language or medium is a good sign: it shows that it doesn’t just rely on a good story, but has some specific qualities (be it style, or structure, or feel, or whatever) that are intrinsic to the book, and couldn’t adequately be expressed otherwise.
