Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
TITLE: Man in the High Castle
AUTHOR: Philip Kindred Dick 1928-82
TYPE novel hardbound
PUBLISHER: Putnam
COVER PRICE: $
ISBN:
PAGES: 213
COPYRIGHT: 1962 by author
PUB DATE: November 1962
EDITION: Science Fiction Book Club
COVER ARTIST: Robert Galster
INDEX: 0112 - Man in the High Castle - 007 - PKD - IFB
QUOTE “Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can't talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful.” Philip K. Dick
CULPABILITY: All images posted are from publications owned by RC/\Weazel. RC/\Weazel performed image scanning, editing and the compiling of bibliographic data.
ISFDB: Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base.
RATING: On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being great and 1 don’t read.
NO entry indicates specific information not available from book.
The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick [0596 - Mar 19 2015]
"Taking the book - "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" - she read the back part of the jacket...I heard someone say that he's almost a sort of paranoid; charged barbed wire around the places and it's set in the mountains The High Castle - that's his pet name for it". from "The Man in the High Castle"
Philip K. Dick's (1928-82) "The Man in the High Castle" (1962) is an alternate history novel. This trope is commonly used in science fiction to explore history's what-ifs - as in what if Kennedy was not assassinated or in this story of what if Japan and Germany won WW2. The success of this book, I believe, is that Dick does not overly dwell on how the US was defeated - but on what it would be like living in the United States occupied in the West by Japan and in the East by Germany. The characters for the most part are common folk: shop keepers, factory workers, an author, a divorced women having an affair - familiar to readers of Dick's stories.
One of the principal story pivots is a controversial book "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" by H. Abendsen, a resident of the supposable "neutral" Rocky Mountain States who resided in the High Castle - his fortified home. The "Grasshopper" presents a compelling realistic "history" of the defeat of the Axis during WW2. Surprisingly the Japanese do not fret about this books circulation but the Nazi's are so incensed they send goons to assassinated Abendsen. The book is quoted and several principle characters ponder its relevance and meaning.
Another theme that permeates this story is the use of the I Ching as a divination text by many individuals, both Japanese, and whites to determine how to proceed when faced with confounding decisions.
This is a carefully crafted story that still resonates with many readers and, I believe, elevated Dick far above his contemporaries is the science-fiction community.
Having read most of Dick's novels I would opine that this is the one book I would recommend first to an interested person. It is fully permeated with Dick's distinctive observation on religion, reality and interpersonal relationships. Yet it holds together as a convincingly accessible story without spiraling into too many unusual discourses. Discourses that make him such an object of curiosity to many readers, myself included, I may add.
Of interest is that Amazon is producing a television series based upon this novel in 2015.
Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
TITLE: Man in the High Castle
AUTHOR: Philip Kindred Dick 1928-82
TYPE novel hardbound
PUBLISHER: Putnam
COVER PRICE: $
ISBN:
PAGES: 213
COPYRIGHT: 1962 by author
PUB DATE: November 1962
EDITION: Science Fiction Book Club
COVER ARTIST: Robert Galster
INDEX: 0112 - Man in the High Castle - 007 - PKD - IFB
QUOTE “Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can't talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful.” Philip K. Dick
CULPABILITY: All images posted are from publications owned by RC/\Weazel. RC/\Weazel performed image scanning, editing and the compiling of bibliographic data.
ISFDB: Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base.
RATING: On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being great and 1 don’t read.
NO entry indicates specific information not available from book.
The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick [0596 - Mar 19 2015]
"Taking the book - "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" - she read the back part of the jacket...I heard someone say that he's almost a sort of paranoid; charged barbed wire around the places and it's set in the mountains The High Castle - that's his pet name for it". from "The Man in the High Castle"
Philip K. Dick's (1928-82) "The Man in the High Castle" (1962) is an alternate history novel. This trope is commonly used in science fiction to explore history's what-ifs - as in what if Kennedy was not assassinated or in this story of what if Japan and Germany won WW2. The success of this book, I believe, is that Dick does not overly dwell on how the US was defeated - but on what it would be like living in the United States occupied in the West by Japan and in the East by Germany. The characters for the most part are common folk: shop keepers, factory workers, an author, a divorced women having an affair - familiar to readers of Dick's stories.
One of the principal story pivots is a controversial book "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" by H. Abendsen, a resident of the supposable "neutral" Rocky Mountain States who resided in the High Castle - his fortified home. The "Grasshopper" presents a compelling realistic "history" of the defeat of the Axis during WW2. Surprisingly the Japanese do not fret about this books circulation but the Nazi's are so incensed they send goons to assassinated Abendsen. The book is quoted and several principle characters ponder its relevance and meaning.
Another theme that permeates this story is the use of the I Ching as a divination text by many individuals, both Japanese, and whites to determine how to proceed when faced with confounding decisions.
This is a carefully crafted story that still resonates with many readers and, I believe, elevated Dick far above his contemporaries is the science-fiction community.
Having read most of Dick's novels I would opine that this is the one book I would recommend first to an interested person. It is fully permeated with Dick's distinctive observation on religion, reality and interpersonal relationships. Yet it holds together as a convincingly accessible story without spiraling into too many unusual discourses. Discourses that make him such an object of curiosity to many readers, myself included, I may add.
Of interest is that Amazon is producing a television series based upon this novel in 2015.