"It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does?" - Gaff
I'm going to examine themes of birth and death in Blade Runner (1982) as they relate to the sublime. These themes are shared with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Indeed, you can view Blade Runner as a meditation on Frankenstein. Shelley was preoccupied with the sublime, a sometimes physical, sometimes metaphysical representation of the limitations of mankind.
The classic example of the sublime is Mont Blanc, but in a pinch, Victor's monster or Roy Batty will do. Though the enormity of a mountain demonstrably inspires awe leading to terror, coming to grips with your own mortality as a living being that you created squeezes out your eyeballs is, perhaps, the best example of a sublime moment.
Let's take a few steps back. Consider that in Blade Runner, J.F. Sebastian, one of the chief architects of the Nexus-6 replicants, suffers from Methuselah Syndrome. Sebastian is only 25, but his body physically ages must faster--he looks twice his age. Such a disease would be tragic for anyone, but the tragedy is heightened when it affects a genius mind so early in life. In Sebastian's deteriorating state, he receives a visit from the very beings that he helped create. So, Sebastian gets his sublime moment in various ways. His own poor health is a metaphysical Mont Blanc and Roy Batty a living, breathing version of the sublime.
Of course, between Sebastian and the Nexus-6 replicants, something of the creator is in the creation. The replicants suffer from a similar problem as J.F., constructed with a short life span. That short life span functions as a built-in security measure to ensure that the powerful and intelligent replicants can't sustain a revolution against humans.
The replicants escaped an off-world colony to track down Tyrell and demand more life. But once tracked down, the creator doesn't have more life to give, and so he dies at his creation's hands.
The exchange between Roy Batty and Tyrell riffs on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a book that explores the unconscious horrors affecting the psyche of a mother that loses her baby, whether in utero, during childbirth, or shortly thereafter. Shelley began writing Frankenstein shortly after losing a child to stillbirth. The womb is supposed to give life. It is an assurance that something of ourselves will continue into the future even once we're gone. Death produced in the womb replaces joy with terror. It steals meaning from life.
The creation of Frankenstein's animated being signifies the birthing of death. Frankenstein gives life to the thing that steals his own vitality, kills all those around him that he loves. And, what's more, the creation desires that Victor creates a wife for him to ensure the survival of the strange species. Victor does not grant his creation this wish. He gives him his own life only, a life created by piecing together dead things.
So, too Tyrell gives existence to his creations but not life, not the life they would choose or, even, the time to choose it. Tyrell gives a life marked by certain death.
Now, consider that our hero in Blade Runner, Deckard, is probably a replicant, but his livelihood comes from executing runaway replicants. He sustains himself by ensuring that others die. Like Victor's monster, his life is owed to death.
Deckard is saved rather early in Blade Runner. Had Rachael not shot Leon Kowalski, Deckard would have met his own proverbial maker. Rachael later becomes Deckard's love interest. So she both saves his life and offers him life with increased emotional and social depth, more than mere dreams of electric sheep.
Deckard and the replicants are ever on the edge of the blade, only a step or a fingerhold from death. Recall the image of Deckard hanging by broken fingers from a ledge. Deckard's broken fingers serve as a representative image of bodies of replicants made to fail. The broken fingers can't hang on just like the bodies won't live. Like all the other characters in Blade Runner, Deckard is always faced with the sublime.
I'm going to examine themes of birth and death in Blade Runner (1982) as they relate to the sublime. These themes are shared with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Indeed, you can view Blade Runner as a meditation on Frankenstein. Shelley was preoccupied with the sublime, a sometimes physical, sometimes metaphysical representation of the limitations of mankind.
Roy Batty
The classic example of the sublime is Mont Blanc, but in a pinch, Victor's monster or Roy Batty will do. Though the enormity of a mountain demonstrably inspires awe leading to terror, coming to grips with your own mortality as a living being that you created squeezes out your eyeballs is, perhaps, the best example of a sublime moment.
J.F. Sebastian
Let's take a few steps back. Consider that in Blade Runner, J.F. Sebastian, one of the chief architects of the Nexus-6 replicants, suffers from Methuselah Syndrome. Sebastian is only 25, but his body physically ages must faster--he looks twice his age. Such a disease would be tragic for anyone, but the tragedy is heightened when it affects a genius mind so early in life. In Sebastian's deteriorating state, he receives a visit from the very beings that he helped create. So, Sebastian gets his sublime moment in various ways. His own poor health is a metaphysical Mont Blanc and Roy Batty a living, breathing version of the sublime.
Of course, between Sebastian and the Nexus-6 replicants, something of the creator is in the creation. The replicants suffer from a similar problem as J.F., constructed with a short life span. That short life span functions as a built-in security measure to ensure that the powerful and intelligent replicants can't sustain a revolution against humans.
Tyrell
The replicants escaped an off-world colony to track down Tyrell and demand more life. But once tracked down, the creator doesn't have more life to give, and so he dies at his creation's hands.
The exchange between Roy Batty and Tyrell riffs on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a book that explores the unconscious horrors affecting the psyche of a mother that loses her baby, whether in utero, during childbirth, or shortly thereafter. Shelley began writing Frankenstein shortly after losing a child to stillbirth. The womb is supposed to give life. It is an assurance that something of ourselves will continue into the future even once we're gone. Death produced in the womb replaces joy with terror. It steals meaning from life.
The Creation Curse
The creation of Frankenstein's animated being signifies the birthing of death. Frankenstein gives life to the thing that steals his own vitality, kills all those around him that he loves. And, what's more, the creation desires that Victor creates a wife for him to ensure the survival of the strange species. Victor does not grant his creation this wish. He gives him his own life only, a life created by piecing together dead things.
So, too Tyrell gives existence to his creations but not life, not the life they would choose or, even, the time to choose it. Tyrell gives a life marked by certain death.
Deckard
Now, consider that our hero in Blade Runner, Deckard, is probably a replicant, but his livelihood comes from executing runaway replicants. He sustains himself by ensuring that others die. Like Victor's monster, his life is owed to death.
Rachael
Deckard is saved rather early in Blade Runner. Had Rachael not shot Leon Kowalski, Deckard would have met his own proverbial maker. Rachael later becomes Deckard's love interest. So she both saves his life and offers him life with increased emotional and social depth, more than mere dreams of electric sheep.
Deckard and the replicants are ever on the edge of the blade, only a step or a fingerhold from death. Recall the image of Deckard hanging by broken fingers from a ledge. Deckard's broken fingers serve as a representative image of bodies of replicants made to fail. The broken fingers can't hang on just like the bodies won't live. Like all the other characters in Blade Runner, Deckard is always faced with the sublime.
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