DADES: Chapter 4

For Monday, 2/25

Write five open-ended questions you have about the novel so far. Then, try to answer (or discuss) five questions written by your peers on their blogs.

Other thoughts on DADES:

Machines are used to regulate, heal, and test human beings! Isn't this ironic?
Penfield Mood Organ
Empathy Box
Voigt-Kampff Test

Who was Sisyphus and how might he relate to Mercerism? What might Dick be suggesting about human nature in his use of this allusion?

Empathy means one's ability to recognize, perceive and feel directly the emotion of another; Empathy comes from the Greek work pathos or "to suffer."

Other questions to consider:

1. How many androids have illegally returned to earth? Why would they return?
2. Who is Max Polokov?
3. What is a “flattening of affect” and who displays this?
4. Who is Rachael Rosen?
5. What is the “tyranny of the object”?
6. Rick compares the electric sheep to the android: “Like the androids, it (the electric sheep) had no ability to appreciate the existence of another. He had never thought of this before, the similarity between an electric animal and an andy.” Why is this significant?
7. What do you make of this statement: “the manufacture of androids, in fact, has become so linked to the colonization effort that if one dropped into ruin, so would the other in time.” What might this tell us about today’s economy?