Truth Between The Li(n)es

Similarly to O’Brien’s, The Things They Carried, Phillip K Dick alters history in The Man In The High Castle. Philip K Dick uses this novel to explain to readers that everything, including history, is relative. The author utilizes metatextuality to contrast a fictional history (the Axis defeating the Allies) and a semi fictional story (“The Grasshopper Lies Heavy”), which relates to a major theme of authentic vs. fake. By creating “The Grasshopper Lies Heavy”, Dick is reinventing history since the story is not completely accurate. However, since the basic premise is almost the same, it adds an element of truth through the familiarity of the readers’. The character Paul explains that the “The Grasshopper Lies Heavy” is an “interesting form of fiction … within the genre of science fiction” and that the story “deals with an alternate present” instead of a “particular future where science has advanced” (108). Dick is toying with the reader by paralleling two science fiction novels. The reader wants to find the historicity within “The Grasshopper Lies Heavy” but the novel calls it “fiction” and the actual truth is alternated. The author comments on The Grasshopper Lies Heavy through the character Childan by stating, “odd nobody thought of writing it before” (117). I thought this was particularly funny because it is “odd” that there are not many other novels that explore how life would be if the Nazis won World War II. Dick explains a different outcome of history. By doing so, he is explaining that reality is subjective rather than objective. Also, that due to perspective, one is able to manipulate the interpretation of reality.