The Man in the High
Castle by Philip K. Dick
Published: G.P.
Putnam’s Sons (1962), Gollancz (2009)
Awards Won: Hugo
Award
The Book:
“It's America in 1962, but not
the America you know. The United
States lost World War II, and the country has been divided and jointly occupied
by Nazi Germany and Japan. In this
world, genocide is commonplace and slavery is legal. In San Francisco, both the Japanese and the downtrodden
locals consult the I Ching for guidance.
A handful of people, with limited power to change the reality of
the world in which they live, move through the actions of their daily
lives. As their stories intersect
or influence one another, they may come closer to seeing through artifice and
understanding the truth of their lives and their world.” ~Allie
I’ve read a few of Philip K.
Dick’s novels before, but this is the first one I’ve reviewed on this blog. By
complete coincidence, I finished The Man
in the High Castle directly before the pilot for a series adaptation on
Amazon Prime was announced! I watched the pilot, of course (it is available
here), but it remains to be seen if
it will be greenlighted for a full season. I’m going to include my impressions of the pilot after the
book review. This is a book I chose to read both for Stainless Steel Dropping's Sci-Fi Experience and Little Red Reviewer's Vintage Sci-Fi Month.
My Thoughts:
The Man in the High Castle shows a world where World War II has ended very
differently, with Japan and Germany dividing up and occupying a defeated United
States. It was set in modern day
for the time of publication, which puts it around half a century into our past.
Thus, it has now become an alternate past extrapolated forward from a more
distant alternate past. I’m sure plenty of people have discussed the I Ching and the nested/interconnected
authentic and inauthentic realities of the story. Since I’m not familiar with I Ching, and I just spent a lot of time writing about multiple WWII
realities in my review of The Separation,
I’m not going to go into that discussion here. Instead, I will focus on the
parts of the novel that have stuck with me the most—the characters and how they
cope with their world.
The story follows a handful of
characters that are each leading their ordinary lives. Frank Frink is an
artisan hiding a Jewish heritage, and his vanished wife Juliana just wants to
live peacefully in the unoccupied Rocky Mountain States as a judo instructor.
Robert Childan is a shopowner who sells antiques of American culture to enthusiastic
Japanese patrons, and Tagomi, a San Francisco trade missioner, is one of his
top customers. Tagomi begins the
story in preparations to meet with Mr. Baynes, supposedly a rich Swedish
industrialist who seems to have an ulterior motive. Some of these characters’
stories intersect, or influence one another in indirect ways, but there is
never a point where all the stories converge. I was pretty equally interested
by each of the storylines, since they each showed a mental perspective from a
different level of society.
However, while it was
interesting seeing views from people of various levels of power and privilege
in a fascist world, the portrayal of the world and the characters necessarily
involves a lot of racism. This racism ran from quietly held beliefs, to racial
slurs, to acceptance of genocide, and I think it was clearly intended to be
shocking. It seemed that the point was to show how people can get used to a
world like their (or, well, like ours), and how they can pass their daily lives
without examining their prejudices or really thinking about distant atrocities
that seem unchangeable. At the
same time, while the characters may have had little power to affect their world
on the large scale, their thoughts and actions still have meaning and impact
the lives of the people around them.
I really enjoyed seeing how each character’s actions could intentionally
and unintentionally affect the lives of the others. The ending of the novel is
pretty weird, but I took it in a metaphorical way. That may not have been the intention, but I think that
interpretation makes for a rather satisfying ending.
My Rating: 4/5
The Man in the High
Castle is an alternate history story about the daily life of a defeated
American people. The novel follows
many loosely connected characters living in a western US occupied by Japan,
whose stories influence one another but never merge into a single narrative. I
thought each of the storylines was pretty interesting in its own right, and I
enjoyed seeing how they intersected with each other. With the I Ching, the alternate history within an
alternate history, the portrayals of people in various strata of society and
more, I think that this is a book that merits a lot of discussion. I also
enjoyed the Amazon Prime pilot, though it differs from the novel in some very
significant ways. I hope the rest of the show is produced!
The Man in the High
Castle: The Amazon Pilot
(Some Mild Episode 1 TV Spoilers Ahead)
Overall, I thought the pilot episode of The Man in the High Castle was pretty entertaining. There were some changes made to the
story from the novel that I agree were necessary, and also others that seemed
unnecessary. On the unnecessary
side, for instance, I believe Juliana is into aikido instead of judo. Perhaps Aikido is more stylish these
days? On changes that were necessary
for the adaptation, they have managed to connect all of the disparate
storylines into two main plot threads, cutting out only one viewpoint character
at this point. I think this was probably needed for a one-hour television
pilot, or the story might have seemed too disjointed. Also, I think there is a rule written somewhere that science fiction pilots must
have action—something that only shows up later in the novel’s story. To this end, they have introduced an
American Resistance, which provides violence and tension for the early story. I
am really interested in seeing what direction they go with this adaptation, so
I hope Amazon greenlights its season!