The Man in the High Castle

Or as I sometimes like to call it, “High in the Man Castle”.   Season 4, its final season, ended recently on Amazon Prime, and I wondered if I’d actually reviewed it in my blogs.  Answer: yes – the Phillip K. Dick novel, written in 1962, which I addressed briefly in blogs on Dick himself (11/12/2010) and alternate history novels in which Germany won WWII (5/27/2010).  The Amazon series debuted in January 2015, well after these blogs were written.  Moreover, even when it did premiere, it was by no means obvious that there would be more than one season.  It was expensive, with high production values, Amazon’s first shot at producing its own material, so there was no guarantee they’d continue it.   In fact, season 1 itself corresponds to the novel, meaning that to produce subsequent seasons, they would have to write new material.   Fortunately for us, they did, and I’ll comment on that below.

Making History.  Here is another one, written by actor Stephen Fry, which I hadn’t reviewed earlier – probably because I hadn’t read it.  

An obvious question anyone would have is:  HOW did the Nazis win WWII in “Man in the High Castle”?   The narrative shows that somehow the Nazis managed to develop nuclear weapons and destroy Washington, DC.   So why didn’t they do that in real life?

Well, because the top nuclear physicists at the time were Jewish, and the Nazis had a problem (!) with Jews.   The Final Solution – the deliberate policy of murdering Europe’s Jews in extermination camps in Poland – only started in 1942, well after the war was underway.  Before that, and in the years leading up to September 1, 1939 when the Nazis invaded Poland, Jews were free to leave Germany, ostensibly with the Nazis’ blessing.  In particular, the US was happy to welcome any particularly smart Jews like Einstein.  Bottom line was that we had all the scientists who knew how to develop nukes, and the Nazis didn’t.

In this story, Hitler’s hometown well was dosed with birth control pills and he was never born, so another German, a particularly shrewd officer, developed the Nazi Party and became the Fuhrer.  This man, Rudolf Gloder, was smart enough to keep his anti-Semitism a secret, so Germany’s Jews helped the Nazis win WWII.   Then, having successfully defeated everyone, Gloder proceeded to wipe out the Jews in Yugoslavia with no interference from the Allies or Russians.

None of that happened in “Man in the High Castle”, so Dick never quite managed to explain how the Nazis succeeded at developing nuclear weapons.

As noted, season 1 corresponds to the Dick novel.   Seasons 2, 3, and 4 plunge forward into uncharted territory, and the show ends with Episode 10 of season 4.  I don’t have the patience or the inclination to exhaustively map out all four seasons.   I actually watched E10 of S1, 2, and 3 to refresh what happened in those seasons, as season 4 is still fresh in my mind.

Situation.    The US is divided into three sections.   The East Coast, as far west as the Midwest, is under Nazi control.  Washington, DC is a nuclear wasteland, and the country’s capital is in New York City.  The Japanese control the West Coast, with San Francisco being its capital.   The area of the Rockies is a neutral territory evidently under no one’s control, home to a modest population of hipsters.

Major Characters.

Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith (Rufus Sewell).   A former US Army officer who fought in the Pacific, Smith is the head of Nazi Germany’s American sector.  In Season 4 we see how, upon the Nazis’ victory, former US officers were offered the chance to join the Nazis – the alternative being imprisonment or death.   For much of the series he’s actually somewhat enthusiastic, but as the series wears on he’s less so, as is his wife, Helen.   He actually manages to switch over into the “US won” dimension and see his alternate wife and son – and the latter volunteers for service in Vietnam.   To make matters even stranger, his alternate family lives in “Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia” – literally exactly where I live.  Of course, in that dimension, Washington DC is alive and well, as are its suburbs like Northern Virginia.

As a former US officer, Smith’s loyalty frequently comes into question by Germans, particularly Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler, though Adolf Hitler himself – aging with grey hair – still trusts him. 

By the way;  Mengele shows up as a scientist at the Nazis’ dimension portal.  J. Edgar Hoover is here to make sure Americans remain loyal to the Reich.   

Inspector Kido (Joel de la Fuente).   The ruthless inspector from the Kempetai, Japan’s version of Nazi Germany’s Gestapo.   Based in San Francisco, he travels around considerably, and even meets Smith – ostensibly they were enemies in the war though they didn’t actually meet face to face in combat.  The show gives him a remarkable degree of sympathy for a character who would otherwise be a villain.

Trade Minister Nagomi (Cary-Hiruyoki Tagawa).  The true hero on the Japanese side.  He also discovers the alternate dimension – the finale of S1 finds him in a San Francisco with ads by Ronald Reagan and news reports of President Kennedy.   In the alternate dimension his personal life turns out considerably different. 

Robert Childan (Brennan Brown).   An antiques dealer in San Francisco, he speaks fluent Japanese, and is somewhat of a collaborator.  Somehow he manages to keep himself in one piece, through means he himself might admit are questionable. 

Juliana Crain (Alexa Davalos).   Competing with Smith as the lead character in the series.  She starts out in San Francisco but travels all around – and is one of the few characters capable of switching dimensions without the Nazis’ complex machine in a former mine shaft in Lackawanna, Pennsylvania. 

Hawthorne Abendsen (Stephen Root).  The Man in the High Castle himself.   He has these films of Allied victory which Crain and others recognize are not forgeries, but actual footage of the alternative dimensions.  By season 4 he’s captured by the Nazis and forced to shill for them – though even then he hides messages in his propaganda.   It turns out that his wife, Caroline, only hooks up with him in this timeline, in all the others they never meet.  He has an intriguing conversation with Smith in S3/E10.

Frank Frink (Rupert Evans).   A major character in S1 (and the book) who becomes less significant as the series wears on, he’s nominally Juliana’s boyfriend.    He’s a craftsman who creates “relics” for Childan to sell to Japanese customers looking for obscure and arcane Americana, but he’s also involved in the resistance against the Japanese, which puts him at odds with Kido. 

Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank).   Vying with Frank for Juliana’s affections, we learn where Joe came from originally.   He varies from being a strong character in his own right to being a mere pawn. 

The Resistance.   Naturally not everyone drinks the Nazi Kool-Aid.   There’s a considerable resistance in Japanese territory and in the Greater Reich, supposedly using the neutral territory as an effective sanctuary. 

By Season 4 we see a Black Communist Rebellion using AK47s, supplied by the Chinese and Soviets.  Which is odd, though, as China is controlled by Japan and Soviet Russia was defeated by the Nazis.   To explain this, some Japanese characters refer to rebellions in China and elsewhere in the Japanese empire which induce the Japanese to scale back.  Likewise, presumably the Germans lack the resources or manpower to control all of Russia, so the vast expanses of territory between the Urals and Manchuria provide ample hiding places for a combined Russian-Chinese communist rebellion.  In real life, Stalin moved much of the USSR’s factories east of the Urals, and the Nazis never intended to control Russia in its entirety even if they managed to take Moscow and defeat Stalin.  And militarily, while nuclear weapons are highly effective against sovereign nations with major metropolitan areas, they would be useless against a guerilla army which melts into the countryside across the country.  So this element of the narrative isn’t entirely implausible.

Alternate Timelines.  Dick never quite explained that part of it, at least not to my satisfaction.  For their part, the Nazis discover this, but it remains a closely held secret among the characters.  Once the Nazis do discover it, they develop a portal, with the ultimate goal of stealing as much technology they can from other timelines and then using that to invade and conquer those in which they didn't win WWII.  Not an optimal outcome, and the Resistance, by the end of Season 4, sets upon the task of destroying the portal.  Stay tuned.  

As you might imagine, the most notable achievements of the series was continuing the narrative past season 1, past the original story.   That took considerable imagination and a truly inspired writing staff.  I’m aware that not everyone is impressed with how it ended, but given how far they took it from Dick’s source material, they did well to give us three seasons more, so I’m inclined to cut them slack on that.  It had to end sometime, and it was going to be an ending which Dick didn’t provide them.   

Nazi America.   The other major achievement was portraying the US under Nazi control.   A US flag with a white swastika in the upper left quadrant where the 50 states’ stars would be.   Armbands with red and white stripes.   Propaganda cleverly mixing US culture with Nazi ideology.   Even “Reichgiving”, combining our Thanksgiving holiday with Nazi ideology.   Amazing.   [Credit Hugo Boss with the uniforms, by the way.]

Nazis in 1962.   Finally, they also extend things into the 60s.   The German combat uniforms have a splinter pattern closer to the East German army (NVA), although the helmets remain the 1935 pattern.  German soldiers carry H&K assault rifles similar to the Bundeswehr.   Ceremonial guards in Berlin still have the famous black SS uniforms.  SS insignia is not merely ubiquitous but also authentic: they got all the various rank patches right, from privates, NCOs, junior officers, up to Himmler himself.  Berlin is the metropolis Hitler always wanted.  Joe Blake visits Berlin and is invited to a party of hipster artists who introduce him to LSD - imagine hits of acid with swastikas on them.  

The Nazis are an evil, totalitarian dictatorship and ideology at its most seductive and irresistible.  The Swastika is simple yet dramatic, and can be incorporated in all sorts of ways, as the show illustrates, even into traditional American imagery.   The Man in the High Castle gives us the ultimate depiction of Nazi America.    

The Confederate Flag

God forbid I choose a relevant topic.   I just came back from Albany, and the Museum of New York loves to tell us how New York was the most important state for the Union (although they admit that as a percentage of its population, Vermont sent more soldiers to fight).  Part of a mural in the New York State Capital Building shows Union troops fighting Confederates, who are brandishing – guess what??? – the Confederate battle flag.  Let’s see if the furor will have workers erecting scaffolding in Albany to erase the offending image. 

Now, about the Confederate Battle Flag (hereinafter, “CBF”, please do not think I’m referring to the Brazilian Football Federation).  Yes, I know that it was never the actual flag of the CSA and was more like a military flag or naval ensign.  Though if you look at the actual “Stars and Bars” you can see what Georgia did:  it took advantage of the fact that most people only know the CBF and don’t recognize the actual flag of the CSA when they see it.

Let’s start by saying this is still a free country.  Any private individual should be free to express himself (or herself) with a CBF.  Fly it on your porch, from your pickup, or emblazon it on the top of your ’68-70 Dodge Charger.  Private sellers are free to stop selling it, and I imagine those which continue to sell it will laugh all the way to the bank.

Whether it’s included on the state flag (e.g. Mississippi) or flying on the state capital (South Carolina) should be up to the voters of that state to determine.   If they’re proud and want to give the rest of the country the middle finger, by all means vote to keep it.  If they’re ashamed, vote against it.  It’s that simple.

“OMG, what does it mean?”  I can understand those who sole purpose in showing the CBF is “southern pride”, which might not even necessarily be “white pride.”  I can see black people in the South as being proud of being from the South – they didn’t all move up to NYC or LA after 1865.  I find it hard to believe, though, that blacks would want to demonstrate “southern pride” by flying this flag.  And I can’t blame them for associating this flag with the Confederacy and its values. 

By the way: please, please, please shut up about “state’s rights”.  The only state’s right the Confederacy had any interest in defending was its “peculiar institution”.  So yes, the Civil War WAS about slavery, not state’s rights.  Does that mean flying the CBF is an explicit endorsement of slavery?  Not necessarily, but let me draw a potential parallel.

The battle flag of the Third Reich (above middle) is still available for sale.  It copied the old imperial German battle flag but changed the basic color from white to red and substituted the swastika in the center left in place of the imperial German eagle.  For that matter, you can probably still buy the flag of Nazi Germany:  red with the white circle and black swastika.  Instantly recognizable, as you might well imagine. 

Fly them, and then make the following claim.  “I don’t support or condone Nazi Germany, national socialism, totalitarianism, anti-Semitism, or any of the values of Nazi Germany.  I simply wish to show pride in the military prowess of the Wehrmacht (Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine) and Waffen SS, as well as esteemed German generals like Erwin Rommel or Heinz Guderian.   That’s all.”   See how many people accept that argument.  React with shock and horror when Jewish people condemn you.  “They’re missing the point I’m trying to make!”  Uh, yeah.

Having said that, I do believe the “southern pride” argument is not that weak, and here’s why. Circa 2015 I can’t imagine that any appreciable percentage of people flying the CBF sincerely wish to (A) bring back slavery or (B) secede from the US.   Such goals were unrealistic back in the late nineteenth century when the Ku Klux Klan was born, and are no more realistic today than they were then.  Apart from angry voices in the wilderness, vague and empty threats of secession barked out on the Internet or Facebook, no one seriously proposes either of them.  So it would be a mistake to attribute this agenda to anyone waving the CBF in 2015.

There’s also a fair amount of defiance involved.  We’re a plural society.  “America” doesn’t necessarily mean one particular group.  Whites from the South don’t relate to New Yorkers, gangsters from Chicago, hipsters from Seattle, or trendy types in California.  Each subset of our country wants the right to be proud of their particular niche in American society. 

Does flying any such flag count as “fighting words” or “shouting ‘FIRE’ in a crowded theater”, which might merit some form of content-based regulation to keep the peace and avoid bloodshed and riots?   That would have to depend on the circumstances, but probably not.  The courts have protected the Klan’s right to march, as well as “Illinois Nazis” (free from being plowed off a bridge by a Mount Prospect, IL former cop car?) to march and express their values, as unpopular as they are.   So most likely the rights probably stand with the CSA/Nazi crowd on this one. 

Here’s another idea.  In Harry Turtledove’s Timeline 191 series, the South wins the Civil War (the War of Secession, as it’s called), wins a subsequent Second Mexican War in 1881, but then loses World War I.  The US, allied with Imperial Germany, wins that war.  The Nazi Party never materializes, but an analogous party erupts in the defeated Confederate States: the Freedom Party.  This party takes the Confederate Battle Flag and reverses the colors, so it's a red cross on a blue field (above right).    You could fly that flag instead (assuming anyone sells it – it’s a purely fictional flag) but be warned.  In the stories, the Freedom Party took power in 1934 and started World War II in 1941 in the United States, invading Ohio from Kentucky and battling Pittsburgh.  However, the regime also began annihilating its blacks in concentration camps.  Does this sound familiar?   Even the Confederacy never tried doing that.  So a Freedom Party flag could be more provocative than a Confederate Battle Flag.  

Even so, the First Amendment protects free speech and freedom of expression, and that may include language we don’t like or agree with, or images we find offensive.  As a Union sympathizer, however, I will not be flying a CSA flag anytime soon.  Maybe I need a 35-state Union flag on the roof of my ’09 Charger.