Blade Runner’s source material says more about modern politics than the movie does
The Deckard in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is the hero, too, but that heroism is much less comfortable. Dick is clearly uncomfortable with the police’s ominous power over life and death, and their selective and prejudicial use of that power — the same issues Black Lives Matter and other citizens’ groups are highlighting today. Book-Deckard isn’t a charismatic rogue falling in love as he tries to escape the bounty-hunting business. He’s a married schlub who’s excited at the chance to make some cash by retiring a bunch of escaped androids. Movie Deckard is forced to kill against his conscience and his better judgment. Book Deckard kills out of economic anxiety. He wants to put a down payment on a new artificial pet. In Dick’s dystopic future, live animals are largely extinct. The electric goat Deckard wants to buy would be a real status symbol.
A cop trying to earn enough cash to buy a robo-goat is a goofy, cute story hook, but it’s also nightmarish. Deckard feels more compassion and empathy for his goat than he does for the virtually human androids he murders. Deckard feels like he isn’t getting ahead in life, and like so many others, he turns his resentment into casual brutality at the expense of the marginalized.
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