Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Jillian England's avatar

The high castle is Gnosis, where all the threads of reality, of the multiverse, can be drawn, and something new, and of your own will be woven.

Who is the spider in the center of the web?

Common Gnostic themes in VALIS, Flow my tears, Do androids dream …, etc.

The multiverse is PKDs’ trademark, to read a chapter and when you get to the have its storyline and timeline invert or superimpose, and the perspective mirror itself. Also many of his stories can be viewed as point of reference eschatologies. Not like a Star Wars or Dune eschatology, more like Daniel or Revelations eschatology’s.

Footnote: (“Do androids dream …” is a trip when you tear apart all the threads. Then when we compare the movie to the book, like a suite of clothes worn by different people, the movie and book are also like doppelgängers to each other, they look the same, but so different. Movie, mimicking book, endless recursion. )

Expand full comment
Liz LaSorte's avatar

Wow – I really enjoyed this book and you all are bringing back thoughts long lost. It’s a special book for me because my son gave it to me when he was in college ten years ago and he knows I read about 98% non-fiction and I had never read PKD before. He picked it out of the blue and had not even read it! Good pick! Oh man…the ending. I won’t say anymore.

I’m an Orwell fan too. In order to remind myself that I don’t want to look like a socialist who is too lazy to put on/take off mascara, I put a place holder in Ch. 4. in 1984, for a quick read when Julia and Winston meet for a tryst in their (not) hide away room and Julia says, “You can turn around now” after she puts on make-up for Winston. Orwell writes, “The improvement in her appearance was startling.” Of course, that has nothing to do with the Man in the High Castle, because, OMG…that ending…Enjoy!

Expand full comment
6 more comments...

No posts