Dicks' Androids and Scotts' Replicants
Philip K. Dick has written over fifty novels, and is considered among some
of the greatest experimental writers of the 1950s and '60s, such as; William
Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, and Thomas Pynchon.(Star 34) He has written science-
fiction and regular fiction. His fiction usually spoke of people trying to
figure out who they are, or what they are supposed to be. He is best known,
however, for his work in science-fiction, and this represents the majority of
his work. He has, also, won awards for two of his science-fiction novels. He
won the Hugo Award for best novel in 1962 for The Man in the High Castle and the
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year in 1974 for Flow My
Tears, The Policeman Said (Brians 1). An opera has been based on one of P.K.D.
later novels, Valis (Brians 1). One of his short stories, We Can Build It For
You, was made into a movie recently. The movie was Screamers, starring Peter
Weller. He has also had two of his novels, We Can Remember It for You
Wholesale (Total Recall), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner),
made into movies. Of the two, Blade Runner (B.R.) has had the greatest impact.
B.R., however, differs greatly from Dicks' original novel, Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep? (D.A.D.O.E.S.)
Blade Runner was released in 1982 under the direction of Ridley Scott,
who also made another sci-fi classic, Alien.
The film begins in the city of Los Angeles. The year is 2019. The city of
Los Angeles is overpopulated, teeming with all sorts of humans. Japanese ADs
are all over the place. The Japanese input was strictly the director, Ridley
Scot's. Scott saw the future world being controlled by the Japanese. Philip K.
Dick did not mention this. The planet is recovering from World War III,
although I'm not sure they actually say this. In the book, the war is clearly
stated and was called World War Terminus. The effects of the radiation has
mutated some people. Only the ones who had not been disfigured or altered
genetically by radiation from the nuclear bombs could emigrate, (leave the
planet earth). Some, who were perfectly healthy chose to stay, however. They
stayed because they were stubborn and wanted to die on the planet they were born
on. The chickenheads had to stay, it was law. Chickenheads is Dicks term for
the disfigured or the genetically altered. They are also referred to as
specials. There are no chickenheads in the movie. None of this is made clear
war, ‘normal rules don’t apply’. He backs this up by pointing out that it was enemy who ‘tore up the
One way the authors disagree towards war is the separation of families. Throughout the book, many families were torn apart, leaving the rest weeping for those who left them. “Go, Sam. Go. Get out of my sight. I can’t bear to look at you anymore in that vile costume.” (Collier and Collier 22). The quote depicts Sam’s father
Kurt Vonnegut places his experiences and his views in the text. He begins the book by stating, “All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true...I’ve changed all of the names.” Viewing war as a sen...
War always seems to have no end. A war between countries can cross the world, whether it is considered a world war or not. No one can be saved from the reaches of a violent war, not even those locked in a safe haven. War looms over all who recognize it. For some, knowing the war will be their future provides a reason for living, but for others the war represents the snatching of their lives without their consent. Every reaction to war in A Separate Peace is different, as in life. In the novel, about boys coming of age during World War II, John Knowles uses character development, negative diction, and setting to argue that war forever changes the way we see the world and forces us to mature rapidly.
“Every war is everyone’s war”... war will bring out the worst in even the strongest and kindest people. The book tells about how ones greed for something can destroy everything for both people and animals leaving them broken beyond repair, leaving them only with questions… Will they ever see their family again? Will they ever experience what it’s like to
...X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, 8th Ed., edited by Joseph Terry. New York: Longman, 2002.
As we know, the pretext of the play is the aftermath of a war, so I
In the book it shows it’s not the war itself but the havoc it creates and the families it destroys. There
The book is clearly an anti-war according to most of the proponents. The illusory version that the narrator, O’Brien, puts in writing regarding his imagination as a fighter in World War II, depicts him as not exclusively a peace lover. However, hostility in Vietnam appeared erroneous. The character does not have the proper audacity to flee to Canada. It is in this regard that The Things They Carried can be seen as a clear-cut calamity whose major fault a rather likeable protagonist being the cause of his demise (Kock 115). It is in this line that all the horrors addressed in the book such as killing, losing friends through being slay, boredom interspersed by terror following such a decision.
“War is brutish, inglorious and a terrible waste” (Sledge 315). E.B Sledge says this when describing war after two grueling campaigns in the Pacific. However, there is irony. Earlier in the war, Sledge is hungry for war, for action, for involvement. War intrigues him, then like most, he feels the reality of it. This is one of the main focuses in With the Old Breed. Sledge’s view of war changes as he continues through the war and beyond, along with his understanding of conflict and the realization of war being the solution.
convey the true message of war. Throughout the book it is evident that Heller denounces the
play is. War is not really idealised in this play, it can be taken as
“The vapors suck you in. You can’t tell where you are, or why you’re there, and the only certainty is overwhelming ambiguity. In war you lose your sense of the definite, hence your sense of truth itself, and therefore it’s safe to say that in a true war story nothing is ever absolutely true.” (Pg.88)
during the war. This novel is able to portray the overwhelming effects and power war has
Roald Dahl was a famous British writer. He was inspired to write because of his dreams and life experiences. He enjoyed telling bedtime stories to his children. These bedtime stories were published and some were made into films. Roald Dahl was great writer and was recognized for his work.