In the direction of thick dust : navigating humanism and posthumanism in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids dream of electric sheep?

Abstract

This thesis focuses on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968). It joins the academic conversation surrounding the book’s posthumanism with a thorough investigation of humanism, of which I am critical. This is guided by the realization that while the human being is a player, even an engineer of the novel’s postapocalyptic world, he is hardly the point or center of this world. Nor is he unchanged by it. Instead, he is being redefined by postapocalyptic ecology and technology. Yet, there is human resistance to this realization within the narrative, which I attribute to humanism. Humanity reacts as if threatened and infringed upon. Next, it obsesses over the details of its existence. It defines itself with humanist flair and vigor, emphasizing empathy, reason, and dignity. Humanity’s attempts to assert itself, however, discriminate against those who fail to meet human standards (androids and specials). More so, this self-assertion, or humanism, is fallible. For example, empathy is not depicted as an inherent human quality. I look at this closely and describe it as a crisis in humanism. This thesis explores the suggestion to look beyond what is thought of as human in the novel. It turns to new life-forms, perspectives, and means of construing the human. Reality is more imbricated than it is perceived to be by humanity. I discuss how certain identities in the novel reflect this as well as the role that technology and ecology play here. In conjunction, I identify on Earth an econormativity (a term borrowed from Giovanna Di Chiro) that organizes humanity along heteronormative lines. Once again, this is in reaction to perceived threats to human continuity within the radioactive environment. I then read the radioactivity carried by dust in relation to econormativity. I portray it as a transgressor to human order, but one with much insight when embraced. In that sense, my thesis moves in the direction of dust when navigating humanism, posthumanism, and the details in be