Lockdown Musings: The man in the High Castle

Pop culture Element:  Book/Tv show
Name: The Man in the High Castle
Author;  Philip K dick

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I started reading this book after watching the first season of the show in the Amazon Prime. I was definitely a big fan of Philip K dick as I had finished his collection of sci-fi short stories and the book "Do Androids Dream of electric sheep".I realized that the show is definitely loosely based on the book and hence wanted to read the book before watching more.

The alternate reality presented in the book where the USA has lost WWII is very believable. There is a book in the plot read by the main characters that speak of a world where the USA won the world war called "The grasshopper lies heavy".This was quite intriguing for me as it is too much to wrap your head around.  But the whole similarity between the show and the book ends here I guess although characters of Juliana, Joe, Tagomi all exist.

What didn't work for me in the book is the weak character development which keeps the reader guessing the true loyalties of each of the characters. Even the character themselves seem confused about their purposes. But maybe with the big reveal at the end that was expected. There is this use of a Chinese divination book called I Ching by all the major characters in each juncture of the plot. I think this is symbolic of the Western culture accepting the traditions in the east because they are being ruled by them. The author has used Childan's monologues to express what an average American thinks of Japanese culture as he still thinks it is superior. This also is an indicator of what forms a country's culture. A culture is built by history it has witnessed.No matter how atrocious that history has been it becomes a part of the collective psyche of the society.

The Japanese administrator Tagomi represents the Japanese counterpart who is slowly losing his grip on the belief system he had. I quite didn't understand the ending maybe that's the reason I was not overwhelmed by the big reveal.In fact the climax is rather open-ended and open for individual interpretation.

A good read for "Dickian" Philip K. Dick style of sci-fi, although this is much more philosophical than scientific.

 I will update this post after watching the Tv shows which seems to have deviated quite a bit.

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