The Man in the High Castle (by Philip K. Dick)

Overview

In this episode of "Per Un Pugno di Libri" the Liceo Classico "Ugo Foscolo" of Pavia and the Liceo Classico "Emanuele Duni" of Matera discuss the science fiction novel "The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick. Published for the first time in 1962, the novel won the Hugo Award, considered the highest recognition for a science fiction book. The plot of "The Man in the High Castle" is a reversal of what the outcome of the Second World War actually was. Philip K. Dick seems to ask himself - and the reader - what the world might have been like if the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) had won the war. The answer that the writer seems to suggest is that, although the war was won by the Allies, in reality the wicked and obscurantist forces of Nazism were not truly defeated, manifesting themselves in all their violence in capitalism and communist dictatorships.