For example, no kids – in the book if you could have kids, you were supposed to leave Earth for the “Off-World Colonies. Radiation makes you sterile.

Also, Philip makes it rather explicit that Decker is human (but I believe the Director’s cut alludes that he isn’t). And the book makes it very central on “What is human” – replicants who want to be human, who think they are human, and even humans that think they are replicants.

The book also makes the replicants out to be more like what we think of as clones, than androids. But I think the purpose of that was to make the case that people didn’t know if they were human or not – it was hard to find out, and in the end, who cares?

And even more interesting (because it’s so unique) is the *religion* in the book – that you couldn’t go to heaven when you die if you don’t have a real living animal (whether it be a roach or a horse). I have no clue where that would fit in. The only thing I can make from it (along with other books by Mr. Dick) is that he really liked animals.

However, after seeing this film and having the dicussion, I see its greatest connection to gnosticism to be the fact that there were so many different interpretations of the film. Personaly the differing interpretations of other students demonstrated the films connection to gnosticism then the actual film itself.

As you point out, Blade Runner is gnostic (the rain standing in for the Fog of Error); but I don’t think it’s a Valentinian form of gnosticism.

In Valentinus’s “Fragment C”, the model human lies somewhere between the True human in the Platonic sphere and us imperfect humans down here. The model human is a portrait of the Platonic human, but with a portion of the divine realm. For that, the angels are jealous of the model and try to hide it. We could infer that the Demiurge intended to praise the Platonic human, and that he was acting in good faith; rather than intent on making a race of slaves (which seems more Islamic than gnostic, anyhow). This understanding of tiered perfection, with the Demiurge as not evil but also not perfect, is more fully developed by Ptolemy in the Epistle to Flora.

Second, BR doesn’t seem to have any mention of the “book written in the heart”, as seen in On Friends (“Fragment G”) and the Gospel of Truth.

And the world in Valentinus is not a prison; it’s a facade. Valentinus has a concept of “the realm of appearance” and its “nullification” (Gospel of Truth, paraphrased in “Fragment F”), absent from BR. Conversely, the heaven of BR doesn’t lie behind the world, it lies outside the world entirely. I would say The Matrix illustrates a more Valentinian world, although its Creator happens to be a creature of an earlier generation of men.

1) “Knowledge and Morality in Blade Runner and Genesis 2-3″
http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/Vol9No2/KeeferKnowMortal.htm

I really liked the end where Roy is chasing Deckard and they start climbing up floors, I instantly thought of the “Heavens”. It is as if Roy completes his ascension and then achieves salvation and true Gnosis.

Overall it was very interesting. A bit Gruesome at times but I guess that is something that has to accompany Gnostic films.

Regards,
Abdullah

In an interview on Blade Runner, Rutger Hauer talks about how Deckard does not really seem to understand Roy’s character (something that is unusual in Hollywood blockbusters):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laKYg7gy6U8

Another interesting note: several comparisons with Chinatown were brought up in class. James Hong (the eye manufacturer) is actually in Chinatown as Mrs. Mulwray’s head servant. Just thought I would throw that out there.

Cheers,
Joshua
Cheers,
Joshua