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Comparing Hitchcock And Psycho By Alfred Hitchcock

Decent Essays

Art, the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form, to produce works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power comes in many different forms. From literature to architecture or from film to design, art can be defined, redefined, imagined, reimagined, shaped or reshaped to fit the customs, morals, beliefs, interest and ideologies of any given group. The well known quote “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” comes to mind when one discusses art and the many different forms the subject can take seeing as how it is a topic that is continuously changing. Furthermore, many excellent forms of art that exist in our world are influenced or derive from other forms of art …show more content…

A genre convention can simply be defined as the details that allow us as a reader or viewer to distinguish a selected pieces genre. For example, the magic spells, castles and dragons featured in the Harry Potter series allow us to identify it as a part of the fantasy genre while the murder, blood and butcher knife featured in the infamous film Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock allow us to identify it as a part of the horror genre. After reading and watching both the novel and film I recognized they both shared characteristics of a singular Science Fiction genre, but overall both pieces could be categorized into separate genres. I identified “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” as a dystopian specific science fiction genre more so than I did with Blade Runner which I found to have more of a film noir feel to it. Furthermore, the novel also has a more ecological theme surrounding it that I believe the film did not put enough emphasis on. In the novel we discover how nuclear war destroyed the earth which forced the majority of humans to leave the planet and look for a home elsewhere and for also causing mass extinction, making most animals gone forever. Also, it is illustrated in the film that the atmosphere lacks dust while in the novel, dust is present and is radioactive which requires male characters in the novel to wear lead …show more content…

Right off the bat the exclusion of the Penfield Mood Organ, empathy box and Mercerism was questionable and honestly disappointing since each of these played an important role in the overall plot of Dick’s novel. The Penfield Mood Organ is a futuristic device that allows the user to select the mood they which to possess and I was disappointed it was not featured in the film because I believe Dick featured it in his novel to convey dehumanization and how in a story of androids even the human characters share similar features. The Empathy Box was another important futuristic device that was omitted from the film which allows a group of people to empathize with a single person through the same exact emotions that are those of Wilbur Mercer, a messianic figure in the story. Like the Penfield Mood Organ, the Empathy Box was also used to convey dehumanization and put an emphasis on the importance of dehumanization and the role it played it differentiating and really analyzing the difference the androids and the humans. Finally, another important part of the novel was Mercerism which is a religion in the novel based on the life and teachings of a man named Wilbur Mercer that spread all over Earth and in the space colonies courtesy of the previously discussed empathy boxes. Mercer is never specifically seen as a God per se but certainly a higher up leader and followers known as

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