I don't know about vegan but they're certainly crunchy; in the short story (novella?) it's explained that real animals are rare and mechanical simulacra were made for people who want pets. Also the lack of creatures on earth is such that even a spider that shows up in the book is kept as a pet by the guy who found it and it's mentioned that it's illegal to even kill it.
The main character's goal for the story is to actually acquire a real life (goat? sheep? Can't recall) because his wife is miserable and he think it'll cheer her up; hilariously a replicant he meets whom he spurns is actually so upset she comes back and pushes the thing off the ceiling of the apartment building.
Also side note, but replicants in the novel are actually quite inhuman and are so incapable of telling truth and lies apart that the male MC literally tells a replicant through a door that he's a woman and it believes him immediately. That deeply thoughtful replicant in the movie bladerunner was actually most deeply curious about how a spider functions after each leg is pulled off; it's not doing it out of malice, it's just incapable of empathy, sympathy or anything human.
I just realized I rambled on after this one jokey question you made but I think it's probably because I find the author's stories very fascinating and wish he'd written more.
I don't know about vegan but they're certainly crunchy; in the short story (novella?) it's explained that real animals are rare and mechanical simulacra were made for people who want pets. Also the lack of creatures on earth is such that even a spider that shows up in the book is kept as a pet by the guy who found it and it's mentioned that it's illegal to even kill it.
The main character's goal for the story is to actually acquire a real life (goat? sheep? Can't recall) because his wife is miserable and he think it'll cheer her up; hilariously a replicant he meets whom he spurns is actually so upset she comes back and pushes the thing off the ceiling of the apartment building.
Also side note, but replicants in the novel are actually quite inhuman and are so incapable of telling truth and lies apart that the male MC literally tells a replicant through a door that he's a woman and it believes him immediately. That deeply thoughtful replicant in the movie bladerunner was actually most deeply curious about how a spider functions after each leg is pulled off; it's not doing it out of malice, it's just incapable of empathy, sympathy or anything human.
I just realized I rambled on after this one jokey question you made but I think it's probably because I find the author's stories very fascinating and wish he'd written more.
He talks the entire book about wanting an ostrich. He has a fake sheep, he buys a goat.