The God Game vs Human Game: Post / humanism from Philip Dick to Denis Villeneuve
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31861/pytlit2019.99.151Keywords:
American literature, cinema, science fiction, posthumanism, android, Philip Dick, Christian symbolismAbstract
The purpose of the paper is to follow the changes in the view on the android (i.e., the copy, the simulacrum of the human, the metaphor of the Other, which provides us with better understanding of the basics of our humanity) during half a century using the example of the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” (1968) by Philip Kindred Dick, an American science fiction writer, and the movies based on his work: Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” (1982) and its sequel “Blade Runner2049” (2017), shot by Denis Villeneuve. The main methods are an original comparative analysis of these works in the context of the problems of humanism and posthumanism and the mythopoetic approach to the study of the Christian symbolism of the novel and its film adaptations. The author concludes that the writer and film directors are aware of the responsibility of mankind for trying to play the role of God and that they all prefer humanism, that is focusing on the ideals of anthropocentrism, rather than striving for a radical transformation of human nature and culture associated with posthumanism and transhumanism. The paper involves deep intertextual connections and shows in detail how Frankenstein story of the book becomes Pinocchio story in the movies. Consequently, it suggests prospects for studying the aesthetics of “new physicality”, the problems of hyperreality and its reflection in science fiction, etc.
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