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Postmodernism and
The Media
A look at several critiques on the media applied to the text Do Android's Dream of Electric
Sheep? (P.K.Dick 1968).

Thursday, 19 January 2012 Pages

P.K.Dick Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Home

Black Mirror - An example of
the effect of the con...
P.K. Dick’s Do Andoids Dream of Electric Sheep?, published by
Baudrillard - The Ecstasy of
Doubleday in March 1968 (Butler In Johnson 2005:119), is set in a post- Communication (1987)...
P.K.Dick Do Androids Dream
nuclear-holocaust America. A world in which the Earth is covered in of Electric Sheep?
radioactive dust, desolate due to the majority of humanity emigrating to Bibliography

the new colony on Mars, and technological advances have produced

Followers
humanoid robots, nicknamed ‘andys’. Dick’s novel embodies many
Mga sumusubaybay (3)
postmodern ideas and fears; including the moods of uncertainty and

doubt, the evils of consumerism, and the illusion of truth. Although Dick’s
Sundin
style of writing is not the most complex, and the genre of Science Fiction

has been looked upon condescendingly by many critics in the past, “...his

general stature within Science Fiction and beyond it (as the creator of an

ouvre that an increasing body of critical opinion holds to be the most

interesting and important produced by any North American novelist since

Faulkner)” (Freedman 2000:35).

Within the novel androids play a key role in Dick’s exploration of what

really makes us human; our capacity for empathy or the way in which we

behave to one another and machines? However they also greatly benefit

from a reading applying Baudrillard’s theories of simulation and

Blog Archive
simulacra, and Adorno’s views on the culture industry. These combine to
▼ 2012 (4)
give an enlightening insight into the postmodern aspects of consumerism
▼ January (4)
and society exemplified within the novel. In many ways Dick’s writing is P.K.Dick Do Androids
Dream of Electric
rather prophetic of our current climate in the sense that the lines between Sheep?

reality and hyperreality have seemingly faded, and as Baudrillard Adorno - The Culture
Industry
predicted every layer of our existence has been permeated by simulacra, Baudrillard - The
Precession of
much as it has for the characters in the novel. The androids in the novel Simulacra
are mass produced copies without an original, Deckard indicates the Baudrillard - The
Implosion of Meaning In
extent of their diversity “...by 1990, the variety of sub-types [androids] The Media

passed all understanding, in the manner of American automobiles in the

► 2011 (1)
1960s” (2009[1968]:12). The television advert overheard by Isidore

further illustrates the interpretation of androids as simulations, About Me

“...duplicates the halcyon days of the pre-Civil War Southern states! Laura B
I am curently in
...custom-tailored humanoid robot – designed specifically for YOUR
my third year of
UNIQUE NEEDS FOR YOU AND YOU ALONE” (2009[1968]:13). The study for a
BA(hons)English
language used ‘humanoid’ supports the simulation interpretation of degree. Whilst studying
postmodernism I have become
androids because they are a copy of something that resembles a human
particularly interested in the
being but still are not of an organic reality. The advert further illustrates theories surrounding mass
media and the flow of
what Adorno criticises the culture industry for: classifying and organizing information. The ways in which
writers address the
its consumers, labelling them so that something can be created for all. In
rammifications of mass media;
this case the androids are a mass-produced product and the hierarchy is its effects on society and our
complicity within it are eye-
created via the ways in which the android is adapted to suit the individual opening to say the least.

consumer, as Adorno claims the consumers comply with this by selecting View my complete profile

the category of mass-product produced for their ‘type’. The hierarchy of

consumers is produced by the novel on a wider scale in regards to

‘regulars’ such as Deckard and his wife (both are reproductively

acceptable and with mentality above the legalised minimum). Lower on

the scale are ‘specials’ such as Isidore (who can no longer reproduce

acceptably as his genes have deteriorated from radiation). Even lower

are ‘specials’ who fail to pass the minimum faculties test, branded

‘chickenheads’, a category into which Isidore falls also. The compliance

of consumers to apprehend products for their type is exemplified by

“...the ads, directed at the remaining regulars, frightened him [Isidore].

They informed him in a countless procession of ways that he, a special,

wasn’t wanted. He had no use.” (2009[1968]:15-16). The description of

Isidore’s status in society are contrasted with the tv ad sales pitch, he

overhears, offering a life/status he shall never attain.

The businesses depicted in the novel further adhere to Adorno’s view of

the culture industry, “For Adorno, the ideology underlying all forms of

mass culture is one that supports the existing power structures in society”

(Butler In Johnson 2005:129). The Rosen Association at first seems to be

outside the control of the power structures (the West and Soviet

governments), who want them to cease manufacture of Nexus-6 android

units which had “...evolved beyond a major – but insignificant- segment

of mankind” (2009[1968]:23). Deckard conveys the Rosen Association’s

influence “They control inordinate power, he thought. This enterprise is

considered one of the system’s industrial pivots...” (2009[1968]:36). Yet

the Rosen Association, along with other android manufacturers, rely on

the governments for their business, as the advertising slogan noted by

Deckard states “Emigrate or Degenerate! The Choice is Yours!”

(2009[1968]:12), the colonization agenda of the government employs the

propagandist incentive of a free android on emigration to Mars. Deckard’s

comment “...the manufacture of androids, in fact, has become so linked

to the colonization effort that if one dropped into ruin, so would the other

in time” (1968[2009]:36), exemplifies Adorno’s point that organisations

(Rosen Assoiciation) and authorities of power (government) are

economically intertwined.

Further examples of Baudrillardian simulacra in the novel include the

‘Penfield mood organ’, because the feelings produced by the mood organ

are not genuine. They are simulations of real feelings because they are

selected and programmed into characters at their own will. Emotions

have become products, quintessentially, the mood organ offers a variety

of settings from which the characters/consumers can select their desired

effect. In reality emotions are innate reactions, an aspect of someone’s

character, not something that can be selected at will from a menu. Even

the food in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Is no longer ‘real’ – it

consists of simulations as Isidore points out “Like a cup of water or rather

milk; yes it’s milk or flour or maybe an egg – or, specifically their ersatz

substitutes” (2009[1968]:20). ‘Ersatz’ meaning “(of a product) made or

used as a substitute, typically an inferior one, for something else” (Anon

2000:190). These substitutes are representations of food and drink but

have entered, sign-wise, into phase 4 of the sign – there is a complete

lack of relationship between the sign and reality. After the nuclear-

holocaust fresh products must have been lost/become scarce and the

hyperreality of the ersatz products taken reality’s place. Animals have not

escaped the pervasion of simulation either, ‘real’ animals have become

scarce and the new religion of Mercerism values caring for them to such

a degree that animals have become status symbols. Due to the expense

and lack of real animals fake robotic ones have found a market, though

Deckard enounces “...owning and maintaining a fraud had a way of

gradually demoralizing one” (2009[1968]:6). These fake animals have

become so real in appearance that Isidore mistakes a real cat for a

robotic one, “You’d almost think it was real...compellingly authentic-style

gray pelt...its vid-lenses glassy, its metal jaws locked together”

(2009[1968]:56). The irony of Isidore’s use of an artificial lexicon for an

organic animal is rather amusing, moreover it exemplifies Baudrillard’s

claim that “...we cannot escape from them [simulacra], or express

ourselves in terms other than through the codes which saturate us”

(Snipp-Walmsley In Waugh 2006:413). This restriction of expression

through ‘codes’ is verified by Isidore’s used of “pseudo-bony spine...vid-

lenses...metal jaws” (2009[1968]:56), along with his proclamation “Damn

expert workmanship; so absolutely perfect an imitation” (2009[1968]:57),

thus making the real coincide with the new models of simulation.

In conclusion, as the preceding paragraphs have illustrated Baudrillard’s

theories of simulations and simulacra have exemplified themselves within

the novel via androids, robotic animals and representations of organic

food products. In the case of the androids these are also inextricably

linked with Adorno’s interpretation of the culture industry due to the ways

in which they have been created to fulfil a desire of society, one that has

structured itself in such a way that they are not available to all levels of

consumer – ‘specials’ and ‘chickenheads’. Nevertheless the types of

consumer have been identified and a variety of mass produced products

of varying quality, “The Sundermann people showed their old T-14 back

in 89” (2009[1968]:22), are on offer. Adorno’s statement that we exist as

data and statistics divided by income groups and subjected to advertising

using the techniques of propaganda (1944:1038) is verified by the novel,

albeit the consumer groups are separated more by social status

(determined by intelligence and reproductivity). Yet the constant “twenty-

three unbroken warm hours a day” (1968[2009]:13) in which consumers

are bombarded with adverts, by a government funded channel no less

(2009[1968]:13), and the slogan “Emigrate of Degenerate!” act as the

propaganda Adorno refers to.

Posted by Laura B at 06:17 1 comment:

Adorno - The Culture Industry

Adorno proposes that within the culture industry there is an economic

mechanism of selection. There is an agreement or determination

between executive authorities to avoid producing or authorizing

“...anything that in any way differd from their own rules, their own ideas

about consumers, or above all themselves” (Adorno 1944:1038). The

‘culture monopolies’ are weak in comparison to these economic giants

(executive authorities) and so they must appease the overlords of

industry so as not to lose their hold on the market by being ‘purged’.

Adorono uses the examples “The dependence of the most powerful

broadcasting company on the electrical industry, or the motion picture

industry on the banks...” (1944:1038). Adorno further states that within

this sphere of dependency the individual branches of the powerful

executive authorities and culture monopolies become ‘economically

interwoven’. According to Adorno the industry classifies consumers, it

organizes and labels them so that something can be created for all with a

“hierarchical range of mass-produced products of varying quality”

(1944:1038), for example supermarket value brands and their range of

‘best of’ or ‘finest’ products. Consumers then comply with this hierarchy

by selecting the category of mass product produced for their ‘type’, we

exist as data and statistics divided by income groups and subjected to

advertising using the techniques of propaganda. This is especially

prominent in today’s society because, as Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror

illustrates sardonically but acutely, we are bombarded by advertisements

every day, and are restricted to what we can buy by our income – a

significant issue at this point in a recession. Adorno further states that

these seemingly varied quality products are all the same in the end,

which exemplifies the extent of how formalized the process is. Products

consist of “...ready-made clichés to be slotted in anywhere; they never do

anything more than fulfil the purpose allotted them in the overall plan”

(1944:1039). Within the culture industry free expression as protest

against organization is quashed and forced to submit to formula which

replaces the work (akin to Baudrillard’s view that we’re only able to

express ourselves via pre-determined codes). The mass media stunts

consumers’ imaginations due to the objective nature of products such as

films, you are subjected to an onslaught of relentless facts to such an

extent you are unable to use your powers of observation and experience

to comprehend them.

Posted by Laura B at 06:16 No comments:

Baudrillard - The Precession of Simulacra

The postmodern notion that we are in an age in which “...everything and

everyone is consumable...the medium becomes the message...[and]

there is no hidden depth beneath the surface...truth is just another

illusion...” (Snipp-Walmsley In Waugh 2006:412-3), owes much of its

views to Baudrillard, especially his theory of Simulations. Baudrillard

states that simulation has now entered the realm of the hyperreal,

present day simulators attempt to make the real, all of the real, coincide

with their models of simulation using imperialism. The differences

between one and the other has been lost at the most basic level, the sign

has been depleted to the extent that meaning – produced by the

relationships between signs – is being lost at an alarming rate.

Baudrillard proposes four phases of the sign:

1. Truth – reality at its most basic and “faithfully’ represented.

2. Distorted or warped truth/reality – “truth perverted through representation”

(Snipp-Walmsley In Waugh 2006:413).

3. Absence of truth/reality – we try to mask reality/truth’s disappearance

through representation because we still attempt to cling on to it.

4. Complete lack of relationship between the sign and reality – due to the

fact that “there is no longer anything real to reflect” (Snipp-Walmsley In

Waugh 2006:413)

This final stage, the hyperreal, is the one into which Western society,

according to Baudrillard, has entered. The image is now dominant,

previously perceived ‘normal’ relationships have been inverted and

production has given way to simulation. This can be exemplified by the

fact that products are now sold before they exist; advertising and media

create a desire in consumers for a new product, which is then created to

satisfy the desire (Snipp-Walmsley In Waugh 2006:413). Baudrillard

highlights that the reality principle has been irrevocably lost, we are now

pre-coded with simulacra, “...we cannot escape from them [simulacra], or

express ourselves in terms other than through the codes which saturate

us” (Snipp-Walmsley 2006:413). The real has been consumed by what

Baudrillard terms ‘genetic miniaturization’, the new dimension of

simulation. “The real is produced from miniaturized cells, matrices, and

memory banks, models of control – and it can be reproduced an infinite

number of times from these.” (1997[1981]:2). As a result this simulation

of the real is no longer required to be rational because it is measured by

neither and ideal or ‘negative instance’, this is what makes it the

hyperreal “...produced from a radiating synthesis of combinatory models

in a hyperspace without atmosphere” (ibid).

Posted by Laura B at 06:15 No comments:

Baudrillard - The Implosion of Meaning In The

Media
Baudrillard’s The Implosion of Meaning In Media (1944) proposes three

hypotheses as to why meaning is being lost with the increase of

information. Either; it is impossible to successfully reinject message and

content into information, and meaning is lost quicker than it can be

reinjected. Or information operates outside of meaning, according to

Shannon’s hypothesis information that is funcitional is purely technical –

it does not imply meaning. Or information is detrimental to meaning; it

directly destroys meaning and signification. This is the most controversial

of the three hypotheses as it opposes all common opinions, due to the

fact that currently socialization and development are measured by

exposure to the media. Furthermore because this is seen as a positive

thing its binary opposite – underexposure to the media – has negative

connotations of desocialization. It is believed that information creates

communication, but Baudrillard argues that there is a huge loss of

meaning, he likens the belief to the commonly accepted myth that

material production produces an excess of wealth regardless of its

drawbacks/dysfunctions. Our belief that information produces meaning,

Baudrillard claims, will be our downfall; as the opposite is the reality –

information destroys meaning. He offers two reasons as to why

information cannibalises its own content: firstly that it stages meaning,

exhausting itself in doing so, it simulates meaning rather than produce it.

This information is what Baudrillard terms ‘phantom content’ and is part

of a circular process of simulation which results in the hyperreal (more

real than real). Secondly he attributes the cannibalisation of content to

the staging of communication i.e. the mass media, because information

dissolves meaning and the social. The mass media, therefore, produces

the “implosion of the social masses” (1997[1981]:81) because they are

dissolving the value of the sign. Meaning lies in the relationship between

signs (Surprenant In Waugh 2006:206), if the signs themselves are losing

value so are the relationships and meanings between them, thus

information is dissolving meaning.

Full Text. http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/articles/simulacra-

and-simulations-viii-the-implosion-of-meaning-in-the-media/

Posted by Laura B at 06:15 No comments:

Tuesday, 22 November 2011

Intentions of This Blog.

The influence of the media on the masses and communication is an intricate
and astonishing one. This blog shall explore Baudrillard's views on the
communication and media by explicating a couple of his essays, as well as
Adorno's Culture Theory, in order to illustrate the impact of the media and
culture. Moreover these findings shall be applied to Philip.K.Dick's Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? as I feel this exemplifies the key
hypotheses and views of Adorno and Baudrillard.

Posted by Laura B at 10:22 1 comment:

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