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Motifs
Definition of Paradox
A paradox is a figure of speech that seems to contradict itself, but which, upon further examination, contains some kernel of truth or reason. Oscar Wilde's famous declaration that "Life is... read full definition
A paradox is a figure of speech that seems to contradict itself, but which, upon further examination, contains some kernel of truth or reason. Oscar... read full definition
A paradox is a figure of speech that seems to contradict itself, but which, upon further examination, contains some kernel... read full definition
Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis—Home Phone:
In Chapter 10, after killing Polokov, Rick is picked up by someone named "Officer Crams" and taken to the Mission Street Hall of Justice. The entire building is a paradox, and the contradictions keep piling up:
Rick dialed his home phone number [from the police station pay phone]. And stood for what seemed like an eternity, waiting.
A woman’s face appeared on the vidscreen. “Hello,” she said.
It was not Iran. He had never seen the woman before in his life.
He hung up, walked slowly back to the police officer.
Rick can hardly believe his eyes when he arrives at this police station. He has been working with the police in San Francisco for a long time, and he has never seen this beautiful building before. It should not exist, and yet here it is. It boasts an entire staff, regular police station activity, and a payphone Rick is directed to for the one phone call typically allowed anyone who is taken into police custody. Rick's sense of reality is further challenged when he calls home and gets a stranger on the line. His own home phone number is the most basic of personal information. If he has misremembered it or, worse, if he has misremembered his own wife, he may as well begin questioning everything he has ever believed.
Soon, Garland reveals to Rick that he is not losing his mind. This is a fake police station set up by androids who have infiltrated the city. The personnel are all androids, although Garland claims that not all of them know it. The pay phone is set up to reach a specific number, no matter the number that is dialed. Rick has fallen into something between a trap and an elaborate prank. Even after he understands what has happened, the experience needles at him and makes him continue questioning his reality throughout the rest of his work day.
Related Themes:
Chapter 20
Explanation and Analysis—Everything Is True:
In Chapter 20, Rick learns from Iran that Rachael has killed Euphemia the goat. As Rick refuses Iran's invitation to sit with her, he becomes preoccupied with two related paradoxes:
"[...] Won’t you come downstairs and—be with me? There was the most shocking news on TV; Buster Friendly claims that Mercer is a fake. What do you think about that, Rick? Do you think it could be true?”
“Everything is true,” he said. “Everything anybody has ever thought.” He snapped on the car motor.
“Will you be all right?”
“I’ll be all right,” he said, and thought, And I’m going to die. Both those are true, too. He closed the car door, flicked a signal with his hand to Iran, and then swept up into the night sky.
The goat's death stumps Rick. It makes him believe the impossible notion that "everything anybody has ever thought is true." It also makes him reflect on the paradox of his own mortality. How is it possible that he will be "alright" if he is going to die someday?
At the start of the day, Rick had rigid beliefs about the binary distinctions between categories like right and wrong, android and human, and happy and sad. He believed in universal truths against which the meaning of everyone's life was measured. His experiences throughout the workday have broken down his belief system. He just violated his own rules by having sex with the android Rachael, an experience that led him to take mercy on her by letting her go when he "ought" to kill her. She confessed that this was exactly her manipulative plan: once he slept with her, he would be unable to kill her or any of the androids made to look just like her. Now that she has killed Euphemia, he ought to regret letting her go.
But Rick is ambivalent about his actions. It is true that he let a threat slip through the cracks. In this sense, Rachael has won the android vs. human war, maniacally tricking a bounty hunter into treating her like a human. But Rick had no trouble killing Pris, Rachael's doppelganger, proving that his mercy was born at least in part out of a real feeling for Rachael specifically. Rick is terribly lonely and struggles to feel anything without help from the mood organ. The fact that he felt something real for Rachael and took mercy on her is proof that he is still fundamentally more human than her. Both of them have won.
Similarly, Rick realizes that Mercerism is true enough if people have believed in it. It has certainly impacted his marriage with Iran, who has built her sense of morality around it. It is also a sham if that is what people believe now. It was always a sham to those who, like Rick, could never quite feel that that they were trudging up a hill with Wilbur Mercer when they tuned into the empathy machine. And yet in the next chapter, as Rick walks his physical body up a physical hill, he finally has the transcendent experience Iran has always found in the empathy machine. Mercerism thus becomes real to Rick after it has already been debunked. He begins to realize that the meaning of life comes, paradoxically, from how inconsequential it is. That is, everyone's life is meaningful purely because they exist, no matter what they believe or do. Rick will be fine because no matter what he does with his life, he is part of the immortal cycle of life on Earth.
Related Themes:
