Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: A Social Commentary

The characters in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? are greatly concerned with what other members of society think of them. An obsession with material objects plagues most characters, and creating the illusion of wealth and intelligence for themselves is foremost on their minds. By establishing these values and placing these concerns in his characters, Dick is likely alluding to his own society’s infatuation with possessions and social status.

In Androids, owning an animal shows that one is wealthy, as most animals in the world died after a World War and nuclear bombing. Rick, one of the protagonists of the story, even owns an electric sheep in order to keep up his appearance as an important member of society. The man is extremely jealous of his neighbor’s horse, and the promise of an owl nearly causes him to take a bribe and violate the rules of his job. In fact, the characters of this society are so preoccupied with the acquisition of these status-raising items that a magazine released every month containing the prices of every animal known to man is a household item. Those citizens who own the rarest or the largest number of animals are the most powerful and wealthy. This society seems to mirror that of the author’s in the 1960’s, during which time owning the newest car, television set, or household appliance was a primary concern of many families—a concern that can still easily be found in people today. 

“‘A lot of people have two animals, even three, four, and like in the case of Fred Washburn…even five…’ The man’s eyes glazed over, imagining such possessions; he drifted by degrees into a trance.” 

These characters are also exceedingly fearful of being labeled “special”. In Androids, people who have below-average intelligence are deemed inferior by society, and become outcasts. J.R., another protagonist in Androids who was determined to be “special” when he was much younger, is extremely worried that others will discover his label, and therefore goes to great lengths to hide his own supposed stupidity around others. He is invariably troubled that his words or actions will divulge his secrets. Even commercials on television bombard the citizens remaining on Earth, implying that said citizens should be extremely worried of being labeled a “special”, and that the only way to end this worry is to move to a colony.  In this manner, Dick references his own society’s obsession with public opinion—an obsession so intense that people will go to extreme measures in order to keep up their own appearance in the public eye.  

“‘Back on Earth, Mrs. Klugman, in the old days, did you also worry about finding yourself classified, ahem, as a special?’ ‘Oh, my husband and myself worried ourselves nearly to death.’”

Introduction to Essay 1

Okay, I admit, I have not changed the introduction at all....but I think it's a little short, so I might...who knows?

•         In the short story No Woman Born by C.L. Moore, an actress named Deirdre loses every portion of her physical body apart from her brain to the ravages of a theater fire. To replace the flesh that once enraptured the world, a scientist named Maltzer creates a golden, robotic body to house Deirdre’s denuded brain. Deirdre’s humanity from this point forward is an eminent topic in the minds of Maltzer and Deirdre’s manager Harris. They believe that her position as a human being is unsound, as the actress has only the mind and not the flesh to keep her grounded in the human race. However, in order to allay any fears about her human state, Deirdre inadvertently reveals another fundamental component in society’s definition of humanity: the performance of normalcy. 

Aye, and Gomorrah: Sexual Tendencies in a New Light

Sexuality is one of the principal themes in the story Aye, and Gomorrah by Samuel Delany. Centered on a “spacer” who seems to have neither sex nor gender, the story works as a lens through which to view this debate-provoking topic in a new and refreshing light. In Aye, and Gomorrah, certain sexual tendencies which have in many cultures caused widespread disagreement no longer hold their controversial status, and the claims made in reality against these tendencies are easily spotted as invalid when viewed next to the fetishes that have developed in Delany’s fictional world.

“Sorry. But you have nothing that…would be useful to me. It is too bad, for you look like you were a woman, no? And I like women, too…”

The actions and statements of the characters of Aye, and Gomorrah indicate that the social “norms” of the reader’s reality are not relevant in this fictional setting. “Frelks” are considered the “anomalous” group of society; frelks are the men and women who, because they have no fear of eliciting or failing to elicit a sexual response, sexually desire spacers. On the other hand, homosexuality—as seen through the encounters of the narrator—is accepted in many different countries in Aye, and Gomorrah as something conventional. Numerous characters throughout the story convey that they would not have sexual intercourse with a spacer because spacers have no sex, but that they would engage in this behavior with either a man or a woman. Frelks, however, are considered perverted and abnormal by the spacers—and sometimes by the frelks themselves!—which casts frelks in same light that was cast on homosexuals for centuries. 

“Perverted, yes? In love with a bunch of corpses in free fall!

“Frelks” and “spacers” appear to be an embodiment of the argument against homosexuality that certain conservative groups have contended for years. Spacers have no functioning sexual organs, and therefore can neither reproduce nor receive sexual pleasure from engaging in relationships with the frelks; they can only escape loneliness for a short while. Opponents of homosexuality have argued that homosexuals are “unnatural” because reproduction cannot occur between people of the same sex. Furthermore, some of the most misguided contenders of homosexuality claim that two men or two women cannot satisfy each other sexually as a man and a woman can sexually satisfy one another. By creating frelks and spacers, Delany has created a mirror that subtly calls these claims against certain groups in our society to question. The reader wonders whether there is any argument that can be used legitimately against homosexuality, when considering the real complications and questionable situations in the relationships between frelks and spacers, in which each party only exploits the other.

“You really don’t regret you’ve got no sex?” 

“We’ve got you.”

            

In honor of this 

week's readings, an interesting take on 

"Woman".............

No Woman Born: History and Allusion

From 1941 to 1945, thousands of troops fought in various countries across the globe in the Second World War. No Woman Born was published in 1944, just one year before this widespread and gruesome combat concluded with the detonation of two nuclear bombs. Due to the volatile atmosphere that permeated the nations involved in the War, it is reasonable and very likely that the currents of warfare and its effects wove themselves through the plots of fictional works across the globe. These currents accumulate in C.L. Moore’s No Woman Born.

“She looked, indeed, very much like a creature in armor, with her delicately plated limbs and her featureless head like a helmet with a visor of glass, and her robe of chainmail.”

Deirdre, an actress whose life was nearly extinguished by a horrific fire, finds a new home for her brain in a body of golden metal that is markedly similar to a suit of armor.  Describing Deirdre with terms such as “helmet” and “chainmail” was by no means an accident; the author intentionally gave Deirdre qualities that conjure visions of combat and war. The robot-woman, in her knightly attire, emulates the images of soldiers that dominated newspapers and daily flooded television screens and cinemas of the 1940’s. In describing the way that her new body operates, Deirdre even compares herself to some of the same machines used in WWII.

“Ships and guns and planes are ‘she’ to the men who operate them and depend on them for their lives……Well, after a while I began to accept that this new body of mine could behave at least as responsively as a ship or a plane.”

By using this simile, Deirdre underscores the correlation between her own freshly crafted body and the crafts of war, and as this connection is drawn in sharp relief by the author, the defining aspects of humanity are examined. Maltzer, the genius behind Deirdre’s new body, constantly relays his fear that Deirdre is losing her grasp on humanity.

“And she’s lost three of her five senses…She isn’t a human being anymore, and I think what humanity is left in her will drain out little by little and never be replaced….I wish I’d let her die.”

While Deirdre’s “drainage” of humanity is the result of the lack of certain physical senses, it could perhaps correlate to the lack of propriety of most civilizations in times of war. During WWII, atrocious acts were committed but deemed suitable by transgressors for protecting countries and causes. However, the humanity of said acts was often pondered by critics, and the justification of certain events was called to question, just as Maltzer doubts that saving Deirdre’s life is worth the loss of her humanity. The text therefore brings the rectitude of the current events of the time to attention, and compels the reader to weigh the ends and the means of not only Maltzer’s actions, but the actions of various governments in WWII.

Finally, another striking feature of WWII that is highlighted in No Woman Born is the briefly but drastically changing role of women in American society. During WWII, females shed their roles as housewives and homemakers, and took up the jobs that had been vacated by men fighting in the War. Factories, sports teams, and other occupations previously considered strictly masculine found females among their ranks, females who were no longer considered the frail, dainty fixtures that smiled happily while cleaning house. Deirdre also goes through this journey, as she shows Maltzer that she is not the delicate mind that he and Harris take her for, but rather a being with super-human powers.  She can achieve feats that no other women or men before her were able to succeed in, just as the women of the forties filled roles that men previously thought women were incapable of performing.

           

         “‘Do you still think of me as delicate?’ she demanded ...‘I could tear my way through these walls, I think. I’ve found no limit yet to the strength I can put forth if I try’…‘I’m not subhuman.’ She laughed dryly. ‘I suppose,’ she said, ‘that I’m—superhuman.’”