Whilst looking at P K Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep many key themes and techniques typical of Postmodernity become apparent. P K Dick raises many important issues in this particular novel about human identity, and how the search for ‘reality’ can be very problematic. This novel is a science fiction novel that Dick defines as
‘a society that does not in fact exist, but is predicated on our known society – that is our known society acts as a jumping-off point for it … this is the essence of science fiction, the conceptual dislocation within the society so that as a result a new society is generated in the author’s mind, transferred to paper, and from paper it occurs as a convulsive shock in the reader’s mind, the shock of dysrecognition.’
(Dick 1981).
This theory of dysrecognition is one of the themes throughout Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Other themes running throughout the novel are Baudrillard’s theory of simulation and simulacrum, and the notion of the ‘hyperreal’ world. The world of the ‘hyperreal’ is present throughout Dick’s novel. We are instantly made to feel confusion about what is real and what is unreal. There also seems to be the issue of not wanting to know what is real in Dick’s novel, we are told that ‘To say, “Is your sheep genuine?” would be a worse breach of manners than to test out whether a citizen’s teeth, hair or internal organs would test out authentic.’ (Dick 2007:5) This supports Baudrillard’s theory of Disneyland America. We know that some things are fake but does this mean that the other things are real?
The theory of Baudrillard’s hyperreal world is also shown in the Penfield mood organ; Deckard and his wife are talking about which number to dial on the mood organ as to how they want to feel. Deckard tells his wife ‘even with an automatic cut off it’s dangerous to undergo a depression of any kind.’ (Dick 2007:4), this comment of his is ironic as he is saying how dangerous it would be to dial for a depressed mode yet will happily dial to feel happy about going to see his electric sheep, of which he has no real feeling for. This shows the artificiality of life and that technology has invaded our lives so much that in the future we may need it to feel anything. Deckard and his wife however seem unaware that they do not actually need the mood organ to feel emotions, Deckard’s wife must have been feeling depressed already to have wanted to dial to be depressed, thus showing a dependence on technology. This also illustrates the hyperreal as it reiterates the theory that we desire something that does not exist then create this ‘thing’ to fulfil this desire.
This hyperreal world is apparent again when Deckard sees a similarity between Pris and Rachel Rosen, this reiterates the theory of Baudrillard’s simulation process, the androids are man made copies of one another, they have no individualism and feel no empathy. This creates a simulation of humans, they are copies without originals. They were not produced to be humans they were produced to be exploited by humans, used as their slaves on Mars. The simulacrum of androids has however become so alike the ‘real’ humans that it is difficult to distinguish between them. This can only be done using the Voigt-Kampf test to see if the ‘thing’ whether human or android can feel empathy, thus establishing whether it is real.
Suvin’s theory of estrangement can also be linked to Dick’s theory of dysrecognition, Dick uses techniques to make the familiar appear unfamiliar, to distort reality so that his readers can feel the shock of dysrecognition. This is apparent on page 54 of Dick’s Do Androids Dream? when Pris is described to us as a ‘fragmented and misaligned shrinking figure, a girl who cringed and slunk away’ (Dick 2007:54), further comments continue the illusion of distortion such as ‘it distorted her body lines, made her appear as if someone had broken her and then, with malice, patched her together badly … she attempted to smile.’ (2007:54). This fragmented illusion of Pris demonstrates Suvin’s definition of Science fiction being the literature of estrangement.
Haraways insight in to the cyborg can be backed up by looking at Dick’s novel, she argued that there is barely a distinction between human and machine now, they are both programmed in some way or another. Dick’s novel shows how the androids are programmed by their creator; humans however are programmed by media and society and in Dicks case the Penfield mood organ. This can also be seen when looking at Isodore, he is a ‘chicken head’, the label of ‘chicken head’ shows how we conform to the labels we are given. We do as the media and society around us tells us to do. Isodore isn’t sure why he is a chicken head but because he has been told he is he then believes it. He says ‘I’ve been living here alone too long. I’ve become strange. They say chicken heads are like that.’ (2007:55) this demonstrates how easily a hyperreal reality can exist, we believe that something exists because we are told it does, we allow ourselves to be manipulated and constrained by media and the society.
When looking at Baudrillard’s theory of a simulated world it is clear that a link can be created from his theory to Dick’s novel. Simulacra, as previously mentioned refers to a copy without an original, in Dick’s novel the ‘copy’ is the android. Or is it? Perhaps we humans are the copy? In Do Androids Dream Dick has also created a simulation of animals, there are hardly any ‘real’ animals left on the decaying earth and everything must now be imitated and reproduced to represent something that is no longer there to represent itself. This notion of imitation is expressed in Dick’s novel when Deckard and Resch are taking Luba Luft to take the empathy test to determine whether she is an android or human. Luba tells Deckard ‘my life has consisted of imitating the human, doing what she would do, acting as if I had the thoughts and impulses a human would have. Imitating, as far as I’m concerned, a superior life form.’ (Dick 2007:116), Luba states that she can imitate human impulses and thoughts thus questioning the individualism of humans. If Luba can imitate the way we think and act then what is there to really distinguish her from being human?
Androids are simulations of humans; Deckard questions himself as to whether he is a human or an android. We as the reader are confused by this, and taking into account Dick’s definition of science fiction it would not be so surprising to discover Deckard as an android considering Dick attempts to shock his readers with dysrecognition, we are unsure at first if he is an android or human. We think he is human yet he appears to share certain qualities normally associated with the androids. It is in the distinction between human and android that we struggle. The confusion over whether or not Deckard is an android is shown to us in Deckard’s apparent sympathy and relationship with the androids, for instance he feels sorry for Luba when Resch kills her and he even goes to bed with Rachel.
‘The development of an android with artificial intelligence that turns on its master is the establishment of the technology agency. Technology is now under its own control. But does artificial intelligence qualify as independent agency or is it merely a simulation of individual existence? (Sims 2009:69)
This question posed by Sims can be looked at using Dick’s novel. I think that artificial intelligence is a simulation of individual existence; the human is the ‘thing’ being reproduced using technology. Technological advances are a common theme of both postmodern and science fiction texts. It can be argued that these technological advances are to blame for the ‘unreal reality’ in which we apparently live. Dick’s novel is set on earth that has been ruined by war to the point that the only chance of surviving is to set up a new home on Mars or one of the other planets, we are given in his novel an unreal reality.
The concept of reality appears to be a fascinating thought for Dick, his novel focuses on how we can determine what is real and what is fake. This idea of the real and the fake is demonstrative of Baudrillard’s theory of a hyperreal world, a world in which simulations have become so common that the distinction between the real and the fake, the fact and the fiction, and in Dick’s case the human and the android is blurred. Bennett and Royle stated that ‘the desirability of a given product is in a sense branded into our consciousness and unconscious. This leads to the world of what Jean Baudrillard calls the hyperreal, in which reality is fabricated by technology'. (2009:283-284). Applying this to Dick’s novel we can see how the androids were desired to serve the new world created on Mars as slaves to the ‘real’ humans, the androids were then created to fulfil this desire, this hyperreal world mirrors Baudrillard’s idea of reality being fabricated by technology.
In summary it is clear that Baudrillard’s notion of simulation leading to simulacra is apparent in Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Technology is one of the leading factors creating simulations of things that are not real and become so far ‘copied’ that they are no longer a representation of anything ‘real’ anymore. This therefore leads us to the world of the hyperreal, there is a link in postmodern theories that all appear to question reality and what it actually is that makes one thing real and one ‘thing’ fake. This questioning of reality means we can no longer say what is ‘real’ and what is ‘unreal’, technology has overridden natural life and we can not distinguish reality and fiction.
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