Blade Runner: first 5 chapters

• Chapter 1:– What does Deckard’s relationship with his wife

show us about his character?– How are humans’ relationships with animals

strange? – Does this relationship differ from that with

other humans? – How do empathy, the empathy box and

Mercerism figure into human relationships?

Chapter 2

• What has happened to earth?• What is an andy? Organic? Robotic?• What is their social status?• What is a chickenhead? What is their social

status?

Chapter 4

• What is the problem with the Voight-Kampf test?

• How are psychotics and androids similar?• In this respect, how does Rachel Rosen

point to an irony in Deckard’s personality?

Chapter 5

• What do we find out about Rachel?• How is it presented as significant, by Mr.

Rosen?• What, if anything, does Deckard’s

interaction with the Rosens show us about the Rosen Corporation?

• (It’s like an entity, has a personality type, according to Deckard, which leads us to...)

Wiener, cybernetics, and its dangers

• What is cybernetics?– (it’s the study of computing, robotics, and other

self-directing devices)

• What are Wiener’s fears?• How does the opening of Dick’s novel

reflect those fears?

Chapter 6

• What is kipple?• Who is Buster Friendly?• What do you think of Isidore’s interaction

with Priss?– Do either of them exhibit empathy?– Does Isidore seem mentally disabled?

• Does Isidore’s discussion (p. 58) of the empathy box reveal anything about “non-special” humans?

Chapter 7

• What do we discover about Buster Friendly and Mercer in this chapter?– Pp.’s 61, 64-65

• What is notable about the cat and fake cat on pp. 68-69?

• How does this relate to the issue chickenheads?• Aside from a childlike innocence, are there really

differences between chickenheads and normals? (p.73)

Chapter 8

• Rick says (p. 83) that nobody can handle the new androids but him. Is this significant?

• Think of the movie

Chapter 9

• In what ways is Luba Luft different from other androids?

• Possible answers: Intelligence, will to live, ability to undermine the Voight-Kampf, desire for empathy (if not the power)

• To what does Rick attribute the possibility that Luba thinks she’s human?

• Answer: To false memories. Why is this issue of false memories important? Think of Deckard.

Chapter 10

• What things are unusual about the police in the Department that Phil Resch works in?

• they’re androids; they work in a closed system, which is fake.

Chapter 11

• On the first page of the chapter, Garland says that he had an “intuition” about Deckard: Does this seem odd? Why?

• Answer:Garland’s an android--they’re not supposed to operate like that, are they?

• What do we discover about Resch (via Garland)?• What about the idea that Polokov was an

advanced, undetectable andy? Does that have broader implications for others?

Chapter 12

• Why do you think Deckard buys the Munch painting called Puberty for Luba?

• Why do you think he burns it after she’s dead, and then says he wants to quit (119)?

• What do you make of Resch and Deckard’s discussion of these things on pp. 120-21?

Chapter 12 (continued)

• Phil Resch passes the Voight-Kampf; but we never see the test? Do you think there’s a reason Dick doesn’t show Deckard giving it to Resch?– In this connection, what do you think of

Resch’s question: “Do you have your ideology framed that would explain me as part of the human race?”(123)? Also see 126.

(More)

• Do you think this might have something to do with what Rachel reveals on page 166? That the corporation is working toward making andys that are indistinguishable from humans?

• If this is so, if making another species of human is implicitly sanctioned, why bother killing androids at all? Or is it sanctioned?

Chapter 12 (more)

• Could the Rosen Corp. itself be controlled by androids? Or might it be, on the other hand, as Deckard thinks in chapter 5, an collective, hive-like life form? Or both?

• See 174-75.

Chapter 13

• Do you think there’s any significance to Pris’s statement (131) that the andys left Mars because it was lonely?

Chapter 14

• Notice how Irmgard depicts bounty hunters to himself (139)? How might this be significant?

Chapter 15

• note that Rick says he has gained empathy for androids (152-53). Do you think this is significant in any way?

Chapter 16

• Notice that Rick’s thoughts reveal to us that androids are programmed to lack empathy; also that humans are, to some degree programmed (162-63). So where do we draw the line between “us” and “them”?

• Are “they” just a reflection of what “humans” are, but the difference is that (we) humans are blind to our lack of humanity? (See Rachel’s thoughts on bottom of 165.)

Chapter 17

• Or is it that we must have an alternate, or enemy “other” by which to identify ourselves (a la Hegel)? See page 180.

• In this connection, notice that the androids treat the spider they find with similar coldness to the way humans treat them.

End chapters

• what do you make of the fact that after Deckard has a “merging” with Mercer and dreams of having rocks thrown at him, he awakens to find that his cheek is bloody?

• What about the exchange between his secretary and him about the death of his goat (both on 206)?