The Bladerunner

Alan E. Nourse (1928 - 1992) was a physician and the author of a sizeable (and well-written) collection of SF short stories and novels, most of which were aimed at juveniles (the term `Young Adult' wasn't really in use in the 1950s). I remember his short story collection `The Counterfeit Man' as one of the perennial SF titles offered to kids as part of the Scholastic (paperback) Book Club purchasing program present in many elementary and junior high schools in the Baby Boomer era. `The Bladerunner' (1974, ages 12 to adult) has a confusing history with regard to its title. A screenplay based on Nourse's novel and written by William Burroughs failed to attract attention from the major studios when shopped in the mid 70's; subsequently the screenplay was adapted to a novelette and published in 1979 as `Blade Runner: A Movie'. From what I remember from reading this truncated version, it too-clearly reflected Burroughs's fixation with pederasty, and even the more `progressive' studio execs probably felt uncomfortable with the thought of catering to the fantasies of a filthy old pervert, however great his standing in the literary world. I've no idea if Warner Bros. paid any sort of licensing fee to Nourse or Ballantine / Del Rey for using the title for its 1982 film adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel `Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ?'. If not, they certainly should have, because `The Bladerunner' is a good novel in its own right despite having the misfortune to share a title with one of the most influential SF films of the past 50 years. `Bladerunner' is set in approximately 2015, after the 1994 `Health Riots' marked the economic collapse of the American health care system. Anyone seeking treatment in any medical facility may find themselves subject to sterilization under Eugenics Laws designed to reduce the incidence of disease in the population. Unsurprisingly, many elect to have their medical needs met at home using a clandestine system of care performed by idealistic MDs who disagree with the System. `Bladerunner' refers to those young men who serve as couriers for contraband drugs and surgical supplies between patients and the doctors, most of whom have entirely legitimate practices in hospitals and clinics in the wealthier sections of the city. Billy Gimp is one such Bladerunner, working for surgeon `Doc' John Long and his able nurse Molly. The trio sets out several times a week to lower-income neighborhoods of New York and its surrounding environs to conduct kitchen-table tonsillectomies and other surgical procedures. Billy and his companions must be watchful for surveillance by the Big Brother-ish Health Control police, since a conviction for providing black market health care can result in imprisonment for Billy, and the loss of a license for Doc. When Billy does find himself under surveillance, he quickly learns that it is not unique to his own bladerunning operation, but rather, has expanded to the entire underground medicin

The novel The Bladerunner (also published as The Blade Runner) is a 1974 science fiction novel by Alan E. Nourse. The novel's protagonist is Billy Gimp, a man with a club foot 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. 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 Runner (which was otherwise unrelated beyond the common element of dystopian futures). 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 it 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. Ridley Scott bought any rights to the title "Blade Runner" that might have arisen from either the Nourse novel or the Burroughs story treatment.