In my regeneration another book goes down:

Philip K. Dick, ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?‘ (1968)

Almost reads like someone narrating personal fantasies rather then a novel. This tone mimics the actual narration of the Deckard’s experiences and thoughts. A kind of raw-ness? It interesting to read a book that fourteen years later was adapted to the film: ‘Blade Runner‘ (1981). The book has so many references to artificial/organic animals and desire for them which isn’t really refenced in the film.

He thought, too, about his need for a real animal; within him an actual hatred once more manifested itself toward his electric sheep, which he had to tend, had to care about, as if it lived. The tyranny of an object, he thought. It doesn’t know I exist. Like the androids, it had no ability to appreciate the existence of another. He had never though of this before, the similarity between an electric animal and an andy. The electric animal, he pondered, could be considered a subform of the other, a kind of vastly inferior robot. Or, conversely, the android could be regarded as a highly developed, evolved version of the ersatx animal. both view points repelled him

The artifical sheep on the roof grazing is particularly bizarre. But when he finally acquires a new beast, it has a tragic…but entertaining end.

‘Did you hear about my goat?’ he said.
‘No. I didn’t even know you had a goat.’
Rick said, ‘They took my goat.’
‘Who did, Mr Deckard? Animal theives? We just got a report on a huge new gang of them, probably teenagers, operating in-’
‘Life thieves,’ he said.

Finished Dostoyevsky’s The Devils (1871)

Prophesising the Russian Revolution. An examination into misguided revolutionaries and affected intellectuals.

Cover is a detail from Lovis Corinth’s ‘Bernt Groenvas’.

‘There are seconds-they come five or six at a time- when you suddenly feel the presence of eternal; harmony in all its fullness. It is nothing earthly. I don’t mean that it is heavenly, but a man in his earthly semblance can’t endure it. He has to undergo a physical change or die. This feeling is clear and unmistakable. It is as though you suddenly apprehended all nature and suddenly said: “Yes, it is true – it is good.”…It is not rapture, but just gladness. You forgive nothing because there is nothing to forgive. Nor do you really love anything – oh, it is much higher than love! What is so terrifying about it is that it is so terribly clear and such gladness. If it went on for more than five seconds, the soul could not endure it and must perish. In those five seconds, the soul could not endure it and must perish. In those five seconds I live through a lifetime, and I am ready to give my life for them, for it’s worth it. To be able to endure it for ten seconds, you would have to undergo a physical change…’
‘Kirilov, does this often happen?’
‘Once in three days, once a week.’
‘You’re not an epileptic?’
‘No.’
‘You will be one. Take care, Kirilov. I’ve heard that’s just how an epileptic fit begins. An epileptic described to me exactly that preliminary sensation before a fit, exactly as you’ve done. He, too, said it lasted five seconds and that it was impossible to endure it longer than that. Remember Mohammed’s pitcher from which no drop of water was split while he flew round paradise on his horse. The pitcher – that’s you five seconds. It’s too much like your eternal harmony, and Mohammed was an epileptic. Be careful, Kirilov – it’s epilepsy!’
‘There won’t be time,’ Kirilov laughed softly.