From: jjonsson@alexandria.lib.utah.edu
Subject: Re: Holden's Eyes (long essay on EYES)
Organization: Marriott Library, University of Utah
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 19:20:49 GMT

In article <KFHQBMMP@cc.swarthmore.edu> hirai@cc.swarthmore.edu (Eiji Hirai) writes:

>bd@fluent@dartmouth.EDU (Brice Dowaliby) writes:
>> if replicant eyes glowed and
>> human eyes didn't, what do you need the Voight-Kampf test for?

>steinman@me.utoronto.ca (David Steinman) writes:
>> the questions are designed to elicit an "unconscious" or
>> preprogrammed response unique to replicants
>> glowing.

>According to Holden at his interview with Leon, and according to Tyrell when
>he walks in to the movie for the first time, the questions are supposed to
>evoke an emotional response.  The VK test measures dilations of the pupil
>and blush response.  In the P. K. Dick novel (and also from thinking about
>the movie), the questions are supposed to elicit empathy for animal
>suffering.  That's why there are so many questions relating to animals.

>You'll also notice that there's an emphasis in the movie on the preciousness
>of "real" animals.  The owl in Tyrell's penthouse is fake.  Zhora's snake is
>fake.  "If I could afford a real snake, do you think I'd be working here?"

>Going back to the question of "why do eyes glow?"  The obvious question is,
>"why eyes?  Why not hands or twitches of the mouth.  Well, Ridley Scott puts
>a lot of emphasis on the eys, not just for glowing replicant eyes.  It's a
>unifying theme throughout the movie.

>Deckard's eye fills the entire screen at the start of the movie.  Leon and
>Roy visit the eye factory.  The VK test looks at the eyes.  Roy plays with
>glass eyeballs when talking to Sebastian.  Tyrell is killed by poking out
>his eyes.

>The last one is important.  Eyes aren't just prevalent.  They're
>symbolically equivalent to life.  If you have fake eyes, then you are a fake
>human.  If you lose your eyes, then you die.  Roy's death speech emphasizes
>that what he saw through his eyes will be gone when he dies.

>(from memory - don't post stupid followups to correct them)
>"If you could see what I've seen with my eyes." - Roy talking to Sebastian
>at the eye factory

>"I've seen attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.  I've seen sea
>beams glitter under the Tennhauser gates.  All these memories will be lost,
>like tears in rain."  - Roy's death speech

>The loss of sight is the loss of life.

>This also means a lot to a moviemaker like Ridley Scott whose main outlet of
>creativity and livelihood is through the visual medium.  In fact, Ridley
>Scott is noted above all else for the lush scenary and visual feasts of his
>movies.

>So it ain't just nifty glowing movie effects.  It's much more important than
>that.

Why is this? Because the eyes are the window on the soul. Presumably, 
those with artificial eyes, have no soul? Or do they? Do they have a 
luminescent soul, which has become greater than the soulless killers who 
created them.

I could go on. . .


Jeff Jonsson
Marriott Library System Support, University of Utah.
==============================================================================
--"It's the sound of the secret--  jjonsson@alexandria.lib.utah.edu
-- machinery at the center of  --  jjonsson@utahlib.bitnet
-- the world." -Cliff Steele   --  "You talkin' to me?"
Organization: Senior, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA