Essay Database

Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" are both predominantly science fiction texts, which represent concerns for humanity in the wild. Conversely, these dystopian texts have been composed in largely varying social, cultural and historical contexts, producing differing themes for both the composer and responder. Ultimately, changes in context affect the composer's implicit beliefs as to whether or not the current values of society will result in the marginalisation or complete destruction …

…and the replicants of Blade Runner, designed to serve humans, have become "more human than human", with Roy evolving into a ubermensch. Science has become greater than that which created it. Essentially these texts engender a concern for humanity's relationship with the natural world. Both are propelled by their context into a repulsively artificial or grossly polluted world where the quality and importance of this relationship are overridden by man's desire for power and stability.