Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep

(11 Posts)

Thank you to Cote and to the others who recommended this. I really enjoyed it, but found it very sad (not sure if I was supposed to!).

All of PKD's stuff has "sad" endings - or I think so anyway. Some of his short stories (I have several volumes) make me simply howl and sob every time I read them. I find that when I'm in "that sort of mood" for a bit of a weep or melancholy, they're great, but not so much if I want cheering up!
He suffered from depression more or less throughout his life, and did eventually commit suicide irrc, and it is pretty damn obvious from his work that he had a bloody BIG "Black Dog" bless him.

CoteDAzur Fri 03-May-13 08:48:04

Well, it has never occurred to me to howl and sob when reading Dick's books smile but he does tend to portray bleak futures.

In this book, life has pretty much all dead (plants and animals are rare) and love and any other real emotion is on the way out, too. Androids are psychopaths and humans have a machine controlling their moods. So yes, it is not a happy premise. Then again, I can't think of a good book about the future that has a happy premise - it seems that the present is never all that perfect and we have an inherent distrust of books who present the future in a pleasant light smile

Philip K Dick likes playing with themes of what is real/what is not and the irony of humans hunting replicants who mimic emotion while mimicking emotions themselves serves this purpose of questioning what "human" means, imho.

Dick was also a notorious fan of various recreational chemicals, so the idea of controlling one's mood artificially would be very familiar to him. (At the end of A Scanner Darkly, he lists all his friends who have died early or had permanent organ damage because of drug use. His name is on the list, too)

The toad bit was so sad, though I neither howled nor sobbed. smile Will deffo look out for more of his work.

CoteDAzur Sat 04-May-13 08:39:40

Toad bit? It's been a while since I read this book & I don't remember a toad.

Philip K Dick didn't commit suicide, by the way, but had a stroke that left him on life support. His family eventually pulled the plug.

Right near the end, when he's on the hill and thinking he's the old empathy geezer who's name I have already forgotten, he finds a toad.

MegBusset Sat 04-May-13 16:53:28

Yes amazing book, I found it really sad too, especially the poor spider sad

The Man In The High Castle is my favourite book of his, and in my top five of anyone's.

I don't like spiders but that bit was horrible.

CoteDAzur Sun 05-May-13 15:52:03

The Man In The High Castle was revolutionary for its time, and still pretty good today although that theme is by now done in a variety of ways, some much better than in that book.

There is a bit in that book where the woman has a nervous breakdown (temporary insanity?) that is described incredibly well, though. Philip K Dick is still unsurpassed in that sort of thing.

I prefer his short stories tbh. I find his novels a bit tedious at times.

Martian Time Slip is my favourite novel I think. When I finally 'got it', I was astounded!

The film of A Scanner Darkly is really, really good.

Will deffo look out for more by him. Thanks all.

Join the discussion

Join the discussion


Register now