Announcements

  • Reflection Piece due Thursday 11/3 at the beginning of class. NO submitting on time and showing late or it’s invalidated.
  • Archive Project worth 20%
  • Review questions handed out in class especially questions 5, 6, and 7.
  • Midterm grades coming next week; Essays coming 11/3
  • Second Essay is up on the website.
    • Same format as last essay and due two weeks from today (Due 11/15)
  • Extra credit groups email Prof.

Sidenote: Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia means fear of short words ironically.

Blade Runner:

  • Adaptation- based on the story but not a direct translation(important to keep in mind), usually considered to be a better but that doesn’t always pan out
  • Sci-fi- biggest area of adaptation
  • Philip K. Dick- Minority Report, Total Recall, Man in the High Castle etc.
  • Final Cut, true final cut Ridley Scott had full creative control over, gets rid of voiceover, includes full Unicorn dream sequence, etc.
  • Professor made joke about “the cyber” – good one
  • Big questions concerning adaptations is “How adaptations reimagine the source text?”

Discussion on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Blade Runner

  • This is the point where we began to look at different cover arts for the book.
  • Focus of this was to point out the idea of how imagery, especially the first imagery you see, can help guide the narrative.
  • Most of the covers were “obsessed” with the marriage of the authentic and ersatz, specifically the physical aspect of the two.
  • “Start to think of the choices made.”- concerning adaptations and what they purposefully include or exclude.

Class’ Thoughts on Blade Runner

  1. Joselin- Liked Roy, thought that the movie did more with the character to make him human
  2. Rino- Roy has different motivations in the movie, driven by desire to live longer.
  3. Ruben- The importance of memories, authentic or implanted
  4. Alex- The world felt more lively and populated in Blade Runner, dispels the post-apocalyptic notion of the text
  5. Emmanuel- Found Tyrell to be a stronger presence in the movie, more ambitious or challenging
  6. Shiaja- Clearer reason for hunting replicants
  7. Duron- Bothered by the nomenclature “replicants” Android is better, suggests they are actually trying to blend in because of the etymology of the word. Skinjob name is disgusting.
  8. Daniel- Screen lady stood out (Bonus points to you because this also stood out to me but I neglected to mention it)
  9. Danny- Felt the movie was too linear, no flexibility in andy characters. Pointed out the scene of Roy saving Rick.
  10. Johny- City as a  character(lighting played a huge role in this), Asian aesthetic made setting familiar but foreign( Kind of like Firefly even though it’s set in space)
  11. Tajay- Androids had really distinct personalities.
    1. Rachael, seductive and caring
    2. Roy- bluish, cold, uncaring
    3. Pris- playful, black eyes to denote something wrong(very similar to double of Maria in Metropolis)
  12. Cody- noted that the replicants were also combat models
  13. Me(Moises)- sleeker visual  of the city than the book

Differences

  • Mercerism is absent
    • Religious function
    • Motivated empathy in society
    • Way to connect people
    • Hope
    • integral to expose plot twist
  • Voight-Kampff test was present, empathy box was absent though
  • Animals played a smaller role
  • Iran is absent in the movie.
  • NO BUSTER(appears in a different form; remember it’s an adaptation)
  • No mention of World War Terminus
  • Garland side story with fake police is gone in the movie
  • Isidore becomes J.F Sebastian, “special” but not explicitly stated, bonds with replicants because of similar degenerative issue
  • No mood organ
  • Rachael/Rick relationship ends in a much different place
  • Ricks motivations are entirely different.

Additions in FIlm

  • Gaff w/ origimai figures
  • Unicron scene(plays into above point)
  • Obsession with reproduction and longevity; question “Where do people come from in this world?”
  • Sebastians toys
  • Scene where  Deckard warps the image to find Zhora, meta moment about film
  • Replicants highly sexualized, possible exhibiting of more human behavior
  • Rosen became Tyrell
  • Toy scene shows hierarchy among replicants
  • “Do we just see them[replicants] as toys?”

That’s all folks. Sorry for being late on notes, I had some technical difficulties the last few days.