The Man in the High Castle
The Man in the High Castle is an alternate history novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. Published and set in 1962, the novel takes place fifteen years after an alternative ending to World War II, and concerns intrigues between the victorious Axis Powers—primarily, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany—as they rule over the former United States, as well as daily life under the resulting totalitarian rule. The Man in the High Castle won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1963. Beginning in 2015, the book was adapted as a multi-season TV series, with Dick's daughter, Isa Dick Hackett, serving as one of the show's producers. Reported inspirations include Ward Moore's alternate Civil War history, Bring the Jubilee (1953), various classic World War II histories, and the I Ching (referred to in the novel). The novel features a "novel within the novel" comprising an alternate history within this alternate history wherein the Allies defeat the Axis (though in a manner distinct from the actual historical outcome).
Stats for nerds
25recommend
83mentions
76people
2009–2026years
33% recommend59% neutral8% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- 20 years ago I read a The Guardian article about the "top geek novels". I immediately read a bunch of those.
Recently I managed to find the list again, and it's been endless pleasure:
- American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
- Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
- The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett
- Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks
- Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson
- Cloud Atlas -- David Mitchell
- The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
- The Dispossessed -- Ursula K Le Guin
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick
- Dune -- Frank Herbert
- Foundation -- Isaac Asimov
- Giles Goat-Boy -- John Barth
- Gravity's Rainbow -- Thomas Pynchon
- The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
- I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov
- The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
- The Left Hand of Darkness -- Ursula K Le Guin
- The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick
- Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland
- Neuromancer -- William Gibson
- Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell
- Orlando -- Virgina Woolf
- The Shockwave Rider -- John Brunner
- Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
- Stand on Zanzibar -- John Brunner
- Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
- Trouble with lichen - John Wyndham
- UBIK -- Philip Dick
- Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
- Woman on the Edge of Time -- Marge Piercy
(I am creatively interpreting "The Colour of Magic" as "all Discworld", "Dune" as "the six Dune books", etc.)
- > (this is one of the premises of The Man in the High Castle, which is likely to age better than most sci fi TV series)
The Hugo award winning book it's based on is much better.
> FDR’s New Deal saved the entire planet from a descent into Nazism and Japanese imperial rule
The 'New Deal' saved the US from internal revolution; Huey Long. Nazism was doomed when Hitler invaded Russia, declaring war on America was just the nail in the coffin.
- For me, reading sci-fi in the 80s and 90s, my pantheon was (in no particular order):
Philip K. Dick (Man in the High Castle)
William Gibson (Neuromancer)
Neil Stephenson (Diamond Age)
Vernor Vinge (Across Realtime)
Greg Egan (Permutation City)
Robert Reed (Sister Alice)
John Varley (Eight Worlds series)
I'm sure every generation has its pantheon--I wonder what it is for Millennials and Gen Z.
- > certain types of non-native english always have a feel to them which reflects the mismatch between two languages
This. My partner always speaks frenglish (french english) after talking to her parents. You have to know a little French to understand her sentences. They’re all English words, but the phraseology is all French.
I do the same with Slovenian. The words are all English, but the shape is Slovenian. It adds a lot of soul to your words.
It can also be topic dependent. When I describe memories from home in English, the language sounds more Slovenian. Likewise when I talk about American stuff to my parents, my Slovenian sounds more English.
ChatGPT would lose all that color.
Read Man In The High Castle to see this for yourself. Whole book is English but you can tell the different nationalities of each character because the shape of their English changes. Philip K Dick used this masterfully.
- Strangely enough, he thinks The Man in the High Castle is not worth reading, so I wouldn't follow his advice blindly.
It is highly readable for me, a PKD's masterpiece. I've reread it multiple times and each time it seems better.
- I have read alot of scifi, both good and bad, but PKD stands apart not in competition but as his own category. Not in a literary sense but by practicing what one might call therapeutic philosophy that aims to sooth the lack of answers to eternal questions. Especially Man in the High Castle where he explores alternate "nearby" realities, our ability to sense them and in what sense we have agency to shape our destiny.
