The Man in The High Castle/ Sci-Fi

Philip K. Dick’s novel Man in the High Castle is described by Brown(2001) as being ‘one of the best science fiction novels ever published’ (pg.) and part of that credibility, can be put down to Dick’s intricate inclusion of the ancient Chinese divination text I-Ching.

Mountfort(2006) notes that there are ten oracle consultations in the story dictating events and decisions of different characters. However the role of the I-Ching goes beyond textual in Dick’s novel.  As Mountfort writes, Dick credited the ancient text to have in one sense written Man in the High Castle, as he personally posed questions and referred to readings on behalf of his characters to determine the path the novel would take. It would appear to me, more difficult to blindly write a novel whilst relying on an oracle text for plot clues, though as Brown (2001) states Dick “claimed that he plotted as he wrote” (pg.6). Given his nature of writing, perhaps this could be why Dick was so successful in using the I-Ching like he did, and why many claim Man in the High Castle to be one of his greatest fiction works.

The more we begin to understand as readers, how big a part the I-Ching played in the writing of Man in the High Castle the more we understand how it is related to the dominant themes in Dick’s work. Brown(2001) highlights one of the more common themes in Dick’s work surrounding perceptions of reality, what is real and what is not, and parallel realities. If we consider this theme in relation to the use of the I-Ching in Man in the High Castle, an underlying relation between the two can be recognised.

The method used in writing the plot lines with the oracle text, also becomes a direct reflection of the novel within the novel, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, where the character author Abendsen writes a novel using the I-Ching just the same as Dick has done in constructing Man in the High Castle. It also becomes apparent at the ending of the novel that The Grasshopper Lies Heavy is in fact, according to the oracle text, ‘inner truth’.

Raising his head, Hawthorne scrutinized her. He had now and almost savage expression. “It means, does it, that my book is true?”

“Yes” she Said.     –Man in the High Castle (pg.220)

This then implies that Abundsen’s novel is in fact a reality of some kind, one that we as readers can relate to as our own.

As a result the reader is left questioning a favoured theme of Dick’s, of what reality is and what it is not.

I find the themes and ideas in Dick’s novel to be advanced for their time, and rather radical. Originally published in 1962, the novel is a precursor to such more modern forms of literature which questions reality like Sliding Doors (1998), The Matrix (1999), and Inception (2010) making Dick more or less an underrated fore bearer of science fiction. 

Reference List

Brown, E. (2001). Introduction in Dick, P.K. The Man in the High Castle. (pg.5-12) London: Penguin. 

Dick, P.K. (1976; 1962) The Man in the High Castle. Great Britain: A. Wheaton & Co Exeter, 

Mountfort, P. (2006). Oracle-text/ Cybertext in Phillip K. Dick's The Man in The High Castle. Conference paper, Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association annual joint conference, Atlanta, 2006.