Monday, February 28, 2011
A Stretch At The Truth
Out of all the books we have read this semester thus far, I have to say that this one holds the closest thing to the truth.....just a very, very, very stretched out truth. In this book, the author uses actual, highly noted historical events and twists them around the way that he wants to to produce an alternative "what-if" kind of world, which to me is genius. It's safe to say that all of us always think of the "what-if", from simply "what if I had toast for breakfast instead of eggs" to a more complex "what if I had chosen a different university", etc. The place we're at today, at this very moment, was compiled of decisions we have made in our lives, some easy, some hard. With that, what if the US hadn't won WWII? In an alternate world, would Dick's novel be a history book used in classrooms? It's scary to think about, but hypothetically speaking, would there have been a better world out there if history had run a different course?
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Good observations all. And what strikes me most immediately is how your discussion about making choices falls effectively in line w/ how PKD both utilized the I Ching to write his novel and allowed for the characters within it to depend on it in a similar way. But, of course, the I Ching is all about choice (aka interpretation)... so it begs the question that perhaps our everyday actions/choices are *as if* we live by the I Ching... but without the I Ching directly!
ReplyDeleteI agree with jas... except for living by the I CHing "indirectly" the I Ching only has "power" if you allow it too.... I Ching has no influence on my life... although i see what you're saying that it is indeed the characters making the choices but i think that if they weren't using the I Ching then their choices would be different. Again this is all just merely speculation.
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