To be quite
honest, I did not really like this book, which is quite unusual for me. But I felt
bogged down by all the characters. I couldn’t keep track of who’s who with Dick
throwing around names of German officials and Japanese businessmen like it’s
nothing. I couldn’t form the emotional connection to the characters that
normally drives reader-novel relationships because there were so many of them.
And I felt lost in all the long descriptions of international diplomacy and
business. It was just too busy. So naturally, I had a hard time deciding what
to write my blog post on this week, other than how I did not enjoy this book.
So I did
what any lost writer would do, or at least what Dick and Abendsen did: consult the I Ching. I tossed my coins.
Hexagram 29. K’an/Dangerously Deep. Bad sign. I think. Let’s see what it says:
Water follows Water,
spilling over any cliff, flowing past all obstacles, no matter the depth or
distance, to the Sea.
The Superior Person learns flexibility from the mistakes he has made, and grows strong from the obstacles he has overcome, pressing on to show others the Way.
The Superior Person learns flexibility from the mistakes he has made, and grows strong from the obstacles he has overcome, pressing on to show others the Way.
Okay, so I have to just
overcome this obstacle, suck it up and write a blog post. Duh. But that still
didn’t help me decide what to write it on. Luckily, ichingonline.net gave me a “situation
analysis,” as well:
You are facing a crucial
trial along your Journey.
The danger of this challenge is very real.
It is a test of your mettle.
If you can maintain your integrity and stay true to your convictions, you will overcome.
That's not as easy as it seems when you are faced with the sacrifice of other things you've come to depend upon or hold dear.
The danger of this challenge is very real.
It is a test of your mettle.
If you can maintain your integrity and stay true to your convictions, you will overcome.
That's not as easy as it seems when you are faced with the sacrifice of other things you've come to depend upon or hold dear.
Stay true to my
convictions. My only conviction regarding this book was that I didn’t like it.
So I must write a blog post on that. The oracle has spoken.
That’s what I had thought
from the start. No matter what reading the I Ching gave me, I’m fairly
confident I would have ended up with the same conclusion. A similar result to
what happened in class last week when we decided not to write a blog post. The
I Ching reading merely a reflection of inner desires that lie within a person’s
mind no matter what, subjective to each person’s own reading of it. It is an
external representation of the inner workings of the mind. Dick’s use of this device throughout The Man in the High Castle furthers his
exploration of the human psyche and how it affects the perception of the world.
I had mixed feelings about the book as well. But I was able to relate to the characters. I thought Dick did a good job of developing them where it was important, which gave an insight into how they were feeling. With Tagomi for instance, he developed the character enough to show that he was obsessed with finding the answer from the outside, rather than in himself. He trusted the I Ching whole heartedly not because he knew it was a reflection of his inner thoughts, but because he needed something to believe in.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the I Ching is always subjective, as you mentioned. The I Ching you got while you were writing this post said that one "grows strong from the obstacles he overcomes." You interpreted it as writing the blogpost anyway, but I read it as you needed to find out what you gained from the book to overcome the fact that you disliked the novel.
I think part of the reason many people had trouble connecting with the characters is that we have a visceral reaction telling us not to believe their reality. We don't want this alternate history to be true because it is so horrible for us living in the United States. Therefore I think our brain naturally tries to protect itself from believing or accepting the situation. As for the I Ching, I completely agree that it usually ends up confirming our original gut feeling. But I think this is a similar phenomenon. We want to feel justified in our decisions, and many times we know what the "right" decision is but it is the harder one to make.
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