brutalised and dehumanised, and as a result of
this the
androids/replicants become more human.
This is reinforced, both in the film and
the novel by Deckard having
sex with the
replicant Rachael. The character Deckard finds
it very
difficult to differentiate between the
replicants or androids, that are
his quarry,
from human beings, primarily because of their
appearance
and their emotions. This quote does
not appear in the film, because it
is spoken by
the mystical, enigmatic character Mercer, who
wasn't
transferred over to the film.
"You will be required to do wrong no
matter where you
go. It is the basic
condition of life, to be required to
violate
your own identity. At some
time, every creature which lives
must
do so. It is the ultimate shadow, the
defeat of creation;
this is the curse
at work, the curse that feeds on all
life.
Everywhere in the universe".
(Do Androids Dream of Electric
Sheep?,
p. 135) The Philip K. Dick
novels Do Androids
Dream of Electric Sheep?, and his earlier book,
|
The
Man in the High Castle (1962), - for the
latter he won the Hugo Award
for literature -
were both greatly influenced by his years
of
diligent research at the U.C. Berkeley library in
the United
States of America, into Nazi Germany
and the Gestapo, 1933 to 1945. It
had a profound
effect on him to study documents stamped For The
Eyes
Of The Higher Police Only, which was the
Gestapo of the Nazi party.
Philip K. Dick could
read and speak fluent German.
There was one diary that particularly
interested him of an S.S.
officer described as
"these colourful people". There was also
one
particular line that influenced him: "We are kept
awake at night
by the cries of starving
children", Dick thought it was "not human
to
complain in your diary that starving children are
keeping you
awake". This is one of the main
reasons why he was so pleased by some
of the very
early photographs of the replicants in the
film,
especially the ones of Roy Batty - the lead
replicant in the
film - as played by the Dutch
actor Rutger Hauer, because of his
distinctive
Teutonic countenance and bleached blonde hair.
|