Sunday, November 29, 2015

Alt-history

As directed by the Guardian's review, I binge-watched the first season of Amazon's adaptation of Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle - all ten hours of it. It's a gripping yarn, and a chilling story. Supposing the Axis had won the Second World War, what would a Nazi-led United States look like? Had the Germans given Japan control of the West Coast, how would that be? And if there were rumblings of potential war between these two superpowers as an aging Führer approached death,
how would the North Americans caught in between react? I'm a little tired of the blandly frantic young protagonists, but the older characters have depths and surprises, and it's always stunning and often unsettling to see the imagined nipponized or nazified 1962 Americana, which is revealed slowly and cannily. (For instance: Reichshauptquartier where the United Nations building now stands? Huckleberry Finn banned, the Bible, too? I won't say more to avoid spoilers.) Can't wait for season 2!