When one thinks of science fiction, the first thing that comes to mind is the image of spaceships, alien invasion, vampires, galaxies, clash of civilisations and so forth. However, none of these typical science fiction elements can be found in The Man in the High Castle; on the contrary, it is found instead Nazism, I Ching and “ordinary” characters. Hence, what makes this novel belong to the science fiction genre?
The first answer is that Philip K. Dick’s novel has most of the typical narratives found in Science fiction texts: conflicts, identity questioning, hegemonic discourse, high technologies predictions and even an oracle that guide most of the character’s lives. Furthermore, The Man in the High Castle has one of the central characteristic of science fiction which is also relevant to its relation with world politics: the process of estrangement. Based on what Darko Suvin called novum – new in Latin – this process sets the imagined world of a work of science fiction off from the mundane (Weldes, 2003:9). Put it simpler, the estrangement is what allows readers or viewers to step into a different way of seeing the world.
The Man in the High Castle does so by inviting the reader to step into a world where the Axis had won the Second World War, slaved the African Continent and divide the world between the victorious nations. However, this is not the only ‘world’ the reader is invited to step in; there are two other alternate realities.
Furthermore, The Man in the High Castle can be considered an unconventional science fiction novel with some considerable peculiarities. The novel firstly shows that science fiction is more than a genre concerned with possible futures and imaginary worlds, but reimagines the world we live in by creating three different “realities”. Philip K. Dick himself wrote in the 1978 essay How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later, that two basic topics that fascinated him were regarding what reality is and what constitutes the authentic human being."
Philip K. Dick uniqueness lies on what some authors call Dickian Ttime, which consists of the use of one of the main science fiction approach: the alternate history together with teleological timeline. While the former presumes that more than one parallel world with divergent history can coexist, the latter can be exemplified by the linear view that one event moves into another. Laura Campbell believes that Dick “takes the usual western linear view (...) and combines it with the Taoist idea of synchronicity in which any part of the whole effects all of the whole (Hassler & Wilcox 2008:300).” Moreover, Sam Jordison (2009), author and The Guardian’s critic, believes that there are plenty of world politics intrigues and tensions between Nazis and Japanese, but it is the focus on a few other more ordinary, small-scale characters that really brings home the magnitude of the horror in this alternate reality.
In addition to the Dickian Time and the multiple realities, the lack of a well defined good versus evil, often present in most of traditional science fiction, along with multiple real humans characters rather than conventional heroes or one specific protagonist, make The Man in the High Castle a unique science fiction novel worth to be read.
Want to read it? Here is a short summary of the novel...
Philip K. Dick’s novel is set in 1962 in a world where the Axis, Germany, Italy and Japan have won the Second World War. In this alternative world, the US was not only defeated but also divided into German and Japanese zones. Apart from practically exterminating most of the Slavic and African population, the winners – mainly Germany - extended their European genocide of the Jews to the US. For the few remaining Jews, the only way to survive is by changing their names, hairs and even noses and brain sizes. Hitler is in his late stages of syphilis while Goebbels is still an active member in the Nazi Party and assumes the position of chancellor after the death of Martin Bormann. In addition to that, Germany has started the exploration of the space and holds the latest technologic and medical developments, while Japan is left behind ruling semi-democratically its territories and praising American antiques.
It is against this background that the readers follow the stories of five characters, of a book which depicts the Allies victory of the Second World War, and of the oracle, I Ching which guides the lives of most of characters. Robert Childan is a seller of American antiques who tries to be like his main buyers, the Japanese. Throughout the novel, the readers follow his attempts to behave as such and be accepted as one of them until a certain stage, when he realises it is not worth it. Frank Fink is a Jewish who hides his identity under a fake name and tries earning his livings by creating “antiques” which may bring him unwanted attention from the authorities if his business is caught. Juliana, Fink’s ex-wife, is a judo instructor whose life seems to have no meaning and after spending a night with an Italian truck drive, she is dragged into a journey that she could have never expected.
Nobusuke Tagomi is a Japanese trade commissioner in San Francisco whose life changes after the visit of a dissident German counter-intelligence officer, Mr Baynes (Rudolf Wegener), whose identities depend on the missions he is send to. Mr Baynes then reveals the Operation Löwenzahn (Operation Dandelion), a plan of a nuclear attack by Germany in order to secure its global domination is revealed.
In the midst of the personal struggles of each character, a clandestine romance called The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, written by a man who supposedly lives in a high castle named Hawthorne Abendsen, enters the lives of some of them, changing their perceptions of what is reality, especially Juliana who ends up saving his. In this novel, the Allies win the war, “the US keeps with the Pacific (...) and Russia is divided. It works for almost 10 years. Then the troubles begin...naturally (Dick 2006:183)”. Churchill engages himself in a semi-dictatorial form of governing the British Empire, and becomes the dominant world power, after the US drowns itself in a period of decay after the economic expansion under Rexford Tugwell presidency.
Furthermore, in Dick’s novel, most of characters, including Abendsen, “are connected to this moment to throw stalks to select the proper wisdom in a book initiated in the century 3 BC (Dick 2006:22)”, in other words, make use of the I Ching in order to take decisions.Nothing in the book is really what it seems to be: most characters are not what they say they are, most objects are fake and even “reality” is presented in three different ways. As the Guardian’s critics Sam Jordison (2009) puts it, “It is a mark of Dick's achievement that he can keep us transfixed as he guides us through this labyrinth. Though he provides no easy answers, leaves all his plot strands deliberately trailing and gives us nothing more to grab hold of than a delicious ambiguity, we are left feeling entirely satisfied”.
References
· Jordison, Sam (2009). Philip K Dick's alternative memory lane. The Guardian. Available on http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/feb/05/philip-k-dick-high-castle-hugo. Accessed on 07/02/2010
. Weldes, Jutta, ed (2003) To Seek Out New World. Exploring Links Between Science fiction and World Politics. Houndmills: Palgrave
· Klapcsik, Sandor (2008). “Politics, Multiplicity, and Mythical Time in the Oeuvre of Philip K. Dick”. In Hassler, Donald M. And Clyde Wilcox, eds. New Boundaries in Political Science fiction. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press
