Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

The novel is quite different from the movie, not only in that the movie cuts out, say, the storyline about electric animals in that it gives the novel its proper name.   It's more than the fact that the androids in the books are never called replicants.  The movie, while staying true to the spirit of the book, changes a lot of the motivations.   Why are the replicants/androids escaping?   In the movie, it's more clearly a matter of mortality.   See, the four year life span is a matter of controlling the replicants, to ensure that they don't cultivate too much emotion, too strongly, and attack their creators.  

In the novel, this isn't mentioned, and it's merely presented as a matter of escaping from slavery, from dreary work day after day.   While this is also present in the movie, must be present given the situation that they are in - again, slavery - it's also downplayed, as the mortality issue is given the lion's share of attention.    And it's a shame, because I found that in comparing the two this time around, it created less tension than it could have.   See, in the book, the humans would like to figure out how to make the androids - their involuntary workforce - last longer, but they can't get around the issue of cell regeneration.   (Though call androids, they're made of biological materials.)   This would be an interesting tension, as the androids don't want to be used as chattel, and the longer they survived, the more able they'd be able to organize a resistance.   Sadly, the possibilities and dangers of extending the lifespan of androids aren't touched upon, and so it feels as if it's lacking when compared to the movie in this one respect. 

That being said, a lot of moments I adored from the movie weren't here.   I'd give the movie five stars, as well, but despite the moments being absent in the book, I really do enjoy both versions.   The live animals, and being pretty much forced to own one to prove, and foster, sympathy?   It's an interesting concept.   The way the class systems work - based not only on money, but on if you own a real animal or not, and if you're able to emigrate off Earth - are also new ways to think about the way in which we classify ourselves.  

And despite problems - empathy, and not all humans being able to show empathy in the exact same way or measurements - is one concern.  I do feel that the novel skirted around this issue, but didn't actually delve fully enough into it to solve the problem or make it less problematic.   The hating on the womenfolk?   Check, it's there, and unapologetically so.  The terms to degenerate the mentally challenged?   Yup, there.   The fact that Dick may have been insecure, and thus lashed out through his novels don't help. 

And while I feel slightly guilty - five stars!   Dick has a way of wrapping you up in his stories, in mashing together vividly creative worlds and ideas and philosophy, and giving you a story that leaves you breathless with wonder and excitement all the way through.   Especially at the end.  

I love Do Androids Dream.   I hate that it is problematic, and while I can conjure up excuses, I can't force them to justify any of the issues in the novel.   It's still one of my favorites.  Highly suggested.