In Reply to: 'The Man in the High Castle': Ten hour journey for closet Nazi's . . . posted by Billy Wonka on January 1, 2016 at 14:52:21:
I'll admit the novel seemed to add up to something less than the sum of its parts. Particularly, the final big reveal just seemed to be understated.
Truth be told, I had to read the novel twice to finally understand that I had read it right the first time through.
Yup, the I-Ching. Alternate histories. I guess Dick didn't want to justify or validate the alternate history thing with quantum physics or string theory or.....
Instead he just says the I-Ching wrote that novel; "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy", where the Germans and Japanese did not win WWII. And that guy, the author credited with writing the book. The man in the high castle...after making that journey to find him, Juliana finds that his answers were somehow anti-climactic. Which makes the ending of this novel anti-climactic.
That said, I consider Philip K. Dick, the sci-fi author, to be highly significant and tend to watch all of the movies made from his novels and short stories as much for study as for pleasure.
He was an idea man. Some of his short stories are just quick sketches of an idea for a story. Others are fully formed and well narrated.
The more I read this author the more I realize how varied and uneven is the total library of his work.
Of course I'll get around to watching this series. I have to.
-Steve
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Follow Ups
- RE: 'read the novel....have yet to watch the video... - user510 12:56:53 01/02/16 (4)
- The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick ... - musetap 16:55:39 01/02/16 (3)
- RE: I've ventured as far as 'Valis'..... - user510 17:42:57 01/02/16 (2)
- RE: different meaning for the term "Dickhead".... - user510 14:40:17 01/06/16 (1)
- As an early subscriber to the PKD fan club... - musetap 20:56:21 01/06/16 (0)