On Thursday we talked about authentic in class and then some mention the fact that both the actual book we are reading is not authentic because it focuses on an alternate universe. Also the book inside the book, the grass Hopper lies heavy, is another unauthentic universe on how the world would be if the allies how one. In reality the allies did win but the book inside the book doesn’t depict the actual facts.

The grass Hopper lies heavy is based on two things one being that FDR wasn’t assassinated and two that Italy had to betray the Axis, but then again if they had won they would have been the allies. I can somewhat see why in that book it would take Italy to win the war, because of the out come of World War

I.(I was unaware of the assassination attempts on FDR)

Then again the author was on freaking acid, while he wrote this (or maybe he wrote it on the calm down…) then was he himself authentic. Obviously drugs alter your state of mind, and so how can we know that it was his authentic self the person we can see and acknowledge that wrote the book.

The book also raises the topic of authenticity in the historicity of an object. Most of the collectors are Japanese and the I Ching, which is a Chinese object, plays a huge role in the lives of people. The book doesn’t display the dominance of Japanese culture other than the bowing. In a sense the book makes a mockery of the lack of authentic Japanese cultural presence.