Digging into the odd history of Blade Runner’s title (2017)
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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bladerunner
"Blade Runner (a movie) was loosely adapted as the 1983 film Taking Tiger Mountain [0], after co-director Tom Huckabee purchased the rights to the novella from Burroughs for $100." [1]
[0] (movie is rated 4.7@imdb) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taking_Tiger_Mountain_(film)
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_(a_movie)#Adapt...
The articles referenced on the Wikipedia page seem to be almost deliberately nonspecific about the timing of pulling in the Burroughs material: at some point between 1979 and 1983, so it could be well before or after Ridley Scott turned those two words into a household name. Might be the best way to play the cards given, ambiguous endings run in the family.
> Their saga is somewhat incomprehensible, not least because it’s eventually conveyed in two separate movies, intended to be screened either by alternating scenes from one of the film with scenes from the other, or by projecting them on two screens simultaneously. It concludes with Billy realizing he’s not living in 2014, as he once thought, but is actually somehow in 1914.
That's from Burroughs's work, which was based off of Nourse's. But that idea of two parallel times - of someone living in more than one time - is such a hallmark of Philip K. Dick's later work that I can't help but wonder if Borroughs was inspired by PKD. The timeline fits: Borroughs wrote this in the late 70's, and PKD's experience that led to his obsession with parallel times was in 1974 [1], and his first published work inspired by it was that same year.
If Borroughs was inspired by PKD, that's another weird coincidence in this chain of events. If he wasn't that's maybe even more of a coincidence actually.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#Paranormal_expe...
In addition to yours, "runner" works as a kind of diminution of the job, runners being minor functionaries who shuttle back and forth at the beck of their superiors ("No choice, pal.")
That what Deckard's running is a "blade"—death—only emphasizes either his powerlessness or his victims'. He's a pageboy being made to do murder. Or a janitor cleaning up mere "hazards".
Yeah, could be "running" as in operating ("run: be in charge of; manage") a metaphorical blade, that is cutting their life short.
(With the dark irony that the original was meant to be "smuggling equipment to heal the needy", re-applied to a context of "bringing death to the desperate".)
It was to be called Dangerous Days in Fancher's last draft before eventually taking the name Blade Runner.
> Universal health care has been enacted, but in order to cull the herd of the weak, the “Health Control laws” — enforced by the office of a draconian “Secretary of Health Control” — dictate that anyone who wants medical care must undergo sterilization first. As a result, a system of black-market health care has emerged in which suppliers obtain medical equipment, doctors use it to illegally heal those who don’t want to be sterilized, and there are people who covertly transport the equipment to the doctors. Since that equipment often includes scalpels and other instruments of incision, the transporters are known as “bladerunners.”
And I believe one of the things Deckard talked to his wife about was saving up enough to buy a real sheep, which is what leads him to the Tyrell corporation.
I guess I didn't totally get the Mercerism and animal angle, it seemed to exist mostly to highlight a difference in empathy between characters. I think the film is better without it.
The android test Mexican standoff was amusing though.
I probably just have some bias here since I like the film's nuanced interpretation of the androids and having one of them show mercy at the last moment is a better twist to me.
I was a bit skeptic of Philip K Dick once I finished it but I'm glad I took up Ubik a couple of years after - it turned out to be one of my favorite reads.
Another good PKD read is A Maze of Death... it has very dated tech in it (satellite in orbit playing pre-recorded tape)... but the ideas are very similar to Ubik (in a way). A world deteriorating, an almost spiritual war between forces of order and disorder.
'Ubik' the novel, not the substance, I take it. in the novel [spoiler], Ubik is a store-bought aerosol product which can be used to temporarily reverse deterioration... or is it...?
I don't think these are spoilers, but stop reading if you are sensitive: Ones that stuck out for me were "why is this weird guy living in a building that is falling apart?" The story reveals that Earth is basically poisoned and that everyone who can leave has left, and the people staying behind are suffering serious cognitive decline due to it.
I'm afraid I disagree with your claim that J.F. is "suffering serious cognitive decline" due to his life on Earth. To the contrary, his confinement on Earth is not the cause of his psysical decline, his physical condition (genetics) is the cause of his confinement.
more details: https://bladerunner.fandom.com/wiki/J.F._Sebastian
The film differs in that J.F. Sebastian is a creative genius, not sub-par IQ, and yes his genetic condition is the proximate cause of his confinement on Earth: but the film clearly asks: what caused the condition? The film doesn't say but pretty much implies the same as PKD's novel [that one of Sebastian's parents or ancestors was radioactively damaged].
In general the film implies but does not lay out any of the (unnecessary and seriously tiresome) exposition from matchstick characters that PKD's novel did, and that makes it stronger. (Arguably except for Gaff, and especially the unicorn scene in the Director's Cut). Ditto, omitting Mercerism in place of a general existential malaise.
Here's one of his short story collections
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24276/24276-h/24276-h.htm
It's about a guy who cures the common-cold ... and the consequences. Always had a soft spot for it.