P.K.Dick Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

P.K. Dick’s Do Andoids Dream of Electric Sheep?, published by Doubleday in March 1968 (Butler In Johnson 2005:119), is set in a post-nuclear-holocaust America. A world in which the Earth is covered in radioactive dust, desolate due to the majority of humanity emigrating to the new colony on Mars, and technological advances have produced humanoid robots, nicknamed ‘andys’. Dick’s novel embodies many postmodern ideas and fears; including the moods of uncertainty and doubt, the evils of consumerism, and the illusion of truth. Although Dick’s style of writing is not the most complex, and the genre of Science Fiction has been looked upon condescendingly by many critics in the past, “...his general stature within Science Fiction and beyond it (as the creator of an ouvre that an increasing body of critical opinion holds to be the most interesting and important produced by any North American novelist since Faulkner)” (Freedman 2000:35).

Within the novel androids play a key role in Dick’s exploration of what really makes us human; our capacity for empathy or the way in which we behave to one another and machines? However they also greatly benefit from a reading applying Baudrillard’s theories of simulation and simulacra, and Adorno’s views on the culture industry. These combine to give an enlightening insight into the postmodern aspects of consumerism and society exemplified within the novel. In many ways Dick’s writing is rather prophetic of our current climate in the sense that the lines between reality and hyperreality have seemingly faded, and as Baudrillard predicted every layer of our existence has been permeated by simulacra, much as it has for the characters in the novel. The androids in the novel are mass produced copies without an original, Deckard indicates the extent of their diversity “...by 1990, the variety of sub-types [androids] passed all understanding, in the manner of American automobiles in the 1960s” (2009[1968]:12). The television advert overheard by Isidore further illustrates the interpretation of androids as simulations, “...duplicates the halcyon days of the pre-Civil War Southern states! ...custom-tailored humanoid robot – designed specifically for YOUR UNIQUE NEEDS FOR YOU AND YOU ALONE” (2009[1968]:13). The language used ‘humanoid’ supports the simulation interpretation of androids because they are a copy of something that resembles a human being but still are not of an organic reality. The advert further illustrates what Adorno criticises the culture industry for: classifying and organizing its consumers, labelling them so that something can be created for all. In this case the androids are a mass-produced product and the hierarchy is created via the ways in which the android is adapted to suit the individual consumer, as Adorno claims the consumers comply with this by selecting the category of mass-product produced for their ‘type’. The hierarchy of consumers is produced by the novel on a wider scale in regards to ‘regulars’ such as Deckard and his wife (both are reproductively acceptable and with mentality above the legalised minimum). Lower on the scale are ‘specials’ such as Isidore (who can no longer reproduce acceptably as his genes have deteriorated from radiation). Even lower are ‘specials’ who fail to pass the minimum faculties test, branded ‘chickenheads’, a category into which Isidore falls also. The compliance of consumers to apprehend products for their type is exemplified by “...the ads, directed at the remaining regulars, frightened him [Isidore]. They informed him in a countless procession of ways that he, a special, wasn’t wanted. He had no use.” (2009[1968]:15-16). The description of Isidore’s status in society are contrasted with the tv ad sales pitch, he overhears, offering a life/status he shall never attain.

The businesses depicted in the novel further adhere to Adorno’s view of the culture industry, “For Adorno, the ideology underlying all forms of mass culture is one that supports the existing power structures in society” (Butler In Johnson 2005:129). The Rosen Association at first seems to be outside the control of the power structures (the West and Soviet governments), who want them to cease manufacture of Nexus-6 android units which had “...evolved beyond a major – but insignificant- segment of mankind” (2009[1968]:23). Deckard conveys the Rosen Association’s influence “They control inordinate power, he thought. This enterprise is considered one of the system’s industrial pivots...” (2009[1968]:36). Yet the Rosen Association, along with other android manufacturers, rely on the governments for their business, as the advertising slogan noted by Deckard states “Emigrate or Degenerate! The Choice is Yours!” (2009[1968]:12), the colonization agenda of the government employs the propagandist incentive of a free android on emigration to Mars. Deckard’s comment “...the manufacture of androids, in fact, has become so linked to the colonization effort that if one dropped into ruin, so would the other in time” (1968[2009]:36), exemplifies Adorno’s point that organisations (Rosen Assoiciation) and authorities of power (government) are economically intertwined.

Further examples of Baudrillardian simulacra in the novel include the ‘Penfield mood organ’, because the feelings produced by the mood organ are not genuine. They are simulations of real feelings because they are selected and programmed into characters at their own will. Emotions have become products, quintessentially, the mood organ offers a variety of settings from which the characters/consumers can select their desired effect. In reality emotions are innate reactions, an aspect of someone’s character, not something that can be selected at will from a menu. Even the food in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Is no longer ‘real’ – it consists of simulations as Isidore points out “Like a cup of water or rather milk; yes it’s milk or flour or maybe an egg – or, specifically their ersatz substitutes” (2009[1968]:20). ‘Ersatz’ meaning “(of a product) made or used as a substitute, typically an inferior one, for something else” (Anon 2000:190). These substitutes are representations of food and drink but have entered, sign-wise, into phase 4 of the sign – there is a complete lack of relationship between the sign and reality. After the nuclear-holocaust fresh products must have been lost/become scarce and the hyperreality of the ersatz products taken reality’s place. Animals have not escaped the pervasion of simulation either, ‘real’ animals have become scarce and the new religion of Mercerism values caring for them to such a degree that animals have become status symbols. Due to the expense and lack of real animals fake robotic ones have found a market, though Deckard enounces “...owning and maintaining a fraud had a way of gradually demoralizing one” (2009[1968]:6). These fake animals have become so real in appearance that Isidore mistakes a real cat for a robotic one, “You’d almost think it was real...compellingly authentic-style gray pelt...its vid-lenses glassy, its metal jaws locked together” (2009[1968]:56). The irony of Isidore’s use of an artificial lexicon for an organic animal is rather amusing, moreover it exemplifies Baudrillard’s claim that “...we cannot escape from them [simulacra], or express ourselves in terms other than through the codes which saturate us” (Snipp-Walmsley In Waugh 2006:413). This restriction of expression through ‘codes’ is verified by Isidore’s used of “pseudo-bony spine...vid-lenses...metal jaws” (2009[1968]:56), along with his proclamation “Damn expert workmanship; so absolutely perfect an imitation” (2009[1968]:57), thus making the real coincide with the new models of simulation.

In conclusion, as the preceding paragraphs have illustrated Baudrillard’s theories of simulations and simulacra have exemplified themselves within the novel via androids, robotic animals and representations of organic food products. In the case of the androids these are also inextricably linked with Adorno’s interpretation of the culture industry due to the ways in which they have been created to fulfil a desire of society, one that has structured itself in such a way that they are not available to all levels of consumer – ‘specials’ and ‘chickenheads’. Nevertheless the types of consumer have been identified and a variety of mass produced products of varying quality, “The Sundermann people showed their old T-14 back in 89” (2009[1968]:22), are on offer. Adorno’s statement that we exist as data and statistics divided by income groups and subjected to advertising using the techniques of propaganda (1944:1038) is verified by the novel, albeit the consumer groups are separated more by social status (determined by intelligence and reproductivity). Yet the constant “twenty-three unbroken warm hours a day” (1968[2009]:13) in which consumers are bombarded with adverts, by a government funded channel no less (2009[1968]:13), and the slogan “Emigrate of Degenerate!” act as the propaganda Adorno refers to.