Week 7 & 8 - Science Fiction

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

What elements conform to the wider generic features of SF? 

The novel "The Man in the High Castle" is about the second World War (a.k.a. WWII). In the novel the United States remains stuck in a depression and this depression is what causes them to lose the War to the German's and Hilter. Due to this happening Japan and Germany join together to rule countries that were once independent. The central theme of the novel is war, that is where the whole novel started from. The theme creates the rest of the novel and the tone that Philip K. Dick wanted the reader to feel from reading it. As well as themes the novel has it also has concerns which create tension in the novel. The concerns in "The Man in the High Castle" are the difference of ruling; Japan ruling somewhat peacefully, sharing cultures and creating diversity. Ironically Germany rules with an iron-fist, doing whatever they want including killing the Jews, draining the Mediterranean Sea and exterminating portions of Africa. 

"And then he thought about Africa, and the Nazi experiment there. And his blood stopped in his veins, hesitated, at last went on. That huge empty ruin." (Chapter 1, pg. 11)

That huge empty ruin, this quote from the novel is demonstrating what has happened to Africa due to the Germans rule which is one of the main concerns in the novel. The difference between Japans and Germanys ruling.  

"Still, it had taken two hundred years to dispose of the American aborigines, and Germany had almost done it in Africa in fifteen years." (Chapter 2, pg. 25)

The concerns in the novel affect the community because "The Man in the High Castle" is literally a mirror of what could have happened at the end of WWII, since the novel is the basis of a true event. In the novel even though both Germany and Japan won the different ways of rules causes concern when a threat of nuclear conflict between them is presented. The novel is alternately a different outcome to how WWII could have ended making the reader ever more engrossed. 

Brown refers to "The Man in the High Castle" having the central themes different to any other science fiction novel. That "while much Sci-Fi of the time extrapolated from the hard sciences, Dick used SF to explore his obsession with metaphysics, the nature of perceived reality, good and evil, and the abuse of power. He was obsessed with the idea that the universe was only apparently real, an illusion behind which the truth might dwell", the central themes of the novel were different to any other science fiction novel, they discuss the abuse of power and the outcome of that. Dick also wanted his novels to have "characters [that were] drawn from real life, composites of people he knew and versions of himself". 

Brown also states that the main concerns in the novel is that Germany is viewed as the true evil and that early in the novel we learn that Germany has already applied the final solution not only to the Jews but to the real of the countries the Germans rule. We learn that Hilter is insane and incarcerated in a psychiatric institution. Later on in the novel, Dick wants the reader to understand the extent of how evil the Nazis are, although he does "refrain from crudely showing us, via direct action, the terror of Nazi rule". The terror of the Nazi rule is one of the concerns in the novel, it isn't shown or describe in great detail, it is just the fact of the unknown and that they rule. 

Dick wrote his work to reflect on his life, although his most famous pieces of writing are science fiction based they relate to how chaotic his life was. His personal life was eventful, he suffered failure "In 1961, after a two year period in which he wrote three mainstream novels (which failed to sell) Dick returned to science fiction with what many critics regard as his finest novel, The Man in the High Castle." and personal problems "and yet, during the course of five failed marriages, psychiatric therapy and drug dependency, he continued to write some of the most strikingly original science fiction novels of the sixties and seventies."

Dick consulted "I, Ching" to predict the outcomes of his novel, which is as bizarre as it is incredible. Although the I Ching helped him write the novel he used his personal experience to complete it making "The Man in the High Castle" his best published work.

Reference:

Brown, Z. (2001). Introduction. In Dick, P. K.,The man in the high castle. (p.v-xii). London: Penguin.