![]() ![]() His very real chance to offer readers deeper meaning just disappears, like tears in rain. Dick gives these questions a lighter touch, which is a shame. I mean, all Roy and the replicants want to know is what human beings have searched the heavens for since forever: Who made us? Why? And how much time do we have left? What's more human than that? Scott understood this, made it the central conflict of the movie, and explored it with profundity and elegance. Dick's books are always bleak and brim with righteous commentary about how we treat the planet and how governments work, while also tapping into essential questions about what it means to be human. 'A Scanner Darkly' was fine, but did it deserve to be a film? 'A Maze of Death' is really good: Where's it's movie? 'Ubik,' which is my favorite Dick novel, is a real gem, too, and you should all read it. I was really surprised when I heard 'The Man in the High Castle' was being turned into a TV show because I thought the book was just OK. And that, in turn, lifted other so-so works from the prolific Dick into the realm of film and TV. And my guess is that because so many people liked the movie, the mediocre book was retroactively deemed a classic. 'Blade Runner' is one of the very rare instances where the movie is better than the book. My memory might be faulty (a running motif in the 'Blade Runner' cinematic world), but I don't recall any of the 'is Deckard a replicant?' business in the book. Also missing is the philosophical weirdness of Roy Batty, though he's here, and there's none of the interesting love story with Rachael: Everyone has electric sheep, or another android creature, and real pets are an expensive status symbol. ) He's a civil servant-type who hunts the replicants to earn enough money so he can buy his wife a real sheep, or something, because after some kind of nuclear war the world is wrecked, and there are few real animals around. (The story behind where that name came from is fascinating, and you can read all about it here. It's called 'retirement.' But his job title is not 'Blade Runner.' That term never appears in the book. So much so, they are best understood as being completely distinct and separate. Still, they do share Deckard:Īnd he's a bounty hunter/cop in San Francisco (not the movie's Los Angeles) who chases down rogue android people, called 'replicants,' and kills them. The film is loosely - and I mean looooooooosely - based on the book. And if you are like I was, hoping for 'Blade Runner' in book form, you're going to be disappointed. Dick wrote many great sci-fi novels in his life, but this is not one of them. But when I picked up and read 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' years later, I was like: I was completely blown away. I fell in love with this world:Īnd, of course, the film made me want to read the book it was based on. I first saw it when Ridley Scott's 'final cut' of the film was shown at the Ziegfeld Theater in Midtown a decade ago. Give that coat the Oscar right now! The original 'Blade Runner' is a beautiful movie, too, with its darkness, its Vangelis soundtrack and its overall weirdness. It was so well shot that I'd say it was beautiful. Particularly Ryan Gosling's coat. Real fast about the movie: It was slowly paced, and it kinda didn't make any sense, but I didn't hate it. So I saw 'Blade Runner 2049' with Heather this week, and it inspired me to deviate from my schedule and do a quick review of the sci-fi classic that inspired the original 'Blade Runner' and its sequel. But runners know, it can be nice to have a training partner-or 100-to help push you on your runs.This Sunday's book is 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' by Philip K. It’s not known how the sheep first linked up with the trail runner-or where they ended up. This is the only protection they have from predators. “They will run from what frightens them and band together in large groups for protection. “She’s a shepherdess now,” Scholz commented.Īccording to Sheep 101, sheep instinctually gravitate toward flocking behavior. After all, you gotta get your miles in! As she went on her way, entire flock of sheep continued following close behind. The two woman chatted for a while about the situation before it was time for the runner to get going. ![]() The runner found she was being followed by an entire flock of sheep.Īrtist Eleanor Scholz came across the runner-and about 100 new friends-while hiking in central France, near Puy de Dôme. ![]() One trail runner recently had an animal encounter of a different kind.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |