The Bladerunner
Encyclopedia
The novel The Bladerunner (also published as The Blade Runner) is a 1974 science fiction
novel by Alan E. Nourse
.
who runs "blades" for Doc (Doctor John Long) as part of an illegal black market for medical services. The setting is a society where free, comprehensive medical treatment is available for anyone so long as they qualify for treatment under the Eugenics
Laws. Preconditions for medical care include sterilization, and no legitimate medical care is available for anyone who does not qualify or does not wish to undergo the sterilization procedure (including children over the age of five). These conditions have created illegal medical services in which bladerunners supply black market medical supplies for underground practitioners, who generally go out at night to see patients and perform surgery. As an epidemic breaks out among the underclass, Billy must save the city from the plague hitting the rest of the city as well.
(which was otherwise unrelated beyond the common element of a dystopia
n future). Both of the earlier works use the term "bladerunner" to describe black market suppliers of items needed for medical care.
In 1979 William S. Burroughs
was commissioned to write a story treatment for a possible film adaptation. This treatment was published as the novella
Blade Runner (a movie)
. Burroughs acknowledged the Nourse novel as a source, and prominently set a mutated virus and right-wing politics in the year 1999.
No film was produced from it, but Hampton Fancher
, a screenwriter for the 1982 film (based on science fiction
author Philip K. Dick
's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
), had a copy, and he suggested the title Blade Runner as one more tantalizing than the successive earlier working titles, "Android" and "Dangerous Days". Within the film, the phrase appears as an informal term for the personnel of the police "Rep-Detect" division, i.e. those whose duties are to track down and destroy escaped "replicants," or androids.
Ridley Scott
bought any rights to the title "Blade Runner" that might have arisen from either the Nourse novel or the Burroughs story treatment.
Strangely enough, this concept of black market medical items made its way into Impostor
, a 2002 film based on a totally different PKD short story
, as a subplot.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by Alan E. Nourse
Alan E. Nourse
Alan Edward Nourse was an American science fiction author and physician. He wrote both juvenile and adult science fiction, as well as nonfiction works about medicine and science. His SF works generally focused on medicine and/or psionics.-Biography:Alan Nourse was born August 11, 1928 to...
.
Plot
The novel's protagonist is Billy Gimp, a man with a club footClub foot
A club foot, or congenital talipes equinovarus , is a congenital deformity involving one foot or both. The affected foot appears rotated internally at the ankle. TEV is classified into 2 groups: Postural TEV or Structural TEV....
who runs "blades" for Doc (Doctor John Long) as part of an illegal black market for medical services. The setting is a society where free, comprehensive medical treatment is available for anyone so long as they qualify for treatment under the Eugenics
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
Laws. Preconditions for medical care include sterilization, and no legitimate medical care is available for anyone who does not qualify or does not wish to undergo the sterilization procedure (including children over the age of five). These conditions have created illegal medical services in which bladerunners supply black market medical supplies for underground practitioners, who generally go out at night to see patients and perform surgery. As an epidemic breaks out among the underclass, Billy must save the city from the plague hitting the rest of the city as well.
Connection to the film Blade Runner
The book is a version of a common science-fiction plot, which suggested the title of the 1982 science-fiction film Blade RunnerBlade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
(which was otherwise unrelated beyond the common element of a dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
n future). Both of the earlier works use the term "bladerunner" to describe black market suppliers of items needed for medical care.
In 1979 William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
was commissioned to write a story treatment for a possible film adaptation. This treatment was published as the novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
Blade Runner (a movie)
Blade Runner (a movie)
Blade Runner is a science fiction novella by Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs, first published in 1979. The novella began as a story treatment for a proposed film adaptation of The Bladerunner, a novel by Alan E. Nourse...
. Burroughs acknowledged the Nourse novel as a source, and prominently set a mutated virus and right-wing politics in the year 1999.
No film was produced from it, but Hampton Fancher
Hampton Fancher
Hampton Fancher is a former actor who became a producer and screenwriter in the late 1970s. Fancher was born to a Mexican mother and an American father in East Los Angeles, California, US. At 15, he ran away to Spain to become a flamenco dancer and renamed himself Mario Montejo. He was married...
, a screenwriter for the 1982 film (based on science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
author Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick first published in 1968. The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter of androids, while the secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-normal intelligence who befriends some of the...
), had a copy, and he suggested the title Blade Runner as one more tantalizing than the successive earlier working titles, "Android" and "Dangerous Days". Within the film, the phrase appears as an informal term for the personnel of the police "Rep-Detect" division, i.e. those whose duties are to track down and destroy escaped "replicants," or androids.
Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
bought any rights to the title "Blade Runner" that might have arisen from either the Nourse novel or the Burroughs story treatment.
Strangely enough, this concept of black market medical items made its way into Impostor
Impostor (film)
Impostor is a 2002 American science fiction film based upon a short story of the same name, written by Philip K. Dick in 1953.-Plot:The movie takes place in the year 2079. Forty-five years earlier, Earth was attacked by a hostile alien civilization from Alpha Centauri...
, a 2002 film based on a totally different PKD short story
Impostor (short story)
"Impostor" is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick. It was first published in Astounding magazine in June, 1953. Impostor, a feature film based on the story, was released in 2002 starring Gary Sinise, Madeleine Stowe and Vincent D'Onofrio...
, as a subplot.