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Todd Cecutti

ENGL 293

Professor Lisette Gibson Diaz, PhD

October 6, 2015

The Value of Cognitive Estrangement in Philip K. Dicks The Man in the High Castle

Cognitive estrangement in literature, as coined by Darko Suvin, is the sensation a reader

feels when a story utilizes settings or events that are different from empirical reality, but that are

hypothetically similar enough to be possible in the future. The Man in the High Castle, by Philip

K. Dick, absorbs readers into this cognitive estrangement, even taking it a step past its definition,

which regards a plausible future, and asks the reader to consider a plausible past. A fascination

with Nazism that still manages to find a place in the zeitgeist of American culture has kept Dicks

The Man in the High Castle relevant to decades of readers, offering the story of an alternate

history to one of the most deciding events in modern world history, WWII. Dicks use of setting

and historical context contributes to the cognitive estrangement of the reader in such a way that

they realize the parallels between the postcolonial America dominated by Nazi Germany and

Japan in The Man in the High Castle and the real post-war world dominated by the United States

of America.

A familiarity with not only Americas culture, but Americas geography contributes to the

cognitive estrangement of the reader and the realism of Dicks world. The elephant in the room

of The Man in the High Castle is surely the geography of the United States of America. The lack

of acknowledgement of specific geographic lines by Dick leaves the American reader lost in their

own land, despite the fact that everything about the abstracts of American life culture,
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politics, society, etc. are also unfamiliar. While the geography of Axis occupation of the

United States can be considered the most major player in the plot of The Man in the High Castle,

it is not defined in full. In fact, there is so little specification of exact boundaries, such as how

far into the center of the country the neutral states begin or end, that it must have been the

intention of the author to leave the reader wondering where they would fall in Axis-occupied

America. And under whose disparate influence would they exist Japans, Germanys, or

would they land in the neutral Rock Mountainy States? The readers experienced cognitive

estrangement in this respect is moved from their mind and projected onto their geographic

surroundings; it is through their own reality that they experience Dicks alternate reality, but in an

unchanged physical landscape.

If Philip K. Dick was using America as a setting in order to hold up a mirror to the history

that the United States, as it is in reality, has left in its wake and the consequences that other

nations have experienced as a result, then the potential historical allegories in The Man in the

High Castle must be examined. For example, the nature of the Rocky Mountains, which

represents a physical and symbolic boundary in Axis-controlled postcolonial America, can be

viewed as an allegory for the Berlin Wall, which was erected to be an impenetrable boundary in

post-war Germany, splitting the nation between two distinct and disagreeing powers, much like

Japan and Germany in the novel. It also served as the ultimate symbol of the Cold War of the

fragmentation of democratic, capitalist western world and the communist, Soviet-influenced

eastern world, though in the novel Joe mentions that the Nazis saved the world from

Communism (89). While the economic systems at play in the world of The Man in the High

Castle are not necessarily highlighted, it is clear that the Japanese, or western, way of life is more
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free and progressive than the rigid and fascist society of Nazi Germany in the eastern United

States. A historical perspective is valuable in further analysis of the novel and the cognitive

estrangement that it causes.

When The Man in the High Castle was published in 1962, the major superpowers of the

world were enveloped in the most crucial and formative era of the Cold War. In America, there

existed a universal paranoia of nuclear war, a fear that is manifested in the novel as Operation

Dandelion the German plan to eliminate Japan over world domination disagreements. The

axis powers in The Man in the High Castle were experiencing their own Cold War, paralleling

the reality of the time-period in which the story is set. It is as if Dick is suggesting that

regardless of the outcome of WWII, the threat of nuclear tension or conflict was inevitable; the

Cold War was fated to become a reality. Japans relatively liberal views and practices point

toward a peaceful future of postcolonial hybridity with the people of the west coast of the United

States, while Nazi-Germany in the east rules with an aggressive iron fist that accepts nothing less

than purity and compliance. These extremes mirror the global socio-political landscape of 1962.

In the novel, Germany has wiped out all of Africa, creating ghosts of dead tribes, while

experimenting and preparing for a nuclear war (10). If western democracy was, or is, an

experiment in politics and society, Americas extermination and subjugation of the Native

Americans can be viewed as a parallel to the Nazis extermination of the people of Africa in The

Man in the High Castle. Baynes (a.k.a. Rudolph Wegener, a.k.a. Conrad Goltz), in being a part

of the German military, offers the story some of the most philosophical and insightful thoughts as

to the nature of the Nazi desire for world control and, in turn, the nature of modern American

desire for control. While on a German rocket ship Baynes thinks to himself, They want to be
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the agents, not the victims, of history (42). This is a thought that applies universally not just to

governments, but to all people. It is reminiscent of the classic quote by Walter Benjamin, who

chose to commit suicide rather than become a victim of the Nazi regime in France, that says,

History is written by the victors.

The self-reflective qualities of the novel set into motion an imaginative relationship

between the reader and the world of The Man in the High Castle. For example, in the final

chapter of the novel, Julianna Frink thinks to herself, He [Abendsen] told us about our own

world This, whats around us now (263). It is through her reflection that the reader realizes

that they themselves are experiencing the same feeling as Julianna, but with Philip K. Dick as the

epiphanic catalyst as opposed to the fictional Abendsen. It is in this same way that the reader

experiences the conclusion of The Man in the High Castle; its abstract nature causes a solipsistic

confusion a feeling of aloneness caused by uncertainty. Self-reflection occurs in the novel

through the I Ching, which, as it is told in literary folklore, was used by Dick to guide the plot of

The Man in the High Castle. This adds a layer to the already thick self-reflection provided by the

I-Ching in the story; it was used by the colonized people of the Pacific States to guide their

thoughts and actions as well as by Abendsen to guide his writing of The Grasshopper Lies

Heavy, much like Dick. The reader cannot help but to find themselves caught in the layers of the

mosaic of self-reflection present in The Man in the High Castle.

One of the more powerful and summative passages in The Man in the High Castle is

expressed in a thought by Robert Childan, whose philosophy on history and its effect on the

present is black and white; adapt or be left behind. The Moment changes. One must be ready to

change with it. Or otherwise be left high and dry. Adapt, he thinks to himself (155). The reader
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realizes that one may not be able to control their future in full, but what they can control is their

attitude toward it. This conclusion is an important one to be gleaned from the cognitive

estrangement experienced by reading The Man in the High Castle. The suggestion of parallels

that can be found in the setting and historical context of the novel between an America ruled by

the Axis powers and the America experienced in reality lead the reader to consider the infinite

possibilities of history and how the world could be, as well as the implications positive,

neutral, or negative of colonization. Though empiricism may rule the actions of humans and

their culture, The Man in the High Castle proves that cognitive estrangement is valuable in

considering the past, present, and future.

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Works Cited

Dick, Philip K. The Man in the High Castle. New York: Mariner, 2011. Print.