So fun fact about the inspiration about this book. When PKD was doing research for his book “The Man in the High Castle” he was reading a journal from a Nazi officer. At one point the Nazi was complaining in his journal about how the crying of a child was keeping him up at night. Not in some sense of a guilty conscience, just that the child was loud. PKD said the casual attitude that the Nazi officer wrote about it made him come to the idea that empathy is what makes us human. To PKD an android isn’t someone defined by their origin, but their capacity for empathy. PKD is possibly my favourite author. While his prose are clunky and his characters tend to be somewhat weak, he is unparalleled in his absurdist dystopia worlds. Often his worlds are great satirical takes on our own world. I’d recommend checking out “Ubik” if you want to see how weird PKD can get.
To me, the ending with the toad is about how it doesn't really matter that the animal is real or electric because Iran will take care of it as if it was real anyway. Yes, there is the theme of "what makes one human? And if one has every aspect of being human except they're an android, does it matter?" but like you said, empathy is a big one too. The ending concludes that if you love and can empathize with something electric, does it make it less human/real?
You said something along the lines of "rick slept with her then tossed her away and went back to his wife", but didn't Rachel only sleep with Rick just to have him develop stronger feelings for androids and stop him from continuing to kill the others? Also, thanks for the video! Edit: looked up the wiki synopsis and I wasn't misremembering it "Rachael reveals she has slept with many bounty hunters, having been programmed to do so in order to dissuade them from their missions. "
This is why I love classic scifi and why I need to read more! The societal, political, and religious commentary is so complex and fascinating! To me, it felt so much like a lot of religious people around here. The goal isn't empathy the goal is the social status that empathy gives you. A competition of empathy. It feels like Who can be the best Christian. Phillip K. Dick I'd absolutely spot on with his commentary in this book. Genius!
Some good points it is very prevalent, I was just listening to a lecture on some similar issues by Ryan Reeves( Gordon theological Seminary) as he was commenting CS lewis' "That Hideous Strength".
12:31 I think it's important to remember that Rachael also used Rick - she had slept with countless other bounty hunters. Deckard wasn't the first, she was literally programmed to seduce him to get more information for the new nexus 7 androids for Rosen. It think it would be easy to even devalue other humans, let alone androids, especially when they admit they are using you for their own ends.
Even in the story - the other hunter *I forget his name*, suggested to Rick - just to sleep with them then blast them. Even though he's the cold hearted type of person for the job - maybe he understands better than anyone that the androids aren't empathetic, and given the choice to kill you they would, hell they even would kill each other without thinking twice. Remember the scene with the spider? Maybe the fine line between robot and human is empathy - where the androids refuse to believe it's true as they themselves do not believe in Mercer and the entire concept of empathy as they wish to become more human. Regardless though - fantastic review - I really hope you touch on more proto-cyberpunk dystopian books!
The toad at the end , if you recall , he had all these thoughts about being famous , winning awards and great riches and he takes it home and his wife opens it up to show it was a robot. Listen to the bbc radio play
Having read about 40 plus PKD books, short stories, watched movies, and documentaries, Androids was always a C+ for a PKD book for me, tho any PKD will stick in ur head and make you think, clunky like you said, Also new readers of PKD always chose Androids, tho I wish they would chose differently, For beginners PKD start with UBIK, 3 stigmata of palmer eldritch, Flow my tears, Then go to martian time slip, time out of joint, Read the short stories they have some of his best works, PKD has something like 100 or more novels, His early works are more classic scifi, doomsday, aliens, and telekinetic powers, theres always the government coming to get you, fun stuff but its its own flavor compared to his later stuff, Stay away from the Valis Trilogy until you got your bearings, like his writing, it needs commitment, but it is weird and wonderful Read scannner darkly before the valis trilogy , if you go thru that and want more then valis could be for you, Also free to not listen to me :)
Nice roadmap, I never thought of it that way, but that is a solid guide to not just enjoying the works of PKD, it will help to understand him and his work.
Thanks for the review. I'm obsessed with PKD. I'm reading his short stories. I am fascinated by the tension he creates in his narratives about perception and reality.
Having read more than dozen Phillip K Dick novels including this one, reading his books is always trippy experience and yes they are all like you describe them. Not written exceptionally even sometimes riddled amateurish prose but very interesting ideas and it reads very fast. It never ceased to fascinate me. So many questions!
I'm currently reading through all of Philip K. Dick's novels and short stories and I must say, he had such a fascinating, albeit frequently paranoid, view of the world. "Do Androids" is a good book, but nowhere near my favorite of his works. A Scanner Darkly and Ubik are my current favorites and left much more of an impact on me. His way of getting into your head and making you think, as you mentioned in your review, is the thing that most makes me continue to come back to his works. The sense of wonder is always awakened during and after each of his stories. A Scanner Darkly, though, broke my brain in the best way and made me feel what the main character was going through. The only other book I ever read that did that to me was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
cheers, mate. King Felix. I think the main point Phil was trying to make is that, in the future, a digital copy of you (AI simulacrum, Facebook profile, Instagram account, etc - or an android) will be able to replace you without you knowing it. The story was meant to confuse readers, especially in the middle whereupon suddenly Deckard could be a perverted robot that gets hauled into an android police building. This complete departure from the noir detective trope juxtaposes sci-fi convention, thus in this story we see Phil create the term: Cyber-Punk. Obviously, the main supporting idea - or subplot - is that humans have gone back to slavery. Droids are stand-ins for slaves. Deckard never seems to eat or drink or sleep, he only works - so is Deckard a silicone slave? Phil was a prophet. In this story, not only did he predict Virtual Reality & Meta (Mercerism) - he also saw the rise of AI and the fact that we, as a society, are breeding a new race of artificial slaves. AI can do anything, now, right? Run an entire automated factory without workers, diagnose medical conditions better than a human doctor, carry on a conversation with a romantic partner (thanks, South Park), even - perhaps - replace me, and type my words right now? Am I even real? Am I necessary as an author or a writer anymore? Perhaps not. Perhaps that's the point. Why end the book with a robotic frog? "It had been a pit of corpses and dead bones, and he struggled for years to get up from it. The donkey, and ESPECIALLY THE TOAD, the creatures most important to him - had vanished."
Read this last year and really enjoyed it. gave it a 4/5 or 8/10. I didn't realise this wasn't main channel. This would be a perfect main channel video!
I read this book years ago, most of my memories about it are actually scenes from the Blade Runner movie lol. Still, there's one scene in the book that's stuck with me, the scene with the spider. Before that scene I was all androids are similar to humans, but that scene left me questioning that thought. I love moments like that where the author makes me question my assumptions/beliefs. That's why I still remember the book Back Roads. Man did that book surprise me.
For me, the question this book left me with was: Should we be creating sentient beings we aren't prepared to give rights to? I'm still trying to figure out where I stand
I think not, but if someone wanted to lend their sentience to reside in another shell, whether that should be allowed or not, is kinda where it left me.
I've always loved that classic sci-fi authors like Dick and Asimov, while they don't necessarily focus on character in every story, focus more on the ideas of the stories they are trying to tell. I've just always loved stories like this one that make you think about those ideas after you've finished the book.
Phillip K Dick's Martian Time-Slip has some of the best classic scfi characters. If you enjoyed this you should definitely check it out it its an all-time great imo
haven't read it yet but the film adaptation (Bladerunner, 1982) is a masterpiece. your review really makes me wanna try the original now! the animal stuff isn't in the movie and it sounds so fascinating and essential to the book... (PS i love this style of review from you, you do it so well!)
The thing about the movie adaptations of Dick's work is usually go for the opposite meaning of the books. Blade Runner: Look how human these robots are. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep: Look how robotic these humans are.
I love this book so much! I read it in college and watched the movie starring Harrison Ford, which I also like despite its differences from the source material. 😊
I hate the theory about Decard being an android. It’s like that tired trope of theorizing that a character was dead the whole time. Besides I always felt like the police station chapter made it clear he wasn’t one.
I felt that the police station wasn't really conclusive to me. He did the test on himself which doesn't seem like it would be accurate to me. Like it would be good enough to try and convince yourself but not enough to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. I will say i don't think he is an android but it left the door open a little.
It's stated in the book that he was the subject of the test before taking the job. If he were an android, his boss would have known about it. So the theory about him being one doesn't really stand imo.
This is the best review I've seen of a book in months. You've tackled so many themes in the book and really engaged with it in this video in a fantastic way. I'd love to see you do more classics science fiction - I enjoy all of your videos, but knowing how brilliant your videos are, I'd love to see more of this. Thanks for posting.
Philip K. Dick had many shortcomings as a writer; people can (and do) point to inelegant phrasing, evidence of hasty writing, lack of psychological depth in his work etc... but I think the reason he's survived is because there are often more challenging philosophical notions buried deep beneath his fiction which are only hinted at, sort of like daffodils growing beneath the cracks in the pavement. Despite his shortcomings (or perhaps because of them) his books posses a fascinating sort of aesthetic uncleanness, that makes them worth reading long after more accomplished writers have fallen out of print. More polish would probably have rubbed that quality away. A favourite of mine was his 1969 novel Ubik, which involves a bunch of people after surviving an accident on a moon colony (or have they?). Dick's answer to "I think therefore I am" is "How do you know those thoughts in your head are yours?" His best books are deeply unsettling existential horror stories from which I've never entirely sure I've woken up from. Thank you so much for doing a video on this, loved to hear your thoughts.
Great review Merphy! Those are some great questions that you are asking. I love books that still have us thinking and questioning after we’ve read them.
I am so glad you read this book! I literally finished this book last week and have been wanting to talk about it with someone casue I am so confused and got so many questions! I think that the thing that stuck with me was the Mood Organ, being able to dial yourself to specific positive/negative emotions is very Android like. Deckard seemed to always choose "positive" emotions for his day to day. To me it feels like being always on a high note is equal to living a dull life, I wonder if this is something that made him less empathetic towards everyone. Also there Mercerism being exposed as fake, however, is interesting that the shared experiences are real and make you feel more human. I find it a very interesting mirror when thinking about the androids, they are not "real", but their experience can be real and impactful. Lastly, Deckard ends up settling for an artificial frog?? Did he find happiness in it even though is an AI? I honestly don't know what to think about it.
I read it a while back when I was sick and read a lot because a friend recommended it to me and I liked it a lot. My favourite part about it is how much it made me think and theorise. Ended up having really interesting discussions with my friend questioning the reality within the world and the things the book seems to suggest. But also, you theorise and then wonder if you're maybe just reading too much into it. It's very interesting and gives you lots to think about.
Please do a video on your thoughts about the movie too! They are very different while still focused on the same themes. I'm very curious about your thoughts both on the the movie itself and as an adaptation of the book.
I think the main questions the book raises are whether any of the characters are human and whether or not that matters. The humans define themselves by their empathy but codify that mostly by their ability to use the empathy boxes and ownership of animals, both of which are status symbols more than ends in and of themselves. The tests Deckard and the other hunters use are esoteric and there's no reliable evidence that they consistently work. The androids in turn believe they have a human detector, but it doesn't work on Deckard. From the reader's point of view, nobody in the plot really makes themselves stand out as explicitly less than human.
I've read it a while ago, I only vaguely remember liking it a lot. I really like your thought on the ending. Is nothing real? And if it's the case - does it mater then?
Didn’t Rachel Rosen just use him rather than he use her? She says sleeping with bounty hunters was a thing she did for the Rosen Association because it made it hard for them to kill androids afterwards. Decard did feel that he wouldn’t be able to kill Pris because she would be identical to Rachel. So I don’t think he used her and cast her aside. Rachel told him it was just a job to her, sleeping with him and then he decided to kill her.
This book is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland but with the added angst of knowing it's probably not a dream, but that most of us are sleepwalking to some extent, with moral quandaries gnawing at the fringes of habitualized behavoir - Not unlike real life in many ways - Where as Alice is only vaguely interested in her existentialism. Then you get scenes like the police station that I can't wrap my mind around no matter how many times I try that feel So dreamlike! You brought up many aspects I'd totally forgotten, I ought to read it again...I THINK I want to.
thats awesome you had the same version and read it in the same month as I did for the first time. The dreams this book triggered were so real I came up with an entire series. The first dream was like experiencing all of about 80 full years but in one night, so there's already a very long story in the works from me that will dedicated to Philip K Dick, and in a way it's just a look FAR forward in time from the setting of do android dream of electric sheep. You could say my dream bridges the gap between Blade Runner and Starfield
I think it’s so funny that the Mercerism we see practiced is entirely performative. It’s a philosophy about empathy, but what empathy is really shown to the animals? What does it say about us if we only have empathy for the “genuine article”? If we really have empathy, why does the fakeness of the animal even matter? The frog is there to say that we can’t just dehumanize people in order to exclude them from our empathy. When we make our empathy conditional, we turn ourselves into machines.
Typically charming and intelligent review, MN. You might try some of PKD's "mainstream" novels; e. g., "Confessions of a Crap Artist"; "Puttering About in a Small World"; "The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike" etc. They are strange and brilliant, to my mind.
I read this book earlier this year and my feelings are mixed as well. On one hand I couldn't put it down and I loved the action. However, the things that always surface to my mind when I think of the book were the problems I had with it. "clunky" is the perfect way to describe the plot, I say he wasn't writing to create a literary masterpiece but to take the reader on a wild ride. Dick probably had a great time banging out the story as well. The biggest problem for me, which I don't hear anyone else talk about, is the fact Rick describes Rachael as being sexually attractive while simultaneously describing how much her features resemble a childs. He does this multiple times and a similar description was given to Pris when we were following Isadore. I understand that this book was written in the 60s and it's a bit easier to overlook in an objective standpoint but if take into account my reading experience, I couldn't help but feel uneasy about it. ALSO, it was really funny to see what Dick envisioned 2020 to be like. I can't image having to do face to face every time I get a call.
There's a kinda niche anime genre? that deals really strongly with a lot of these concepts. Vivy Flourite Eyes Song deals with an android tackling the question of what it means to "put your heart into a song" while trying to prevent a human A.I. war over 100 years. There's Psychopass which still leaves me with questions about humanities nature and what I think is good and evil or what leads to people being "evil" and is there ever a fair way to judge a complex human being? Angel Beats is even further from reality but closer to the heart, taking place in a sort of limbo afterlife for children who just can't move on, it tackles heartbreaking and powerful emotions character by character. Back to androids is Plastic Memories, where the main character works for an android company's sort of return department as all androids have a built in shelf life and therefore need to be returned before malfunctioning but also the way they break can be so painfully human. Away from androids and back to questions of empathy and things that make us "human" is one of the absolute best anime ever (imo) Violet Evergarden, which follows a child soldier after the war is over trying to understand the emotions she never got to learn like Love by writing letters for others. Gaining context for her own feelings by pushing to empathize and understand the feelings of her clients. All of these either left me with powerful emotions or deep questions about life that I still think about today.
I just finished the book last night before watching this review! While I did enjoy parts of the book, it has some really interesting ideas, it did tend to feel like a drag with sudden sharp edges. Not my favorite book but I'd recommend it for sci fi fans.
I feel better about myself.... there were several times I was a bit confused what was going on like if the other hunter was real or a droid and the ending made my brain melt. I think The theme of empathy took a back seat for me because no one, except isodore, in the book has any empathy at all. For me the main theme was reality. Some people chose to stay on earth because it was real. I felt he didnt want an animal for status as much as because he wanted something real and alive, he loves Rachel(as much as anything and more than the goat regardless of what rachel says), but cant commit because she isnt real(and for his sanity cant be), and doesnt want to give up his feelings because this is one of the rare good genuine feelings he has. I have no idea what to make of mercer at the ending..... and I think the toad is just meant to confuse us more about what in this book is real. I think the wife at the end showing empathy at the end caring for the toad is completely out of character for her and was an attempt to give the character as close to a happy ending as he could have.
I've been thinking about Mercer healing the previously Drowned Spider (after he'd been exposed as a fraud.) The androids mutilate the Spider to try make it walk on 4 legs instead of 8 which horrifies J R Who heals the Spider, is it the idealised Mercer (joined by thousands of humans) or J R Isoldore's faith in Mercer? Isoldore releases the Spider afterwards and it is unharmed.
I hate this book so much. It's clunky, disconnected and reading it - is a burden... but, oh boy, I keep thinking about it all the time. It's been like 5 years since I've read it and it's still floating around in my mind. I feel like this book not about the plot or characters, but about YOU going on a journey inside of your own brain exploring ideas and themes. So fascinating. I've never read anything like this ever. Highly recommend the movie Blade Runner 2049 (and shorts), they explore the empathy but from the other perspective. First movie does not holds up (in my opinion), but it is good for establishing the lore (which is different from the book). As much as I can't stand Phillip K Dick dry writing, I can gush about Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep for hours :D
I think all promotions for kindness/empathy/etc. will inevitably end up promoting hypocrisy, because those are the sort of things that can't be forced out of someone.
Why was there no goat in the films. Additionally, I thought the section of this clip was about the GOAT of androids but I was incorrect ,at first glance
I think the point of caring for the toad is that it is obvious that it is electric. No one will be fooled to think that it is a real animal. They are caring for an electric animal like it is real and it is not going to be a status symbol.
There is this part where a cat was mistaken for an Android, when in fact it was real. I think that indicates how not everything in that world are androids Love how various ideas and themes about society are cleverly woven into the book!
Have you read any PKD since Do Androids? If you like the heavy concept stuff, nearly all his books leave you in awe of his ideas. I'd have to recommend A Scanner Darkly as a follow up. It's more entertaining from a reader standpoint, but no less deep and thought-provoking. And it has a lot to say on the nature of addiction, police corruption, government surveillance, and the conspiratorial reasons drug epidemics continue to exist. It's equally dark and humorous. My favorite of Dicks novels, by far.
The book is a redemption tale of someone rediscovering their empathy. The point of the frog is he no longer drew a line between androids and other living things. "The electric things have their lives too, no matter how paltry." This may help you ruclips.net/video/HapVrGD4Hgs/видео.html
I haven't wanted to read this book because Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies ever and I'd rather just have the movie as *the* story. But based on what you said, it feels like 2 completely different stories with the same premisse. I might pick it up in the future.
Unanswered questions are Part of PKD, there is no true answer, the question is the point!!! Its not like other novels with a complete plot and characters, and all questions answered , Andriods is clunky, PKD’s other books have way more flow. His characters are always broke, tired, have a weird job like andriod repair, or salvage space ships, or colonizer, he has great names like Joe chip, his characters are always having a rough time, you immediately feel there real because they have jobs, they complain, they make decisions that are new and different, they think , but they arent so deep with character
I think this was a book I enjoyed despite having the wrong expectations going in but I atleast read it before the move lol I think sometimes its hard for me to follow his thoughts but I love scifi that makes me think even if its not 100% perfect. Like I just finished the Xenogenesis series by Butler and I don’t think its perfect but it made me think a ton
Maybe I missed something but I didn't feel like owning a real pet was part of mercerism. The author was a pretty interesting guy. He wrote about his works and reality in general in a journal called the exegesis, the original has 10k pages. You might like his other book "ubik" , which has similarities with this one, especially the confusion about what's real (altho that's a very common theme in his books in general)
anybody here heard of Quality Land? This advertisement here: "Satire reminiscent of Douglas Adams or Rob Grant (STARBURST)" peaked my interested are there any other books that fit that category? Edit: There were plans to make a series out of it, HBO even bought the rights, but then decided against it.
Dick is currently my second favorite author of all time! I dare you to attempt to read Ubik. Skip straight over the normal stuff like The man in the high castle 🙄
I prefer the Director's Cut (which also does away with the voiceover), largely because that's the one I rewatched the most, but also because for some reason I really like the color grading on the Director's vs the Final (which is too blue for my taste). I don't know why color grading made so much of a difference for me--I know it shouldn't, but somehow it does for me.
Not my favorite PKD novel, I actually like the first film more. But I do really like his novels Ubik, Martian Time Slip and A Scanner Darkly waaaayyy more than this one. Your review is very interesting though.
The movie is fantastic. I have not read the novel lately but in this case the movie is better. Do a review of the movie too. PKD died way too soon. Very sad that.
So fun fact about the inspiration about this book. When PKD was doing research for his book “The Man in the High Castle” he was reading a journal from a Nazi officer. At one point the Nazi was complaining in his journal about how the crying of a child was keeping him up at night. Not in some sense of a guilty conscience, just that the child was loud. PKD said the casual attitude that the Nazi officer wrote about it made him come to the idea that empathy is what makes us human. To PKD an android isn’t someone defined by their origin, but their capacity for empathy.
PKD is possibly my favourite author. While his prose are clunky and his characters tend to be somewhat weak, he is unparalleled in his absurdist dystopia worlds. Often his worlds are great satirical takes on our own world.
I’d recommend checking out “Ubik” if you want to see how weird PKD can get.
This review is about a different book.
It is interesting that PKD explains the NAZI root of the term "egg head"
@@educateme8455Your reading comprehension is also of a lower grade.
To me, the ending with the toad is about how it doesn't really matter that the animal is real or electric because Iran will take care of it as if it was real anyway. Yes, there is the theme of "what makes one human? And if one has every aspect of being human except they're an android, does it matter?" but like you said, empathy is a big one too. The ending concludes that if you love and can empathize with something electric, does it make it less human/real?
You said something along the lines of "rick slept with her then tossed her away and went back to his wife", but didn't Rachel only sleep with Rick just to have him develop stronger feelings for androids and stop him from continuing to kill the others?
Also, thanks for the video!
Edit: looked up the wiki synopsis and I wasn't misremembering it
"Rachael reveals she has slept with many bounty hunters, having been programmed to do so in order to dissuade them from their missions. "
This is why I love classic scifi and why I need to read more! The societal, political, and religious commentary is so complex and fascinating! To me, it felt so much like a lot of religious people around here. The goal isn't empathy the goal is the social status that empathy gives you. A competition of empathy. It feels like Who can be the best Christian. Phillip K. Dick I'd absolutely spot on with his commentary in this book. Genius!
Some good points it is very prevalent, I was just listening to a lecture on some similar issues by Ryan Reeves( Gordon theological Seminary) as he was commenting CS lewis' "That Hideous Strength".
Great book! I love the alternate police station part. You really start questioning things then.
12:31 I think it's important to remember that Rachael also used Rick - she had slept with countless other bounty hunters. Deckard wasn't the first, she was literally programmed to seduce him to get more information for the new nexus 7 androids for Rosen. It think it would be easy to even devalue other humans, let alone androids, especially when they admit they are using you for their own ends.
Even in the story - the other hunter *I forget his name*, suggested to Rick - just to sleep with them then blast them. Even though he's the cold hearted type of person for the job - maybe he understands better than anyone that the androids aren't empathetic, and given the choice to kill you they would, hell they even would kill each other without thinking twice. Remember the scene with the spider? Maybe the fine line between robot and human is empathy - where the androids refuse to believe it's true as they themselves do not believe in Mercer and the entire concept of empathy as they wish to become more human. Regardless though - fantastic review - I really hope you touch on more proto-cyberpunk dystopian books!
The toad at the end , if you recall , he had all these thoughts about being famous , winning awards and great riches and he takes it home and his wife opens it up to show it was a robot. Listen to the bbc radio play
Having read about 40 plus PKD books, short stories, watched movies, and documentaries,
Androids was always a C+ for a PKD book for me, tho any PKD will stick in ur head and make you think, clunky like you said,
Also new readers of PKD always chose Androids, tho I wish they would chose differently,
For beginners PKD start with UBIK, 3 stigmata of palmer eldritch, Flow my tears,
Then go to martian time slip, time out of joint,
Read the short stories they have some of his best works,
PKD has something like 100 or more novels,
His early works are more classic scifi, doomsday, aliens, and telekinetic powers, theres always the government coming to get you, fun stuff but its its own flavor compared to his later stuff,
Stay away from the Valis Trilogy until you got your bearings, like his writing, it needs commitment, but it is weird and wonderful
Read scannner darkly before the valis trilogy , if you go thru that and want more then valis could be for you,
Also free to not listen to me :)
Nice roadmap, I never thought of it that way, but that is a solid guide to not just enjoying the works of PKD, it will help to understand him and his work.
Thanks for the review. I'm obsessed with PKD. I'm reading his short stories. I am fascinated by the tension he creates in his narratives about perception and reality.
Hi Merph. From your manga audience. You brought this up on a vlog and I'm in the middle of it right now. I love it.
I am really looking forward to reading this book.
Having read more than dozen Phillip K Dick novels including this one, reading his books is always trippy experience and yes they are all like you describe them. Not written exceptionally even sometimes riddled amateurish prose but very interesting ideas and it reads very fast. It never ceased to fascinate me. So many questions!
I'm currently reading through all of Philip K. Dick's novels and short stories and I must say, he had such a fascinating, albeit frequently paranoid, view of the world. "Do Androids" is a good book, but nowhere near my favorite of his works. A Scanner Darkly and Ubik are my current favorites and left much more of an impact on me. His way of getting into your head and making you think, as you mentioned in your review, is the thing that most makes me continue to come back to his works. The sense of wonder is always awakened during and after each of his stories. A Scanner Darkly, though, broke my brain in the best way and made me feel what the main character was going through. The only other book I ever read that did that to me was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
cheers, mate. King Felix. I think the main point Phil was trying to make is that, in the future, a digital copy of you (AI simulacrum, Facebook profile, Instagram account, etc - or an android) will be able to replace you without you knowing it. The story was meant to confuse readers, especially in the middle whereupon suddenly Deckard could be a perverted robot that gets hauled into an android police building. This complete departure from the noir detective trope juxtaposes sci-fi convention, thus in this story we see Phil create the term: Cyber-Punk. Obviously, the main supporting idea - or subplot - is that humans have gone back to slavery. Droids are stand-ins for slaves. Deckard never seems to eat or drink or sleep, he only works - so is Deckard a silicone slave? Phil was a prophet. In this story, not only did he predict Virtual Reality & Meta (Mercerism) - he also saw the rise of AI and the fact that we, as a society, are breeding a new race of artificial slaves. AI can do anything, now, right? Run an entire automated factory without workers, diagnose medical conditions better than a human doctor, carry on a conversation with a romantic partner (thanks, South Park), even - perhaps - replace me, and type my words right now? Am I even real? Am I necessary as an author or a writer anymore? Perhaps not. Perhaps that's the point.
Why end the book with a robotic frog? "It had been a pit of corpses and dead bones, and he struggled for years to get up from it. The donkey, and ESPECIALLY THE TOAD, the creatures most important to him - had vanished."
Read this last year and really enjoyed it. gave it a 4/5 or 8/10. I didn't realise this wasn't main channel. This would be a perfect main channel video!
One of my favorite books of all time. Just finished the book with this sense of contemplative awe.
I read this book years ago, most of my memories about it are actually scenes from the Blade Runner movie lol. Still, there's one scene in the book that's stuck with me, the scene with the spider. Before that scene I was all androids are similar to humans, but that scene left me questioning that thought. I love moments like that where the author makes me question my assumptions/beliefs. That's why I still remember the book Back Roads. Man did that book surprise me.
For me, the question this book left me with was: Should we be creating sentient beings we aren't prepared to give rights to?
I'm still trying to figure out where I stand
I stand pretty firmly in the “we absolutely should not” camp. Kinda stepping into slavery territory there
I think not, but if someone wanted to lend their sentience to reside in another shell, whether that should be allowed or not, is kinda where it left me.
Watch the star trek episode "measure of a man" the whole episode is a court room drama investigating that idea. Very well done
I've always loved that classic sci-fi authors like Dick and Asimov, while they don't necessarily focus on character in every story, focus more on the ideas of the stories they are trying to tell. I've just always loved stories like this one that make you think about those ideas after you've finished the book.
Phillip K Dick's Martian Time-Slip has some of the best classic scfi characters. If you enjoyed this you should definitely check it out it its an all-time great imo
And now I've the sudden urge to do another re-read lol
haven't read it yet but the film adaptation (Bladerunner, 1982) is a masterpiece. your review really makes me wanna try the original now! the animal stuff isn't in the movie and it sounds so fascinating and essential to the book... (PS i love this style of review from you, you do it so well!)
The thing about the movie adaptations of Dick's work is usually go for the opposite meaning of the books. Blade Runner: Look how human these robots are. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep: Look how robotic these humans are.
@@KBTibbs that's such an interesting way of putting it! can't wait to read it ~
Sounds like this book could be a fun as a movie 👀
"Blade Runner", for those that didn't get the joke.
I love this book so much! I read it in college and watched the movie starring Harrison Ford, which I also like despite its differences from the source material. 😊
I loved this book. Philip K. Dick is one of my favorite authors.
I am going to start to watch the Dear Authors… videos tonight! 🙀☺️ I am looking forward to it!
My thoughts were pretty much in line with yours. Loved this book and all the weirdness. Great review.
I hate the theory about Decard being an android. It’s like that tired trope of theorizing that a character was dead the whole time. Besides I always felt like the police station chapter made it clear he wasn’t one.
The movie leans into this idea a lot more
I felt that the police station wasn't really conclusive to me. He did the test on himself which doesn't seem like it would be accurate to me. Like it would be good enough to try and convince yourself but not enough to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. I will say i don't think he is an android but it left the door open a little.
I like it because in my opinion, whether he's an android or not isn't the point. The point is that it doesn't matter because he's human either way.
It's stated in the book that he was the subject of the test before taking the job. If he were an android, his boss would have known about it. So the theory about him being one doesn't really stand imo.
@@Ppppftt If he was an android he could have the false memory implanted of having previously passed the test.
This is the best review I've seen of a book in months. You've tackled so many themes in the book and really engaged with it in this video in a fantastic way. I'd love to see you do more classics science fiction - I enjoy all of your videos, but knowing how brilliant your videos are, I'd love to see more of this. Thanks for posting.
Please do more sci-fi Merphy. I know it is not in your wheel house but some of them are really really good...
Literally clicked hoping to hear exactly what you said in the first four minutes.
Thank you for confirming my feelings abut this book lol
Philip K. Dick had many shortcomings as a writer; people can (and do) point to inelegant phrasing, evidence of hasty writing, lack of psychological depth in his work etc... but I think the reason he's survived is because there are often more challenging philosophical notions buried deep beneath his fiction which are only hinted at, sort of like daffodils growing beneath the cracks in the pavement. Despite his shortcomings (or perhaps because of them) his books posses a fascinating sort of aesthetic uncleanness, that makes them worth reading long after more accomplished writers have fallen out of print. More polish would probably have rubbed that quality away.
A favourite of mine was his 1969 novel Ubik, which involves a bunch of people after surviving an accident on a moon colony (or have they?). Dick's answer to "I think therefore I am" is "How do you know those thoughts in your head are yours?" His best books are deeply unsettling existential horror stories from which I've never entirely sure I've woken up from. Thank you so much for doing a video on this, loved to hear your thoughts.
Great review Merphy! Those are some great questions that you are asking. I love books that still have us thinking and questioning after we’ve read them.
I am so glad you read this book! I literally finished this book last week and have been wanting to talk about it with someone casue I am so confused and got so many questions!
I think that the thing that stuck with me was the Mood Organ, being able to dial yourself to specific positive/negative emotions is very Android like. Deckard seemed to always choose "positive" emotions for his day to day. To me it feels like being always on a high note is equal to living a dull life, I wonder if this is something that made him less empathetic towards everyone.
Also there Mercerism being exposed as fake, however, is interesting that the shared experiences are real and make you feel more human. I find it a very interesting mirror when thinking about the androids, they are not "real", but their experience can be real and impactful.
Lastly, Deckard ends up settling for an artificial frog?? Did he find happiness in it even though is an AI? I honestly don't know what to think about it.
I read it a while back when I was sick and read a lot because a friend recommended it to me and I liked it a lot. My favourite part about it is how much it made me think and theorise. Ended up having really interesting discussions with my friend questioning the reality within the world and the things the book seems to suggest. But also, you theorise and then wonder if you're maybe just reading too much into it. It's very interesting and gives you lots to think about.
Please do a video on your thoughts about the movie too! They are very different while still focused on the same themes. I'm very curious about your thoughts both on the the movie itself and as an adaptation of the book.
I think the main questions the book raises are whether any of the characters are human and whether or not that matters. The humans define themselves by their empathy but codify that mostly by their ability to use the empathy boxes and ownership of animals, both of which are status symbols more than ends in and of themselves. The tests Deckard and the other hunters use are esoteric and there's no reliable evidence that they consistently work. The androids in turn believe they have a human detector, but it doesn't work on Deckard. From the reader's point of view, nobody in the plot really makes themselves stand out as explicitly less than human.
I thought the way Mercerism was presented and experienced by the characters was fascinating
I've read it a while ago, I only vaguely remember liking it a lot. I really like your thought on the ending. Is nothing real? And if it's the case - does it mater then?
Having never read this book but having read other PKD novels, your questions sound like classic PKD shenanigans.
Looks really cool ! I really crave to read it now ! Thanks Merphy !
Didn’t Rachel Rosen just use him rather than he use her? She says sleeping with bounty hunters was a thing she did for the Rosen Association because it made it hard for them to kill androids afterwards. Decard did feel that he wouldn’t be able to kill Pris because she would be identical to Rachel. So I don’t think he used her and cast her aside. Rachel told him it was just a job to her, sleeping with him and then he decided to kill her.
Ooh I loved that book, especially the start of it.
Yay, I love your reviews!!
This book is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland but with the added angst of knowing it's probably not a dream, but that most of us are sleepwalking to some extent, with moral quandaries gnawing at the fringes of habitualized behavoir - Not unlike real life in many ways - Where as Alice is only vaguely interested in her existentialism. Then you get scenes like the police station that I can't wrap my mind around no matter how many times I try that feel So dreamlike! You brought up many aspects I'd totally forgotten, I ought to read it again...I THINK I want to.
thats awesome you had the same version and read it in the same month as I did for the first time. The dreams this book triggered were so real I came up with an entire series. The first dream was like experiencing all of about 80 full years but in one night, so there's already a very long story in the works from me that will dedicated to Philip K Dick, and in a way it's just a look FAR forward in time from the setting of do android dream of electric sheep.
You could say my dream bridges the gap between Blade Runner and Starfield
I just reserved it from the library so I can talk about it later!
I'm half way though. I'll be looking forward to this video when I'm done
Commenting for better reach!
(My TBR grows...)
Based on your talk of this book it sounds like it could be useful for anyone perusing a career in mental health services.
You point out something, that I did't though. What if they were all androids? Maybe the "special" was the only human.
Great video!! Love stream of consciousness >>very PKD!!
I'd love to see your take on Neuromancer, Snow Crash and Diamond Age
This looks like such a great book!
Wow, I haven't wanted to start reading a book this much in a while!
It’s a quick read actually
I think it’s so funny that the Mercerism we see practiced is entirely performative. It’s a philosophy about empathy, but what empathy is really shown to the animals? What does it say about us if we only have empathy for the “genuine article”? If we really have empathy, why does the fakeness of the animal even matter? The frog is there to say that we can’t just dehumanize people in order to exclude them from our empathy. When we make our empathy conditional, we turn ourselves into machines.
Typically charming and intelligent review, MN. You might try some of PKD's "mainstream" novels; e. g., "Confessions of a Crap Artist"; "Puttering About in a Small World"; "The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike" etc. They are strange and brilliant, to my mind.
I read this book earlier this year and my feelings are mixed as well. On one hand I couldn't put it down and I loved the action. However, the things that always surface to my mind when I think of the book were the problems I had with it. "clunky" is the perfect way to describe the plot, I say he wasn't writing to create a literary masterpiece but to take the reader on a wild ride. Dick probably had a great time banging out the story as well. The biggest problem for me, which I don't hear anyone else talk about, is the fact Rick describes Rachael as being sexually attractive while simultaneously describing how much her features resemble a childs. He does this multiple times and a similar description was given to Pris when we were following Isadore. I understand that this book was written in the 60s and it's a bit easier to overlook in an objective standpoint but if take into account my reading experience, I couldn't help but feel uneasy about it. ALSO, it was really funny to see what Dick envisioned 2020 to be like. I can't image having to do face to face every time I get a call.
You should really watch Westworld (the TV show AND the old movie, in that order), and for Blade Runner: MAKE SURE TO WATCH THE "THE FINAL CUT" VERSION
There's a kinda niche anime genre? that deals really strongly with a lot of these concepts. Vivy Flourite Eyes Song deals with an android tackling the question of what it means to "put your heart into a song" while trying to prevent a human A.I. war over 100 years. There's Psychopass which still leaves me with questions about humanities nature and what I think is good and evil or what leads to people being "evil" and is there ever a fair way to judge a complex human being? Angel Beats is even further from reality but closer to the heart, taking place in a sort of limbo afterlife for children who just can't move on, it tackles heartbreaking and powerful emotions character by character. Back to androids is Plastic Memories, where the main character works for an android company's sort of return department as all androids have a built in shelf life and therefore need to be returned before malfunctioning but also the way they break can be so painfully human. Away from androids and back to questions of empathy and things that make us "human" is one of the absolute best anime ever (imo) Violet Evergarden, which follows a child soldier after the war is over trying to understand the emotions she never got to learn like Love by writing letters for others. Gaining context for her own feelings by pushing to empathize and understand the feelings of her clients. All of these either left me with powerful emotions or deep questions about life that I still think about today.
I did read this. More sci-fi. More sci-fi, Merphy. Pls.. :)
Great reaction video. Enjoy the movie!
this is a book that i would definitely watch other people review, but would not read it myself hahahaha
I have the graphic novel adaptation of it. It's really good.
I just finished the book last night before watching this review! While I did enjoy parts of the book, it has some really interesting ideas, it did tend to feel like a drag with sudden sharp edges. Not my favorite book but I'd recommend it for sci fi fans.
Can't wait to see what you think of the movies. I personally don't like the original Blade Runner at all but 2049 is one of my favorite movies.
I feel better about myself.... there were several times I was a bit confused what was going on like if the other hunter was real or a droid and the ending made my brain melt. I think The theme of empathy took a back seat for me because no one, except isodore, in the book has any empathy at all. For me the main theme was reality. Some people chose to stay on earth because it was real. I felt he didnt want an animal for status as much as because he wanted something real and alive, he loves Rachel(as much as anything and more than the goat regardless of what rachel says), but cant commit because she isnt real(and for his sanity cant be), and doesnt want to give up his feelings because this is one of the rare good genuine feelings he has. I have no idea what to make of mercer at the ending..... and I think the toad is just meant to confuse us more about what in this book is real. I think the wife at the end showing empathy at the end caring for the toad is completely out of character for her and was an attempt to give the character as close to a happy ending as he could have.
I've been thinking about Mercer healing the previously Drowned Spider (after he'd been exposed as a fraud.) The androids mutilate the Spider to try make it walk on 4 legs instead of 8 which horrifies J R
Who heals the Spider, is it the idealised Mercer (joined by thousands of humans) or J R Isoldore's faith in Mercer?
Isoldore releases the Spider afterwards and it is unharmed.
Deckard doesn't KILL any androids...he retires them
I hate this book so much. It's clunky, disconnected and reading it - is a burden... but, oh boy, I keep thinking about it all the time. It's been like 5 years since I've read it and it's still floating around in my mind. I feel like this book not about the plot or characters, but about YOU going on a journey inside of your own brain exploring ideas and themes. So fascinating. I've never read anything like this ever.
Highly recommend the movie Blade Runner 2049 (and shorts), they explore the empathy but from the other perspective. First movie does not holds up (in my opinion), but it is good for establishing the lore (which is different from the book).
As much as I can't stand Phillip K Dick dry writing, I can gush about Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep for hours :D
As long as there are actual electric sheep present
I think all promotions for kindness/empathy/etc. will inevitably end up promoting hypocrisy, because those are the sort of things that can't be forced out of someone.
Why was there no goat in the films. Additionally, I thought the section of this clip was about the GOAT of androids but I was incorrect ,at first glance
I don’t think Deckard was an Android. The job he does however would require someone to lack “empathy” due to how lifelike the androids are.
I think the point of caring for the toad is that it is obvious that it is electric. No one will be fooled to think that it is a real animal. They are caring for an electric animal like it is real and it is not going to be a status symbol.
Yes yes yes 🙌 one of my favourite books and authors
There is this part where a cat was mistaken for an Android, when in fact it was real. I think that indicates how not everything in that world are androids
Love how various ideas and themes about society are cleverly woven into the book!
Sounds like humanity through out history.
Have you read any PKD since Do Androids? If you like the heavy concept stuff, nearly all his books leave you in awe of his ideas.
I'd have to recommend A Scanner Darkly as a follow up. It's more entertaining from a reader standpoint, but no less deep and thought-provoking. And it has a lot to say on the nature of addiction, police corruption, government surveillance, and the conspiratorial reasons drug epidemics continue to exist. It's equally dark and humorous. My favorite of Dicks novels, by far.
I’m persuaded to finding this book that I had but never read
I've never read the book but while watching the vido, i was thinking how this plot sounds like Blade Runner lol
I am doing a series of podcasts on the novels and short stories of PKD
i have read it
The book is a redemption tale of someone rediscovering their empathy. The point of the frog is he no longer drew a line between androids and other living things. "The electric things have their lives too, no matter how paltry." This may help you ruclips.net/video/HapVrGD4Hgs/видео.html
I haven't wanted to read this book because Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies ever and I'd rather just have the movie as *the* story. But based on what you said, it feels like 2 completely different stories with the same premisse. I might pick it up in the future.
The book is pretty different after the 100 page mark.
Unanswered questions are Part of PKD, there is no true answer, the question is the point!!! Its not like other novels with a complete plot and characters, and all questions answered ,
Andriods is clunky, PKD’s other books have way more flow.
His characters are always broke, tired, have a weird job like andriod repair, or salvage space ships, or colonizer, he has great names like Joe chip, his characters are always having a rough time, you immediately feel there real because they have jobs, they complain, they make decisions that are new and different, they think , but they arent so deep with character
Maybe pick up William Gibson's Neuromancer - lots of themes, similar writing style - far more disjointed but packed with themes and ideas.
I think this was a book I enjoyed despite having the wrong expectations going in but I atleast read it before the move lol I think sometimes its hard for me to follow his thoughts but I love scifi that makes me think even if its not 100% perfect. Like I just finished the Xenogenesis series by Butler and I don’t think its perfect but it made me think a ton
Neuromancer is a better read, although it can be slow at times too
I love PKD.
Maybe I missed something but I didn't feel like owning a real pet was part of mercerism. The author was a pretty interesting guy. He wrote about his works and reality in general in a journal called the exegesis, the original has 10k pages. You might like his other book "ubik" , which has similarities with this one, especially the confusion about what's real (altho that's a very common theme in his books in general)
This was the first phillip k dock book I "read" (audiobook) amd I'm so confused. Lol
anybody here heard of Quality Land?
This advertisement here: "Satire reminiscent of Douglas Adams or Rob Grant (STARBURST)" peaked my interested
are there any other books that fit that category?
Edit: There were plans to make a series out of it, HBO even bought the rights, but then decided against it.
Dick is currently my second favorite author of all time! I dare you to attempt to read Ubik. Skip straight over the normal stuff like The man in the high castle 🙄
I've never read this book, but this honestly sounds so much like an episode of the twilight zone 😂
Can you do a Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 review? How did you like the movies compared to the book?
you’ve been HIDING your book reviews? how dare you. I missed this. 😭
Watch the Final Cut. The theatrical had a voiceover that Ford hated so much that he did it hungover and it shows.
I prefer the Director's Cut (which also does away with the voiceover), largely because that's the one I rewatched the most, but also because for some reason I really like the color grading on the Director's vs the Final (which is too blue for my taste). I don't know why color grading made so much of a difference for me--I know it shouldn't, but somehow it does for me.
Not my favorite PKD novel, I actually like the first film more. But I do really like his novels Ubik, Martian Time Slip and A Scanner Darkly waaaayyy more than this one. Your review is very interesting though.
The movie is fantastic. I have not read the novel lately but in this case the movie is better. Do a review of the movie too. PKD died way too soon. Very sad that.