Science fiction is a sub-genre of speculative fiction. According to Robert (2000), science fiction is a division of literature distinguishes its fictional worlds to one degree to another from the world in which we actually live. Whereas speculative fiction is more artistic than science fiction in terms of literary sophistication, appreciation of psychological depth and a heightened social awareness (Brown 2001). The Man in the High Castle is a novel by Philip K Dick that belongs to the sub-genre of science fiction known as alternate history. It looks into the past, imagining how subsequent history might have developed if the outcome of some key events or series of events had been different and poses questions such as “what if that never happened? What if the outcome had been different or the exact opposite? What if the cause if that was something else, or was this?” etc. Many science fiction is speculative as it works on the “what if?” factor, whether it is realistic (alternate outcome to a war) or seemingly unrealistic.
This novel portrays in what Brown (2001) describes as being “an illusion, that other, better worlds might exist” (p. 10). This is a central theme is demonstrated not only through the main characters of Juliana and Tagomi but also with the book that is mentioned within the novel ‘The Grasshopper lies heavy’ by Hawthorn Abendsen. Brown (2001) identifies that The Man in the High Castle gives us the chance to consider an alternate world, “a reality we are invited to compare with our own” (p. xii). Dick may have done this in order for us as readers to comprehend that the story does not lie within the characters but with the world outside of the story. A dominant theme of Dick's works is of changing the reader's perception of reality. As Brown (2001) indicates, Juliana Frink in The Man in the High Castle, "makes a discovery that changes her perception of reality - always a dominant theme in Dick's work - as she learns how Grasshopper came to be written". Even in Scanner Darkly the main character Bob Arctor scrambles from one identity to another in his role as undercover cop and friend to a junky.
The Man in the High Castle can be seen as both science fiction and speculative fiction. It has an element of Science fiction as it is set in the future and is very different to ours. However, this can fit in speculative fiction as the plot of the story is based on the alternate history of what it would be like if the outcome of World War II was different. After viewing the movie Scanner Darkly and reading the book, my opinion is that it was Dick's intention to make the reader think about the world we live in and how we live it, our own reality and our own irreality. In essence he wanted us to turn what we find familiar upside down and inside out and rethink what we believe is true to us and our own world. I did wonder at the end of High Castle that maybe the whole book was actually about Juliana's irreality. That perhaps she had imagined the whole scenario that Japan and Germany had won the war, and that all the characters in the book were just figments of her psychotic imagination. I think her killing Joe is the reader's clue that she might have been mentally unstable. Maybe the conclusion of the book was her realisation (ie: when she meets the man in the High Castle) that she had actually imagined the whole thing.
References
Brown, E. (2001). Introduction. In P. K. Dick. The man in the high castle. London: Penguin.
Dick, P.K. (2001; 1962). The Man in the High Castle. London: Penguin.
Nice answer Nishta, There is another moment in the novel that relates to your interpretation. Tagomi briefly perceives an alternative world when he is meditating over a pin containing a Wu form of "inner truth". Do you remember what he saw?
ReplyDelete