I've been a Dickhead since the 70s. He's one of my favorite authors whose books I return to year after year. Your explication of MITHC is marvelous. I hadn't made the connection to chatbots/etc .Really excellent essay on a complicated author. I urge you to read UBIK or Three Stigmata if you get the chance.
Those are next up, starting with Three Stigmata. I also have Eye in the Sky in the queue. I read Do Android over a decade ago and don’t remember enjoying it—so bleak—but I thought High Castle was fantastic.
Thanks for providing the best explanation of The Man In The High Castle I've seen. When I first read it, I was very disappointed, because of the ending. Now it makes more sense.
I saw Blade Runner when it first came out, and it blew me away. I ended up reading a bunch of Dick novels. You're right: in nearly all of them, the characters aren't sure what reality is, or who they are. The first half of Time Out of Joint is some of his best writing along those lines. I think I like UBIK the most; it's fun and entertaining, while being extremely creepy.
Now I need to look for Philip K. Dick's books - but the comparison between his writing the novel by divination using the I Ching and the use of LLMs presents the strongest argument against using AI that I have yet encountered: as a Christian, the use of divination to determine my future direction is forbidden to me.
There might be a surface level comparison to divination, but it’s substantively different. The way Dick used the I Ching mirrors how people use dice to sometimes determine plot lines.
Good post. I had forgotten that Dick used the I Ching at key points in the book to determine what would happen next. He says he doesn’t like the ending, but I’ve come to think the open-endedness of it is the best way it could end. The themes of how hard it is to do good in a corrupted world, and how sometimes all the choices, all the options are bad or tainted, creates a unique mood in the book. There’s nothing quite like it, and of course now I want to read it again.
He leaves things hanging in many of his novels, and it really works for him. We enter the world things are going on something reach a crisis, some things are resolved. Some things are still open then the book stops.
Do we really need to know how Mr. Tagomi resolved his dilemma? Something horrible is going to happen. But you could say that about any moment in history! The character of the man and his personal suffering, confronted with evil, is the story PKD tells, not the supposedly “dramatic” things that happen when there are lots of explosions and lots of people getting killed.
Dick casts a wide shadow- if you haven't read his stuff, you've read stuff written by other people who were clearly influenced by his worldview. I don't think Thomas Pynchon, for example, would have gotten away with writing books about strange and exotic places and people (in the very literay bracket that rejected Dick) if Dick hadn't provided him with a clear example.
But I believe the central theme connecting all his work is paranoia. Paranoia about the past, present and future alike, who can be believed and what can be understooad as real, and, if anything is thought to be "wrong", what might be done about. His acceptance and lionization by the counter-culture of the '60s and '70s, and his very clear prediction of our modern concern about truth and falsehoods in electronic media, means that he is now more relevant to us all than he even thought he could possibly be in his own lifetime.
I haven't read The Man in the High Castle, though I did watch the TV series, but Ubik was incredible! I anticipate reading more of his books in the future.
Joel, this is great. I really like Dick's novels, the ones I read. And I've only read about three. I remember one where the protagonist and a friend or lover, are escaping from some people to somewhere. They end up in northern California in the Sierras in this little town and all the people there are Downs Syndrome people. We had one in our family (My uncle and aunt's) who was sweet and kind. Anyway, is there a good biography of Dick you can recommend? I'm fascinated by his life, especially his end, where he seems to be sinking between two or more dimensions. He had a vision of himself as a Christian in Jesus' time, being garroted by Roman centurions.
Anyway, he was as devoted to his visions and stories and art as a Bodhisattva his prayers.
Lawrence Sutin’s “Divine Invasions” is a solid biography. Carerre’s is more [cough] imaginative (but well worth reading, once you have a good foundation in the life and the work to recognize his choices).
Yeah. Let me know. I’m fascinated by his devolution into madness or enlightenment. Sometimes it seems to me that both these conditions are the same. Thanks.
I was expecting a Christopher Marlowe moment that never came.
I adored the TV series. Such great acting, production values, and story telling.
I was particularly touched by the part where scenes alternated between the man embracing his Jewish heritage in a ceremony on the West Coast while the German Nazi leader was proclaiming “Year One” in NYC on the East Coast. It was a powerful moment.
Have fun. I love all of those novels. BTW, I was a member of the Philip K. Dick society and in one issue they published Phil's phone number and said give him a call. I chickened out. Something I have always regretted.
I’ve loved the movies based on his work but I’ve never actually read any of the source material. If I wanted to start reading his work, where would you recommend starting?
I’m pretty new to it. I’ve read Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner), but that was a long time ago. I remember it being very bleak. The Man in the High Castle is considered one of his best. Maybe start there.
Absolutely fantastic write up on one of my all time favorite novels, just finished my yearly reading of it last week so this review comes at a perfect time for me. My favorite part is when Childan meets Paul in his office to discuss the gift of the pendant. At first childan is going to go along with the plan of mass production until he sees how Paul was subtly manipulating him into going along, while getting him to agree that the jewelry was crap. His inner monologue is a masterpiece of writing, he takes childan from a perspective of submission to one of dominance in making Paul apologize to him. Looking back at all of dicks work one has to think he is a prophet, from the corporate run drug cartels in scanner darkly, to the coming fake realities of total recall, AI precrime monitoring in Minority Report, and the consequences of creating robotic life like in Blade Runner.
I love childans character,one of my all time favorite literary characters. I also love Tagomi’s plot line, the part where he goes to childan’s shop is a great intersection of 2 people whose lives have been utterly transformed and they both sense it in the other, that unseen events can cause profound ramifications.
Amazing summary and inspiring story about one of the great greats! Thank God his literary ambitions were squelched completely. That brought us the greatest imagination since Lewis Carroll.
There's a book called Only Apparently Real, which is two long interviews with PKD. Then, there's a timeline of the books according to when he wrote them, not when they were published. There's so much insight to him and his body of work that's nowhere else.
I've been a Dickhead since the 70s. He's one of my favorite authors whose books I return to year after year. Your explication of MITHC is marvelous. I hadn't made the connection to chatbots/etc .Really excellent essay on a complicated author. I urge you to read UBIK or Three Stigmata if you get the chance.
Those are next up, starting with Three Stigmata. I also have Eye in the Sky in the queue. I read Do Android over a decade ago and don’t remember enjoying it—so bleak—but I thought High Castle was fantastic.
Thanks for providing the best explanation of The Man In The High Castle I've seen. When I first read it, I was very disappointed, because of the ending. Now it makes more sense.
I saw Blade Runner when it first came out, and it blew me away. I ended up reading a bunch of Dick novels. You're right: in nearly all of them, the characters aren't sure what reality is, or who they are. The first half of Time Out of Joint is some of his best writing along those lines. I think I like UBIK the most; it's fun and entertaining, while being extremely creepy.
I’m pretty new to his work and very eager to read more.
Now I need to look for Philip K. Dick's books - but the comparison between his writing the novel by divination using the I Ching and the use of LLMs presents the strongest argument against using AI that I have yet encountered: as a Christian, the use of divination to determine my future direction is forbidden to me.
There might be a surface level comparison to divination, but it’s substantively different. The way Dick used the I Ching mirrors how people use dice to sometimes determine plot lines.
Good post. I had forgotten that Dick used the I Ching at key points in the book to determine what would happen next. He says he doesn’t like the ending, but I’ve come to think the open-endedness of it is the best way it could end. The themes of how hard it is to do good in a corrupted world, and how sometimes all the choices, all the options are bad or tainted, creates a unique mood in the book. There’s nothing quite like it, and of course now I want to read it again.
Yeah, I thought the ending worked given what’s happening in the story. It’s not tidy. But nothing in the story is very tidy.
He leaves things hanging in many of his novels, and it really works for him. We enter the world things are going on something reach a crisis, some things are resolved. Some things are still open then the book stops.
Do we really need to know how Mr. Tagomi resolved his dilemma? Something horrible is going to happen. But you could say that about any moment in history! The character of the man and his personal suffering, confronted with evil, is the story PKD tells, not the supposedly “dramatic” things that happen when there are lots of explosions and lots of people getting killed.
Well said, I agree completely.
Dick casts a wide shadow- if you haven't read his stuff, you've read stuff written by other people who were clearly influenced by his worldview. I don't think Thomas Pynchon, for example, would have gotten away with writing books about strange and exotic places and people (in the very literay bracket that rejected Dick) if Dick hadn't provided him with a clear example.
But I believe the central theme connecting all his work is paranoia. Paranoia about the past, present and future alike, who can be believed and what can be understooad as real, and, if anything is thought to be "wrong", what might be done about. His acceptance and lionization by the counter-culture of the '60s and '70s, and his very clear prediction of our modern concern about truth and falsehoods in electronic media, means that he is now more relevant to us all than he even thought he could possibly be in his own lifetime.
Paranoia makes total sense in the context of High Castle. I’m eager to see how that plays out in other books. I’ve got more in the queue.
I haven't read The Man in the High Castle, though I did watch the TV series, but Ubik was incredible! I anticipate reading more of his books in the future.
I’ve always heard great things about that one.
Joel, this is great. I really like Dick's novels, the ones I read. And I've only read about three. I remember one where the protagonist and a friend or lover, are escaping from some people to somewhere. They end up in northern California in the Sierras in this little town and all the people there are Downs Syndrome people. We had one in our family (My uncle and aunt's) who was sweet and kind. Anyway, is there a good biography of Dick you can recommend? I'm fascinated by his life, especially his end, where he seems to be sinking between two or more dimensions. He had a vision of himself as a Christian in Jesus' time, being garroted by Roman centurions.
Anyway, he was as devoted to his visions and stories and art as a Bodhisattva his prayers.
There must be a couple good biographies but I don’t know of any. I’ll have to explore.
Lawrence Sutin’s “Divine Invasions” is a solid biography. Carerre’s is more [cough] imaginative (but well worth reading, once you have a good foundation in the life and the work to recognize his choices).
Just Ordered a bio by Peake and also Carerre's. Will look forward to it. Thanks.
Yeah. Let me know. I’m fascinated by his devolution into madness or enlightenment. Sometimes it seems to me that both these conditions are the same. Thanks.
Fascinating.
I was expecting a Christopher Marlowe moment that never came.
I adored the TV series. Such great acting, production values, and story telling.
I was particularly touched by the part where scenes alternated between the man embracing his Jewish heritage in a ceremony on the West Coast while the German Nazi leader was proclaiming “Year One” in NYC on the East Coast. It was a powerful moment.
Frink’s conflicted identity is a great angle.
Have fun. I love all of those novels. BTW, I was a member of the Philip K. Dick society and in one issue they published Phil's phone number and said give him a call. I chickened out. Something I have always regretted.
Ah! Missed opportunity!
I’ve loved the movies based on his work but I’ve never actually read any of the source material. If I wanted to start reading his work, where would you recommend starting?
I’m pretty new to it. I’ve read Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner), but that was a long time ago. I remember it being very bleak. The Man in the High Castle is considered one of his best. Maybe start there.
Thanks
Absolutely fantastic write up on one of my all time favorite novels, just finished my yearly reading of it last week so this review comes at a perfect time for me. My favorite part is when Childan meets Paul in his office to discuss the gift of the pendant. At first childan is going to go along with the plan of mass production until he sees how Paul was subtly manipulating him into going along, while getting him to agree that the jewelry was crap. His inner monologue is a masterpiece of writing, he takes childan from a perspective of submission to one of dominance in making Paul apologize to him. Looking back at all of dicks work one has to think he is a prophet, from the corporate run drug cartels in scanner darkly, to the coming fake realities of total recall, AI precrime monitoring in Minority Report, and the consequences of creating robotic life like in Blade Runner.
The dynamic between Childan and the Japanese is fascinating. So much great character interplay with subtle tugs and pushing.
I love childans character,one of my all time favorite literary characters. I also love Tagomi’s plot line, the part where he goes to childan’s shop is a great intersection of 2 people whose lives have been utterly transformed and they both sense it in the other, that unseen events can cause profound ramifications.
Amazing summary and inspiring story about one of the great greats! Thank God his literary ambitions were squelched completely. That brought us the greatest imagination since Lewis Carroll.
There's a book called Only Apparently Real, which is two long interviews with PKD. Then, there's a timeline of the books according to when he wrote them, not when they were published. There's so much insight to him and his body of work that's nowhere else.
Love this book.