"Daniel X"~ Chapters 4-8 Summary

Allison LeBel

"Daniel X"

James Paterson 

Pages read: from pg. 84 to pg. 157

    Daniel is taken to the bridge as the ship comes to Alpar Nok, another planet very similar to Earth; it is Daniel's home world, only it has been taken over by Seth and his henchmen, killing or impoverishing most of the inhabitants. Daniel escapes from a landing party and flees to under the wreckage, where the few survivors live. He meets his grandmother, Blaleen, who removes the bullet from his stomach and allows him to rest and heal at her house. After regaining his strength, Daniel goes after Seth again and creates a thousand summoned soldiers, but they eventually fight one-on-one. Daniel misquotes Homer's Iliad by comparing this fight to Hector and Achilles rather than Paris and Menelaus. During the fight, Daniel turns into a tick and enters Seth's head via his ear. He transforms into an elephant inside Seth's head, killing him instantly. Daniel leaves Alpar Nok and returns to Earth, as it is his duty to defend it.

    From the day that his parents were brutally murdered at the age of three, Daniel X has been forced to make his own way in a dark and unforgiving world with little knowledge about his family or where he came from, and faced with an uncertain future and a mission beyond anyone’s imagining. You see, Daniel’s mother and father were actually Alien Hunters, working their way through The List of Alien Outlaws hiding on Earth.
    Blessed with super abilities—like being able to manipulate objects and animals with his mind or to recreate himself in any shape he chooses—Daniel has taken up the mantle of his parents, and has dedicated his life to eradicating the Alien Outlaws. His ultimate aim is to exact revenge against the number one alien on The List—his parents’ murderer. But first he must target the others, each more sinister and gruesome than the last…

"Daniel X" ~ Chapter 2 and 3 Summaries

Allison LeBel

"Daniel X"

James Paterson 

Pages read: from pg. 26 to pg. 84

     Daniel goes back to school and, so as not to seem too smart, purposely flunks a History test. He literallyruns into Phoebe after the test. Phoebe has something to tell Daniel. She feels terrible for keeping secret the reason she had changed schools. A few months before, Phoebe's sister, Allison, had been abducted without a trace off of her own driveway. Daniel suspects it to be the work of Seth. On his way out of the school, he is attacked by some of Seth's henchmen. After incapacitating them, Daniel hurries home, where he finds his mom—only he didn't intentionally create her; he speculates he created her from his subconscious.

    Later that day, Phoebe calls Daniel to a coffee shop and gives him Allison's case file, which has details of other abductions that form a pattern, which Daniel describes as forming "an almost-perfect connect-the-dots circle with Malibu at its center." After his house is compromised (again), Daniel feels it is unsafe to return, so he goes to spend the night with Phoebe. They plot to go to Malibu the following day to investigate Allison's disappearance. Phoebe lets him sleep in the closet to avoid detection from her parents.

    The next morning, Daniel awakens to find Phoebe missing. He finds Phoebe near the school, but something is wrong. He talks to her, and she transforms, revealing herself to have been Ergent Seth in disguise all along. Seth deactivates Daniel's powers, shoots him in the stomach, and drags him through the desert and into a spaceship. The ship flies away from Earth. Daniel is put into a cell for the duration of the trip. He summons his friends, andthey begin reconnaissance. During a poker game with his "family," Daniel figures out that his mother had been pregnant when she was killed, which also killed the unborn Pork Chop.

"Daniel X" ~ Chapter One: Game Over

Allison LeBel

"Daniel X"

James Paterson 

Pages read: from pg. 1  to pg. 25

    Daniel X, who has no other last name, has the best superpower ever: The power to create. He can create real objects, including people, with only his mind. In addition, he has super-speed (he outran a truck travelling at 100 miles per hour) and super-strength (he can flip a car in a somersault). He is also granted an extra long memory.When he was 3 years old, Daniel's parents were brutally murdered by a praying mantis-like alien called the Prayer, who came in search of the List of Alien Outlaws on Earth. When Daniel's parents were about to hand it over, the Prayer killed them. Daniel survived only by transforming into a tick and grasping onto the Prayer's dreadlock hair as he fled from the burning house. After he lost his grip on the Prayer and fell off, Daniel vowed to kill the Prayer for the death of his parents, and returned to the site when he was 13 to recover the List. Twelve years after the murder of his parents, fifteen-year-old Daniel X has taken up the task of his parents as Defender of Earth. In the sewers of Portland, Oregon, he faces and defeats number 19 on the List, Orkng Jllfgna, in hopes of working his way up to number 1: The Prayer. Later, Daniel is confronted by the Portland Runaway Juvenile Unit, and he escapes with the help of his "parents" whom he conjured up using his powers. He then leaves to go to Los Angeles in search of number 6 on his List, a shape-shifting alien named Ergent Seth who resides in Malibu.

   On his way to LA, he confronts an agent of Seth's who has a message for Daniel: Don't go to LA. Daniel ignores his command and continues on toward LA. He spends that night in the woods, camping with the "friends" he created: Joe, a motor-mouth and competitive eater; Willy, a stocky and headstrong fighter; Emma, a compassionate environmentalist; and Dana, the love of Daniel's life. The next day, Daniel arrives in LA. With the help of his parents and "sister" Pork Chop (Brenda), he rents a house. His parents warn him not to go after Seth, because he has never gone after an alien in the Top 10. That night, while he is asleep, Daniel is haunted by one of the many vivid nightmares that he has, in which the Prayer warns him not to go after Seth because the Prayer wants to get him. 

   The next day, Daniel decides to go to school, a first in Daniel's life; because of his power to telepathically access human knowledge, school was never necessary. At the end of the day, he bumps into Phoebe Cook, who is also new to the school. He walks her home and, following ideas from her mind, asks her out on a date. Daniel decides to search the city for clues about the whereabouts of Seth, and stumbles in upon a child-slave and drug-dealing operation. He goes to the one in charge of the operation (who is not Seth, but may be a lackey of his) and wipes his mind and makes him believe he is a Pentecostal preacher. The following day after school, Daniel walks Phoebe to his house, which he finds destroyed by two alien cats. The cats are regents of Seth's, and warn Daniel to leave LA. After attacking him, they flee. Soon after, he is contacted by Seth, who again warns Daniel to leave LA and never come back, or Seth is going to kill him.

Chapters 18 to the End of the Book

Allison LeBel

March 19, 2012

Blade Runner

Philip H. Dick

Pages read: from pg. 200 to End 


     Chapter 18 opens when Pris wakes up in Sebastian's apartment. She talks to him about his


 strange skin condition, "Methuselah Syndrome" which makes him age quickly, even though is 


only 25. Suddenly, Roy appears. He shares the news that Zhora and Leon are both retired. Roy 


and Pris both reveal to Sebastian that they are Nexus-6s and they need to get "help" for Pris or 


she'll die. Pris proves to Sebastian that she's artificial by grabbing an egg from boiling water 


and tossing it to Sebastian, who finds it too hot to handle. Roy notices that Sebastian plays 


chess and asks him about his opponent, who is Tyrell himself. Roy convinces Sebastian to use 


his connection to Tyrell to arrange a personal meeting. Sebastian reluctantly agrees.

    Roy and Sebastian go to Tyrell's pyramidal home and take an elevator to his penthouse. 

They are stopped as a security measure but are allowed to proceed when Sebastian voices 

two moves to Tyrell himself that win the chess match they'd been playing; the move is given to 

him by Roy. In Tyrell's bedchamber, Roy confronts his master, saying specifically he wants an 

extension of his short lifespan and calls Tyrell "father". (In the 1982 Theatrical and 1992 

Director's editions, Roy says "fucker" in place of father.) Tyrell explains that artificial beings like 

Roy have been permanently designed not to live longer than their lifespan and that no known 

biological process has yet been able to change that. Roy becomes more despondent, telling 

Tyrell he's done "questionable things". Tyrell patronizes him, saying he's also accomplished 

great things. Roy, still despondent, first kisses Tyrell, then begins to crush his skull, poking his 

thumbs through his master's eyes. Tyrell falls dead and a horrified Sebastian, unable to 

escape, is killed by Roy.

   Deckard is seen in his car in the sector where JF Sebastian lives. He receives a report from 

Bryant who tells him that Tyrell is dead and Sebastian has also been found dead at the same 

scene. Deckard places a call to Sebastian's apartment claiming to be a friend. Pris answers 

the call but hangs up. Deckard enters Sebastian's apartment and searches for evidence or 

leads. While doing so, he is surprised by a disguised Pris, who assaults him using acrobatics. 

As she performs a series of back flips to finish Deckard off, he shoots her through the 

abdomen. She twitches violently for a few moments before Deckard shoots her twice more and 

finally kills her.

   Deckard is next surprised by Roy, who moves too fast for Deckard to shoot. Roy stalks 

Deckard after discovering that Pris is dead, seizing Deckard's hand through a wall and 

deliberately dislocating and breaking two of his fingers. Deckard escapes to an upper floor in 

the building but is easily found by Roy, who is already showing signs of his own impending 

death - he stabs himself through the hand with a large nail to temporarily stabilize his condition. 

Deckard seizes an opportunity to beat Roy with a large pipe but cannot incapacitate Roy, 

who's superhuman strength is too much for Deckard. Deckard eventually escapes to the roof 

and tries to jump to another roof across the street. He nearly plummets, hanging on by one 

hand. Roy makes the jump quite easily and peers over the ledge at Deckard, asking him "Quite 

an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave." Deckard slips and Roy 

catches him, dragging him to safety. Roy sits down near him, holding a dove he'd found on the 

other roof and tells Deckard that he's seen more in his short life than most humans would see in 

a full lifetime. Roy is saddened by the idea that all the memories he's acquired will lost "like 

tears in rain." As he finally dies, the dove in his hand flies off. In the original theatrical version 

(1982) the rain has stopped and the dove flies toward a sunny sky. In the Final Cut (2007) the 

rain continues and the dove flies toward an overcast sky.

    Gaff meets Deckard on the roof and throws his pistol back to him. He congratulates Deckard 

on completing his investigation; Deckard tells him he's officially finished with hunting replicants. 

As Gaff walks away, he yells back "It's too bad she won't live, but then again who does?", 

referring to Rachel.

   Deckard returns to his apartment and finds Rachel, not knowing immediately if she's alive or

 dead. Much to his relief, she wakes up. A few minutes later, she is dressed and Deckard, after 

checking the lobby outside his apartment, motions for her to join him in the elevator. On the 

floor of the lobby is a small origami unicorn, left there by Gaff. Deckard studies it for a moment, 

then crushes it in his hand. In the Final Cut and Director's (1992) editions, the film ends when 

the elevator doors close. In the Theatrical edition, Deckard and Rachel are shown driving into a 

mountainous area and Deckard explains in voiceover that Rachel may have a longer lifespan 

than any other Nexus-6.

Chapters 11-17

Allison LeBel

March 19, 2012

Blade Runner

Philip H. Dick

Pages read: page 119 to page 200 Chapters 11-17

 

     Deckard takes Leon's stack of photos home with him. He is surprised by Rachel in the elevator. Deckard, seemingly feeling betrayed, is quite rude to Rachel, who was unable to talk to Tyrell himself after she found out she is a replicate. Though Rachel shows Deckard a picture of herself with her mother, Deckard insensitively quashes Rachel's insistence that she has memories. Rachel leaves, extremely hurt. Later, while drinking, Deckard examines old photographs on his piano and dreams of a white unicorn. When he awakes, he examines one of Leon's photos and finds that Zhora was in a back room. Deckard notes that she has a prominent tattoo on her neck of a looped serpent.

     In another part of Los Angeles, a woman walks into an alley and covers herself with waste paper to keep warm. She dozes for a bit until a man approaches her and startles her awake. She runs away, breaking the window of his van, but the man kindly returns one of her bags and she becomes friendly. The woman is revealed to be Pris, one of the Nexus-6s Deckard is pursuing. The man is JF Sebastian, a genetic designer for the Tyrell Corporation & the person Chew told Roy to find. Pris agrees to stay at Sebastian's place where he designs toys and dolls.

     Deckard visits the crowded streets near Chinatown and has a old Asian woman examine the animal scale. Deckard believes it to be from a fish but it's from a snake, and, like most animals of the time period, is artificial. The maker's serial number is also visible, a man named Abdul Ben Hassan, whose shop is right up the street. Deckard confronts Hassan who tells him he'd made a snake for a dancer working at a club owned by Taffy Lewis. Deckard goes to the club and places a quick call to Rachel, apologizing for his insensitivity and asking her if she'd like to join him at the club. Rachel refuses.

     Deckard finds that Zhora is an exotic dancer at the club who uses artificial snakes in her performances. Deckard poses as an irritating private eye investigating abuses by club owners who may spy on female performers. Zhora sees through Deckard's ruse and beats him violently and dashes from the club into the streets. Deckard quickly catches up and chases her until he's able to shoot her. Zhora crashes through several plate glass windows and falls to the street, dead.

     Bryant arrives on the scene and talks to Deckard, congratulating him for finding and retiring Zhora. He tells Deckard that there are four more replicates to retire; Deckard insists that there are only three left. However, Rachel has disappeared and Deckard now has to find her. Deckard spots her a few moments later across the street. As he follows her, he's suddenly grabbed by Leon, who beats him severely. As Leon appears poised to kill Deckard by stabbing his fingers through Deckard's eyes, his forehead explodes; he has been shot by Rachel using Deckard's pistol, which Leon had batted from Deckard's hand a few moments before. Deckard returns to his apartment and Rachel joins him. Deckard appears to be much more sympathetic toward Rachel since she saved him from Leon. When she asks him if he'd hunt & retire her, he tells her no. He gives her a drink and the two play together on Deckard's piano. Deckard becomes more amorous and Rachel rejects his advances. Deckard prevents her from leaving his apartment and the two have sex.

Chapters 3-11

Allison LeBel


"Blade Runner"


Philip K. Dick


Pages read: from 25 to 126




Chapters 3-11
   

Since I last posted I have read and learned so much more about the great Decker and the background information to why he does what he does. We start off with the latest version of replicant technology- which is the Nexus 6 model. Replicants are mostly used as manual laborers in the "off world" colonies out in space. Their advanced nature and tendency towards violence, have forced the replicants to be outlawed on Earth. Specialized police units, "blade runners" are charged with the difficult task of detecting replicants who come to Earth. If found, replicants get executed or "retired." We now know the setting for the story is in Los Angeles, and the date is November, 2019. Los Angeles and the surrounding area have become heavily industrialized, crowded with people and rain falls constantly.
                   At the Tyrell Corporation, a blade runner, Holden is interviewing a new employee using a special device called a Voight-Kampff (VK) analyzer. The machine is designed to detect any physical changes in the test subject in response to questions that are deliberately meant to affect the subject emotionally. After a few questions, the man being tested, Leon, becomes obviously agitated and eventually hostile, shooting Holden- who ends up in the hospital in critical condition. 

                Deckard a former blade runner is eating at a Japanese noodle bar when another man, Gaff, tells him he's under arrest. Deckard tries to ignore the man but eventually agrees to go with him. Gaff flies Deckard to police headquarters and delivers him to his old boss, Bryant. Bryant tells Deckard that a small group of Nexus-6 replicants have come to Earth illegally. Two of them were killed trying to scale a high-voltage security fence outside the Tyrell Corporation. Four have survived; Bryant shows Deckard their files. The leader is Roy Batty, the most advanced of the group. The others are Zhora, Pris and Leon- the replicant who'd shot Holden. Deckard is charged with tracking them down. This is Deckard's big break. In order to keep Iran motivated and happy he must capture them all and save his marriage. Bryant also tells Deckard that the Nexus-6s are believed to be advanced enough that they may have developed emotions, that might make them harder to detect via VK testing. Subsequently, the scientists designed the Nexus-6s to have only a four year lifespan. Bryant sends Deckard to Tyrell Corp's headquarters to test the VK machine on a Nexus-6.
                  Deckard and Gaff fly to Tyrell headquarters. While Deckard awaits Tyrell, he meets Rachel, a beautiful woman who welcomes him and who acts as Tyrell's personal assistant. Tyrell appears and questions Deckard about the Voight-Kampff test, doubting its processes in detecting replicants among humans. Tyrell offers Rachel as a test subject, saying he wants to see a negative test result on a human before providing a replicant. Deckard asks Rachel over 100 test questions until the VK machine finally alerts Deckard that Rachel is actually a replicant. Rachel leaves and Tyrell explains that Rachel is a Nexus-6 and one of the most advanced replicants ever designed. She has been designed to possess memories; however, the memories given Rachel have been culled from Tyrell's nieces or other family members.
                   Deckard's first lead takes him to Leon's apartment. Deckard finds a stack of photographs there, as well as an animal scale. Not far away, Roy Batty is waiting on the street for Leon to return from his apartment. Roy is perturbed but takes Leon with him to a shop called Eye World, owned by a Chinese man, who engineers eyes for replicants for Tyrell. He is confronted in his subzero lab by Roy and Leon, the latter of whom rips open the owner's thermal coat to make it easier for Roy to interrogate him. Roy asks the owner about "inception dates", the date marking a replicant's first activation and beginning of their four year lifespan. The owner, quickly freezing to death (just imagine how painful that would be), desperately tells them that they need to talk to Tyrell about increasing their life spans. 

                  I am confused with how the Nexus-6 actually works... I understand that there are advanced and under-advanced models but I have not grasped exactly what each model does. Also, Deckard is a very confused man. He tries to make choices that will help him improve his marriage and keep Iran happy, when in reality he's only happy because his Penfield is set so high, that he cannot be unhappy.

Chapters 1 and 2

Allison LeBel


"Blade Runner"


Philip K. Dick


Pages read: from 1 to 24



           

Chapters 1 & 2 Combined

    

The main plot of “Blade Runner” follows the protagonist- Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter of androids. The setting of the novel takes place in a “post-apocalyptic” near future, where Earth and its populations have been damaged greatly by a Nuclear War-World War Terminus. I quickly made a connection with WWT to WWII in the 1940’s. As a result of this nuclear war, majority of the animals inhabited on Earth are endangered or extinct, due to extreme radiation poisoning from the war. To own an animal is a sign of status. Surprisingly, what is emphasized more than the status is the empathic emotions humans experience towards an animal. Deckard has been keeping a secret from the rest of his building, his sheep is not real- it is electronic. Deckard confides in his neighbor and friend Bill Barbour to buy one of his two horses. It is while they are discussing a deal that Deckard lets out the real reason he wants to buy the horse. He wants to buy it because he fears that other will soon notice the sheep is not real and will be kicked out of the building. Barbour never decides if he will sell the horse or not because Deckard leaves abruptly for he is already late for work- due to his wife Iran.

Earlier that morning Deckard wakes to a mood, irritate wife. Could you imagine waking up in the morning grouchy and tired, but then with a turn of a dial you are instantly awake and satisfied, ready to start your day? Rick Deckard (protagonist) did exactly that. Trying to influence wife Iran to do the same; he failed. Although Deckard and his wife have no “real” feels they can set their Penfields to a certain emotion. Iran is depressed and chooses to stay on that setting as along as possible through out the day. Deckard is worried that she will permanently stay in that setting forever and never love him again. He blames himself because he cannot provide the life she wants.

“You set your Penfield too weak,” he said to her. “I’ll reset it and you’ll be awake.” “Keep your hand off my settings.” Her voice held bitter sharpness. “I don’t want to be awake.”(Dick 1)

            Both Rick and his wife are both stimulating characters. As mysterious as their motives are, they are very obvious at the same time. Rick is a little bit harder to figure out. He wants to please his wife but at the same time he is so frustrated that he wants to give up on her. Iran always has a sarcastic or negative attitude. She would rather sit around and mope all day than try and make her situation better. I understand why some find it difficult mask how you truly feel, because it is lying to your self, but I feel faking a smile is better than moping. When you fake something you start to believe it, so why not believe you can be happy? I am interested in seeing if Iran’s attitudes changes at all through the book.