This book won the Hugo award in 1963. Not only is it an excellent work of science fiction, it is an excellent work of fiction, and a purely excellent written work, at that.

Philip K Dick is among my favorite authors of all time. This isn’t to say that I read copious amounts (at least, not anymore). But science fiction has always been my ‘favorite genre’ of the printed word. However, in a rather interesting twist we no doubt owe to fantastical nature of the subject matter, hardly any science fiction is dually considered to be ‘literature’. This is one of the very first issues Lawrence Sutin takes on in his excellent PKD biography Divine Invasions.

Phil Dick used the junk props of the SF genre- the tentacled aliens, alternate worlds, and gee-whiz high-tech gimmickry- to fashion the most intensely visionary fiction written by an American in the 20th century. In Europe and Japan, Phil is widely regarded as one of our most original novelists, period- SF and mainstream labels be damned.

The Man in the High Castle is one of the very best examples of what is popularly referred to as ‘alternate history fiction’ in which the author imagines what the world would be like, if… and begins with a certain point of divergence to tell their tale. The point of divergence in this novel begins with the successful assassination of FDR in 1933. Because of this re-imagined event, the U.S. adopts a strict isolationist policy with regard to the Second World War, and thus is eventually invaded and conquered by the Axis Powers.

The novel is set in this alternate world in 1962, roughly 15 years after the major events of WWII have transpired. The Germans have gone on to enact various incarnations of their ruthlessly precise genocidal cleansings around the world, particularly in America and Africa. The novel is startling in its detailed depictions and highly scholarly method of explaining this alternate world. It is a world that is made wholly convincing from every angle.

In the book, there are several ‘main’ characters, yet there is no consistent, single story being told involving them. They basically are each on separate tracks, sometimes intersecting and interacting with one another, often indirectly, or even not at all.

The Chinese I Ching (or, Book of Changes) factors heavily into the storyline and plot development of the book. The I Ching is basically a system of 64 symbols called ‘hexagrams’, each corresponding to a written text with rules for interpretation, poems, and commentary.

Throughout the novel, several characters consult the Oracle (the I Ching) on various topics. This accounts for some of the books more important and bizarre revelations. PKD himself consulted the Oracle numerous times when writing the actual story.

Without divulging anything else about the nature of the book, I can tell you that one of its more interesting virtues is that there is a novel-within-a-novel that plays an equally important part in the story. This was the main draw for me to even read the book in the first place.

The titular character, The Man in the High Castle, is actually named Hawthorne Abendsen. He is called by the title due to the persistent rumor that he lives in a closely guarded fortress in the Rocky Mountain States, a kind of colonial, free-zone between the German-occupied East and Japanese-occupied West half of the North American continent. He lives in a fortress because he is a somewhat incendiary figure in the book. He has written a novel, entitled The Grasshopper Lies Heavy (a reference to Ecclesiastes 12:5), depicting an alternate history in which the Allies won, and the Axis lost. His book is verböten (forbidden) in the German-controlled regions, and it is contraband (yet still widely-disseminated) in the Japanese-controlled regions.

Several of the characters in The Man in the High Castle read the novel-within-a-novel. One of them goes on a journey to try and meet Abendsen. The book has “no real ending,” in the words of Philip K Dick.

When I put this book down, having finally mustered the courage to finish it all in one go (I’d been putting it off for, oh, a few years, at least) I was thunderstruck. In my view, the book does have an ending, albeit an open one. There were rumors of a sequel going around for years, apparently, but Dick passed away before he could commit it all to paper.

And so, The Man in the High Castle stands alone, a work that defies age, and just as easily defies simple categorization. Dick’s writing style is not for everybody… he is lavish in detail and continuously sending his characters on reflective tangents into the kinds of thought patterns that can only spring from the mind of a genius… or a madman. In any case, it is an engaging and thoroughly detailed account of what our world could be like… given a few tweaks in the time-line. And so much more. It is, above all, a story about finding the Truth.

“How strange,” Juliana said. “I never would have thought the truth would make you angry.” Truth, she thought. As terrible as death. But harder to find. I’m lucky.

And we are pretty darn lucky, too. Fortunate to have had a writer like Philip K Dick create worlds and stories that will haunt us with vividly presaged visions of our world… as it could have been… and as it could be… and as it is.

 
Posted in Books by Joel

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