Week 7-8: Sci-Fi [Julie]

What does Brown (2001) identify as the central themes and concerns of the novel?

Brown (2001) identified many themes in The Man in the High Castle such as totalitarianism and Eastern philosophy but the central theme would be metaphysics – Philip K. Dick’s obsession with alternate realities and what the perceived reality of the characters and even the readers is a complete and utter falsehood. Brown (2001) continued to say “Dick suggests that the world presented in 'The Man in the High Castle' is but an illusion, that other, better worlds might exist”, and surely to us readers, it is an illusion. Or is it?


Although The Man in the High Castle is a speculative fiction, it does share similarities with the broader SF genre. It does include the typical rocket ships and futuristic living conditions – but only for the Japanese and Germans. They always get the good stuff.

I like the fact that speculative fiction is so feasible, that perhaps right now, we're in that world inside "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" or a whole other world. Maybe the Germans and the Japanese did win and we'll never know the difference. I had the same thoughts as Captain Wegener as he rode the Lufthansa ME9-E rocket on his way to Europe. He mused, “Even if all life on our planet is destroyed, there must be other life somewhere which we know nothing of. It is impossible that ours is the only world; there must be world after world unseen by us, in some region or dimension that we simply do not perceive. Even though I can't prove that, even though it isn't logical - I believe it” (Dick, 1962). While reading The Man in the High Castle, I had those thoughts and I found myself going a little bit paranoid too. Like Juliana Frink and other characters who believed they were in an alternate universe and panicked, so did I. It literally made me bang my head on the desk.


Man in the High Castle is a bit like Inception. There are simply too many worlds and what ifs for one mind to wrap itself on. Not that I didn't enjoy both.

References:

Brown, E. (2001). Introduction. In Dick, P.K., The Man in the High Castle (p.v-xii). London: Penguin.
Dick, P.K. (2001; 1962). The Man in the High Castle. London: Penguin.