Do Andromes Dream of Electric Sheep? Gender and Postmodernism in the Philip K Dick Novel

Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a complex novel that could be considered postmodernist. To a varying extent, it raises the issue of gender, its structure inevitably exerting a significant influence over how this theme is conveyed.

Dick's novel is open to a variety of interpretations from a range of disciples. However since its emergence in the latter half of the twenty century, it is the ideas that loosely revolve around the banner of 'postmodernism' that have become a popular means to define this novel. On account of its bewildering and diverse complexity however, postmodernism as a movement is very difficult to describe. By the mid-1980s there was an academic shift towards postmodernism, in part as a reaction to modernism, although it could have been viewed as a response to Marxism as well. Whereas Marxism tended to view people collectively, postmodernism stressed the role of the individual, putting an emphasis on the consideration of a person's gender, race and sexual orientation, subjects that are apparent in Dick's novels.

Several prominent thinkers have heightened certain stresses that they believe characterize the postmodern. Jean-Francois Lyotard stresses postmodernism's skepticism regarding metanarratives. A metanarrative is an ideological structure that grants the legitimacy of certain actions, examples include Christianity, science, feminism and Marxism. Marxism as a metanarrative would view the historical overthrow of capitalism by the proletariat - however capitalism's resiliency justifies postmodernist skepticism with the metanarrative of Marxism. It is ironic however that this distrust of metanarratives could have been considered in itself a metanarrative. Fredric Jameson defines postmodernism as the outcome of an age of post-industrial capitalism, with multinational corporations now beyond the control of national Governments. Jean Baudrillard meanwhile discussed the way in which image has come to dominate over substance. He highlights the pollution of the real by the 'simulacrum', the copy with no original.

The ideas of Lyotard, Jameson and Baudrillard all feature within the narrative of Do Andrs Dream of Electric Sheep? Lyotard characterizes postmodernism by a mood of uncertainty and doubt, a mood which pervades Dick's novel, escalating as the story continues, and sometimes climaxing at the revelation that the supposedly Divine Mercer was just some drunken bit actor. Jameson's ideas on the predominance of multinational corporations are apparent in the Western and Soviet governments' incapacity to legislate against the Rosen Association. The androids - Roy, Irmgard, Max, Luba, Pris and Rachael - could be seen as Baudrillardian simulacra, copies without originals, and these might distract us from appreciating the human characters, such as Rick, Iran, Phil and John.

There is a pressing ambivalence between the real and the unreal in Dick's novel, evident in the notification that the central theme of Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep? is an exploration of the response of an individual to the universe in which he must live. Unable to remain whole, the protagonist Rick Deckard splits and occupations the schizoid half of his divided self, operating instead like a machine through the denial of his emotions, as if he were an android, while his schizoid self responds emotionally to his environment, yet still experiences intense anxiety.

In relation to this figurative 'splitting' of character, several other inhabitants of Dick's novel, including the androids, are described as being doubles for various facets of Rick Deckard's personality. From an economic basis, Rick is shown to be the breadwinner in his relationship and his partner, Iran, is portrayed as a housewife. However, in terms of any possible difference between masculinity and femininity in the novel, it is more fruitful to look at the relationship between Rick, the government assassin of androids (and presumably the story's hero) and the android opera singer Luba Luft. Rick begins to question his own humanity when confronted by Luba, who points out that in his remorseless killing of androids, he himself could have considered an android, especially how he believes that the refining quality of an android is lacking of empathy, '"Then , "Miss Luft said," you must be an android "'(p.86). In contrast to Rick, Luba is depicted as gentle and artistic - she sings Mozart beautifully and has a fondness for Edvard Munch, 'Luba Luft ... stood absorbed in the picture before her' (p.113). Luba is murdered by Rick and Phil Resch, another assassin who also represents a facet of Rick's character. The protagonist initially presumes that Resch is an android as he has encountered an individual with a complete lack of empathy. The irony however is that Resch is actually human.

One quality Do Dooms Dream of Electric Sheep? possesses is that it does not present any overriding opinion. Dick's reliance on literary doubling and heavy use of metaphor is extremely mean that it is very difficult to identify any superseding assertion in his novel, certainly one relating to gender, which as a theme is somewhat marginalized in the novel. In this case, masculinity is better understood if it is juxtaposed with its polar opposite, femininity. In Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep? the character of Rick Deckard appears to draw on a very particular masculine image, although due to the metaphoric dividing of his personality, and its various manifestations in other individuals throughout the book, it is difficult to arrive at any definitive statements on Dick's part in regards to gender.

An Open Letter To Weis Markets

I have discovered that there are many little things that make moving to a new home a rich experience. Simple changes such as finding a new place to get your groceries can be an amazing journey of discovery. This was the case for me when we moved just far enough away from my favorite grocer to require a back up store closer to my new home. Welcome to Weis Markets.

My welcome to Weis was an unforgettable experience. As I stepped out of my car for
that first visit and my foot touched the parking lot it landed in chewing gum. Gum in
a parking lot can really happen to any business, but this lot looked grimi. I guess
with 157 stores though, that is a "lot" of parking lots to keep up with, and I am sure
that Weis is too busy to care about one customer with gum on their shoes.

On my first and subsequent visits, I was amazed to find that all but one of the
cashiers were bagging or teaching customers how to use the self-service scanning
devices at every register coercing any customers not willing to wait for the one and
only human cashier to check out their groceries themselves. I even asked a manager
about this, but was told they could not find enough employees. I was really curious
about the ones that were already working there, but this did not seem to go
anywhere with the manager who seemed to have more important things to do than
talk to customers. Perhaps I am old fashioned, but having a human at a register is
one of the last few services left that I am ready to give up.

So, I wait in the long line with the one human who is paid to run the register. Opps,
Can you help me? I forgot my "Weis Store Card." What? You can not ring it on a
generic store card like my favorite old store use to do for me? I have to wait in line
at customer service so they can look it up? You can not even call them on your phone
for me? Oh, you do not have a phone at your register, do you? Gee that makes it a bit
hard to help customers does not it?

As I wait for ten minutes in the "Customer Service line" staffed by one frazzled
employee, who is providing a whole host of services, I realize that 9000 employees
is far too many to train and besides they will not work for Weis long enough to make
the investment in training worthwhile. What does it matter if you choose loose customers
like me who drop an average of $ 120 per weekly visit into the one register staffed
by a human. Who cares if I refuse, even in an emergency, to go to Weis and instead
drive 12-15 minutes to the Oregon Dairy, where there are always humans who will
ring me up on the "store card" and go out of their way to help me. Once they even
sent me home with several bags of groceries and an IOU when I forgot to make a
deposit and my bank card came up insufficient funds !! How does the Oregon Dairy
do it anyway? They are a single store operation but charge the same prices as Weis
and can actually afford to staff all those registrants with humans? And where do they
find all those employees just 15 minutes away? Something sure is fishy here. It must
be the shrimp sale at the Oregon Dairy. I think I will stop by seafood and pick up a
few pounds.

Magic Formula Investing to Improve Financial Returns

Magic formula investing is an effective investment method outlined by Joel Greenblatt. This technique helps to make good money within short investment period. This investment became more popular in 2009 because of its unique features and procedures. There are certain facts that need to be considered before investing in magic formula investment program.

First, all the credit card debts need to be cleared before starting this program. Higher interest rates debts and auto loan should be cleared. This formula helps to get the benefit of constant return from the investment and all the procedures are mostly based on value investment techniques. Also, this investment plan is well enhanced with different trading amounts.

Second, before implementing this program, if a person wants to fund their account, then they should create an emergency account themselves. This emergency cash funds are very helpful during unpredictable expenses such as auto repairs or medical expenses. Also, emergency account serves as a great tool to evaluate the monthly expenses.

This formula depends on many important components, but building and maintaining the right investment portfolio is the critical component. The steps for building the right portfolio are choosing stocks with minimum market capitalization of about $ 50 million or more, exclude stocks of financial and utility companies, and exclude stocks of foreign organizations.

Selecting the right stocks with minimal market capitalization can be easily realized by following few steps. First, company's annual earnings yield and return on invested capital need to be determined. The stocks should be chosen by ranking them to find stocks that are above market capitalization threshold. The ranking can be done based on return on capital and earning yields per year.

Then, one can invest in stocks that are in 20 to 30 rankings in the list. In addition, the stock's performance should be analyzed in twelve months time-frame. The highest performing stocks start accumulating 2 to 3 positions monthly in a year. Every year the portfolio requires re-balancing and this inclusion selling poor performing stocks and sometimes even high performing stocks.

Poor performance stock need to be sold before one week of the one year mark and the high performance stocks can be sold after one week from the one year mark. By systematically following these methods for about 3 to 5 years, one could easily enjoy the benefit from this investment technique. This investing method is the best turnover strategy and it is very simple to understand. This strategy is totally logical, simple, straightforward, and gives exceptional out-performance.

Living Life With the Law of Attraction - You Are in Control!

The Law of Attraction, The Secret, positive thinking, manifesting your dreams, these days most of you have probably heard of these phrases and ideas but what is it all about and more importantly can you really control your life just with your thoughts?

The basic concept of this is the idea that if you simply change the way you think, and start living life in a mindful way, you can literally create the life you dream of with the power of intention. The Law of Attraction simply means whatever you think about you will attract into your life, and so if you think positive thoughts you will attract positive things into your life and in direct contrast if you think negative thoughts you will attract negative things into you life.

This probably sounds too easy but the truth is this 'secret' is not a 'new age' concept. On the contrary, it has been around for centuries and practiced throughout the world by some of the most prominent leading minds of our time including Einstein, Henry Ford and Winston Churchill.

Most people place limitations on their lives without realising. They believe that there is a ceiling to the things they can achieve, and as the Law of Attraction is always working, this is what they will attract into their lives, and therefore never surpass the limitations they alone have set.

There are many important steps to take in order to successfully implement the 'secret' into everyday life, possibly the most important is GRATITUDE. Recognising and having gratitude for the things you already have in your life is the best way to create of positive state of mind. Try it... write a list of everything you are grateful for, your family, friends, home, job, health, etc and you will soon feel a sense of happiness. This is the best state to be in when setting forth your intentions for the future.

The simple answer if you really want to start living your life to its full potential in 2010 is 'Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life'.

Are You Incorporating Income And Opportunity Cost Into Your Financial Planning Strategies?

It seems like there are an infinite number of financial possibilities for us to choose from, and with the Internet making information so readily available, they're all just a click away. This barrage of financial information from the Internet, TV, radio and news can be extremely overwhelming, even for the most financially savvy. How are you advised to know which financial strategy is best for you, your goals and your current circumstances?

Would not it be nice to have an easy-to-follow, straightforward strategy to use in understanding and evaluating this multitude of financial products and possibilities? Well, I have good news for you! There is! There is one financial strategy that reigns superior to all the others, one that allows you to address even the most pressing of financial concerns- Prosperity Economics.

To get started, ask yourself, "How will this affect my income?" Prosperity Economics already acknowledges that it's not all about your net worth. It is, however, fundamentally about your income. It may seem a little too simple or too good to be true to base all of your financial decisions on asking yourself how it will affect your income, but go ahead. Try it.

How will buying a new house affect your current income? Will your mortgage payments be more than what you're currently paying, negatively affecting your income? How will quitting your job to go back to school affect your income? Obviously, you will not have an income anymore, but having a higher education degree increases your future income potential. Is it worth it?

Show Me The Money

We are a nation built upon the dream of financial prosperity. Most of us go to school not to better educate ourselves, but to make more money. We try to climb the corporate ladder because we know that with that promotion comes more money. We're a country of people totally obsessed with money. We can not survive or thrive without money.

That being said, it's no surprise that valuing our income, and how our financial decisions are going to affect your income, are important aspects of financial planning.

Generating Income

If you think that by having a job you're doing all you can to generate income, you'd be wrong. It's obviously the easiest and most predominant method of generating income, but it's not the only method-nor even the best. After all, your income from working at a job is limited by the hours in the day. Every good financial plan includes the management of various assets, as opposed to just one, in order to generate income. You have to broaden the scope of your financial plans to include various methods of generating income, having money flowing through your assets, in order to have a successful financial strategy under your belt.

Evaluating Opportunity Cost

We are all aware of the basic principles of cost and benefit. We heard the term used countless times in our introductory economics courses in high school and college. The desirability of any decision, not just a financial decision, is a direct measure of the cost and benefit. Ok, so we get it, right? Wrong!

Many of us fail to realize the true cost of the financial decisions that we make on a day-to-day basis, whether in our businesses or our personal lives. To understand the true cost of a financial decision, we must properly evaluate the opportunity cost. Without an understanding of opportunity cost, it's nearly impossible to devise and execute a comprehensive financial strategy that meets all of your goals and expectations.

So what exactly is opportunity cost? To put it simply, it is the value that you would have received had not lost an asset. Take this example. Let's say you have $ 5000 and decide to invest it in mutual funds. If it does well, there will be taxes to pay from those gains. The taxes are a cost.

Let's say that the taxes amount to $ 500-you have to pay that from somewhere, and since the account caused the taxes, it's fair to calculate taking that $ 500 tax bill out of the account. But this also means that $ 500 is no longer there to continue to grow. Had it not been lost to taxes, it could easily have grown to $ 16,000 in 50 years. But you did not have it-so it did not. You lost $ 500 to taxes, and that caused you to lose $ 15,500 in opportunity costs. Recognizing this very real truth would allow you to consider these costs in light of alternate ways of handling your money with lower-or even zero zero-opportunity costs. This is the only truthful way to consider what an investment might really yield.

Why is opportunity cost so important? Well, simply put, it's a way of evaluating the attractiveness of various financial capabilities, assisting us in making decisions to create better financial strategies.

So now is a good time to ask yourself - Have you incorporated the "all about income" philosophy and calculation of opportunity cost into your financial planning strategies? Do so, and you increase your chances of a more prosperous monetary future. If not, seek out an experienced prosperity economics advisor to show you what changes are possible.

Copyright (c) 2011 Randy Whittle

Engage People On Social Media By Asking Questions

As I've said repeatedly, "It's called social media for a reason." How do you gain traction with people on social media? Not by telling them things, but by asking them questions.

When you make a post, go ahead and finish it with an open-ended question, something like "What do you think about the topic? Post your thoughts below." BTW, and open-ended question is one that does not automatically elicit a short, one or two word answer like "Yes" or "No," "red" or "blue." It asks people to express their inner views on a subject, to answer expansively.

Of course, the other part of the social media equation is interacting on other people's posts. In order for you to be seen, you need to do more than write your own posts. Of course, other people are asking questions on their social media posts. Some of them are asking closed questions, to be sure. "Am I right - yes or no?" A few people will be asking open-ended questions. Either way, when you reply, your voice is added to the conversation. More importantly, your on-line name or handle is added to the stream of information flowing past the eyes of others.

If you look for advice on marketing, a metric crap-ton of people will shout a single-word piece of advice at you - "Content!" What they mean is that you should be creating unique information to put in front of others to grab their attention.

But here's a bit of content the so-called experts tend to overlook: asking your own questions on other people's social media posts.

Let's say, someone makes a post about carpet cleaning. Yes, I use that industry in a lot of examples. So let's say a person posts that you should steam clean your carpets at least every six months. Go ahead and ask your own question! Like with your own posts, open-ended is best. "In addition to the 6-month cleaners, should I also clean before a holiday gathering?" You could switch that to a closed-ended question: "Which is best, cleaning before or after a holiday gathering?"

If you can not think of a relevant question, it's okay to ask for examples and clarification. I can guarantee there are plenty of other folks out there who would like additional examples or a different explanation. "Is there a different schedule you'd recommend for a carpet in the reception area of ​​a business?" "Can you give an example of a hotel lobby carpet cleaning process?"

Asking relevant questions, ones that dig deer into the subject of the post, are often near as good as - and sometimes better than - the original informational posts, and will get your name out there as someone who knows what they're talking about.

What's Wrong With Network Marketing?

When people and their enterprises are constantly focused on "what's wrong?" the creative energy required to sustain life and work is draining, and with it the Freedom, Growth and Joy all human beings aspire to experience and express through authentic living their lives and pursuing their dreams. We have created a "negative world" (and not just in network marketing). Wherever we turn and look today, we see examples of the dissatisfaction and deterioration of the quality of life and work.

In this negative world, The Second Law of Thermodynamics (the tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve towards a state of inert uniformity, ie; death) rules ... the Life Force (energy) of everything and everyone is running down, dissipating, diminishing. The Law of Attraction - Like Attracts Like - brings even more negativity ... more of what's wrong and what is not working. It is an endless down spiral ...

"What is wrong?" to "What's right?" From draining energy to building our individual and collective creative energies ...

Why ask "What's Right?"

In order to get a principle to work in the way we require it to, we must observe its action when it is working spontaneously in this particular direction. We must ask why it goes in the right direction as far as it does - and having taught us this then then be able to make it go further.

The law of flotation was not discovered by contemplating the sinking of things , but by contemplating the floating of things which floated naturally, and then intelligently asking why they did so.

The knowledge of a principle is to be gained by the study of its affirmative action: when we understand that, we are in a position to correct the negative conditions, which tend to prevent that action.
- Thomas Troward (1847-1916)

These "Five Right Questions" are about to learn were pioneered by the work of Kurt Wright and detailed in his landmark book Breaking The Rules Removing the Obstacles to Effortless High Performance . They represent nearly 30 years of on-the-field research in Corporate America into what human animals are like when they are at their creative, productive, fulfilled BEST. They are a power-tool we can all use to make the shift from negativity into positive creativity.

When understood, internalized and integrated into our daily conversations through practice and repetition ... these questions unite the vital partnership of our head-and-heart (the rational / analytical "conscious" mind and the intuition / imagination), resulting in a consistently increasing creative energy for accomplishment and the fulfillment of our on-going Life Purpose.

They will also result in the disappearance of the draining, repetitive negative symptoms of constantly focusing on "What's wrong with network marketing?" causing a reversal of fortunes you would not have believed possible before.

The Five Right Questions

1. What's right ...?

This question (formed by the mind) immediately focus on the positive and productive (away from the negative and deconstructive) ... engages the heart (intuition and imagination) and is energy-building (rather than draining) ....

2. What makes that right ...?

With this second question, we are discovering Values, what is really most important ... transmuting the "data" - the factual answer to the first question-- and evolving that by getting to the "essence", thereby turning facts into knowledge and wisdom. This is alchemy. This is the child's "Why is the sky blue?" question. This question strengthens and raises the vibration .... and we're ready to move on to the next question, which demands even greater creative energy to explore ...

3. What would be ideal ...?

Here, we begin to pursue the possibilities .... We have ventured into the domain of "What you do not know that you do not know ...." This is the Visionary question, engaging the Intuition and Imagination and moving Beyond the limits of the rational mind ... and it is directly linked to the power of the Pleasure and Passion of our Purpose ....

4. What's not yet quite right ....?

This question explores and articulates the exact size and shape of the hole (s) in the Vision that need to be filled to bring the picture (image: as in imagination) of what's possible into being ... what's required to complete our Ideal. Built on the growing energy of the first three questions, it transcends the mental-judging of "what's wrong?" and literally gives direction to Creation itself. Without this step, we almost always get square pegs for our round holes ....

5. What will it take ...?

The Question that leads you ... "What will it take to ______________ (filling in the blank with the Vision of the Ideal) for the highest good of myself and all concerned ...?" This is the Visionary's request for Inspired Action ....

"What wrong with network marketing?" is no longer the proper question to ask. Asking "What's right with network marketing?" will open up whole new vistas of creativity and positive results. Try it ... just as an experiment ... and notice what begins to happen for you.

Thanks.

I Appreciate You.

- John