Joshua Moreno

December 9, 2017

Professor Batty English 102

Monster Novel Reflection

Personally this was one of my favorite essays to write in the class, mostly due to

knowledge I already have from previous psychology classes, and I have changed some things in

order to make the essay sound more to the point or rather make it easier to connect to.

Firstly, following the comments I had received I added some imagery through words

before my thesis in order to give the reader a sense of how this novel can be considered a

possibility and how we as humans recognize this possibility through movies and pop culture. I

feel that would further reinforce the idea that we generally have negative connotations when it

comes to machines and their engagement with humans in daily life, and allows the reader to open

up to more possibilities as far as defining for themselves who the monsters are in the book.

Originally it read, Today we have artificial intelligence to manage our schedules, research and

do many more things. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I believe Dick had envisioned a

future in which machines become sentient and have the ability to eliminate the human race based

on what changes he had seen and now reads, Dick was also living through this time in

human life where everything was on the turning point of becoming automated and humans were

no longer needed. We often find ourselves looking to technology as the future however as pop

culture today would have it, machines and us humans just dont vibe with each other like

Terminator for instance, its the same scenario Dick proposes with dystopian themes and

machines and humans albeit in this example the machines are actually the monster. However, in
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I believe Dick had envisioned a future in which machines

become sentient and have the ability to eliminate the human race based on what changes he had

seen but instead made a case for how humans would come to rely on machines to the point where

androids become more man than machine.

Next, I had changed the section on the ID and its relevance to survival between androids

and humans as well as giving an example to better improve the imagery of what the reader

should experience when the ID has taken over and what it would likely cause them to do in that

case. In regard to the ID this is what was said originally, In the novel two Replicants stand out

as being true to their libidinal desire, they are Roy Batty and Priscilla Stratton. For Roy and Pris,

their concern is self-preservation by whatever means necessary. And has now been changed to

include to what extent that would be in the revision, Roy in the novel is more than welcome to

murdering Isodore so that the androids living with him can live quietly and in secretly to avoid

detection by Deckard. With regards to humans, as stated we too only want to live and survive as

long as possible. The desire to live in both parties could be seen as monsterous because of the

lengths either party would go to in an effort to remain living, as was said earlier Roy would

rather kill Isodore than have him continue living alongside him and the other androids, and while

humans are often quick to choose killing or sacrificing of someone else for their own desire to

live is not as common but it is still a possibility as is governed by the ID, which has no other goal

in mind other than accomplishing its most basic goal of self-preservation. As stated this should

improve on the image of how survival comes into play between both races.

With regard to Lacan section, I have added, humans often refer to their actions, life

choices and personalities as its all a part of me, or thats what makes so and so who they are.

However, this is not true in all case as humans are built by models from our parents, friends,
family and teachers we learn what definitively makes us who we are to ourselves, but what

happens when models dont align with what we consider to be us? I believe in this regard

humans can become monsters due to the dissonance they will feel between their self and non-

conforming self, which towards androids pushes humans to believe that not all humans act the

way some androids appear to be and believe heavily that they are just merely copying what they

believe to be a perpetuated self. This should provide a catalyst for what is monstrous about the

self in that it is unknown to those whom believe they are what they are based on their own

accord when really its due to modeling.

Finally, I had changed the title to be more assertive in my notion of claiming androids are

just as important as human. As well as done some minor clean up works to eliminate terms not

used in the novel but in the film such as replicant and blade-runner.