In “The Man in the High Castle” Phillip K. Dick presents an alternate reality in which that reality is discovered to be fiction. After reading the novel, and discussing it in class, I began to question the so called truthiness of reality. In the book, Juliana discovers, albeit subtly, that she is in a book. Could it be that we too are in a book? For most people, I believe, reality is taken for granted. You must constantly face reality by questioning the truth in it, and then cope with it by whatever means necessary.
Beautifully put in the novel, Juliana thinks “Truth… As terrible as death. But harder to find”. Death is abundant in this world (see The Things They Carried), and naturally people question death, and more often than not, receive answers. Though when truth is questioned, answers become less and less clear (see Truth, Lies and Literature blogspot).
But what’s the difference between truth and reality? Are they one in the same or are they separate entities? I believe they overlap in a sense. The truth is the Allies won the war. The reality is nobody wins a war.
Your questioning whether we are in a book reminded me of the move Stranger Than Fiction, starring Will Farrell. It kind of went around that same idea, only he was in a movie.
ReplyDeleteI also like that you are comparing truth with reality rather than truth with fiction, like we usually do. They can be the same, as we think our day-to-day lives are, but really who knows? Especially after reading this book where their whole world (and at first our whole world) was turned upside down.
I'm thrilled that you used "truthiness" in your title! In fact, had we not run out of time last class, I was going to talk about Stephen Colbert's use of "truthiness" on his show, and how as a result it became the 2006 Word of the Year! Wonderful. For those who don't know why I'm so excited, check out these sites:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness
http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/06words.htm
The part of the book you quoted, Juliana's thoughts, is an epic quote. There is so much truth in it, and it's a great way to phrase that sentiment.
ReplyDeleteOscar Wilde said, “a thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” This quote exemplifies the point you made in this blog. The Man in The High Castle challenges the reader to question reality and ponder the meaning of truth. Just because Tagomi murdered a man, does not mean that there was truth behind the murder, however it does mean that the man’s death was a reality to Tagomi. Oftentimes reality becomes confused with truth, when they are two different things. For example in Memento Leonard’s reality was that he needed to avenge his wife’s murder, when in truth he was the murderer.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Alex. That quote is something that stuck with me for the rest of the book. I think that quote shows just how important truth is in our lives.
ReplyDeleteI'm very, very excited about that Oscar Wilde quote. Probably as excited at jas is about truthiness.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I'm simply confused about the end of the book, but I wonder if Juliana and the others were characters within a book or a separate view of reality. The Grasshopper presented a different reality than that of Juliana, Joe, and Mr. Tagomi. Also, Abensen was described as "unwilling to accept it" as if he too sometimes put up with the charade of the Axis winning the war.
The quote Alex picked out is incredibly good. If nothing else can be said, truth in this novel is very, very hard to find.
I feel that the "truthiness" of a situation is completely based on your frame of reference. You can place Einstein's theory of relativity to it. For Tagomi murdering that man, it was true for him if your looking for it from the perspective of just being in the book. In the real world, that book is just a book, and just because words tell a story of someone's death doesn't mean it actually happened.
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