Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion
This topic is about
The Man in the High Castle
Book Discussions
>
The Man in the High Castle
date
newest »
newest »
Okay, finished it!
(First novel I've finished in three weeks :( I wish I could claim I'd just been reading a lot of short works, but mostly I've been holidaying and watching way too much football on TV.)
Really fascinating book, complicated, with half a dozen characters whose stories eventually interrelate, and everyone wears a mask. Plus a really interesting "alternate history novel within the alternate history novel." I'm still searching for Inner Truth, will post more after I've contemplated and obtained wu.
(First novel I've finished in three weeks :( I wish I could claim I'd just been reading a lot of short works, but mostly I've been holidaying and watching way too much football on TV.)
Really fascinating book, complicated, with half a dozen characters whose stories eventually interrelate, and everyone wears a mask. Plus a really interesting "alternate history novel within the alternate history novel." I'm still searching for Inner Truth, will post more after I've contemplated and obtained wu.
My reading has cut right down - with me it is more a health thing rather than anything much else. I do hope to give this another try over the next few days. Not a big fan of alternative histories but I have quite enjoyed the few other Dick's I have read.
Dick said he used the iching while working on the book, just as the people in the book were always useing it. He later quit useing it, saying "the iching lies".
also, (this is from memory, i think Dick was refering to High Castle, but i may have it mixed up with another of his books) Dick said his editor on the book, Judy-Lynn del Rey, tought him more about character development in the course of writing the book than he had ever learned up to that point.
Okay, what to say about "The Man in the High Castle"?
An alternate history of World War II (up to roughly the early 60's, I think. The same timeframe as the novel was actually written.) The world's two superpowers are Nazi Germany and Japan. (FDR is assassinated, Germany conquers Europe and obtains the atomic bomb. The Japanese drive the US from the Pacific.) The former US is partitioned between those two superpowers. The story takes place in San Francisco, part of the PSA (Pacific States of America?) which is a quasi-independent satellite nation to the Japanese Empire.
There's a second alternate history, presented as a novel within a novel. "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" is very popular, presenting an alternate world where the Allies won World War II, Britain went on to establish a great empire throughout Europe and Africa, and the two superpowers are the UK and Chiang Kai-shek's China.
Both novels feature actual historical characters in the background, though not appear directly in the story. (In 1962 when Dick wrote the book, the world's two superpowers were US and USSR.)
The choice of the title "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" remains a puzzle to me. It's from a Bible passage (Ecclesiastes 12) poetically describing old-age, part of an ex-circulation to honor the Lord when you're young and not wait until you're old. I have no idea what this choice of title means.
Late in the novel, we are told "Grasshopper" was written using the "I Ching" (In much the same way Spooky tells us Dick did.) I never used it myself. I gather one makes a series of random selections of auguries which one then must interpret.) Near the end of the novel, two different characters, Tagomi & Juliana, each separately consult the "I Ching" and obtain the same "Inner Truth" answer. Presumably this means "Grasshopper" presents "Inner Truth". Or not.
I cast the about this message. I obtained hexagram 43: Kuai (Breakthrough). "A Deluge from Heaven: The Superior Person rains fortune upon those in need, then moves on with no thought of the good he does."
An alternate history of World War II (up to roughly the early 60's, I think. The same timeframe as the novel was actually written.) The world's two superpowers are Nazi Germany and Japan. (FDR is assassinated, Germany conquers Europe and obtains the atomic bomb. The Japanese drive the US from the Pacific.) The former US is partitioned between those two superpowers. The story takes place in San Francisco, part of the PSA (Pacific States of America?) which is a quasi-independent satellite nation to the Japanese Empire.
There's a second alternate history, presented as a novel within a novel. "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" is very popular, presenting an alternate world where the Allies won World War II, Britain went on to establish a great empire throughout Europe and Africa, and the two superpowers are the UK and Chiang Kai-shek's China.
Both novels feature actual historical characters in the background, though not appear directly in the story. (In 1962 when Dick wrote the book, the world's two superpowers were US and USSR.)
The choice of the title "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" remains a puzzle to me. It's from a Bible passage (Ecclesiastes 12) poetically describing old-age, part of an ex-circulation to honor the Lord when you're young and not wait until you're old. I have no idea what this choice of title means.
Late in the novel, we are told "Grasshopper" was written using the "I Ching" (In much the same way Spooky tells us Dick did.) I never used it myself. I gather one makes a series of random selections of auguries which one then must interpret.) Near the end of the novel, two different characters, Tagomi & Juliana, each separately consult the "I Ching" and obtain the same "Inner Truth" answer. Presumably this means "Grasshopper" presents "Inner Truth". Or not.
I cast the about this message. I obtained hexagram 43: Kuai (Breakthrough). "A Deluge from Heaven: The Superior Person rains fortune upon those in need, then moves on with no thought of the good he does."
I started this yesterday and I'm already halfway through - it is a fast read. I'm always shivering with all the Nazi-stuff - extended Holocaust to Africa and so on.
You know, I've been visiting the memorial site of the Dachau concentration camp and Auschwitz extermination camp. We went through WWII and the Holocaust a couple of times in history lessons and it was a huge topic during school.
No wonder that I refrained from reading this alternate history directly after school. But now, 25 years after that, I was probably ready for this novel.
And I have to say that I'm enjoying it greatly. Of course, I know the characteristics of the involved German Reich persons. But PKD did a great job of altering and adapting their history.
I didn't know about the SF-esc project of "Atlantropa", an enourmous "terraforming" project of the Mediterranean sea which would have zero chance nowadays. But under this alternate circumstance... who knows what Venice people would have said :)
I find it to be written very fluently and engaging, the protagonists touched me.
i am almost done with High Castle, my second time reading (listening). I'm listening to a version i got from Audible a few days ago for $5, i am not sure if it is on sale. Its not a bad reading, i encourage everyone into audio books to check it out.
i noted Dick had a couple of guys in his book start a homemade hand-crafted jewelry business...Dick married several times, one of his ex-wives started a similar business, doing pretty well at it.
Characters of The Man in the High Castle:
Robert Childan is the first character we meet. He runs an antique shop, selling old pieces of Americana, from frontier-era furniture, baseball cards, Mickey Mouse wristwatches, and most notably a Colt .44 revolver supposedly from the old west.
He's basically a salesman, a little smarmy, and a major suck up. His inner thoughts reveal his belief in white America, despite its occupied status, while simultaneously bowing and scraping to the Japanese overlords in an almost desperate search for "place" (status?).
He doesn't know that some of the items he carries our reproductions/fakes. When this is pointed out to him by customer (Frink disguised), he's embarrassed. And yet when another customer (Tagomi) wants to return a (probably fake) Colt .44, he declines to do so (I'm not sure why? Although it turns out to be provident for Tagomi later on.)
He's thrilled to be invited to interact socially with a Japanese customer (Kasoura), though the dinner is awkward as he tries to be totally agreeable and unoffensive. He begins reading "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" because they recommend it.
Robert Childan is the first character we meet. He runs an antique shop, selling old pieces of Americana, from frontier-era furniture, baseball cards, Mickey Mouse wristwatches, and most notably a Colt .44 revolver supposedly from the old west.
He's basically a salesman, a little smarmy, and a major suck up. His inner thoughts reveal his belief in white America, despite its occupied status, while simultaneously bowing and scraping to the Japanese overlords in an almost desperate search for "place" (status?).
He doesn't know that some of the items he carries our reproductions/fakes. When this is pointed out to him by customer (Frink disguised), he's embarrassed. And yet when another customer (Tagomi) wants to return a (probably fake) Colt .44, he declines to do so (I'm not sure why? Although it turns out to be provident for Tagomi later on.)
He's thrilled to be invited to interact socially with a Japanese customer (Kasoura), though the dinner is awkward as he tries to be totally agreeable and unoffensive. He begins reading "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" because they recommend it.
Characters of The Man in the High Castle:
Frank Frink is the alliteratively-named metalworker who was fired (for some intemperate, heated remarks) by Wyndam-Matson (who is both a person and a company named after him.) Frink is secretly a Jew who changed his name to hide from the Nazis. (Apparently the Japanese have agreed to extradite Jews to the Nazis for extermination.) Forward I trying to keep a low profile, he seems to have trouble keeping his anti-Nazi political views to himself. One of his former coworkers (Ed McCarthy) convinces him to go into business for himself making abstract metal objets d'art.
At one point, Frank disguises himself as an aid to a Japanese Admiral and visits Robert Childan's antique store, inquiring after a Colt .44. He points out to Childan that the Colt is a fake. (Frank is aware that Wyndam-Matson has been turning out a few counterfeit antiquities like that, because Frank was one of the workers who made them for W-M.) At first I was puzzled why Frank would do that, but finally realized it was part of his revenge against W-M for firing him, since Childan immediately turned around and accused Wyndam-Matson of fraud.
His partner, Ed, will manage to play some of the abstract metalworks Frink makes on consignment in Childan's antique store. Those small trinkets will become a plot element in several characters' stories.
I found Frank Frink the least sympathetic of the main characters. He's angry, bitter, venge
Frank Frink is the alliteratively-named metalworker who was fired (for some intemperate, heated remarks) by Wyndam-Matson (who is both a person and a company named after him.) Frink is secretly a Jew who changed his name to hide from the Nazis. (Apparently the Japanese have agreed to extradite Jews to the Nazis for extermination.) Forward I trying to keep a low profile, he seems to have trouble keeping his anti-Nazi political views to himself. One of his former coworkers (Ed McCarthy) convinces him to go into business for himself making abstract metal objets d'art.
At one point, Frank disguises himself as an aid to a Japanese Admiral and visits Robert Childan's antique store, inquiring after a Colt .44. He points out to Childan that the Colt is a fake. (Frank is aware that Wyndam-Matson has been turning out a few counterfeit antiquities like that, because Frank was one of the workers who made them for W-M.) At first I was puzzled why Frank would do that, but finally realized it was part of his revenge against W-M for firing him, since Childan immediately turned around and accused Wyndam-Matson of fraud.
His partner, Ed, will manage to play some of the abstract metalworks Frink makes on consignment in Childan's antique store. Those small trinkets will become a plot element in several characters' stories.
I found Frank Frink the least sympathetic of the main characters. He's angry, bitter, venge
i notice PKD had one of his main characters drop dead of a heart attack near the end...some 20 years after writing High Castle, PKD himself died of heart problems
PKD often explored just what reality is (or not) in his work. As a collector (comics. and sf books) i was intrested in how he examined it thru the lens of the collectibles Childan sells in his store...they are pretty much all fakes (so PKD implies), but as long as everyone BELIEVES they are "the real thing" they are worth lots of cash...if it gets out Childan's stock are "fakes" his stock will be near worthless, his business ruined. His stock is what it is. Reality is what it is. But that is of no importance...what matters is the PERCEPTION of what his goods are, the PERCEPTION of reality is more important than the reality itself....
Spooky1947 wrote: "As a collector (comics. and sf books) i was intrested in how he examined it thru the lens of the collectibles Childan sells in his store... they are pretty much all fakes (so PKD implies), but as long as everyone BELIEVES they are "the real thing" they are worth lots of cash."
It's a relatively minor character, business owner (and part-time antique forger) Wyndam-Matson, who introduces this concept, which he calls "historicity". At one point he shows a female guest a pair of cigarette lighters, one of which is a collectors item from Franklin Roosevelt.
Practically everything and everyone in "The Man in the High Castle" is a fake some sort. Frink is hiding that he's Jewish, and at one point masquerades as the aide to a Japanese Admiral. Rudolf Wegener is masquerading as "Mr. Baynes" and General Tedeki as "Mr. Yatabe". Kreuz von Meere is officially a cultural attaché but is actually head of the secret police (Sicherheitsdienst/SD). Joe Cinnadella turns out to be a Nazi assassin. Abendsen supposedly lives in a fortified "castle", but actually lives in a perfectly ordinary home.
Childan curries favor with his Japanese overlords while secretly hating them. When he gives one of Frink's metalwork pins to his Japanese patron (Paul Kasoura), it's suggested he mass-produce the item as cheap plastic knockoffs to sell as good luck charms to the masses. (A profitable proposal he eventually declines.)
Late in the book, Nobusuke Tagomi, a trade minister, suddenly realizes he's been turned into a figurehead, a middleman so Wegener & Tedeki can meet, and muses, "I am a mask, concealing the real. Behind me, hidden, actuality goes on, safe from prying eyes." Once he realizes this, he is granted a vision of "Inner Truth".
The only character who seems to be exactly what she is is Juliana Frink, Frank's ex-wife. She's straightforward and honest and doesn't seem to have a filter between brain and mouth. Asking her date if he's actually an assassin probably isn't that high on the list of survival traits. And when she meets Hawthorne Abendsen, author of "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy", she just blurts out her question/accusation that he wrote his book using the I Ching. And so she is granted "Inner Truth".
By the way, which is worth more these days, the genuine original Cerebus #1 or the "genuine counterfeit" Cerebus #1? Which has more Historicity?
It's a relatively minor character, business owner (and part-time antique forger) Wyndam-Matson, who introduces this concept, which he calls "historicity". At one point he shows a female guest a pair of cigarette lighters, one of which is a collectors item from Franklin Roosevelt.
"Look at these. Look the same, don’t they? Well, listen. One has historicity in it." He grinned at her. "Pick them up. Go ahead. One’s worth, oh, maybe forty or fifty thousand dollars on the collectors� market."This is why W-M manufactures and sells fake antiques like the Colt .44. He thinks historicity is nonsense.
The girl gingerly picked up the two lighters and examined them.
"Don’t you feel it?" he kidded her. "The historicity?�
She said, "What is ‘historicity�?"
“When a thing has history in it.... One has historicity, a hell of a lot of it. And one has nothing. Can you feel it?.....
...The word “fake� meant nothing really, since the word “authentic� meant nothing really.
Practically everything and everyone in "The Man in the High Castle" is a fake some sort. Frink is hiding that he's Jewish, and at one point masquerades as the aide to a Japanese Admiral. Rudolf Wegener is masquerading as "Mr. Baynes" and General Tedeki as "Mr. Yatabe". Kreuz von Meere is officially a cultural attaché but is actually head of the secret police (Sicherheitsdienst/SD). Joe Cinnadella turns out to be a Nazi assassin. Abendsen supposedly lives in a fortified "castle", but actually lives in a perfectly ordinary home.
Childan curries favor with his Japanese overlords while secretly hating them. When he gives one of Frink's metalwork pins to his Japanese patron (Paul Kasoura), it's suggested he mass-produce the item as cheap plastic knockoffs to sell as good luck charms to the masses. (A profitable proposal he eventually declines.)
Late in the book, Nobusuke Tagomi, a trade minister, suddenly realizes he's been turned into a figurehead, a middleman so Wegener & Tedeki can meet, and muses, "I am a mask, concealing the real. Behind me, hidden, actuality goes on, safe from prying eyes." Once he realizes this, he is granted a vision of "Inner Truth".
The only character who seems to be exactly what she is is Juliana Frink, Frank's ex-wife. She's straightforward and honest and doesn't seem to have a filter between brain and mouth. Asking her date if he's actually an assassin probably isn't that high on the list of survival traits. And when she meets Hawthorne Abendsen, author of "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy", she just blurts out her question/accusation that he wrote his book using the I Ching. And so she is granted "Inner Truth".
By the way, which is worth more these days, the genuine original Cerebus #1 or the "genuine counterfeit" Cerebus #1? Which has more Historicity?
Spooky1947 wrote: "PKD often explored just what reality is (or not) in his work. As a collector (comics. and sf books) i was intrested in how he examined it thru the lens of the collectibles Childan sells in his stor..."But he contrasts those fakes with the originality of Edfrank. This is quite unusal: in most cases, PKD lets it completely open what is real and what is fake/dream/unreal.
Andreas wrote: "This is quite unusal: in most cases, PKD lets it completely open what is real and what is fake/dream/unreal...."
PKD hasn't exactly been clear about reality in "The Man in the High Castle", either.
As a reader, we know the world described in High Castle isn't our "real" world. As readers of SF&F, we are used to suspending disbelief and accepting the world presented by the author as "real" within the context of the author's story. The introduction of Grasshopper as an alternate history within the alternate history jars that acceptance back into our forebrain. PKD prods us into questioning our acceptance of his novel's premise.
At the very end, two characters both receive "Inner Truth" hexagrams from the I Ching. And both have revelations, of sorts:
Juliana leaves Abendsen's home (not actually a castle after all) believing the world of Grasshopper is real, despite the evidence of her senses. She find this comforting.
Tagomi, meditating on the Wu of one of Edfrank's pins, receives a vision in which he lives in some alternate world where there are no pedicabs, there's a big Freeway being constructed through San Francisco that doesn't exist in his San Francisco, and Anglo lunch counter diners don't defer to the Japanese. Is that the world of Grasshopper? Our world? Some other world?
As usual, PKD is all about rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty.
PKD hasn't exactly been clear about reality in "The Man in the High Castle", either.
As a reader, we know the world described in High Castle isn't our "real" world. As readers of SF&F, we are used to suspending disbelief and accepting the world presented by the author as "real" within the context of the author's story. The introduction of Grasshopper as an alternate history within the alternate history jars that acceptance back into our forebrain. PKD prods us into questioning our acceptance of his novel's premise.
At the very end, two characters both receive "Inner Truth" hexagrams from the I Ching. And both have revelations, of sorts:
Juliana leaves Abendsen's home (not actually a castle after all) believing the world of Grasshopper is real, despite the evidence of her senses. She find this comforting.
Tagomi, meditating on the Wu of one of Edfrank's pins, receives a vision in which he lives in some alternate world where there are no pedicabs, there's a big Freeway being constructed through San Francisco that doesn't exist in his San Francisco, and Anglo lunch counter diners don't defer to the Japanese. Is that the world of Grasshopper? Our world? Some other world?
As usual, PKD is all about rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty.
Cerebus #1 fakes...i dont know off the top of my head...i rember when DC issued the Treasury-sized Famous First Editions (reprints of famous #1s, like Action Comics #1) some people were ripping off the covers and selling them as the "real" thing to folks who didn't know better...Action Comics #1, first print, is a VERY expensive comic. A coverless comic will generally sell for 1% of it's mint condition value...a Famous First Edition reprint sold for $1...alot of folks were burned bad by ready-made fakes.
Back in the 1990s, there was alot of silliness among the comic publishers...every so often a "special" issue of a title would hit the stands with "alternative covers"...if your local comics shop ordered, say 10 copies with cover 1, they got one copy of cover 2 also, 50 copies of cover 1 got you one of cover 3...and of course covers 2 and 3 sold retail for many times the copy with cover 1 did (keep in mind these were all the SAME comic, just different covers) it was a good racket the publishers had going for awhile, til the fans wised up and quit falling for the scam. Anyway, some joker globed on to the fact that these were ALL THE SAME BOOK JUST DIFFERENT COVERS...so people started printing up fake alternate covers. They would buy a bunch of cheep copies of the book, remove the covers, slap on their fake, never-before-seen "alternate covers" and sell them for crazy prices.
Back in the 1990s, there was alot of silliness among the comic publishers...every so often a "special" issue of a title would hit the stands with "alternative covers"...if your local comics shop ordered, say 10 copies with cover 1, they got one copy of cover 2 also, 50 copies of cover 1 got you one of cover 3...and of course covers 2 and 3 sold retail for many times the copy with cover 1 did (keep in mind these were all the SAME comic, just different covers) it was a good racket the publishers had going for awhile, til the fans wised up and quit falling for the scam. Anyway, some joker globed on to the fact that these were ALL THE SAME BOOK JUST DIFFERENT COVERS...so people started printing up fake alternate covers. They would buy a bunch of cheep copies of the book, remove the covers, slap on their fake, never-before-seen "alternate covers" and sell them for crazy prices.
the biggest rip-off from the 1990s comic wars were the foil covers...as i rember it, same damn cover as the paper one, just fancy embossed foil, for twice the cash of course...then came the silver foil edition, gold foil, ect. ALL THE SAME BOOK, but everybody HAD to have every stinking cover...finly some con-artist printed up fake gold-foil covers and put them on some copies of Thor, last i heard they were selling for $150 each...it wasn't even real gold, just gold color for ghods sake.....
so, reality is all in the eye of the beholder...or true beliver
Do you ever find yourself reading a book and slipping outside the story to ask yourself, "Why did the author include this scene?" Pondering something like Chekhov's gun ?
In "The Man in the High Castle", PKD seems to go out of his way to discuss Juliana's new dress. Joe treats Juliana to a big shopping spree in Denver, and insist that she buy a blue Italian dress that's cut with a "wildly low neckline". PKD then has Juliana discover that "the neckline of the Italian dress demanded the new brassieres which covered only the lower part of each breast." (view spoiler)
Later, when Juliana is getting ready to meet Abendsen (by herself, Joe having been left behind), she decides she wants to wear the new blue dress, but because she packed in a hurry, she doesn't have the new brassiere she needs to go with it. She considers going without a bra, but the cut of the dress makes her fear an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction. Then she decides to use a "small horse-shaped silver pin from Mexico" to reduce the décolletage. PKD is coy as to whether this pin comes from Frank (Juliana's Ex), but if so it's from before Edfrank productions, so presumably not one of Frank's own abstract metal pieces that Tagomi & Kasoura find exuding wu.
Clearly PKD goes to some effort to set this up, so I keep thinking there must be some meaning to the use of the pin here, presumably related to those Edfrank pieces. And yet, I can find no significance in it, other than the fact that the author went to the trouble of explaining it all. Somehow, given Tagomi's experience meditating on Edfrank's pins, I keep looking for the hidden meaning.
So after you have made your snickering jokes about how it's just like a guy to obsess about a woman's breasts, would anyone care to speculate why PKD included these two complementary scenes about Juliana's wardrobe and the pin? Inquiring minds want to know.
In "The Man in the High Castle", PKD seems to go out of his way to discuss Juliana's new dress. Joe treats Juliana to a big shopping spree in Denver, and insist that she buy a blue Italian dress that's cut with a "wildly low neckline". PKD then has Juliana discover that "the neckline of the Italian dress demanded the new brassieres which covered only the lower part of each breast." (view spoiler)
Later, when Juliana is getting ready to meet Abendsen (by herself, Joe having been left behind), she decides she wants to wear the new blue dress, but because she packed in a hurry, she doesn't have the new brassiere she needs to go with it. She considers going without a bra, but the cut of the dress makes her fear an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction. Then she decides to use a "small horse-shaped silver pin from Mexico" to reduce the décolletage. PKD is coy as to whether this pin comes from Frank (Juliana's Ex), but if so it's from before Edfrank productions, so presumably not one of Frank's own abstract metal pieces that Tagomi & Kasoura find exuding wu.
Clearly PKD goes to some effort to set this up, so I keep thinking there must be some meaning to the use of the pin here, presumably related to those Edfrank pieces. And yet, I can find no significance in it, other than the fact that the author went to the trouble of explaining it all. Somehow, given Tagomi's experience meditating on Edfrank's pins, I keep looking for the hidden meaning.
So after you have made your snickering jokes about how it's just like a guy to obsess about a woman's breasts, would anyone care to speculate why PKD included these two complementary scenes about Juliana's wardrobe and the pin? Inquiring minds want to know.
G33, you got me on that one...I've been reading Gunn's multi-volume anthology The Road to Science Fiction. In the PKD section, Gunn talks about storytelling vs. style, and says PKD was a style sort of writer, not a storyteller. Maybe what you have found is an example of this?
Then again, PKD was married like five times, so he apparently liked the ladies...maybe it was just about the boobs? (before i start getting hit with rotten tomatoes and angry posts, THAT WAS A JOKE FOLKS...sort of...)
Then again, PKD was married like five times, so he apparently liked the ladies...maybe it was just about the boobs? (before i start getting hit with rotten tomatoes and angry posts, THAT WAS A JOKE FOLKS...sort of...)
Winner of the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Novel.