Blade Runner is a science fiction novella by Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs, first published in 1979. The novella began as a story treatment for a proposed film adaptation of The Bladerunner, a novel by Alan E. Nourse. A later edition published in the 1980s changed the formatting of the title to Blade Runner, a movie. No film eventuated; however, the title Blade Runner was later bought for use in the 1982 Ridley Scott science fiction film, Blade Runner. The plot of that film was based upon the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and not the... Nourse/Burroughs source material, although the film does incorporate the term "blade runner" into dialogue. Burroughs' treatment is set in early 21st century and involves mutated viruses and what the back cover of the 1990 edition describes as "a medical-care apocalypse". The term "blade runner" referred to a smuggler of medical supplies, e.g. scalpels.
more