Blade Runner: first 5 chapters

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)?