just read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I have questions (spoilers)
 

What happened with JR and Rick at the end with Mercer? Did JR's shock from the situation of the spider and the truth about Mercer combined with his decaying mind cause him to lose it and think that Mercer had really healed his four legged spider to eight? Or was it a truly a religious experience?

What about Rick and the Frog? Was he set up perhaps by Rachael? Did she chuck the rock? Or was he experiencing the empathy box on his own?

Could Deckard be an android superior to the nexus six from another corporation? Could everyone be androids? The end of the book suggests not- that the key difference between humans and androids is that humans feel empathy towards one another and animals, and androids do not. Humans also go against their nature, while androids do not. Though the difference in the middle of the book is quite blurred, towards the end it seems incredibly clear.

That's one thing that I feel is more compelling about Blade Runner- Rachael and Roy go against their nature in it and actually feel empathy for Rick- the man who kills androids despite feeling empathy for them.

Another thing would be Roy's meeting with Tyrell.

However the book has Pris and Rachael looking alike, and the androids actually being on earth in a conspiracy- suggesting that Rosen (Tyrell in the movie) himself could be an android.

Both are good in their own way, the movie suggests change, while the book suggests stasis, despite revelation.


Some other observations: Mercerism repeats to you what you already know. The Penfeld Mood Organ is completely placebo. You feel what you want to feel.

It was the Butler.

I was excited to jump in to help, then realized I don't remember anything about the book. The movie is better anyway. I think sometimes I forget how different they are, and imagine I liked the book when I really didn't care for it much.

If you get no help here, you might want to post in this thread on The Science Fiction Message Board.

Personally, I've read probably a hundred PKD books, but I've yet to read any of the ones that have been turned into movies (except "Screamers" for some reason).

Haha!

I've read that PKD book but I honestly couldn't answer your questions.

I don't think there really are answers to the questions. . .
they're all things that are left up in the air

^ yeah. I think that you should draw your own conclusions. Man, I haven't watched the movie in forever.

Screamers was a Philip K. Dick story? It does seem like an idea he'd come up with, but I didn't know this...

Yeah, it's actually a pretty faithful adaptation, though the title was changed (and I can't remember the original title of the short story, but it's in the collection that's pretty widely available in paperback).

Second Variety

The problem is for me that I can't find any conclusions that make sense to me.

If Rick's an android that is more advanced than a Nexus 6- that can feel empathy and go against his nature- then that seems to be the easy answer. . . I think what is more important about this possibility is it suggests that androids could be no different than human and therefor be human.

If Rick's having a religious experience, that just pisses me off.

If Rachel threw the rock and planted the frog, that makes the most sense to me. It seems by killing his goat she was making a statement to him, and replacing it with an artificial frog I think brings his values to question the most.

I think Isidore just sort of lost it.

That's twice as many as he actually wrote

I could lie and say I read them all twice, but instead, I'll point to my Evergreen State College degree, which is a nice way to graduate without math requirements...

Good call. I didn't know when I was watching the movie it was based on his story, but then little by little it kept replicating it rather accurately.

I read this last year. I found it tiresome. I read something else of his that I found tiresome, and then some Iain [optional M] Banks, and found him tiresome as well.

Which is a lesson to us all: don't read books just because other people like them. Remember at all times that most people are wrong.

Joey Goebels' Torture the artist is quite good though.

I read it because I liked the other two books I read by him.

I liked it. But the ending didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The whole Mercer thing.