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An Introduction to Blade Runner Fanfiction

Fanfiction inspired by the Philip K. Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and the Ridley Scott movie, Blade Runner.

Blade Runner is more than just a movie, it has become a mythology.

How is Blade Runner a mythology? A myth, after all, is a story about superhuman beings of an earlier age, of ancient Egypt, Greece, or Rome.

Blade Runner is not a myth in the classical sense. However, the myths of antiquity have worked itself into a modern context. And Blade Runner shows us the myths that circulate in everyday life. It reveals fundamental truths and insights into human nature.

It is one of the most literate science fiction films, both thematically – enfolding the philosophy of religion and moral implications of the increasing human mastery of genetic engineering, within the context of classical Greek drama and its notions of hubris – and linguistically, drawing on the poetry of William Blake, and the Bible. 1

Between the book DADoES, and the various movie scripts and movie versions, it has not only prophesied the many conditions that we are just now opening our eyes to; viz. corporatism, pollution, mood enhancement, species extinctions, and globalization (just to name a few) but also alerts us to possible impending doom; viz. World War Terminus, genetic mutations, and various influences competing for our "psychic souls".

Blade Runner offers us much to ponder over. What does it mean to be human? What role does empathy play? What do I know about myself? What is my true nature?

Our survival depends on understanding empathy.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Blade Runner both contain mythic themes that can be explored creatively. However, copyright law restricts independent authors from extending modern stories. Some critics believe that, because the core characters and stories of modern story cycles are not in the public domain, it prevents the modern story cycles from sharing several essential aspects of mythologies. Fanfiction goes some distance to relieve this problem.