At the time of its release I thought that "Blade Runner" would create a wave of films dealing with Artificial Intelligence, but it never happened. That was also adapted from a little Phillip Dick novel, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". I read that in a single sitting, as a High School Junior on a Basketball trip on a bus. It really makes you think, especially the last 60 pages or so. Not a good way to get "psyched" to play Ball!
Strangely, a few years later I was travelling South-North in Germany by train. I noticed a passenger sitting in a seat just ahead of me reading "Traumen Androiden Von Elektrisken Schafen?"
I was dissappointed in the film version because it omitted so much. In the book, Deckard was married to a woman named Iran. They lived out a rough existence on a small salary (in San Fran, not LA) and. like most Americans, resented the flow of immigrants into the country. There were so many immigrants that the common language on the street was a mish-mash of English/Japanese and Arabic. Real animals are almost completely extinct so people keep android animals. Deckard himself has an Electric Sheep that he keeps on the roof of his building. He was offered $6,000 to terminate 6 Replicants. Errr... 6 large was a lot of money in 1968! The film also deleted two minor characters who I thought were pivotal The first was named Buster Friendly, a Game Show Host who gave peole hope. The other was Mercer who had established a new religion after the Nuclear War. I kept waiting for one of them to show up. Nope. But THE OWL showed up! That was Deckard's dream, to one day have enough money to buy an Electric Owl. After the War radiation was killing everything, people were leaving for the Off World Colonies.
In the end Deckard retreats to Oregon with his wife. Climbing a path on a hill, he finds a toad, and is ecstatic that he actually has a real, living animal, something only the very priviledged could own. But that night his wife realizes that it too is a replicant. Decckard goes to bed happy, deluded, but happy, and his wife orders android flies for the toad, to keep him happy.
Oh, it's an incredible Book, it makes you think about things like the Human Condition, Technology and Religion. Very few books do that.
Last edited by Wolfman; 08/07/07 12:01 AM.
