The Blade Runner Experience: The Legacy of a Science Fiction Classic

by Will Brooker (Editor)

Overview

Since its release in 1982, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, has remained a cult classic through its depiction of a futuristic Los Angeles; its complex, enigmatic plot; and its underlying questions about the nature of human identity. The Blade Runner Experience: The Legacy of a Science Fiction Classic examines the film in a broad context, examining its relationship to the original novel, the PC game, the series of sequels, and the many films influenced by its style and themes. It investigates Blade Runner online fandom and asks how the film's future city compares to the present—day Los Angeles, and it revisits the film to pose surprising new questions about its characters and their world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781904764311
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	02/21/2006
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Will Brooker is associate professor in communications at Richmond, the American International University in London. He is the author of Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon; Using the Force: Creativity, Community and 'Star Wars' Fans; and Alice's Adventures: Lewis Carroll in Pop.

Table of Contents

Editor's note
Notes on contributors
Introduction: 2019 Vision, by Will Brooker
The Blade Runner Experience: Pilgrimage and Liminal Space, by Will Brooker
Post—Millennium Blade Runner, by Judith B. Kerman
Section 1: The Cinema Of Philip K. Dick
Reel Toads and Imaginary Cities: Philip K. Dick, Blade Runner and the Contemporary Science Fiction Movie, by Aaron Barlow
Redemption, 'Race', Religion, Reality and the Far—Right: Science Fiction Film Adaptations of Philip K. Dick, by Dominic Alessio
Section 2: Playing Blade Runner
Replicating the Blade Runner, by Barry Atkins
Implanted Memories, or the Illusion of Free Action, by Susana P. Tosca
Section 3: Fans
Scanning the Replicant Text, by Jonathan Gray
Academic Textual Poachers: Blade Runner as Cult Canonical Movie, by Matt Hills
Originals and Copies: The Fans of Philip K. Dick, Blade Runner and K. W. Jeter, by Christy Gray
Section 4: Identities
The Rachel Papers: In Search of Blade Runner's Femme Fatale, by Deborah Jermyn
Purge! Class Pathology in Blade Runner, by Sean Redmond
Postmodern Romance: The Impossibility of (De)centring the Self, by Nick Lacey
Section 5: The City
False LA: Blade Runner and the Nightmare City, by Stephen Rowley
Imagining the Real: Blade Runner and Discourses on the Postmetropolis, by Peter Brooker
Filmography
Bibliography
Index