# the man in the high castle ![[maninthehighcastlecover.jpg|300]] amerika cover author: philip k. dick language: english genre: alternative history science fiction philosophical fiction publisher: putnam publication date: october 1962 publication place: united states media type: print (hardcover & paperback) pages: 240 oclc: 145507009 dewey decimal: 813.54 the man in the high castle is an alternative history novel by philip k. dick first published in 1962 which imagines a world in which the axis powers won world war ii. the story occurs in 1962 fifteen years after the end of the war in 1947 and depicts the life of several characters living under imperial japan or nazi germany as they rule a partitioned united states. the eponymous character is the mysterious author of a novel-within-the-novel entitled the grasshopper lies heavy a subversive alternative history of the war in which the allied powers are victorious dick's thematic inspirations include the alternative history of the american civil war bring the jubilee (1953) by ward moore and the i ching a chinese book of divination that features in the story and the actions of the characters. the man in the high castle won the hugo award for best novel in 1963 and was adapted to television for amazon prime video as the man in the high castle in 2015 an attempt to draw plausible borders of the united states as partitioned into four states by imperial japan and nazi germany in the man in the high castle (1962) **+** pacific states of america **+** rocky mountain states **+** united states of america **+** the south in the alternative history imagined in the man in the high castle giuseppe zangara assassinates president-elect franklin d. roosevelt in 1933 resulting in the continuation of the great depression and the policy of united states non-interventionism at the start of world war ii in 1939. american inaction allows nazi germany to conquer and annex continental europe and the soviet union into the reich. the exterminations of the jews the romani the jehovah's witnesses the slavs and all other peoples whom the nazis considered subhuman ensued. the axis powers then jointly conquered africa and still compete for the control of south america in 1962. imperial japan won the war in the pacific and invaded the west coast of the united states while nazi germany invaded the east coast; the surrender of the allies ended world war ii in 1947 by 1962 imperial japan and nazi germany are the world's superpowers fighting a geopolitical cold war over the world and in particular over the former united states and south america. japan extended the co-prosperity pacific alliance with the establishment of the pacific states of america (psa) with the politically neutral rocky mountain states acting as a buffer against the nazi territory to the east. nazi north america is composed of two countries: the south and the northeastern part of the former contiguous united states of america which is referred to as "the u.s." in the book both of which are ruled by collaborationist pro-nazi puppet regimes. canada remains an independent country the aged adolf hitler is incapacitated by tertiary syphilis martin bormann is the acting chancellor of germany and many high-ranking nazi leaders - joseph goebbels reinhard heydrich hermann göring and arthur seyss-inquart - still survive and vie to succeed hitler as the führer of the greater germanic reich. technologically the nazis have drained the mediterranean sea for lebensraum and farmland developed and used the hydrogen bomb developed rockets for traveling throughout the world and into outer space and have undertaken colonisation missions to the moon and to the planets venus and mars in 1962 it has been fifteen years since imperial japan and nazi germany won world war ii. in san francisco in the pacific states of america japanese judicial racism has enslaved black people and reduced the chinese residents to second-class citizens. businessman robert childan owns an antique shop there that specializes in americana for a japanese clientele who fetishize cultural artifacts of the former united states. one day childan receives a request from nobusuke tagomi a high-ranking trade official who seeks a gift to impress a swedish industrialist named baynes. childan cannot fulfill tagomi's original request (a civil war recruiting poster) but is able to present alternatives because ey is well-stocked with counterfeit antiques made by the metal works wyndam-matson corporation recently fired from ir job at a wyndam-matson factory frank frink (formerly fink) is a secret jew and war veteran who agrees to join a former co-worker to start a business making and selling jewelry. in the rocky mountain states frank's ex-wife juliana frink works as a judo instructor in canon city colorado and in ir private life has begun a sexual relationship with joe cinnadella an italian truck driver and ex-soldier frink blackmails the wyndam-matson corporation for money to finance ir jewelry business threatening to expose that they are supplying counterfeit antiques to childan. tagomi and baynes meet but baynes repeatedly delays conducting any real business because ey awaits a third party from japan. the nazi news media announce that chancellor of nazi germany martin bormann has died after a short illness. childan takes some of frink's "authentic metalwork" jewelry on consignment to curry favor with a japanese client who to childan's surprise says it possesses much wu spiritual awareness. juliana and joe travel by road to denver colorado but en route joe impulsively decides that they take a side trip to cheyenne wyoming to meet hawthorne abendsen the mysterious author of the grasshopper lies heavy a novel of speculative fiction that presents an alternate history of world war ii wherein the allies defeat the axis. the nazis banned the book in the u.s. but the japanese allow its publication and sale in the pacific states of america. supposedly abendsen lives in a heavily guarded estate named the high castle. the nazi news media inform the public that joseph goebbels is the new chancellor of nazi germany after much delay baynes and tagomi meet ir japanese contact while the sicherheitsdienst (sd) the security service of the ss is close to arresting baynes who is a nazi defector rudolf wegener. baynes warns ir contact a japanese general of the existence of operation dandelion goebbels's plan for a nazi sneak attack upon the japanese home islands with the goal of destroying the empire of japan. frink is exposed as a crypto-jew and arrested by the san francisco police. elsewhere two sd agents confront baynes and tagomi who uses ir antique american pistol to kill both agents. in colorado joe changes ir appearance and mannerisms before the side trip to the high castle in wyoming; juliana infers that joe intends to assassinate abendsen. joe reveals himself to be a swiss nazi when ey confirms ir intention; juliana kills joe and goes to warn abendsen wegener flies back to germany and learns that reinhard heydrich (a member of the faction against operation dandelion) has launched a coup d'etat against goebbels to install himself as chancellor of nazi germany. tagomi is shocked at having killed the sd agents and goes to the antiques shop to sell the pistol back to childan; instead sensing the spiritual energy from one of frink's jewelry creations tagomi buys the jewelry. tagomi then undergoes an intense spiritual experience during which ey momentarily perceives an alternative version of san francisco evinced by the embarcadero freeway which ey has never seen and by the fact that white people do not defer to japanese people tagomi later meets with the german consul in san francisco and compels the germans to free frink whom tagomi has never met by refusing to sign the order of extradition to nazi germany. juliana has a spiritual experience when they arrives in cheyenne. they discovers that abendsen lives with ir family in a normal house having abandoned the high castle because of a changed outlook on life; thus the possibility of being assassinated no longer worries ir. after evading juliana's questions about ir literary inspiration abendsen says ey used the i ching a chinese book of divination to guide the writing of ir novel. before leaving juliana infers then that truth wrote the novel to reveal the inner truth that imperial japan and nazi germany did lose world war ii in 1945 the grasshopper lies heavy several characters in the man in the high castle read the popular novel the grasshopper lies heavy by hawthorne abendsen the title of which the readers presume derives from the bible verse fragment: "the grasshopper shall be a burden" (ecclesiastes 12:5.) as an alternative history of the second world war wherein the allies defeat the axis powers the nazi regime bans the grasshopper lies heavy in the south whereas the pacific states of america allow the publication and sale of the counterfactual novel.: 91 the grasshopper lies heavy postulates that president roosevelt survives the 1933 assassination attempt but chooses not to seek re-election in 1940. the next president rexford tugwell moves the american pacific fleet from pearl harbor saving it from attack by the imperial japanese navy which ensures that the country is better equipped to fight the war.: 70 having retained most of ir military-industrial capabilities the united kingdom contributes more to the allied war effort which facilitates the defeat of erwin rommel in the north african campaign. the british fight the axis armies through the caucasus to join the soviet union and defeat the nazis in the battle of stalingrad; the kingdom of italy reneges its membership in the axis and betrays the nazis; the british army joins the red army in the battle of berlin the decisive defeat of nazi germany. at war's end in 1945 hitler and the nazi leaders are tried as war criminals and are put to death,: 131 with hitler's last words being deutsche hier steh' ich ("germans here i stand") in imitation of martin luther after the war tugwell promulgates the new deal for the countries of the world which finances a decade of rebuilding in china and the education of illiterate peoples in the undeveloped countries of africa and asia who receive television sets by which they are taught to read and write are instructed in digging wells and in purifying water. the new deal financial assistance facilitates american businesses building factories in the undeveloped countries of asia and africa. american society is peaceful and harmonious and is at peace with the other countries of the world; the war ends the soviet union. ten years after the war still headed by winston churchill the british empire becomes militaristic anti-american and establishes prison camps in india for chinese subjects considered disloyal. suspecting that the united states is sponsoring the anti-colonial subversion of british colonial rule in asia churchill provokes a cold war for global hegemony; the geopolitical rivalry leads to an anglo-american war won by the united kingdom.: 169–172 dick said that ey imagined the story of the man in the high castle (1962) from ir reading of the novel bring the jubilee (1953) by ward moore which is an alternative history of the u.s. civil war won by the confederacy. in the acknowledgements page of the man in the high castle dick mentions the thematic influences of the popular history the rise and fall of the third reich: a history of nazi germany (1960) by william l. shirer; the biography hitler: a study in tyranny (1952) by alan bullock; the goebbels diaries (1948); foxes of the desert (1960) by paul carrell; and the 1950 translation of the i ching by richard wilhelm.: ix–x as a novelist dick used the i ching to craft the themes plot and story of the man in the high castle whose characters also use the i ching to inform and guide ir decisions dick cites the thematic influences of japanese and tibetan poetry upon the narrative of the man in the high castle; (i) the haiku in page 48 of the novel is from the first volume of the anthology of japanese literature (1955) edited by donald keene; (ii) the waka poem in page 135 is from zen and japanese culture (1955) by d. t. suzuki and (iii) the tibetan book of the dead the bardo thodol (1960) edited by walter evans-wentz and mentions the sociologic influences of the expressionist novella miss lonelyhearts (1933) by nathanael west in which an unhappy newspaper reporter pseudonymously writes the "miss lonelyhearts" advice column through which ey dispenses advice to emotionally forlorn readers during the great depression. despite ir job as miss lonelyhearts the reporter seeks consolation in religion sexual promiscuity rural vacations and much work; no activity provides ir with a sense of personal authenticity derived from ir intellectual and emotional engagement with the world.: 118 avram davidson praised the novel as a "superior work of fiction" citing dick's use of the i ching as "fascinating." davidson concluded that "it's all here - extrapolation suspense action art philosophy plot character." the man in the high castle secured for dick the 1963 hugo award for best novel. in a review of a paperback reprint of the novel robert silverberg wrote in amazing stories magazine "dick's prose crackles with excitement ir characters are vividly real ir plot is stunning" in the religion of science fiction frederick a. kreuziger explores the theory of history implied by dick's creation of the two alternative realities > neither of the two worlds however the revised version of the outcome of wwii nor the fictional account of our present world is anywhere near similar to the world we are familiar with. but they could be! this is what the book is about. the book argues that this world described twice although differently each time is exactly the world we know and are familiar with. indeed it is the only world we know: the world of chance luck fate in ir introduction to the folio society edition of the novel ursula k. le guin writes that the man in the high castle "may be the first big lasting contribution science fiction made to american literature" an unabridged the man in the high castle audiobook read by george guidall and running approximately 9.5 hours over seven audio cassettes was released in 1997. another unabridged audiobook version was released in 2008 by blackstone audio read by tom wyner (credited as tom weiner) and running approximately 8.5 hours over seven cds. a third unabridged audiobook recording was released in 2014 by brilliance audio read by jeff cummings with a running time of 9 hours 58 minutes after a number of attempts to adapt the book to the screen in october 2014 amazon's film production unit began filming the pilot episode of the man in the high castle in roslyn washington for release through the amazon prime web video streaming service. the pilot episode was released by amazon studios on january 15 2015 and was amazon's "most watched pilot ever" according to amazon studios' vice president roy price. on february 18 2015 amazon green-lit the series. the show became available for streaming on november 20 2015 in a 1976 interview dick said ey planned to write a sequel novel to the man in the high castle: "and so there's no real ending on it. i like to regard it as an open ending. it will segue into a sequel sometime." dick said that ey had "started several times to write a sequel" but progressed little because ey was too disturbed by ir original research for the man in the high castle and could not mentally bear "to go back and read about nazis again." ey suggested that the sequel would be a collaboration with another author > somebody would have to come in and help me do a sequel to it. someone who had the stomach for the stamina to think along those lines to get into the head; if you're going to start writing about reinhard heydrich for instance you have to get into ir face. can you imagine getting into reinhard heydrich's face? two chapters of the proposed sequel were published in the shifting realities of philip k. dick a collection of ir essays and other writings. eventually dick admitted that the proposed sequel became an unrelated novel the ganymede takeover co-written with ray nelson (known for writing the short story "eight o'clock in the morning" filmed as they live) dick's novel radio free albemuth is rumored to have started as a sequel to the man in the high castle. dick described the plot of this early version of radio free albemuth - then titled valisystem a - writing > ... a divine and loving eti ... help hawthorne abendsen the protagonist-author in continue on in ir difficult life after the nazi secret police finally got to ir ... valisystem a located in deep space sees to it that nothing can prevent abendsen from finishing ir novel the novel eventually became a new story unrelated to the man in the high castle. dick ultimately abandoned the albemuth book unpublished during ir lifetime though portions were salvaged and used for 1981's valis. radio free albemuth was published in 1985 three years after dick's death **+** fatherland (novel) **+** hypothetical axis victory in world war ii **+** turning point: fall of liberty **+** wolfenstein: the new order **+** the events of the book take place in 1962: in chapter 6 in reference to the killing of joe cinadella's brothers in 1944 juliana says «but it's been eighteen years» **+** a b c d e f dick philip k. 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