man this book flew way over my head
seriously, what the fuck
>>7561430
PKD used the I Ching to roll for plot while writing it, so it is literally randum xD
i'm not sure i would use the phrase "flew over my head", since that kind of implies that i didn't understand what was happening but i was taken by the ending. in fact, my interpretation was that"the allied powers actually won" revelation was actually a prediction of the future, in the book--it had been implied that the germans and japanese were secretly plotting to backstab one another and i saw it as a prediction that this would go awry and the allied nations would end up on top in the end.this is, of course, contrary to the more popular interpretation thatthe characters were simply made aware that they are living within a alternate history/story. which is very much like Dick but also kind of cliche, by modern standards.
>>7561450
well I'm gonna be honest, I didn't understand what was happening in the last third of the book
I mean, all this political shit happens, with absolutely no resolution whatsoever
>>7561450
I took it as the Grasshopper book being entirely fictitious and completely meaningless. I prefer the nihilistic interpretation.
>>7561450
if you read more of Dick the second interpretation makes more sense. Also your interpretation is just awful from a storytelling perspective. Just absolutely terrible. You thought that "the allies won" reading from the I Ching represented a psuedo-philosophical reading of event as they occured within their own reality? Like : Sure they "won" but did they really "win"? You felt like that's what the characters got from that information? That the Japs and Nazis will betray each other and ultimately the allies will win in the end? For one, there's no evidence for that interpretation in the book. Two, how is that more satisfying than the pure Dickian reading?
>>7562792
i have read a lot more Dick and, as i said, the second interpretation is much more in line with his shtick.
>Sure they "won" but did they really "win"
exactly that. i didn't think that that's what the *characters* got from that information (because you're right, they didn't know everything going on in secret), it's what i, the *reader* got from that information. it has been a while since i read the book but i thought there were sections that described how the germans planned to turn on their japanese allies (project dandelion?) it's subjective, but this interpretation, in which the omniscient reader knows how to interpret the information even though the characters are confused seemed more satisfying than "we're all, like, IN a story, man!". i really can't justify my taste (or claim them to be superior), i can only try to describe my personal thoughts.
>>7561464
>no resolution whatsoever
this is true for most of pkd's novels and it's part of his world view. read his essay 'how to build an universe that doesn't fall apart 2 days later' where he expands on this
>>7561430
Almost everything in Dick revolves around the same theme, even before his experiences under sodium pentothal (book was written in 1964 and he was 'divinely invaded' in 1974), and that theme is that reality isn't as it appears and we are being misled to believe otherwise. The characters in The Man in the High Castle weren't just from an alternate universe, which one might assume are infinite in their number, but they were most importantly characters over whose eyes a veil has been laid. Their reality WASN'T real, ours is. Except that ours isn't either, and that's the point.
>>7562096
>who is dick is this?
Dick planned a second book but in the end he never wrote is. So therefore the story seems incomplete
I really liked the bit about paradoxical nature of authenticity.
>>7561430
The plot of the book doesn't actually matter.
It's a tool for attracting young sci-fi enthusiasts to study the I-Ching.
>I like my books incomprehensible!
Do you now? Well I have good reading comprehension so it's no harm to my ego to admit that a book went over my head. Or is it that the book is just a fucking mess? You have to be the judge of that. I like to get authors who I have read from before and get some of their other books. At least I know I am going to get a comprehensible book which won't waste my time. You don't want to waste your time on books that are incomprehensible to you, either because you don't know enough or it is just a bad book. It doesn't matter. Don't waste your time.
