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Add note for _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_; Update list links.
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---
date: 2024-05-12T16:10:52-6:00
last_modified_at:
reading: true
reading-books: true
excerpt: 'Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter searching for escaped androids in a radioactive Northern California where social status is measured by caring for live animals, as an indicator of empathy.'
status: ':herb:'
published: true
title: 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'
work_author: 'Philip K. Dick'
work_link: 'https://openlibrary.org/books/OL8898972M/Philip_K._Dick'
year_read:
date_read:
date_started: 2024-05-12
current: true
progress_current: 9
progress_max: 177
---

66 changes: 36 additions & 30 deletions _notes/Reading/Lists/exam-list1-topic.md
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It is 35 “work units” long (countable by searching “work Unit1” without a space), as defined in my [program's](https://www.isu.edu/english/graduate-programs/phd-in-english-and-the-teaching-of-english/) PhD Program [Handbook](https://www.isu.edu/media/libraries/english/PhD-Program-Handbook.pdf).

Book title links go to OpenLibrary's listings, and article title links go to the most open article versions I can find.

## Rationale

How do we, in modern or postmodern times, make meaning out of texts? To what extent are the experiences we might think of as “our own” interwoven with cultural, legal, or scientific texts? Since the rise of electronic mass media and World War 1, American authors since have approached these meaningful questions through works that thematize information, and particularly informatics (or systems for information control). The explorations authors have posed through their works have often paralleled insights written more overtly in fields like feminist epistemology, science and technology studies, and critical race theory. One strategy for depicting information systems and epistemological experiences has been to write “ensemble” novels, which focus less on a single character’s experiences and instead blend those of multiple characters. This exploration has often been conducted in what, at time of publication, were considered “minor genres” like science fiction or less-than-literary venues like trade paperbacks. Works like _The Ballad of Beta-2_ and _Dhalgren_ expressly blend characters in ways that challenge the readers’ understanding of precisely what has happened in the story. Simultaneously, the works investigate how meaning is conveyed through cultural forms. As one example, _The Ballad of Beta-2_ revolves around a young anthropology graduate student attempting to decipher a folk song whose meaning appears to have been corrupted during transmission across generations living on slower-than-light star ships. The difficulties interpreting the information conveyed through the song’s text invoke not only the semantic play frequent in blues and jazz traditions, but also W.E.B. DuBois’ interweaving of “Negro spirituals” with other lyrical sources in the chapter epigraphs of _The Souls of Black Folk_. Works like _Dhalgren_, _Gravity’s Rainbow_, and _Tropic of Orange_ destabilize characters and settings, as the texts work through the interplay of military or police control and political or demographic borders. Works like _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_ and _Snow crash_ pose questions of the boundaries of bodies and language. While these works do not come from a single “coherent” tradition, genre, or authorial demographic, they consistently explore the questions of subjectivity, and more precisely how subjects subjected to systems of information control make meaning out of their position in multiple systems of meaning.
How do we, in modern or postmodern times, make meaning out of texts? To what extent are the experiences we might think of as “our own” interwoven with cultural, legal, or scientific texts?

Since the rise of electronic mass media and World War 1, American authors since have approached these meaningful questions through works that thematize information, and particularly informatics (or systems for information control). The explorations authors have posed through their works have often paralleled insights written more overtly in fields like feminist epistemology, science and technology studies, and critical race theory.

One strategy for depicting information systems and epistemological experiences has been to write “ensemble” novels, which focus less on a single character’s experiences and instead blend those of multiple characters. This exploration has often been conducted in what, at time of publication, were considered “minor genres” like science fiction or less-than-literary venues like trade paperbacks. Works like _The Ballad of Beta-2_ and _Dhalgren_ expressly blend characters in ways that challenge the readers’ understanding of precisely what has happened in the story. Simultaneously, the works investigate how meaning is conveyed through cultural forms. As one example, _The Ballad of Beta-2_ revolves around a young anthropology graduate student attempting to decipher a folk song whose meaning appears to have been corrupted during transmission across generations living on slower-than-light star ships. The difficulties interpreting the information conveyed through the song’s text invoke not only the semantic play frequent in blues and jazz traditions, but also W.E.B. DuBois’ interweaving of “Negro spirituals” with other lyrical sources in the chapter epigraphs of _The Souls of Black Folk_. Works like _Dhalgren_, _Gravity’s Rainbow_, and _Tropic of Orange_ destabilize characters and settings, as the texts work through the interplay of military or police control and political or demographic borders. Works like _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_ and _Snow crash_ pose questions of the boundaries of bodies and language. While these works do not come from a single “coherent” tradition, genre, or authorial demographic, they consistently explore the questions of subjectivity, and more precisely how subjects subjected to systems of information control make meaning out of their position in multiple systems of meaning.

## Fiction

1. Asimov, Isaac. _Foundation_. 1951. Spectra, 1991. (320 pp., workUnit1.)
2. Delany, Samuel R. _The Ballad of Beta-2_. 1965. _A, B, C: Three Short Novels_. Vintage, 2015, pp. 172--262. (90 pp. workUnit1.)
3. ———. _Dhalgren_. 1974. Vintage, 2001. (801 pp. workUnit1 + workUnit1.)
4. ———. _Nova_. 1968. Vintage, 2002. (241 pp. workUnit1.)
5. DeLillo, Don. _White Noise_. Penguin, 1986. (326 pp. workUnit1.)
6. Dick, Philip K. _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_ 1968. _Four Novels of the 1960s_. The Library of America, 2007, pp. 435–608. (177 pp. workUnit1.)
7. Divya, S.B. _Machinehood_. Gallery / Saga Press, 2022. (416 pp., workUnit1 + workUnit1.)
8. Erdrich, Louise. _The Round House_. Harper Perennial, 2013. (321 pp. workUnit1.)
9. Okorafor, Nnedi. _Binti: The Complete Trilogy_. Daw Books, 2020. (358 pp. workUnit1.)
10. Older, Malka. _Infomocracy_. Tordotcom, 2017. (400 pp. workUnit1.)
11. Pynchon, Thomas. _The Crying of Lot 49_. 1966. Harper Perennial, 2006. (160 pp. workUnit1.)
12. ———. _Gravity’s Rainbow_. 1973. Penguin, 2000. (776 pp. workUnit1 + workUnit1.)
13. Stephenson, Neal. _Snow crash_. 1992. Del Rey, 2000. (440 pp. workUnit1 + workUnit1.)
14. Yamashita, Karen Tei. _Tropic of Orange_. Coffee House Press, 1997. (270 pp. workUnit1.)
1. Asimov, Isaac. _[Foundation](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL46125W/Foundation)_. 1951. Spectra, 1991. (320 pp., workUnit1.)
2. Delany, Samuel R. _The Ballad of Beta-2_. 1965. _[A, B, C: Three Short Novels](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20114359W/A_B_C_Three_Short_Novels_The_Jewels_of_Aptor_The_Ballad_of_Beta-2_They_Fly_at_Ciron)_. Vintage, 2015, pp. 172--262. (90 pp. workUnit1.)
3. ———. _[Dhalgren](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL56835W/Dhalgren)_. 1974. Vintage, 2001. (801 pp. workUnit1 + workUnit1.)
4. ———. _[Nova](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL56833W/Nova)_. 1968. Vintage, 2002. (241 pp. workUnit1.)
5. DeLillo, Don. _[White Noise](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL2531465M/White_noise)_. Penguin, 1986. (326 pp. workUnit1.)
6. Dick, Philip K. _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_ 1968. _[Four Novels of the 1960s](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL8898972M/Philip_K._Dick)_. The Library of America, 2007, pp. 435–608. (177 pp. workUnit1.) ([[do androids dream of electric sheep?|My public notes]].)
7. Divya, S.B. _[Machinehood](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL21967564W/Machinehood)_. Gallery / Saga Press, 2022. (416 pp., workUnit1 + workUnit1.)
8. Erdrich, Louise. _[The Round House](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16532040W/The_round_house?mode=all)_. Harper Perennial, 2013. (321 pp. workUnit1.)
9. Okorafor, Nnedi. _[Binti: The Complete Trilogy](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19649739W/Binti_The_Complete_Trilogy)_. Daw Books, 2020. (358 pp. workUnit1.)
10. Older, Malka. _[Infomocracy](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL26854483M/Infomocracy)_. Tordotcom, 2017. (400 pp. workUnit1.)
11. Pynchon, Thomas. _[The Crying of Lot 49](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2636665W/The_Crying_of_Lot_49)_. 1966. Harper Perennial, 2006. (160 pp. workUnit1.)
12. ———. _[Gravity’s Rainbow](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6900801M/Gravity's_rainbow)_. 1973. Penguin, 2000. (776 pp. workUnit1 + workUnit1.)
13. Stephenson, Neal. _[Snow crash](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL38501W/Snow_Crash)_. 1992. Del Rey, 2000. (440 pp. workUnit1 + workUnit1.)
14. Yamashita, Karen Tei. _[Tropic of Orange](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2664054W/Tropic_of_orange)_. Coffee House Press, 1997. (270 pp. workUnit1.)

## Theory
### Theory Books

1. Benjamin, Ruha. _Race after Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code_. Polity, 2019. (285 pp. workUnit1.)
2. Chu, Patricia E. _Race, Nationalism, and the State in British and American Modernism_. Cambridge UP, 2006. (196 pp. workUnit1.)
3. Day, Ronald E. _The Modern Invention of Information: Discourse, History, and Power_. Southern Illinois UP, 2001. (152 pp. workUnit1.)
4. Foucault, Michel. _The Archaeology of Knowledge_. Pantheon, 1972. (237 pp. workUnit1.)
5. ———. _The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences_. Vintage, 1994. (387 pp. workUnit1.)
6. Hall, Stuart et al. _[[hall-policing-the-crisis|Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order]]_. 1978. 2nd ed. / 35th Anniversary ed. Red Globe Press / Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. (472 pp. workUnit1 + workUnit1.)
7. Hayles, N. Katherine. _[[How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics]]_. U Chicago P, 1999. (350 pp. workUnit1.)
8. ———._ My Mother Was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts_. U Chicago P, 2005. (288 pp. workUnit1.)
9. Hayot, Eric. _Information: A Reader_. Columbia UP, 2021. (408 pp. workUnit1 + workUnit1.)
10. Lee, Maurie S. _[[Overwhelmed: Literature, Aesthetics, and the Nineteenth-Century Information Revolution]]_. Princeton UP, 2019. (277 pp. workUnit1.)
11. Purdon, James. _[[purdon-modernist-informatics|Modernist Informatics: Literature, Information, and the State]]_. Oxford UP, 2016. (224 pp. workUnit1.)
12. Richards, Thomas. _The Imperial Archive: Knowledge and the Fantasy of Empire_. Verso, 1993. (179 pp. workUnit1.)
13. Tucker, Jeffrey Allen. _A Sense of Wonder: Samuel R. Delany, Race, Identity, and Difference_. Wesleyan UP, 2004. (344 pp., workUnit1.)
1. Benjamin, Ruha. _[Race after Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20794423W/Race_After_Technology)_. Polity, 2019. (285 pp. workUnit1.)
2. Chu, Patricia E. _[Race, Nationalism, and the State in British and American Modernism](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL8332653W/Race_Nationalism_and_the_State_in_British_and_American_Modernism)_. Cambridge UP, 2006. (196 pp. workUnit1.)
3. Day, Ronald E. _[The Modern Invention of Information: Discourse, History, and Power](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL221883W/The_modern_invention_of_information)_. Southern Illinois UP, 2001. (152 pp. workUnit1.)
4. Foucault, Michel. _[The Archaeology of Knowledge](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL5282804M/The_archaeology_of_knowledge.)_. Pantheon, 1972. (237 pp. workUnit1.)
5. ———. _[The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL10477605W/Les_mots_et_les_choses?edition=key%3A/books/OL20242164M)_. Vintage, 1994. (387 pp. workUnit1.)
6. Hall, Stuart et al. _[Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20720487W/Policing_the_Crisis)_. 1978. 2nd ed. / 35th Anniversary ed. Red Globe Press / Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. (472 pp. workUnit1 + workUnit1.) ([[hall-policing-the-crisis|My public notes]].)
7. Hayles, N. Katherine. _[How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL374645M/How_we_became_posthuman)_. U Chicago P, 1999. (350 pp. workUnit1.) ([[How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics|My public notes]].)
8. ———. _[My Mother Was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1950423W/My_Mother_Was_a_Computer)_. U Chicago P, 2005. (288 pp. workUnit1.)
9. Hayot, Eric. _[Information: A Reader](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL21696531W/Information_-_a_Reader)_. Columbia UP, 2021. (408 pp. workUnit1 + workUnit1.)
10. Lee, Maurie S. _[Overwhelmed: Literature, Aesthetics, and the Nineteenth-Century Information Revolution](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL21212512W/Overwhelmed)_. Princeton UP, 2019. (277 pp. workUnit1.) ([[lee-overwhelmed|My public notes]].)
11. Purdon, James. _[Modernist Informatics: Literature, Information, and the State](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL21114005W/Modernist_Informatics)_. Oxford UP, 2016. (224 pp. workUnit1.) ([[purdon-modernist-informatics|My public notes]].)
12. Richards, Thomas. _[The Imperial Archive: Knowledge and the Fantasy of Empire](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2637775W/The_imperial_archive)_. Verso, 1993. (179 pp. workUnit1.)
13. Tucker, Jeffrey Allen. _[A Sense of Wonder: Samuel R. Delany, Race, Identity, and Difference](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5701906W/A_sense_of_wonder)_. Wesleyan UP, 2004. (344 pp., workUnit1.)

### Theory Articles
#### Batch One (workUnit1)

1. Budd, John M. [“Instances of Ideology in Discursive Practice: Implications for Library and Information Science.”](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4309562) _The Library Quarterly_ vol 71, no 4, 2001, pp. 498–517. _JSTOR_. (20 pp.)
2. Colatrella, Carol. [“Information in the Novel and the Novel as Information System: Charles Dickens’s ‘Little Dorrit’ and Margaret Drabble’s ‘Radiant Way’ Trilogy.”](https://www.jstor.org/stable/43737492) _Information & Culture_ vol. 50, no. 3, 2015, pp. 339–371. _JSTOR_. (33 pp.)
3. Daston, Lorraine. “Objectivity and the Escape from Perspective.” _Social Studies of Science_ vol. 22, pp. 597–618. _SAGE_. (21 pp.)
4. Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” pp. 149-–181. _Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature_. Routledge, 1991. (32 pp.)
5. ———. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.” p. 183–201. _Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature_. Routledge, 1991. (18 pp.)
4. Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” pp. 149-–181. _[Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3257500W/Simians_cyborgs_and_women)_. Routledge, 1991. (32 pp.)
5. ———. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.” p. 183–201. _[Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3257500W/Simians_cyborgs_and_women)_. Routledge, 1991. (18 pp.)

#### Batch Two (workUnit1)

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It is 35 “work units” long (countable by searching “work Unit1” without a space), as defined in my [program's](https://www.isu.edu/english/graduate-programs/phd-in-english-and-the-teaching-of-english/) PhD Program [Handbook](https://www.isu.edu/media/libraries/english/PhD-Program-Handbook.pdf).

Book title links go to OpenLibrary's listings, and article title links go to the most open article versions I can find.

## Rationale

Spanning from 1922 to 1998, the works on this list represent a range of modernist and postmodernist genres. Among them are satirical novels (_Babbitt_), protest novels (_Native Son_), experimental novels (the _U.S.A._ trilogy), science fiction television with postmodern elements (_Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_), and memoirs (_Close to the Knives_). In putting together the list, the themes of the built environment and spatial/social mobility emerged. Agency over one’s own body and the ability to traverse space unimpeded by social restrictions—or the marked lack thereof—appears throughout all of these works. These themes lead to the inclusion of some of the critical works, such as Jurca’s, Miller’s, Rothstein’s, and Soja’s work. A similar theme arose through the tension between ensemble works and novels that hew toward a single character’s perspective, closer to a traditional bildungsroman. For instance, the _U.S.A._ trilogy, _Generation X_, and _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_ do not strongly present a single character’s perspective. Other works, such as _Babbitt_, _Native Son_, _If He Hollers, Let Him Go_, _Kindred_, and _Close to the Knives_, revolve far more clearly around the experiences of a single character. The ways that racialized and/or minoritized authors write about their experiences informed the inclusion of the less “literary” critical works such as those by Appiah, Gross, Lipsitz, and Mills.
Spanning from 1922 to 1998, the works on this list represent a range of modernist and postmodernist genres. Among them are satirical novels (_Babbitt_), protest novels (_Native Son_), experimental novels (the _U.S.A._ trilogy), science fiction television with postmodern elements (_Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_), and memoirs (_Close to the Knives_).

In putting together the list, the themes of the built environment and spatial/social mobility emerged. Agency over one’s own body and the ability to traverse space unimpeded by social restrictions—or the marked lack thereof—appears throughout all of these works. These themes lead to the inclusion of some of the critical works, such as Jurca’s, Miller’s, Rothstein’s, and Soja’s work. A similar theme arose through the tension between ensemble works and novels that hew toward a single character’s perspective, closer to a traditional bildungsroman. For instance, the _U.S.A._ trilogy, _Generation X_, and _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_ do not strongly present a single character’s perspective. Other works, such as _Babbitt_, _Native Son_, _If He Hollers, Let Him Go_, _Kindred_, and _Close to the Knives_, revolve far more clearly around the experiences of a single character. The ways that racialized and/or minoritized authors write about their experiences informed the inclusion of the less “literary” critical works such as those by Appiah, Gross, Lipsitz, and Mills.

## Fiction

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