The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick

[Connavar]

I am surprised by the negative feelings towards The Man in the High Castle on this thread. I have just read it and found it to be classic Dick. The lack of a central protagonist did not worry me as the narrative was one of interweaving between the lives of the multiple characters. And by not having a single character to turn inside out, I think Dick has done a masterful job of showing us the inner thoughts and neuroses of multiple characters, even the Japanese (particularly Mr Tagomi). This is what he excels at. I also feel that even though his stories are amazingly inventive, they often take a back seat to his characterisations. The world he created was an interesting one too. The Germans are a malevolent force while the Japanese are more benign rulers. I wonder how well that went down in 1963. The book within the book was interesting as well, mirroring the fiction of the world he himself created. Was Abendsen a self reference from Dick? And which reality did Tagomi go to when having his little sartori moment? Ours or the one in The Grasshopper Lies Heavy?

So, yes, I thought it was a pretty cool book with alot in it to contemplate.

I see my old comments in this thread i was negative more of the idea of an award making a book more important. I thought very similar as you of the things i highlighted it.

I thought it was a powerful book that has alot to say and to think about.

I just read the book and i think the fact it is so different from most of other famous SF books that are wacky stories where the characters overshadow the stories. This was more mundane,serious story that lacked SF thrill,drive you find in his other stories. I was fully engrossed through the whole book.

 

[Fried Egg]

I've just finished this book and I found it very good as well.

The most interesting thing for me was the contemplation on the essential difference between the real and the fake. When one character examines a valuable American antique and wonders what difference really exists between that and a good forgery. He concludes that it is nothing tangible, that the only difference is in the mind if the beholder.

This parallels with society itself and the contrast between the alternate vision presented here with ours (and the alternate-alternative posited in the "Grasshopper"). Is there any real difference outside of our state of minds?

 

[mosaix]

Coincidentally, Fried Egg, I finished this book only yesterday.

I too was particularly struck by that passage. Briefly, there are two almost identical cigarette lighters, one of them was in the pocket of a US President when he was assassinated. It's only when the particular lighter is identified that it gains value - in other words it's all in the mind.

This brought back to me a conversation I had about 'modern art' a few months back. I was discussing Tracy Emmin's 'bed' with a member of my reading group. I commented that "I could have done that". She replied "but you didn't". She missed the point that I was trying to make - that there was no skill involved.

But what if I had produced the 'bed' and submitted it to the Royal Academy? Would it have been accepted for exhibition? Obviously not. But why not - Because it would have me that produced it and not some 'well known' artist. The piece itself has no value until the artist is identified - again it's all in the mind.

 

[TheTomG]

I think the fact that PKD wrote the book with the aid of the "I Ching" may account for the rambling nature of it. But I think it had to be that way, for to try and edit it away from that nature would be to move away from the novel the "I Ching" was writing through PKD, and I would guess that was not what PKD wanted to do.

I think the book becomes interesting when you project the "novel within a novel" OUTWARD. If "Grasshopper" is the alternative history novel within this alternative history novel... what novel lies outside the one we live in? Grasshopper -> High Castle -> Our Reality -> ?

Perhaps PKD thought that the messages from the "I Ching" were an intervention from a force out in that reality in which we are just an alternate history novel?

Lots of other lovely questions on real, fake, worth and value, morality, culture and more. And are we not now in a world where Eastern fakes of Western goods predominate? In fact, the Eastern products are the real now, few of our goods are made over here any more. Are we just left with historical artifacts that are the only things of value from our Western cultures?

It's not a rollicking good read like other PKD books, so is not on top of my list of favorites, but it does have a lot of worth as a book in terms of its ideas. Just draws you in less than some of his other works.

As for books of his I've read, best ask me which ones I've NOT read heh. Only one or two in that list.

 

[Connavar]

I've just finished this book and I found it very good as well.

The most interesting thing for me was the contemplation on the essential difference between the real and the fake. When one character examines a valuable American antique and wonders what difference really exists between that and a good forgery. He concludes that it is nothing tangible, that the only difference is in the mind if the beholder.

This parallels with society itself and the contrast between the alternate vision presented here with ours (and the alternate-alternative posited in the "Grasshopper"). Is there any real difference outside of our state of minds?

It is very PKD like theme, whats real and what is fake. Is the difference only in our mind. There were alot themes,comments like that made the book great to me.

I liked how that author of the book didnt end up being the revolutionary hero that cover blurb make him sound like. I knew it didnt sound like a PKD story. The end, the conclusion was not world shattering.

 

[AndrewT]

I've just finished this book and I found it very good as well.

The most interesting thing for me was the contemplation on the essential difference between the real and the fake. When one character examines a valuable American antique and wonders what difference really exists between that and a good forgery. He concludes that it is nothing tangible, that the only difference is in the mind if the beholder.

This parallels with society itself and the contrast between the alternate vision presented here with ours (and the alternate-alternative posited in the "Grasshopper"). Is there any real difference outside of our state of minds?

I thought about a similar idea when I saw signed books for sale on ebay or Amazon for steep prices. Someone could take an old copy of the same book and sign it themself using the author's name and no one would ever know, especially if the author were deceased and the signer had a copy of approximately what their sig looked like. As long as the person believed that it had been signed by the author would it really make a difference? It's only ink on paper anyway.
Don't want to give anyone ideas. I wouldn't do that of course.

I have not read this excellent book yet - on my list

 

[Mr Tagomi]

I am surprised by the negative feelings towards The Man in the High Castle on this thread... I think Dick has done a masterful job of showing us the inner thoughts and neuroses of multiple characters, even the Japanese (particularly Mr Tagomi)...

I agree with this. As you might expect from my forum name.

"The Man in the High Castle" is one of the touchstone books I keep returning to every few years. It's one of the best books I've ever read.

I've never been able to make it through any of Dick's other books, but I find this one subtle, mysterious and beautifully written.

 

[Robjwhite]

I'm slightly ashamed to say that I started reading TMINTH in uni but gave up a third of the way through. Found it to be incredibly rambling and struggled to connect with it, which was very off putting at the time as I'm a big fan of P.K. Dick. To my mind it almost felt like it was written by somebody else.

 

[Boaz]

Well my book club will begin discussing TMITHC in forty-eight hours. Time to take a shower and then get reading.

 

[JoanDrake]

I've just finished this book and I found it very good as well.

The most interesting thing for me was the contemplation on the essential difference between the real and the fake. When one character examines a valuable American antique and wonders what difference really exists between that and a good forgery. He concludes that it is nothing tangible, that the only difference is in the mind if the beholder.

This parallels with society itself and the contrast between the alternate vision presented here with ours (and the alternate-alternative posited in the "Grasshopper"). Is there any real difference outside of our state of minds?

Exactly so, Dick is one of the only SF writers, in fact one of the only writers of any kind I know of, who had a clear, central and overarching theme to just about everything he ever wrote and this was it; "What is Reality?"

If you view the novel in regard to this theme it's fairly well written and hangs together. The problem is it was also one of the first of a wave of Alternate Histories that is still going on. It won the Hugo because AH was very original in 1963 and most people still view it as an AH to this day. It IS an AH and AH is very well suited to Dick's central theme, but this novel is not an AH primarily.

The whole thing is not helped by the fact that none of Dick's works are really easy to understand. Mind you, they are very well worth the effort but you really can't expect the writings of a lifelong certifiable schizophrenic to be light bedtime reading

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Over the last two to three weeks my other half and I have been watching the tv series of TMITHC. I almost never watch tv, so this has been quite a revelation for me. I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I love the central premise, the characters are fascinating (particularly the Japanese ones), and the whole thing has depth and not too much shooty-shooty. So far, we're about to watch the series 3 concluding episode. Reviews for series 4 aren't good, so we'll have to see...

 

[paeng]

Fascinating. I read it in the Library of America collection:

 

[Farthing]

This was the best of Dick's books that I have read. I'm pleased to see it became a Penguin Modern Classic. Doing an alternative history is hard to bring off well but he did it - the reality of the society under Japanese control was solidly built, I thought.
I think Dick's stories turn into films again and again because he anticipated the feel of future decades amazingly well - the uneasiness about the future and about personal identity, that set in after the collapse the postwar boom in the 1970s.