Insanity

    How would you feel if you found out you where making love to

any android? Shocked l hope. In this essay l will discuss how

Louis Tanner of Destroying Angel and Rick Deckard of Do Androids

Dream of Electric Sheep are important to the thematic development

of "moral men in immoral worlds" and body mind invasion. 

    Is Tanner a moral man in an immoral world? What is considered

moral or immoral? We know from reading Destroying Angel that

Tanner is a good person. Tanner is the type of person whom we say

would "do the right thing" in certain situations. He's honest and

honorable. If Tanner makes a promise, he keeps it. He made an

agreement with Rattan, where Rattan would be shipped to New Hong

Kong illegally in return for the name of the chain killer. Rattan

is a drug dealer with a lot of money to waste. He's also the only

person with the information to catch the chain killer. To get

justice the moral must cooperate with the immoral. We also know

that Tanner is not a womanizer. He had his chance with Hannah but

did not take advantage of the situation: "No Hannah"(136). Tanner

had more worrisome thoughts than making love to a good friend. He

wanted the murderer of all murderers, the chain killer. As a cop

he never captured the chain killer. This person fused chains to

people's bodies and then threw them into the water. For Tanner

who was now a retired cop, it was as if a spark lit up in him.

All the old memories fled back into his mind. The nightmare of

his partner getting shot on a "drug bust gone"(13) wrong began to

replay in his mind. He had a conscience; therefore, he could

never forget what was done to his partner nor the victims of the

chain killer.

    One of the many other themes found in this book was body mind

invasion. When Tanner was still a cop, slugs worked at the police

station whose job was to "solve almost any problem" (16). These

people were constantly injected with reason enhancers to help

them solve investigations. Now that Tanner was retired, the slugs

working at the police station probably looked "Distended and

distorted"(16) after all these years of taken drugs. Although

they took the enhancers, they did not help in finding the chain

killer. The only person that could help find the killer was

Rattan. He was interested in the new process of the regeneration

of limbs in New Hong Kong. This was a process where your natural

limbs were actually grown back. Rattan would have rather died

than have prosthetic limbs. The only person that could have

transported him to knew New Hong Kong was Tanner. It was a domino

effect after that. Both parties got what they where looking.

Rattan went to New Hong Kong and Tanner got the name of the chain

killer.

    Louis Tanner developed the themes of "moral men in immoral

worlds" and body mind invasion in a certain fashion. Now l will

compare it to how Rick Deckard in Do androids Dream of Electric

Sheep developed the same themes.

    Was Rick Deckard a moral man in an immoral world? He lived in

a world where humans were given classification such as

chickenheads or specials if they didn't pass a mental exam. They

were being judged by their own to see who was worthy to go to

mars and live a better life. If they passed the test and

emigrated to mars, androids would be their slaves. As slaves the

androids had to do everything they were told. Androids were very

intelligent beings and retaliated against their owners. They were

beginning to get lonely and illegally came back to earth. Rick

was a bounty hunter whose job was to find and destroy these

androids. At first to him it was just a job. He didn't have any

feeling toward the androids because they were not human. As his

assignment continued, he found that he " '[was capable of feeling

empathy for at least specific certain androids.'"(124)  When he

captured Luba Luft at the museum he bought her a book. This book

contained a picture of the painting she was admiring. This showed

that Rick began to have empathy for androids. He then killed her

and destroyed the book. Ricks morals began to get twisted. He

knows what his job is but he's physically attracted to an

android. At one point he begins to question himself as a bounty

hunter. Phil Resch tells him  "'Go to bed with [Rachel] first and

then kill her'" (126). This in turn would diminish the attraction

he had to Rachel. He sleeps with her but doesn't kill her. Rachel

then kills his sheep because she knows Rick loves the sheep more

than her.

   Another theme developed in the book was body mind invasion.

Rick, his wife and almost everyone else on the planet had a mood

organ. This device had different settings where each performed a

specific function. For example the number 888 meant "the desire

to watch TV, no matters what's on it ".(4)  Dick and everyone

else were also dependent on the mood organ for their daily mood

or feelings. Each day they programmed how they wanted to feel: "

My schedule for today lists a six hour self-accusatory

depression."(2) Therefore, their life is run by a machine and

maybe that is why they show android type behaviors. For example

people are given classifications, such as chickenheads if they

"[fail] the minimum mental faculties test"(15). People are forced

to things they find terrifying (when Isodore was force to use the

videophone). Also humans feel no empathy for androids when

they're killed. Although androids are not human, a few of them

are part of society and participate in it. It's almost impossible

to tell the difference between man and Androids. Man and androids

are slowly becoming one. Man is controlled by a machine and is

starting to exhibit android like behaviors. Androids on the other

hand have begun the show human characteristics. An example is

that the androids feel lonely by themselves. It seems that the

distinction between the two is soon fading away. Rick said that

if android questions were added to the empathic question used on

the Voigt-Kampff test, the distinction between man and android

would disappear.

    After having read both books, l have to say that l enjoyed

reading them both. They were very interesting. Especially their

out look on how the future is going to be. Maybe in ten years

androids will be part of our society.