Novelist, short story writer and essayist Philip K. Dick authored the book, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" from which the movie BLADE RUNNER was based. First published in 1968 by Doubleday, it has made the rounds in many editions since. Admittedly, I haven't quite "grokked" the full philosophy that lies behind his work, but there's no denying that he is one of a handful of true visionary science fiction writers.
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| Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982). |
As with any adaptation to film, the book does vary in a number ways. For instance, besides the title itself, the setting in the book is San Francisco and in the film it's moved to Los Angeles where the Tech Noir elements of the story are closer tied to Hollywood film noir.
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| Cover of the first Doubleday hardcover edition, 1968. |
In a speech he gave in 1972 at the Vancouver Science Fiction Convention at the University of British Columbia, Dick said regarding his essay "The Android and the Human":
Machines are becoming more human, so to speak -- at least in the sense that . . . some meaningful comparison exists between human and mechanical behavior. But is it not ourselves that we know first and foremost? Rather than learning about ourselves by studying our constructs, perhaps we should make the attempt to comprehend what our constructs are up to by looking into what we ourselves are up to.
If you enjoyed yesterday's post, you should like this one even better, as a deeper dive is taken into the making of this remarkable film in CINEFANTASTIQUE (July/August 1982).
