A genre of science fiction and a lawless subculture in an oppressive society dominated by computer technology and big corporations.
Sort by:
Best
Open comment sort options
Best
Top
New
Controversial
Old
Q&A
I can imagine his surprise. The story and film have completely different tones and objectives. While the movie is all about the thrills of bounty hunting and metaphysics, the story is more or less about someone with an obsession for electric pets (sheep!), who is too broke to afford anything.
If you look at Dick's life it makes me sad that a great author like him had to live of dogfood meat and endure bad living conditions, while pumping out hundreds of great short stories and some very good novels. I imagine when he wrote "Do Androids dream...", he was in one of his dire straits. And didn't actually mean to touch on all the metaphysical matters the movie touched upon.
One of my favorite scenes in the book however was when Deckard discovers there is an entire other police department and he is probably not even an officer. But to me this is one of Dick's weakest novels, the top ones being Valis Trilogy and Ubik as well as A Scanner Darkly.
I was just thinking I wished they'd incorporated that police station into the film somehow
It wouldn't have fit in the first Bladerunner, because it is an entirely funny scene. Deckard was so puzzled, because he didn't know these officers and they didn't even know his precinct or that it existed. I think making a funny Bladerunner is impossible after the original one. I'd love to see it though. We always get these purely depressive visions of the future.
In Dick's work there is actually a good deal of playfulness and fun, despite their often tragic endings. I love for example a scene in the short story "autofab", where the human survivors try to explain to a delivery droid from an autofabrication unit that they don't want any more "milk". The result is that they get more milk and the futility of their well-prepared effort is just so good and funny, despite the dire situation they are in.
Really read his short stories, you won't be disappointed. I never read better ones when it comes to Sci-Fi.
I've only read A Scanner Darkly, I shall have to get hold of the others you mention (surprising, since I've read a lot of PK Dick!)
The movie of A Scanner Darkly is my favourite adaptation of his stories I've seen though. Tragic and hilarious at times, and such a mind fuck.
Valis is actually a trilogy and they are all very good books. If I was to name Dick's legacy in one book it is this (trilogy ^^)
But Ubik is more accesible and more fun. I think it's probably my favorite Dick book. I also liked his first book "Confessions of a Crap Artist", but it's not sci-fi.
He wrote and published at least 5 books before crap artist.
It was his first published one afaik. I have voices from the street too and it is bad and got published after his main body of work and his death, I believe.
Film Blade Runner(1982) is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick novel ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?''
In this letter he predicts the Cyberpunk movement and film's great influence over it.
Given his stance on the state of Science Fiction literature in this letter, I wonder how he would have felt about William Gibson's "Neuromancer", which came out a few years after he wrote it?
wow I've never seen this, very interesting. he clearly loved the aesthetic of the movie, although it's weird how he declares a thing like this:
"my life and creative work are justified and completed by BLADE RUNNER"
which is a very powerful statement to say the least, based only on what I assume were a few clips released for the tv show. And given that, does it mean that he never saw anything related to the movie before watching that featurette? No artwork, never visited the set, no stills, nothing? completely out of the loop from the production work flow?
he obviously was on point about the influence of the aesthetic of the movie in SF and creative world in general. sadly not so much about the commercial success (at least short term)
He'd pass away a few months before the film was released.
Damn that’s depressing. What a cyberpunk ending.
While unfortunately he was wrong about the commercial success bit (at least regarding the original release), it's amazing just how prescient he was about how fundamental and foundational Blade Runner would be to a new* tradition in science fiction.
Since the film is so divergent from PKD's book, it's delightful to see the author give his full support and understanding that Blade Runner has its own identity as a narrative work.
*Nothing is completely new in storytelling, but you'd be a fool to say Blade Runner didn't change the game.
do you have any idea how many movies were released in 1982?
movies that will never be mentioned again, never mind seen.
the idea that a movie with 11 million 1982 dollars profit and 40 plus year legacy, and a sequel was somehow not a commercial success just shows how miniscule of an amount of knowledge you possess about cinema and economics
in what world is a 33% profit margin not a success