When
I first heard the premise of The Man in
the High Castle, I was immediately intrigued. The axis powers win the war.
It’s the ultimate “what if?” question of the 20th century and we, as
humans, are inherently fascinated by the answer. The concept of an alternative
reality has always captivated humans, as the influence of a few changed historical
details can spark dramatic changes in the future. Though we accept our current
reality, we never seem to let go of the fact that it could have been
otherwise. In the novel, the characters
express these same intrigues into the alternative outcome, showing the parallel
role of the characters of the novel with the readers of the novel. While they
are reading The Grasshopper Lies Heavy,
a very close account of our reality, we are reading The Man in the High Castle, an account of their reality. In ways,
these two novels are both equal and opposite. Their reality is our fiction
while our fiction is their reality. Their reactions to The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, including the skepticism and
doubtfulness they possess, is no different that the critical way in which we
read the world ruled by the axis powers. While they read our world as “cheap,
bad fiction”, we read their world through the same science fiction,
hypothetical lenses. I found it especially interesting that although this is a
science fiction novel, which by definition is a totally alternate world where
it would seem difficult to connect to the characters, we are able to because as
we read, we are experiencing the exact same book as they are reading, simply
from opposite perspectives. Rarely can a work of literature create such a
connection between a character and a reader. We are united, through different
realties, by our intrigue of the alternative.
I thought that was an interesting mirror relationship between The Grasshopper Lies Heavy and The Man in the High Castle that also plays into the interaction between new and old. We seem to have a tendency to view our past as almost sacred or beyond the reach of outside influence. It's the past; it has already happened. This is demonstrated in the concept of 'historicity' and antique stores like Childan's that put the past on a pedastal. Since literature is a part of our history, then, what place does alternate history like The Grasshopper Lies Heavy or The Man in the High Castle have? Both change something fundamental in our past and create an alternative that both intrigues and alienates. The connection there between our world and the narrative world is indisputable, and it creates an interesting parallelism between alternate histories and accepted realities.
ReplyDelete