Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
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Mercerism and what actually happened at the end?
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Rems
(last edited Dec 30, 2011 07:59AM)
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Dec 30, 2011 07:59AM
Why did he went to the hill? Why was he Mercer? Who threw the rock at him and whats the point?
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And about J.R.Isidor (chickenhead). Did he have some special powers?
I don't think there's a clear answer on this, the Mercer just represents a generic martyr figure for a generic religion. It's unclear who throws the rocks, but neither is it of any importance. There’s certainly a reason to it why the saviour figure of Dick’s made up future religion is an everyman whose suffering is closely reminding us of Jesus’s way to the cross, and that just as in the Bible his believer’s are asked to take his place for a period of time. But it’s not important to which end he’s trying to reach the hilltop, the importance lies in the fact that it’s all just a machination, only a further drug to control the populace.
No I don't remember J.R. Isidor to possess any kind of powers, as I recall it he's a hermit that has a knack for electronic devices and prefers to share his life with androids, which he seems initially to believe more human than the humans he shares his world with. He was, in my view, primarily acting as a identification figure to oppose Deckard's view of the world and to make us as readers at first sympathize with the escaped androids.
Whoa, Gerd! The religion of Mercerism was not the control of the masses. It was transcendence of the miserable world founded on community - walking up the hill, enduring the pain of rocks thrown - whether it was technologically enhanced, was still a real experiential, meaning-giving, communal transcendence. The attempt to debunk Mercer that the media-heads (think Fox News) started in the book was in itself an attempt to get people to doubt the only real thing that united the survivors on earth at that time. The question that Dick poses is really one of what is the truth of religion. Even if the creation of Mercerism was done in a video studio, it was a real spiritual connection among people. Just sayin . . .
Interesting view of religion - I must admit that the concept of "spiritual connection" somewhat escapes me, so my focus tends to be stronger on the critical elements about religion voiced.But then again it would not be the first time in Dick's work that an artificially created religion takes on a reality shaping life of it's own in his stories.
"Maze of Death" and "The world Jones made" both deal with that concept.
My best friend sent this book to me and said "I HAD to read it". I understand that people say its a classic, but I really hated this book. Though my friend is a theological PhD student, so I see why he would have enjoyed it.
Don, the book and the film (Bladerunner) are very different. Bladerunner is a bit like a small subset of the book, with extra stuff added. Also, the book is very funny, but the film is serious.In the book, there is tons of stuff about a duplicate police station, different electric animals, and an addictive mood-changing emotion-sharing electric device that is missing from the film.
Will wrote: "Don, the book and the film (Bladerunner) are very different. Bladerunner is a bit like a small subset of the book, with extra stuff added. Also, the book is very funny, but the film is serious.In..."
Will -- You are totally on the money with that. It's been a while since I saw the movie, but the baseline of the movie is in the book, or vice versa. I actually enjoyed the book more than the movie, though I will probably find a Director's Cut somewhere on Blu Ray. Lately I've been on this kick to read the books that movies were based off. I've read Minority Report (a short story actually), Do Androids, I am Legend and a slew of others including Starship Troopers. I'd like to get my hands on a digital copy of "And We'll Remember it Wholesale", the book in which the "Total Recall" was based off of, and I believe another Philip Dick novel. I finished Dune not too long ago and I am continuing with that series.
Rob, I read recently that "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" is included in some collections of short stories, including The Philip K. Dick ReaderI just read Do Androids ... ? for the first time; but it's been so long since I saw Bladerunner, I feel like I need to re-watch before I can compare
I recently read the short story "We can remember it for you wholesale", and I have to say that Cameron's magnification of the material to cinema established a totally different narrative. I had trouble forming strong symmetries in concept or style--they barely seem like the same idea, let alone the same story--but I wasn't much bothered as "Total Recall" far surpassed its ancestor anyway.Blade Runner was a relatively linear projection of its underlying text that yielded art of comparable significance.
Will - totally agree with what you say about the book and the movie.Also, just having finished Finch and felt that there were quite a number of similarities - in world building, details, general concepts but also the characters - did anyone feel the same?
In regards to the topic at hand, here are a number of resources you guys might find interesting:Interview with PKD
Essay on BR and religion
The BR wiki on Religion and BR
Essay on DADOES and religion
DADOES and religion @ gradesaver
and one more
DADOES & Religion
Ahh, and something else: Just remembered reading Future Noir while at uni, which is an excellent book about the making of Blade Runner, explaining some of the reason behind the differences and why they came into being...
(sorry if this is a little bit off-topic)
Jessica wrote: " Aslo Gerd, you seem to have confused the movie and book."Ah, that's possible.
It has been quite some time that I read the book.
Jessica... so much wrong. You're thinking about this book much too literally.
There are so many things that I'm surprised people don't get. The book and movie both seem quite straightforward. Of course Rachel threw the rock. She's such a bitch. Wasn't pushing the goat off the roof clue enough?
mmmm, I always assumed that it was that Mercerism turned out to be real after all even though it was faked.
“I am a fraud,” Mercer said. “They’re sincere; their research is genuine. From their standpoint I am an elderly retired bit player named Al Jarry. All of it, their disclosure, is true. They interviewed me at my home, as they claim; I told them whatever they wanted to know, which was everything.”“Including about the whisky?”
Mercer smiled. “It was true. They did a good job and from their standpoint Buster Friendly’s disclosure was convincing. They will have trouble understanding why nothing has changed. Because you’re still here and I’m still here.” Mercer indicated with a sweep of his hand the barren, rising hillside, the familiar place. “I lifted you from the tomb world just now and I will continue to lift you until you lose interest and want to quit. But you will have to stop searching for me because I will never stop searching for you.”
I take it to mean that Mercer like Jesus or other savior is always there, as long as the believer have faith. Rick, in a way become the savior, saving the world from android's indifference and apathy (?), doing what had to be done? I see the toad as a sort of miracle from Mercer reconfirming his believes.
It's been a long time since I last read it. But since one of the book's central themes is that empathy is a defining trait of ones's humanity (Voigt-Comp tests measuring empathy, society's obsession with the obtaining and maintaining real animals in a world on the far side of ecological collapse, etc.), then Mercerism is obviously a religion focused on building and maintaining our humanity. The more you can empathize with Mercer's futile task, the more connected you are to your own humanity.Mercer pushing the stone uphill and having it crash back down is obviously a re-telling of the eternal punishment foisted upon Sisyphus (of Greek mythology). He is not so much a savior as an archetype of human toil. He's a mantra, as it were, someone one is meant to contemplate and empathize with, not worship.
So, Rick getting hit by the stone is essentially him assuming the stigmata of Mercer: his empathy is so great that it manifests in the real world, just as saints in Christianity are said to have received the stigmata of Christ--becoming so much one with Christ that they take on his wounds.
Dick's work is so steeped in theology, myth, philosophy and psychological experience that approaching it with too literal or concrete a mind will lead to misunderstanding and is bound to disappoint or at least frustrate. You've got to expect him to occasionally throw in what some would consider psychotic elements, elements that in other genres or from other authors might be describe as "magical realism."
Rob wrote: "Will wrote: "Don, the book and the film (Bladerunner) are very different. Bladerunner is a bit like a small subset of the book, with extra stuff added. Also, the book is very funny, but the film is..."Wasn't The Adjustment Bureau based off a Dick story?
Mercerism I recall was a cult based on what you might describe by today's standards as a MMORPG. People around the world log into a simulated reality wherein each person experiences the virtual world from the perspective of one Mercer, who is constantly walking up a hill while suffering rock-throwing, a scenario closely reminiscent of the Via Crucis: people embody the suffering their "savior" went through, share it between them and achieve enlightment through it.The whole Mercerism thing seems stitched together with stock stuff from other religions, mainly Christianity (i.e. a doctrine that enforces obsequiousness and guilt). The key thing is that human beings can feel empathy for this Mercer, and through that empathy hone their faith - something replicants are unable to do. During the book's replicant hunt climax, Batty & co. watch a newsreport declaring Mercerism a sham, which they take as a victory over humanity. They cannot understand that humanity doesn't base their existence on faith (i.e. empathy for Mercer) rather than reason (nobody really cares if it's proved or disproved, that's not what faith is all about). A person might argue the replicants' inability to comprehend faith is their ultimate demise. Deckard shows up minutes later and blasts them away.
Ultimate proof that movie Roy is superior to book Roy.
Scott wrote: "Wasn't The Adjustment Bureau based off a Dick story?"Yes - "Adjustment Team"
Thought so. It's been a while since I've seen the movie, though.
What actually happened with Deckard merging with Mercer and all that weird stuff at the end? Anyone have any idea?
Rems wrote: "And about J.R.Isidor (chickenhead). Did he have some special powers?"Just a comment on 'Specials'. My gathering was that they felt extreme empathy, more so than your average human and so much so that they empathise for androids...which of course can be dangerous. Hence why they can't emigrate to Mars, which hosts androids, and why they are left to scout the more desolate parts of earth and eventually die out. They are easily manipulated by Androids and this is why Isidore was labeled "special" by Pris. I guess this is where the term comes from.
I think the whole Mercer part of the narrative is another part of Dick exploring collectivism. In the same way that humans share empathy that androids cannot, the androids collectively support each other it other ways. Through the Mercer experience, this universal / relgious collectivism is a channel for uniting these disparate humans in a way that androids can't access. In trying to destroy it, they jealously attack human empathy.
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