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All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war-and is now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan. This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas.
The Man In The High Castle is also very well observed - in partiucular the ever-so slightly contorted constructions of Japanese English emanating from those in the Pacific States whether Japanese or not are very cleverly done. Ultimately, The Man In The High Castle descends out of focus and into incoherency, but as mentioned above, plot wasnt really what interested Dick, and this tends to be a characteristic of his novels.
Dick is one of those authors who is most known for adaptations of his works, such as the movies Total Recall and Blade Runner. The Man in the High Castle, which many consider to be his masterpiece, has not been made into a movie and is really too wonderfully complex and literary to ever be made into a movie. The novel is the story of the world in 1962, after the Japanese and Germans have WON World War II. It tells of a California which is strongly influenced by Japanese and their culture and the ancient oracle, the I Ching, the Book of Changes. Into this society move characters trying either to fit into this world or to somehow come to grips with morality and individuality under totalitarian governments. As much as the book is about this new world, it is also about the creation of alternate histories, as a popular novel expores what would have happened if Japan and Germany had lost. The new history of this novel within a novel is interesting, and Dick does a masterful job of using the novel all the characters read to explore what he himself is writing in The Man in the High Castle. It is similar to Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut in that we are drawn into two novels at once, one only seen in glimpses, and both of these novels tell us something about the world in which we live. All Customer Reviews Average Customer Review: Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
It literally wrenches your insides because in it is a dark, terrifying, nightmare world that Dick creates in which HISTORY goes horribly, horribly wrong. Not so in this book and the WAY the bad guys won the war is fascinating. Dick gives it to us in tiny little morsels instead of all at once. One of these lighters was in FDRs pocket when he was assassinated.
He tells you what the Nazis did to Europe and Africa after they won the war and how they are leading the space program and taking their deadly values to the stars. His portrayal of the Americans as second-class citizens in their own country indebted to Nazi economic reconstruction or Japanese slightly condescending humanitarianism is so real. He has a philosophical undertone throughout which is represented by the I Ching which has become the oracle of choice to the lowly Americans who try to make sense of their place in this new world. A book has been written inside this one which asserts that Germany and Japan DID lose the war and the Nazis and Japanese try to suppress it but at the same time find it irresistibly compelling as if its truth is truer than their realities. Man in the High Castle gives you a sense of hope in the end that the yanks will see this underlying truth amidst the stark reality of their present.
Theres little need to contribute another general positive review of this insightful and fascinating novel, as it seems abundantly clear from the reviews that this is indeed a worthwhile read with the dissenting opinions of the erudite anti-intellectual salesmen duly noted and dismissed. However, what seems to be lacking in the helpful criticism is the main theme of Dicks novel, an individuals relationship with history. Dick is interested in the extreme subjectivity of history, a phenomenon that is created based on human perception at and of a given intersection of space and time, a subjective perception that is then cast into an artificially objective mold. We create standards for verifying for athenticating, to show that something of historic value is universally important, not just an indiosycrasy of an individual. Certain objects are endowed with historicity, a connection with a universally recognized important historical event or figure, and are thus deemed valuable. Similary, certain events are judged arbitrarily by, say, the victors of a war and the world is then forced to abide by all their values and standards of determination. In this sense, one feels trapped by history, that is until they realize that they have been coerced into going along with an arbitary system of values that have never really existed beyond a subjective idea. Once the artifice of objectivity has been breached, the subjective creative forces behind history are revealed. The oppressive, at times nightmarish quality of history is superceded by an empowered individual, one who recognizes the manifold plurality of individual perception, in touch with the taoist principles of the simulateous coexistence of the absolute possibility and impossibility of everything in the world. Dicks ending is abrupt, but because it stops the reader short, he is almost forced to contemplate what was said before closing the book with any kind of satisfaction. Its really a shame that businessmen on airplanes didnt like this book because theyre too busy selling things and dont have time to think. You really hate to see that kind of esteemed reader demographic become alienated.
It reminded me of the movie the Ring when the actors look out at the crowd at the end. This is simply a great book and I wouldnt even classify it as Sci-fi only as fiction. By the end of the book I felt as if I knew the characters personaly. I especialy empathised with the store owner and his search for a place and a meaning in his world. If you dont like to think through ideas on your own without having the author spell them out for you then this is not the book for you.
Dick : A list by reelbiz , Reviewer at Outpost Gallifrey My Philip K. Dick Top 10 : A list by thetwonky , Television Producer Look for similar books by subject: Browse for books in: Subjects > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > D > Dick, Philip K. Subjects > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > General Subjects > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction Search for books by subject: Alternative histories Fiction Science fiction Dick, Philip K.
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