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“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” is a must-read for fans of Blade Runner and the cyberpunk genre. Also, it’s interesting that in 2023, we can reasonably

by clnq 3y ago

“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” is a must-read for fans of Blade Runner and the cyberpunk genre. Also, it’s interesting that in 2023, we can reasonably definitively answer that question for any definition of “dream”.

romwell 3y ago
"Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Gaslight You into Thinking They Are Totally Real Even Though They Have a Dozen of Eyes" doesn't have the same ring to it though.
- clnq 3y ago
  We can conclude that the question posited by the book is too abstract to answer. Until a book with a better question is written, the case is closed. :)
nindalf 3y ago
I might be one of the few people who didn’t like this book. Philip K Dick (the author) manages to come up with some of the most incredible premises. And then somehow the plot meanders into some boring, meaningless corner that left me mystified. How could the person who thought of this premise also have written this plot? It’s not just Androids. In another book he comes up with this fascinating idea of an alternate history where Japan and Germany won WWII. And then it turns out astrology is real and everyone is obsessing over it. Just why? I’m sure everyone will say actually astrology is fascinating, or you need to look past that to get the real meaning of the book. But I prefer the books that don’t meander into meaningless dead ends. There are plenty of them out there. Yet others may say Dick was enormously influential and inspired many other brilliant authors. Ok, I’ll read those authors then. Overall I’d rate the books I’ve read by Dick as 2 stars. And only because the premises are so fantastic.
- Pamar 3y ago
  I do not know if this will make you change your opinion, but at least it will "inform" it a bit better: "The Man in the High Castle" (i.e. the one with the alternate WWII ending) was allegedly "plotted" by using the I-Ching. Basically before every chapter/scene Dick would cast the I-Ching[1] and use the response to decide "what happens now?". Dick was always obsessed with a few core themes ("what is real?", "what is human?") plus a ton of personal and psychological issues. It was always erratic in his production, and while I like his works, I would generally agree that the way he developed his own premises could often be "disappointing" at least in the case of novels. Short stories are usually much better, IMHO. --- [1] here is my take on it, if you want to know a bit more about I-Ching: https://pa-mar.net/Lifestyle/I-Ching.html https://pa-mar.net/Lifestyle/I-Ching.html
  - nindalf 3y ago
    That makes a lot of sense. The characters following astrology would explain why all their decisions felt so disconnected and weird.
- r721 3y ago
  Did you read something about him as a person? He was a profoundly weird person (one example from wiki: "Dick alleged that Stanisław Lem was probably a false name used by a composite committee operating on orders of the Communist party to gain control over public opinion, and wrote a letter to the FBI to that effect"), and that weirdness seeped into his novels. I think you could try one of his semi-autobiographical novels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Albemuth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Albemuth) to see where this weirdness in the more known novels comes from.
  - ddalex 3y ago
    You say weirdness, I say best drugs available to man in impressive quantities. A Scanner Darkly and Ubik are mind bending
  - Pamar 3y ago
    I heartily recommend "Divine Invasions" by Sutin (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22587.Divine_Invasions https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22587.Divine_Invasions) to anyone who would like to know more about Dick's life and personal issues, and the way these influenced his works.
- pmoriarty 3y ago
  > I might be one of the few people who didn’t like this book. Though I'm a huge fan of PKD, I didn't like DADOES either, and consider it to be one of his minor works. The movie was far better. His top-tier works, in my view, are: - Ubik - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Martian Timeslip

by clnq 3y ago

romwell 3y ago

"Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Gaslight You into Thinking They Are Totally Real Even Though They Have a Dozen of Eyes" doesn't have the same ring to it though.

clnq 3y ago
We can conclude that the question posited by the book is too abstract to answer. Until a book with a better question is written, the case is closed. :)

nindalf 3y ago

I might be one of the few people who didn’t like this book. Philip K Dick (the author) manages to come up with some of the most incredible premises. And then somehow the plot meanders into some boring, meaningless corner that left me mystified. How could the person who thought of this premise also have written this plot? It’s not just Androids. In another book he comes up with this fascinating idea of an alternate history where Japan and Germany won WWII. And then it turns out astrology is real and everyone is obsessing over it. Just why? I’m sure everyone will say actually astrology is fascinating, or you need to look past that to get the real meaning of the book. But I prefer the books that don’t meander into meaningless dead ends. There are plenty of them out there. Yet others may say Dick was enormously influential and inspired many other brilliant authors. Ok, I’ll read those authors then. Overall I’d rate the books I’ve read by Dick as 2 stars. And only because the premises are so fantastic.

Pamar 3y ago
I do not know if this will make you change your opinion, but at least it will "inform" it a bit better: "The Man in the High Castle" (i.e. the one with the alternate WWII ending) was allegedly "plotted" by using the I-Ching. Basically before every chapter/scene Dick would cast the I-Ching[1] and use the response to decide "what happens now?". Dick was always obsessed with a few core themes ("what is real?", "what is human?") plus a ton of personal and psychological issues. It was always erratic in his production, and while I like his works, I would generally agree that the way he developed his own premises could often be "disappointing" at least in the case of novels. Short stories are usually much better, IMHO. --- [1] here is my take on it, if you want to know a bit more about I-Ching: https://pa-mar.net/Lifestyle/I-Ching.html https://pa-mar.net/Lifestyle/I-Ching.html
- nindalf 3y ago
  That makes a lot of sense. The characters following astrology would explain why all their decisions felt so disconnected and weird.
r721 3y ago
Did you read something about him as a person? He was a profoundly weird person (one example from wiki: "Dick alleged that Stanisław Lem was probably a false name used by a composite committee operating on orders of the Communist party to gain control over public opinion, and wrote a letter to the FBI to that effect"), and that weirdness seeped into his novels. I think you could try one of his semi-autobiographical novels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Albemuth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Albemuth) to see where this weirdness in the more known novels comes from.
- ddalex 3y ago
  You say weirdness, I say best drugs available to man in impressive quantities. A Scanner Darkly and Ubik are mind bending
- Pamar 3y ago
  I heartily recommend "Divine Invasions" by Sutin (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22587.Divine_Invasions https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22587.Divine_Invasions) to anyone who would like to know more about Dick's life and personal issues, and the way these influenced his works.
pmoriarty 3y ago
> I might be one of the few people who didn’t like this book. Though I'm a huge fan of PKD, I didn't like DADOES either, and consider it to be one of his minor works. The movie was far better. His top-tier works, in my view, are: - Ubik - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Martian Timeslip