/lit/ - Literature

Doesn't he try to use it in the apartment at the end? But he cant or Rachel promised him not to or something like that??

>>8562434
It wouldn't have been heroin, you mean amphetamines, uppers. But yes, he wrote nearly everything on speed.

Without having the book to hand, I recall the sleep device having limitations. It is a minor point regardless, and the book is among his more cohesive.

>>8562444
Maybe butI don't remember anything like that, and even so Rachel had just betrayed him. She asked him straight up to not kill the remaining androids but he really wanted that fucking goat.

Also can anyone explain to me about the stuff with Mercer at the end? Did he really show up in the apartment building or was Deckard suffering from severe sleep deprivation? I'm a chickenhead and have a hard time interpreting it.

>>8562459
I just read through it and I think that chapter 8 is the only time it's ever mentioned. I may be wrong.

And yes, I agree. I just read a scanner darkly before this and it's hard to believe they're from the same author. Scanner was good, but man is Androids Dream something else.

>>8562460
Perception is reality, that's what PKD is showing us in regard to the constructed religion having the power to create profound feelings and vivid experiences in its followers. This goes towards validating Mercerism.

>>8562492
Hmm that's interesting. So that explains the rock that was thrown at him at the end despite him not using an empathy box. His secretary noticing it was to affirm it really happened and maybe suggest mercer really was there in the apartment building but only because Deckard perceived him to be. And that makes sense because it was proven Mercer wasn't real at all, but he didn't need to be for people to experience him?

Is there something significant about the toad he found?

>>8562492
And the whole "perception is reality thing" could that be applied to androids being life? Because they perceive, then they are real beings? Or am I overthinking it.

>>8562506
Or wait, Mercer told Deckard he was there because of Isidore. That makes sense since Isidore was so adamant that Mercer was real despite the proof alleged by Buster Friendly. It caused him to manifest there?

>>8562507
That's right. PKD talks about this idea, of perception being reality, in a lot in interviews. I think it comes from his reading of Carl Jung. In a lot of Dick's novels, a constructed or illusory reality is as real and valid as any other.

And it follows that people with authority, resources, or a strong voice, have the power to inflict their realities on other people, particularly the less strong, by changing their subconsciousness and influencing them. Dick shows that happening a lot, by drugs companies, media, bosses, government.

e.g. Mercerism was created to bind the society together after nuclear war. It encourages empathy, community, and humility.

The androids are illusory and appear human, and they might as well be human. But Dick really wanted to discuss what sets them apart from real people, which is empathy -- which is something real humans lack (e.g. the other bounty hunter who appears to be a robot but is not) and some droids seem to possess.
>>8562506
Animals are fetishised because they are rare, and because there is a stigma against people who don't own animals (they are seen as people incapable of empathy) so they become a fashion commodity to show off like a new car. Dick is just pointing out how daft this kind of consumerism is. Deckard went through all of the book just to get a pet goat to impress his neighbors with, and ends up with a toad. And he can't even tell it's a robot until his partner looks at it.

>>8562507
That's right. PKD talks about this idea, of perception being reality, in a lot in interviews. I think it comes from his reading of Carl Jung. In a lot of Dick's novels, a constructed or illusory reality is as real and valid as any other.

And it follows that people with authority, resources, or a strong voice, have the power to inflict their realities on other people, particularly the less strong, by changing their subconsciousness and influencing them. Dick shows that happening a lot, by drugs companies, media, bosses, government.

e.g. Mercerism was created to bind the society together after nuclear war. It encourages empathy, community, and humility.

The androids are illusory and appear human, and they might as well be human. But Dick really wanted to discuss what sets people apart from androids, which is empathy -- which is something some real humans lack (e.g. the other bounty hunter who appears to be a robot but is not) and some droids seem to possess.

>>8562506

Animals are fetishised because they are rare, and because there is a stigma against people who don't own animals (they are seen as people incapable of empathy) so they become a fashion commodity to show off like a new car. Dick is just pointing out how daft this kind of consumerism is. Deckard went through all of the book just to get a pet goat to impress his neighbors with, and ends up with a toad. And he can't even tell it's a robot until his partner looks at it.