The Man in the High Castle

[JoeZhang]

From what I recall from the book, a different president was in charge of the US (I think FDR was assassinated prior to the war) and his actions (or rather inaction) was a decisive point as well.

Two other presidents and a few other events that are different which makes the outcome of the war different from that presented in The Grasshopper Lies Heavy (which itself is an alternative take on WW2 not simply what happened in reality).

 

[Guy Gardener]

There's a nine hour audio version of the book on youtube if anyone is really interested.

 

[Ubik]

So based on my immense enjoyment of the pilot, I got the book on Kindle. I've never read a PKD book before. And, well...this might be hard going. He uses comma splicing and sentence fragments. A lot. These work in moderation, but using them too much disturbs the flow of the writing IMO.

Frank Herbert wrote somewhat the same way, and that was part of the reason I only made it halfway through the "Dune" books.

I'll try my best to ignore it and enjoy this book. Hopefully it's not constantly distracting.

All the comma splices and run-ons, if I remember correctly, happen when the 3rd-person narration is inside the store-owner's head. It's to show how this white guy who is desperately trying to be Japanese has assimilated the broken English of the Japanese. His thought patterns mirror broken Japanese English. So, it's not a mistake on Dick's part, but a way of showing us how much this character has attempted to transform himself to be accepted by his slave masters. That's how I remember receiving it, anyways, when I last read it a few years ago.

 

[DarthPipes]

Amazon has officially picked up The Man in the High Castle...

http://tvline.com/2015/02/18/amazon-series-man-in-high-castle-mozart-jungle-season-2/

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Fantastic news.

Hopefully this allows the producers to fix my one major problem with the pilot: The omission of Robert Childan and the artifacts storyline.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Oh cool! They shot apart of the pilot right outside my work in downtown Seattle!

 

[Maurice]

I found it a bore. I wanted to like it, but none of the characters were engaging of compelling. The writing was flat and the exposition laid on with a trowel, with characters artlessly explaining things the others know. It also suffers from bad-TV-pilot-itis, in that it's all setup and there's no self-contained story. The pilots for Breaking Bad, Mad Men and Pushing Daisies all set up ongoing stories yet still manage to resolve the pilot hour story, that's what this needed.

I joked that it must be set on Star Trek Earth because, like most Star Trek segments which visit San Francisco, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge from any vantage point (particularly laughable was an establishing shot with a MISSION street sign, looking down a hill towards the aforementioned Bridge... sorry, Charlie, the Mission is in the flattest section of the city and there are no hills to hook down, plus there are a bunch of actual hills between it and the Golden Gate, so you simply could never see the bridge from the Mission even if you removed every building in the city).

 

[Bisz]

I read the book a couple of years ago and hated it, I remember being upset at having wasted the time to read it.

The concept is very interesting though so I look forward to seeing the TV adaptation.

Question, do I have to sign up for Amazon Prime to watch it or can I just buy the episode for X dollars?

 

[USS Pertinax]

How is the immense manpower necessary for an efficient occupation provided?

 

[Guy Gardener]

It's 1961.

Most of the Nazi ground pounders there were probably born in America, with probably none to little German ancestry.

There's a line down the middle. Japan has the other half the country.

What about Canada and Mexico?

The Germans had two choices (more than two obviously, but two obvious choices) bomb and occupy America's neighbours too, or sue for peace. Conditional peace or unconditional peace? Bribe them to leave their borders alone. Mexico would be calm and fine if it was given back Texas, and Imagine how happy Canada would be if they were just handed Alaska?

 

[DarthPipes]

I was looking for this thread. Did anyone see when EW livestreamed the pilot and the second episode from SDCC? The second episode was really good and I think this series is going to be great when it debuts in the fall.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Found it.

Get on to it soon.

 

[Snick27]

Just learned about this show my accident, was looking for a clip on youtube for something else on my cell phone and somehow i clicked on wrong video and the promo for this show came on.
Glad it did as i love stuff like this.
I watched the first two episodes on Amazon as they are free right now.
Though i dont understand the story, why would either Japan or the Germans here in American care about some faux news clips? I mean what are the people here in America going to do revolt and get bombed again?

Also will this follow the book or will the show just be based off it and events happen different? I would just love to see this Man in the High Castle be a Slider from a parallel earth and this footage was from his earth.

I just really miss Sliders,Fringe type of show.

 

[Galileo7]

... I would just love to see this Man in the High Castle be a Slider from a parallel earth and this footage was from his earth.

I just really miss Sliders,Fringe type of show.

I miss Sliders too. It needs a reboot.

 

[BillJ]

The wife and I watched both the available episodes on Saturday night. We both are interested in watching the rest when it becomes available on 11/20.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

IIRC the book suggests we're not living the history prime of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy either -- in that reality, the British Empire dominates the world after the Allies win WW2, which I found quite amusing and also very hard to believe.