The End of the World with Michael and Stu
The Apocalypse is Everywhere. The End of the World with Michael and Stu is a (hopefully) insightful and (hopefully) humorous exploration of the rise of apocalyptic news, apocalyptic thinking and apocalyptic culture. Each week, we’ll be looking at a work of art, a piece of media, or an historical event related to the (hopefully not) impending End of the World.
The End of the World with Michael and Stu
66: I Cursed the Gloom that Set Upon Us
This week we are discussing Ridley Scott's 1982 classic sci-fi noir Blade Runner. While we praise the visual depiction of a post-nuclear-war American city, we both found the plot somewhat difficult to hook into, so to speak. While the essential examination of the question of humanity, and what it would mean for an android to achieve a fully realized humanity, we both had some issues with the way the film attempted to raise this issue. Stu contrasts this with the novel on which the film is based, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which we will be returning to for a full treatment sometime soon.
We open the episode going over the recent massive blackouts in Spain and Portugal; another omen of the impending end of the world? Perhaps!
This episode contains spoilers for Blade Runner.
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