The Man in the High Castle in On Paths Unknown

Feb 15, 2021 Nandakishore Mridula rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I believe that there is a certain serendipity in the way we find books. There certainly was in this case. Even though I love Philip K. Dick's dark and fantasy-tinged science fiction, I had not come around to reading this so far. I did it only after I started watching the web series loosely based on this novel. And I started watching the web series mostly because I am slowly learning what it is to live under a fascist government.

Ever since Modi took over as Prime Minister in 2014, India has been I believe that there is a certain serendipity in the way we find books. There certainly was in this case. Even though I love Philip K. Dick's dark and fantasy-tinged science fiction, I had not come around to reading this so far. I did it only after I started watching the web series loosely based on this novel. And I started watching the web series mostly because I am slowly learning what it is to live under a fascist government.

Ever since Modi took over as Prime Minister in 2014, India has been shifting slowly to the right; and when he came back to power in 2019, that move has been put on steroids. People are being jailed for doing standup comedy and tweeting; intellectuals are regularly attacked by Hindu right-wing goons; and draconian laws have been formulated which allows people to be jailed without recourse even to bail, under the label of "anti-national" activities. These are in addition to the atrocities perpetrated against minorities and Dalits such as beatings and lynchings by far right groups with the blessings of the powers that be.

So reading this book (and watching the series) provided me a sort of catharsis. In this novel, Dick presents a world totally dominated by fascists. The Axis forces have won the war, and Japan and Germany have divided up the world among themselves - Germany getting the bigger slice of the cake, of course. People are so adapted to totalitarianism (this is what is frightening) that they cannot think that another world is possible. Except for the elite few, the remaining live a sub-human existence.

The USA is divided into three - the East under the Nazis, the West under Japan, and a "neutral" lawless zone in-between. The story has no central protagonist: it follows a handful of connected characters in Japan-occupied America as they try to make sense of their lives. There is Frank Frink, a Jew, and his partner Ed McCarthy trying to make a living selling costume jewelry; there is Juliana, Frank's estranged wife, on a road trip with a guy who might be not what he claims to be; There is Tagomi, the high-ranking Japanese trade official, who trying to avert a disastrous war between the Reich and Nippon... and then, there is Harald Abendsen, the "Man in the High Castle", who has written a novel of speculative fiction - about the Allies winning the war.

By writing a novel of parallel history, in which an author is writing a novel of parallel history about the actual time stream we are living in, the author brilliantly resurrects a tired trope. After all, what is reality? Are we living only in one possibility among an infinite number of worlds out there? There is a brief scene in which Tagomi experiences a transportation into a world where the USA is unoccupied, by meditating on a piece of costume jewellery - and it provides us an insight into what the author is trying to say. Especially in a universe where the wisdom of the I Ching is the guiding force.

Dick has done a marvellous amount of research to create this nightmare world. My only gripe with the novel is that it feels like the first part of a series, with more stories to follow - an idea the author seems to have abandoned. ...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Paul rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Another entry in the "what if the Axis powers had won the war?" genre. Interesting because of the ideas that are entertained rather then for being believeable (which it isn't). The novel is set in the US which is now divided into a Nazi puppet state in the East (like Vichy France), a neutral buffer state in the middle and a Japanese controlled west coast. The Mediterranean has been drained and Africa turned into a wasteland. The sci-fi element is present with rocket type planes making the journe ...more

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Jul 24, 2016 Jan Rice rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, alternative-futuristic-dystopian

So bad it's good: the amateurish characterization, with one and nearly all breaking through to their better natures, an inept philosophizing spy, a fatally bumbling political operative, and the woman-child/moll who becomes...what? The dated quality; the stereotyping; the word "babbling" coming up too many times (twice, but with a "rambling" thrown in, I thought it was three); the wrong futuristic guesses, the improbable plot reversals, the incomprehensible ending.

On the good side, let's see: th So bad it's good: the amateurish characterization, with one and nearly all breaking through to their better natures, an inept philosophizing spy, a fatally bumbling political operative, and the woman-child/moll who becomes...what? The dated quality; the stereotyping; the word "babbling" coming up too many times (twice, but with a "rambling" thrown in, I thought it was three); the wrong futuristic guesses, the improbable plot reversals, the incomprehensible ending.

On the good side, let's see: there's the color-retouched reflection of the budding civil rights movement, the inspired manic Western-infused Buddhist soliloquies and the other well-shaken cultural cocktails, the right futuristic guesses, the crazy improbable plot--and the ending.

This one joins my small exclusive collection of books written in 1962 or thereabouts, this one like The Graduate, zeroing in on "plastics." And like an old gentleman I knew who remembered how, before climate change, autumn used to turn the leaves gold a full month earlier, this book records women's dress sizes before they shrunk to suit our egos--or maybe what it recalls is a time when a Marilyn Monroe-sized woman was "slender" in size 12 or 14. Or, again, maybe what it recalls is a lack of research on the author's part (or even a certain gullibility; remember when we believed that exercise would enhance the bustline?).

In this book the pen is mightier than the sword, and writers reside in high places. Tah-dah: This Dick Lit is the real thing.

But what does it matter? Even if Doctor Goebbels is deposed and Operation Dandelion is canceled? They will still exist, the blackshirts, the Partei, the schemes if not in the Orient, then somewhere else. On Mars and Venus.

No wonder Mr. Tagomi could not go on, he thought. The terrible dilemma of our lives. Whatever happens, it is evil beyond compare. Why struggle, then? Why choose, if all alternatives are the same...

Evidently we go on, as we always have. From day to day. At this moment, we work against Operation Dandelion. Later on, at another moment, we work to defeat the police. But we cannot do it all at once; it is a sequence. An unfolding process. We can only control the end by making a choice at each step.

He thought, We can only hope. And try.

On some other world, possibly it is different. Better. There are clear good and evil alternatives. Not these obscure admixtures, these blends, with no proper tool by which to untangle the components.

We do not have the ideal world, such as we would like, where morality is easy because cognition is easy. Where one can do right with no effort because he can detect the obvious.

Postscript: There is a The Man in the High Castle TV series (Amazon). I'm told that before the end of the first episode it's established that Frank Frink--wait for it--has a Jewish grandparent. In America if you have a native American grandparent, you're an Indian. If you have a Jewish grandparent, you have a Jewish grandparent.

And in the series The Grasshopper is not a book. It's a documentary. ...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Sean DeLauder rated it really liked it

Shelves: pkdick

I once spoke briefly with a relative of mine about story construction. His advice, which he followed from Kurt Vonnegut, was to establish the central conflict of the story early (i.e., what is the goal of the story?). In doing so the reader isn't left to wonder why they're bothering to read the book.

This is, to say the least, not the strategy employed by Dick. Almost 70 years have passed since the conclusion of the second world war, so the Gasp factor of imagining a world where the allies lost t I once spoke briefly with a relative of mine about story construction. His advice, which he followed from Kurt Vonnegut, was to establish the central conflict of the story early (i.e., what is the goal of the story?). In doing so the reader isn't left to wonder why they're bothering to read the book.

This is, to say the least, not the strategy employed by Dick. Almost 70 years have passed since the conclusion of the second world war, so the Gasp factor of imagining a world where the allies lost to the axis has diminished somewhat--at least for me. What remains as impetus for the book is shrouded in allusions that gradually become more coherent and forceful as the book progresses, and is actually far more fascinating than the presumption of a tables-turned version of the US and world. That impetus is the existence of a book that, in a metafictional bit of drama that threatens to break the fourth wall, presumes what the world would be like if the US had won.

Dick plays with this assumed book and its narrative vision with comical expertise, deliberately avoiding the history the reader knows for a UK that returns to global dominance. In what I consider the most comical line in the entire story, a character muses why such an alternative history had never been written before--it seemed such an obvious premise. I envision Dick penning this line with a grin on his face and pausing to enjoy it for some time before moving on.

Throughout, Dick is a master at, at the very least, extrapolating perceived WWII Nazi and Japanese motives past the point of an imagined victory. From Nazis bolstered by rare scientific genius and hamstrung by depravities, to Japanese masters of formality, control, and manipulation, yet trapped in a (according to Dick) non-creative cultural stasis.

I have to take a star away only because the story doesn't quite satisfy. Apart from meandering between a few characters that provide opportunities to better explain the nature of their existence in their alternate timeline, they are not central to the main plot, if it can be said that there really is a main sequence of Action. [spoilers removed]

Of course, most striking about the story was the idea that despite these changes, despite control of the world being ceded to what we perceive as one of the most evil regimes in history, there are plenty of parallels to be drawn to the modern world. We still suffer from, what in this political environment seem, high levels of intolerance. We still fret about the destruction of our country or our world for the purpose of an ideology. Perhaps the most poignant line in the story, in light of the election season, was this, following the death of the Nazi regime leader:

"So we presume that the worst, rather than the best, choice will be made. The sober and responsible elements will be defeated in the present clash."

This certainly seems like the perception of the voting parties. To each, the alternative is not just a bad choice, but will bring about annihilation through the profoundest ignorance.

Maybe it is because these are universal, eternal, and sobering truths about humanity, that this story, in spite of its age and twist on history, remains both relevant and disquieting, and that through some trick of good or bad luck we are always a hair's breadth from the loss of our freedoms to the bugbear of fascism. ...more

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Nov 23, 2015 Dillwynia Peter rated it it was amazing

A dystopian novel looking at an alternate world viewpoint. If Lindeburgh had been successful in his campaign of not enlisting in the 2nd World War, and the Axis won over the Allies, what would the United States look like. Dick uses the divided Germany concept & divides the US, and then makes it roughly 20 years later. Being written in the early 60s, this is important; sadly, the book has resurfaced recently as a timely reminder and I understand there is now a TV series using these ideas.

Dick is A dystopian novel looking at an alternate world viewpoint. If Lindeburgh had been successful in his campaign of not enlisting in the 2nd World War, and the Axis won over the Allies, what would the United States look like. Dick uses the divided Germany concept & divides the US, and then makes it roughly 20 years later. Being written in the early 60s, this is important; sadly, the book has resurfaced recently as a timely reminder and I understand there is now a TV series using these ideas.

Dick is cruel to the Germans and make them lose their way, becoming stulified in the old ways, alternatively Japan has few ideas & copies every new invention (a parody of the 60s Japan the world was observing). What is lacking is good old American ingenuity which is currently suppressed by cruel overlords.

This is parody & the title is important in telling you this - once it is explained. Dick is so convinced his readers will miss it, that he has two of his characters explain it to you. This felt odd, but being an audiobook somewhere in the desert as I traversed the country, it got me thinking - thanks Philip! :-D

Dystopian fiction often have two roles: 1st, the extreme or exaggeration of what could happen if we continue on the current path of destructive behaviour; and 2ndly: look closer, greenhorn! it's already here, but you just haven't looked at it properly.

Freedom is bandied about so much of late that not only is it banal, but really, the vox populi don't even notice it being spoken any more, and definitely not what it is supposed to supply. Under a free society we can be body searched every time we enter an airport. It is done to keep you safe & isn't that a good thing. Thank goodness, the communists didn't take over the world, otherwise, you would have been body searched every time you entered an airport. How dare they! Invasion of your rights and so on. This is what Dick is telling us in this well executed novel. Now, look at Atwood and it becomes very uncomfortable when you consider some of the themes she has been exploring over the past 10 years. ...more

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Jul 05, 2016 Jimmie rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016-reading-challenge

I chose to read The Man in the High Castle after watching the Amazon Prime series of the same name. Normally, I prefer to read a book before watching a TV or movie adaptation of the book. However, I watched the Prime series before reading the book. I usually find the book much more detailed than a TV or movie. But I have to hand it to the Castle producers. They did a great job of sticking to the book and expanding on the story from the book. I was not aware the author, Philip Dick was the author ...more

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