A book to cherish

Phillip Dick – "The man in the high castle"

Dick’s wondrous master piece that awarded him the Hugo Award for best novel in 1963 is without a shadow of doubt a beautifully written piece of work. Of plain and accessible English playing around with German and Japanese colloquial English interpretations, the author weaves a grid of conspiracy and fear in a society where Germany and Japan won the second world war.

The book is based on the fear of a fantasy book called “The Grasshopper Lies heavily” by Abendsen, a forbidden book in the Germany occupied territories and “permitted” in the Japanese ones. The post war depression and acknowledgment of what would have been a world where the Axis would have controlled the world, annihilated Africa and conquered Space. It also weaves a deep critique to the Japanese and German Psyche. Whereas the German are totalitarian and hard working individuals who look for the supreme reward, whereas these are morally wrong or not, hence the total destruction of Africa and the transformation of Africans in to mere automatons in the book to the typical Japanese appropriation of a foreign culture.

In this book the Japanese will look out for identification on other cultures something these days is so common in modern Japan. The characters express the feelings of American oppression after a defeat to the Axis, a Japanese community that replaces the white Americans in both management and control of the USA, the German control of the rest of the planet and their pursuit of supremacy in every field possible, finally there is a buffer zone where one of the characters, Juliana Frink married to a Jewish counterfeit specialist, lives and that acts as the cornerstone of the development of an American revolution looking for an identity that had became diluted by the Japanese appropriation of culture.

We can without being hypocritical compare to modern society and reverse countries in the roles just leaving Japan as it is. America has won the race to space conquering and the expectations that Venus and Mars in the book’s 70’s had been won are still a remembrance of days gone by of America’s wishes.
Interestingly Great Britain seems to have been “erased” from the history and only portrayed as a cruel ambassador of violence and German excuse for fanaticism against the British isles. Sadly to this day and remembering Obama’s speech where the British were seen as the Junior allies in the second world war, the Americans still have a warped vision of the British. British nationals are either seen as thick or subservient by most of the American population but above everything else they are also seen as a representation of the Monarchy the Americans refuse but often wish they had one. The echoing of the BP incident where voices could be heard “What is the Queen doing about it?” when BP is owned by American and Canadian groups is highly amusing and shows the real state of Americanised education.

The end of the book provides a altogether different scenario. One is informed of the reality behind the story and the fact that the alternative history was written in total chance, and that really shows the shocking reality of how things would have been different if chance had played a deeper part. If Germany hadn’t invaded Russia and played decently into the NKVD politburo decisions one could have seen a complete domination of Europe. It is mere chance that leads our lives. That is maybe the books prime message. Both books follow deeply the I ching, also known as the “book of changes”. It seems that the contradiction of man lead destiny versus the randomness of changes provides a shocking dichotomy making the characters struggle with their own beliefs and providing a abandonment of the mass appropriation of the I ching, in my opinion, a form of control of the Japanese authoritarian but benevolent rule. This lack of belief in the I ching provides the stepping stone for the rebirth right at the end of the book of the American values and American pride.
The book ends abruptly, no doubt to make you think, and provided me with a void, an emptiness that I haven’t felt in a long time after reading a book. Made me see the completely randomness of life and the events we have for granted from our history.

The more tecnical details ISBN 9780141186672 £9.99 for the edition by Penguin Books