week7&8: Science Fiction

What does Brown (2001) identify as the central themes and concerns of the novel?What elements conform to the wider generic features of SF?

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick is a novel that draws in the idea of a ‘what if’ glimpse of another world. It is a novel that portrays in what Brown (2001) describes as being “an illusion, that other, better worlds might exist” (p.10). This is a central theme that is demonstrated not only through the main characters of Juliana and Tagomi but also with the book that is mentioned within the novel ‘The Grasshopper lies heavy’ by Hawthorn Abendsen. Brown (2001) identifies that The Man in the High Castle gives us the chance to consider an alternate world, “a reality we are invited to compare with our own” (p.xii). Dick may have done this in order for us as readers to comprehend that the story does not lie within the characters but with the world outside of the story.

Furthermore this idea of true reality into false reality can also be elaborated on through the story within the novel ‘The grasshopper lies heavily’. This story demonstrates an alternate world in which the “Allies won the Second World War” (Brown, 2001, p.xi). This portrays that there are two realities that we can live by, a true and a false reality. However what really defines a false reality? This novel by Abendsen is pivotal in how Juliana envisions the other better world. Her meeting with Hawthorne Abendsen is “a disappointment…and at the same time a moment of conceptual breakthrough” (Brown, 2001, p. x), in that she “changes her perception of reality” (Brown, 2001, p.xi).

It is suggested by Brown (2001) that Science fiction is “about the effects of events on individuals” (p.vii). The elements that conform to the wider generic features of SF through this novel are through an alternate history. There is an alternate universe of the story within the novel ‘The grasshopper lies heavily’ as well as the alternate history of the Allies who won the Second World War against the Axis. This portrayal of these alternate worlds is used as a vehicle to drive the idea that “reality as perceived by both reader and protagonist is a hoax” (Brown, 2001, p.vii).

This can also be demonstrated through Philip K Dicks A Scanner Darkly (2006), where the world that Arctor lives in is plagued with the drug Substance D. He becomes reliant on the drug and is eventually referred to by his superiors as incapable of doing his job as an agent, after extensive testing. He is then taken to a rehab clinic which is also responsible for making the substance D drug. Brown (2001) describes that “Dick [also] used Sci-fi to explore his obsession with meta-physics, the nature of perceived reality, good and evil and the abuse of power”. He also suggests that “his art reflected his life-and it was an eventful, troubled and chaotic life” (p.vii). The elements conformed to the wider generic features of science-fiction is a portrayal of the lives of those Dick experienced and he allows us as readers to consider the realities we live in, and in doing so draw comparisons with the realities present in his novel.

Brown, E. (2001). Introduction. In P. K. Dick. The man in the high castle (p.v-xii). London: Penguin.

Linklater, R. (Director). (2006). A Scanner Darkly. United States: Warner Independent Pictures.