Phil Dick - The Man in the High Castle

After I finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, my interest in Phillip K. Dick increased greatly. I had never read any of his novels before a few days ago but I had always enjoyed movies that were based on his stories (ie. Blade Runner and Total Recall). In my time reading more about his biography, I stumbled upon an interview where he shares his view on the genre of science fiction. In the interview he states that the mainstream wants the population to believe that science fiction is held together by greasy, pimply-faced nerds with thick rimmed glasses lining up to get their comic books signed. Although that is totally cool with me, that's not his idea of science fiction. As can be amassed by his stories, his idea of science fiction deals with potentially recognizable futures painted in such a way that is (at times) harrowing and disturbing. The genre of science fiction is essentially a genre of ideas and he really reflects on that. He takes science fiction, a genre that has an immense amount of pulp, and rescues it from becoming a ghetto. He writes with an applicable feel that may leave the reader scratching his head and asking himself, what if that actually happened? In the two books I've read of his, Dick managed to re-vitalize the genre by bringing a certain quality back. The purpose and meaning is there. The books are of substance and quality.

I'm not very smart. But I am smart enough to know that Man in the High Castle was a pretty interesting book. It's kind of heavy. Not in a literal sense, but in a sense that there are a couple thematic elements going on. I don't know what they are, but I can tell that they're there. Well, maybe I can sense a few themes and meanings. Overall, however, I'm a person who gets more into the book itself and less into reflecting and analyzing the book. This book, however, is filled with introspection. It also asks the question of what reality is. My reality is different from my Mom's reality, which is different from Leroy's reality (homeless dude who just came up to my door asking for a shirt, pants, socks, and underwear).

This book can definitely be classified as science fiction, but I would say it's even more of an alternate history fiction book. It focuses on the events after WW2- in an era where the Axis won and jointly controlled the United States (Japan on the Pacific and Germany on the Eastern side). Racism and slavery still exist throughout the nation. In reality, both of these things still exist in 2013, just in different forms. There are essentially three plot developments in the book which are all related in some way or another. I won't get into the plot because I can always go over to Wikipedia if I want a refresher. All I can say is that this book is not what I was expecting to be, which is usually a pleasant surprise when then happens. Dick painted a different reality here than in Androids, but it is equally (if not more) unsettling. 

A book with a few elements attached to it, and one that is definitely worthy of it's Hugo award. I'm actually a little surprised that I wasn't forced to read this in my AP Lit class in high school. I probably would've hated it if we were made to read it though. I was too defiant to enjoy anything that I was made to do in high school. 

Also, I just read that SyFy acquired rights to do a 4 part miniseries with Frank Spotnitz (of X Files fame) as lead writer and Ridley Scott as a producer. Sounds like there could be a little potential.