'The Man in the High Castle': the Relevance of Post-War Spec Fiction

Photo: Amazon.com

What if we lost the war in WWII? What if, in 1947, allied forces surrendered to the axis powers after an atomic bomb was dropped on Washington D.C. and the world saw a violent leap towards a dangerous new empire? This is the alternative history Phillip K. Dick envisioned in The Man in the High Castle. Our leaders and resistance fighters kowtowed to oppressors and years later, life in America is partitioned into the Pacific Japanese States and the Greater American Reich. Life goes on but liberty is dead.

In the Amazon adapted TV series of the same name, rule by fear is the name of the game. Citizens are expected to obey, commit themselves to the greater good, and avoid the path to moral decay. The repercussion for failing this is torture and death. This is when you start to see that the war was really won not when the allies laid down their weapons or even when they submitted to a powerful enemy, but when people accepted defeat and the new world they were given.

Read the full feature at the link below:
'The Man in the High Castle': How the Post-war Speculative Fiction Still Rings True