Blade Runner: first 5 chapters

1. 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?

2. 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?

3. 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?

4. 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...)

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. 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)

8. Chapter 8 • Rick says (p. 83) that nobody can handle the new androids but him. Is this significant? • Think of the movie

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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?

12. 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?

13. 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.

14. (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?

15. 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.

16. Chapter 13 • Do you think there’s any significance to Pris’s statement (131) that the andys left Mars because it was lonely?

17. Chapter 14 • Notice how Irmgard depicts bounty hunters to himself (139)? How might this be significant?

18. Chapter 15 • note that Rick says he has gained empathy for androids (152-53). Do you think this is significant in any way?

19. 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.)

20. 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.

21. 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)?