dublinka

In Bladerunner, you'll find allusions to William Blake's America: A prophecy, when the replicant Batty deliberately misquotes (to prove his machine transcendent properties) the first two lines of plate 11 (see below).In Chew's eyelab he states: "Fiery the angels fell / Deep thunder rolled around their shores / Burning with the fires of Orc." It's actually about America and England but like all good poetic prophecy, it contains enough ambiguity to send a chill through you, especially if read in the context of machines replacing humans. Read one interpretation of it here.

From America: A prophecy.

Fiery the Angels rose, & as they rose deep thunder roll'd
Around their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc
And Bostons Angel cried aloud as they flew thro' the dark night.
He cried: Why trembles honesty and like a murderer,
Why seeks he refuge from the frowns of his immortal station!
Must the generous tremble & leave his joy, to the idle: to the pestilence!
That mock him? who commanded this? what God? what Angel!
To keep the gen'rous from experience till the ungenerous
Are unrestraind performers of the energies of nature;
Till pity is become a trade, and generosity a science,
That men get rich by, & the sandy desart is giv'n to the strong
What God is he, writes laws of peace, & clothes him in a tempest
What pitying Angel lusts for tears, and fans himself with sighs
What crawling villain preaches abstinence & wraps himself
In fat of lambs? no more I follow, no more obedience pay.