From the Bookshelf of Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy…

The Man in the High Castle

Philip K. Dick

Start date: December 1, 2013

Finish date: December 31, 2013

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Discussion leader: Andreas

Why we're reading this: Group Classic Novel Discussion December 2013
Hugo Award 1963

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Hugo Award 1963

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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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Sep 11, 2016 Carlex rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Como uno de sus personajes atascados en la (en su) realidad, en una especie de "horror vacui", me faltan palabras para comentar esta novela.

Se me ocurre que PKD era un hombre inteligentísimo (supongo que todos los genios lo son, algo que no se tiene siempre presente). Lo digo por las cuestiones/reflexiones que plantea mientras nos cuenta su ucronía. Algunas serían: solipsismo, el punto de vista subjetivo modifica la realidad (psicología/sociología e incluso física), choques culturales e ideológ ...more

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Oct 01, 2019 Ivy rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

Copied from my review from my library's summer reading program. I'm a bit behind on logging my books.

This has been on my TBR list for years, as its considered Philip K Dick's finest work, a literary genre novel. There hadn't been too many alternate history books either in 1962, so it was really one of the earliest examples of this type of sci-fi.

After finishing it, I feel a little conflicted. On the one hand, his alternate world in which the Axis forces won WW2 was absolutely believable. Horrifi ...more

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