Weeks 7 and 8
Science fiction - PKD
1) What is the difference in emphasis between the terms science fiction and speculative fiction? Which is The Man in the High Castle?
2) According to Mountfort (2006), what role does the I Ching have as an organisational device in the structure of Man in the High Castle? How does the use of this device illuminate the character of the novel’s protagonists?
3What does Brown (2001) identify as the central themes and concerns of the novel? What elements conform to the wider generic features of science fiction?
4) What does Dick(1995) himself theorise about the I Ching?
5) A Scanner Darkly is not really Science Fiction but a thinly disguised autobiography.
A Scanner Darkly is true Science Fiction in that it takes a trend in society, in this case surveillance, and takes it to its logical extreme.
Comment on these two different views with reference to the film and/or the novel and what you can discover about the author's life.
1) What is the difference in emphasis between the terms science fiction and speculative fiction? Which is The Man in the High Castle?
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what is speculative fiction and what is the definition of speculative. According to Annie Neugebauer, speculative fiction is the huge genre that includes fantasy, science fiction, and horror. There are many similarities and combination, but they could be actually different genres. Science fiction is more based on science elements, the events that might happen in the future or according to contemporary knowledge people still couldn’t proof and understand. For example, time travel and aliens. Speculative fiction tends to be fantasy, the world of speculative fictions is different from the real world completely, the world of speculative allow the existence of mysterious creatures and supernatural factors, which are impossible to happen in our real world, also readers are able to understand the new “law”. As the result, the difference between science fiction and speculative fiction is even though “fiction” is meant unreal, but science fiction is an image that could be possible happen in our real world.
“The Man In the High Castle” is a speculative fiction. The story is based on the alternative history incidents World War II and Cold War. Philip K. Dick is great in worldbuilding, in “High Castle” the world setting has Nazi won the World War II and the United States has been taken over by Japanese. It is similar to “The Tale of Handmaiden” by Margaret Atwood, the United States took over by the Totalitarianism and Christian theonomic government Gilead. The author is changing the real and possible, so that make me think “The Man in the High Castle” is more like speculative fiction.
Reference
Annie Neugebauer (2014). What is speculative fiction. Retrieved March 24, 2014 from http://annieneugebauer.com/2014/03/24/what-is-speculative-fiction/
John Saavedra (2015) Here are some reasons why you must watch and read Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle before you die. Retrieved November 19, 2015 from http://www.denofgeek.com/us/books-comics/the-man-in-the-high-castle/242951/why-the-man-in-the-high-castle-is-essential-science-fiction
Question 3:
ReplyDeleteWhat does Brown (2001) identify as the central themes and concerns of the novel? What elements conform to the wider generic features of science fiction?
The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick, is a science fiction novel that describes a world which is America after world war two, if Japan and Germany had won. Split into the east coast being Japanese, and the west being ruled by Nazis, leaving Canada in a free state. This is essentially a what if? scenario with a twist. The main propeller in this novel is the I Ching oracle and the novel within a novel- the Grasshopper Lies Heavy by Hawthorn Abendsen, who is the man in the high castle.
“Like all good science fiction, was less prescriptive of what was to come than descriptive of the present.” Brown (2001)
The central themes and concerns of the novel are the perceptions of reality and fate of the world within the novel, and in our own.
“There are no neat resolutions in the man in the high castle.” Brown (2001).
Through the many different characters, the reader sees that they all have an alternate view on their reality, due to their social status, ethnicity and where in America they reside.
Philip K. Dick includes a philosophy of life that places the characters in a world that is very different to the one we are living in, and to one that doesn’t exist, but could have. Dick makes us think about how the world could have been like, and this is shown through the main characters. His characters have been drawn from people he knew as well as versions of himself.
Through the characters stories, they determine the reader’s own perception of their/ our world we live in, and what can be changed or what has already changed to benefit humanity, or that has restricted us.
“All the characters are interrelated like the I Ching.” Brown (2001).
Most of the characters use the I Ching to guide them in their lives. Some use it for career success like Frank Frink, others for spiritual beliefs- Mr Tagomi, and Juliana Frink (Frank Frink’s wife), uses it for absolute guidance in her life.
“The novel's two main characters consult the / Ching. In many ways Juliana is the novel's most passive character; she consults the / Ching less through a spiritual motivation than a need of direction -and yet through Juliana and her actions we are offered a glimpse of the truth that is the crux of the novel.” Brown (2001).
ReplyDeleteThe fate of the novel is that everyone is unsure, nothing is planned even as much as they think things are. This is what Dick has encompassed within the novel.
“Just as we cannot be sure of the fate of individual characters, we are left wondering at the fate of the world. As with all great literature, the man in the high castle grants us an insight into the minds of real, fully developed characters moulded by circumstance; like all great SF, it gives us a what if glimpse of another world, a reality we are invited to compare with our own.” Brown (2001).
This novel shows what the abuse of power can do and how people use it for their own gain, or disposal. Fate is what people make of it, and it can always change.
The features of science fiction used, are that Philip K. Dick has created an alternate world in which characters operate. These characters face challenges and difficulties because of this world, and that is what drives the narrative, and keeps the reader engaged in this substitute world.
“Science fiction is about the effects of events on individuals. One of the many strengths of his work was the empathy with which he wrote about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.” Brown (2001).
With this novel being set in a fictional world, it would be clear that there is some sort of illusion between the reader and the novel. Similarly, the character in the story are under some sort of illusion, they are nearly all tricked of the truth and lies are apparent to the reader, if not to the character.
“Dick used SF to explore his obsession with meta-physics, the nature of perceived reality, good and evil, and the abuse of power. He was obsessed with the idea that the universe was only apparently real, an illusion behind which the truth might dwell.” Brown (2001).
4) What was does Dick (1995) himself theorise about the I Ching?
ReplyDeleteFor Philip K Dick, the Iching (The Book of Changes) “Works on the basis of synchronicity”. Carl Jung, who coined the term synchronicity, described it as "meaningful coincidences" which seem related but have no causal interaction. The hypothesis, as interpreted by Dick, refers “ to acausal connectives, or rather events linked” and “occurring outside of time” as opposed to the cause and effect elements of linear time. The I Ching is inherently connected with synchronicity as it is a divinatory book based on acausal concepts.
Dick compares the experience of a Schizophrenic to the idea of synchronicity and he concludes the similarities between the two. He explains that the element of time is very different for a Schizophrenic, rather than observing things one after the other, “the schizophrenic is having it all now” and causality does not exist.
2) According to Mountfort (2006), what role does the I Ching have as an organisational device in the structure of Man in the High Castle? How does the use of this device illuminate the character of the novel’s protagonists?
In a groundbreaking technique, Dick uses the I Ching as a mechanism to construct the narrative of his novel, Man in the High Castle. According to Mountfort (2006), Dick consulted the I ching at “various critical junctures in the novel regarding the situations his characters faced”. The use of the Oracle and provided instances throughout the text of symmetrical scenarios between the protagonist who have never interacted, and this is not surprising as Dick embraced the I Chings “synchronistic view of time” (Mountfort, 2006). An example this acuasal symmetry in the text would be the first two consultations by Frink and the first to consultations by Tagomi. Paul Mountfort describes these first four questions posed by the two characters as being “doublets” because they “mirror each other by being concerned in the first instance with an upcoming meeting with another of the novel’s characters, and in the second with the hidden or occluded reality of a situation” (Mountfort, 2006).
The final consultations also explore the interconnectedness of two unacquainted characters (Tagomi and Juliana) this time relating to the answers the I Ching provides. Both answers can be interpreted as inner truth. Tagomi receives the inner truth hexagram after his brief entrance into another dimension. Juliana receives hers after inquiring about Grasshopper Lies Heavy, the novel-within-a-novel depicting a reality where the Nazis and the Japanese lost the war (our reality). This is the reality that Tagomi entered. These last auguries provide not only a “shared synchronistically by these two main characters” but also a “terrifying insight into the relationship between the real and fictional”.
References
Dick, P.K. (1995). Schizophrenia and the I Ching. In Sutin, L. (Ed.), The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (pp.175-182). New York: Vintage.
Mountfort, P. (2006). Oracle-text/Cybertext in Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. Conference paper, Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association annual joint conference, Atlanta, 2006.
Q. What is the difference in emphasis between the terms science fiction and speculative fiction? Which is The Man in the High Castle?
ReplyDeleteA. Sterling (n.d.) defines Science Fiction as “a form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals”. The plausibility of such science or technology in present time can vary from very plausible science like cybernetics and robots to implausible science like crystal powered laser swords and time travel.
Neugebauer (2014) defines Speculative fictions as an umbrella term for sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and historical fiction in which the “laws” of a world are different from our own. Usually featuring some sort of ‘what if?’ element “in which the author speculates upon the results of changing what’s real or possible”.
The Man in the High Castle falls under the genre of Speculative Fiction, more specifically Alternate History. The story is predominantly a ‘what if?’ scenario as to what the world would be like if the Nazis had won the war. The Man in the High Castle doesn’t technically fall under the Science Fiction umbrella, more so the Historical Fiction branch of Speculative Fiction, which Neugebauer (2014) describes as “historical fiction with speculation thrown in, such as supernatural elements added, a shift in the real timeline, etc.”, the later including alternate history, which is the main idea of the text.
References:
Neugebauer, A. (2014, March 24). What Is Speculative Fiction? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://annieneugebauer.com/2014/03/24/what-is-speculative-fiction/
Sterling, B. (n.d.). science fiction. In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved October 24, 2017, from https://www.britannica.com/art/science-fiction