SCREEN-L Archives

May 1996, Week 4

SCREEN-L@LISTSERV.UA.EDU

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Donald Larsson <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 23 May 1996 12:08:05 -0600
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (38 lines)
Quintin responds:
"How possibly would we know something
about those feelings without the aid of a human mind? And why should we
care about it? The director=B4s cut becomes the story of replicants told by
replicants. Then is trivial that they fall in love to each onother, and
nothing really disturbing happens, while in the producer=B4s cut it does.
By the way, what if I manage to convince Riddley Scott of the soundness of
the above paragraph? Then he can make another version, perhaps called
"seconds thoughts of the director" cut. This would probably open the gate
for an endless chain of cuts. The result will be that nobody in this list
or elsewhere would be able to discuss about Blade Runner, because everybody
would be talking about a different version. I don=B4t like director=B4s cuts=
,
in particular this phony one."
 
 
Without getting into the mechanics of the replicant mind in the context of
the film, one of the questions that might be aroused is what we are to make
of the difference between "replicant" and "human."  These are issues that
writers like Philip Dick tried to explore (although in his novel they are
n't explored nearly as deeply as in the film) and that are further raised
as we find new interfaces between humanity and technology.  From critics
like Donna Haraway to the figures of Data in STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
and the "holographic doctor" in STAR TREK: VOYAGER, the question of what it
means to be "human" or "machine" or something else is a vexed one and likely
to become increasingly so.
 
On a related matter, there is a new book by KW Jeter, titled BLADE RUNNER 2:
THE EDGE OF HUMAN that reportedly tries to reconcile differences between
BLADE RUNNER and DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?  I haven't read it
yet myself, but watch for the movie!  (Director's cut?)
 
Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)
 
----
To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L
in the message.  Problems?  Contact [log in to unmask]

ATOM RSS1 RSS2