Brown (2001)
identifies several themes and concerns in the novel, one being the examination
of the universe through the principals of interconnectedness – or Jungian
synchronicity. Tagomi, Juliana, Baynes and Frank Frink are like everything in
life: interconnected. Then that the world in “The Man in the High Castle” is
anything but an illusion, better worlds might exist. What if the Allies had
lost the war? Dick is telling us that there is hope for a better world. In our
real world the Allies have won the war but maybe Dick’s idea of a better world
is the world of “The Man in the High Castle” in which the Allies lost. I think
Juliana is a very close version of Dick.
I think the novel
within the novel “The Grasshopper Lies Heavy” could be a real work of science
fiction in our real world detailing an alternative world in which the Allies
lost the Second Word War.
He also identifies the
fear of implicit evil, the claustrophobic sense of being imprisoned in a world
seemingly without hope, accretes inexorably.
But I think the main
question Brown says Dick has raised is how might the march of circumstance
effect the ordinary citizen.
A mix of comments here Melba, and some confusion
ReplyDelete'I think the novel within the novel “The Grasshopper Lies Heavy” could be a real work of science fiction in our real world detailing an alternative world in which the Allies lost the Second Word War.'
No, in The Grasshopper Lies Heavy the allies won the war, a contrast to the world of the novel.
Also, the world of High Castle is a dystopia. Not a better world than ours, but ours is maybe almost as bad!