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)?