I Ching – The Book of Changes, Translated and Edited by John Blofeld – 1968 (1965) [Tim Lewis]

The Secret is Forever Elusive

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Given the centrality of the I Ching to The Man in The High Castle, I thought it’d be interesting to display the cover of this edition of the book, from 1968.   

Lawrence Sutin’s extremely thorough and truly well-written biography of Dick – Divine Invasions – A Life of Philip K. Dick, which I’m currently reading – discusses the ancient text in terms of Dick’s daily consultation of the work (for lack of a better word!) during the 1960s, in terms of his daily life in general, and specifically, the creation of his famous alternate history.

Fact (fiction?)…

“He continued to consult the I Ching on a near-daily basis – more frequently if he perceived a crisis at hand, which was fairly often.  Miriam Lloyd, with whom Phil commenced an enduring friendship during this period, observes, “Phil was a crisis junkie anyway – he loved a crisis.”  The I Ching was a valued touchstone at such times, though Phil no longer consulted it for plot construction.  It was during 1965 that Phil write the essay “Schizophrenia & The Book Of Changes,” in which he argues that the oracle can’t predict the future – fortunately, since total knowledge would immobilize us (as a schizophrenic, whose idios kosmos is overwhelmed by the koinos kosmos, is immobilized).  But it can reveal the gestalt from which the future will emerge.”

Fiction (The Man in The High Castle) (fact?)…

“In a 1976 interview, Phil accused the I Ching of being a “malicious spirit” largely because it “copped out completely” as to the “unresolved ending chapter of High Castle.  “It is a liar.  It speaks with forked tongue.”  (Notwithstanding the pronouncements, Phil consulted the I Ching regularly up to the time of his death, with peak use in the sixties and early seventies.)  What frustrated Phil (as well as numerous critics who otherwise admired the novel unreservedly) was that the revelation of the truth – that the Allies prevailed in World War II – does nothing to dispel the characters’ foreboding.  Juliana remains isolated; Abendsen continues to live in fear.  The sense of Nazi oppression remains.  Truth alone, it seems, is not enough to liberate the soul.  In an August 1978 letter, Phil tries to make the High Castle ending cohere:

Juliana tells Hawthorne Abendsen that his book is true and it makes him angry.  […]  Simply because he knows that if this woman, this stranger, this ordinary person knows, then the Fascist Authorities must know, and his life is in danger.  Abendsen feels two opposite ways about his novel; on one level he would like the truth of it to be palpable, but it scares him that he knows the truth and has publicly stated that truth: he is a Geheimnistrager [person entrusted with secret information]: a carrier (knower I mean) of a secret, and it is a secret which frightens him.

…[in 1974] he returned briefly to the idea of writing a sequel to High Castle.  Back in 1964 he made a start of it (two chapters, twenty-eight pages total, survive…) but could not face further research on hideous Nazi tactics.  Dictated cassette notes of 1974 describe one scene in which Abendsen would be brutally interrogated by Nazis who seek (like Juliana) the truth as to the alternate universe (“Nebenwelt”), which Abendsen cannot provide – he does not know.  The secret is forever elusive.”

Something Somewhere All At Once?

Mountfort, Paul, The I Ching and Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, Science-Fiction Studies, July, 2016, V 43, N2 (PDF)

…at Archive.org (“A Talk With Philip K. Dick” – “Starting out and doing research” – at 15:10) (audio)

…at Joe Nolan’s Insomnia (“I Ching According to Philip K. Dick”)

…at Philip K. Dick.com (“Philip K. Dick’s Final Interview”)

…at Philip K. Dick.com (“Vertex Interview with Philip K. Dick”)

…at Quora (“How exactly does the I Ching (Oracle) work in Philip K. Dick’s novel, The Man in the High Castle?”)

…at Open Culture (“Philip K. Dick Tarot Cards: A Tarot Deck Modeled After the Visionary Sci-Fi Writer’s Inner World”)

…at reddit (“Glitch in the Matrix” – “The metaphysics of GITM: The I Ching, Philip K. Dick, and The Man in the High Castle.”)

A Biography of Philip K. Dick

Sutin, Lawrence,  Divine Invasions – A Life of Philip K. Dick, Harmony Books, New York, N.Y., 1989

Reach for Tomorrow, by Arthur C. Clarke – March, 1956 [Richard M. Powers] [Updated post – with new detail!…]

From January of 2017, this is one of my earlier posts.  Since then, I’ve been able to acquire a copy of Reach For Tomorrow in better condition than my “first”, this newer copy being presented below.  Though I’ve used the same scanner (Epson V600, to be specific) to create images of both copies, note the difference in hues between the the covers of the two books.

I’ve also scanned specific areas of the cover at a ridiculously high resolution (600 dpi! – you can see the halftone printing in mesmerizing clarity) to present a larger image in your browser, and to give a better appreciation for the nature of Richard Powers’ art. 

Like many of his compositions, the only human presence in this scene is denoted by a solitary, miniscule man: A simple figure in red stands atop a pillar in the left foreground, holding some sort of enigmatic object. 

Otherwise, the view includes three floating and one fallen “objects”, another feature common to Powers’ cover illustrations for works of science fiction.  Clearly, Powers (and perhaps the art department of Ballantine Books?) seem to have accorded a great deal of forethought and planning in the creation of this unusual cover, which – in terms of originality and impact – is strikingly like that of Ballantine’s 1965 release of Expedition to Earth.  Which, along with Prelude to Space, I hope to bring you in a future post.

Note that the book’s rear cover has a horizontal format identical to the front, and includes illustrations of four other science fiction works by Clarke published by Ballantine.  (Childhood’s End, Expedition to Earth, Prelude to Space, and Earthlight.) 

Reach for Tomorrow was published by Ballantine in 1970 in a conventional vertical format, with cover art that – while nice – was equally conventional.  You can view the later edition here.  

Contents

Rescue Party, Astounding Science Fiction, May, 1946

A Walk in the Dark, Thrilling Wonder Stories, August, 1950

The Forgotten Enemy, Avon Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader, January, 1953

Technical Error (“The Reversed Man”), from Thrilling Wonder Stories, June, 1950

The Parasite, from Avon Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader, April, 1953

The Fires Within, from Startling Stories, September, 1949

The Awakening, from Future Science Fiction Stories, January, 1952

Trouble With the Natives, from Marvel Science Stories, May, 1951

The Curse, from Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine, September, 1953

Time’s Arrow, from Science Fantasy, Summer, 1950

Jupiter Five, from If, May, 1953

The Possessed, Dynamite Science Fiction, March, 1953

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– Cover detail – right –

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– Cover detail – lower center –

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– Cover detail – lower left –

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Reference

Reach for Tomorrow, at Internet Speculative Fiction Database

From original post of January, 2017.  A little on the green side, eh?

1/1/18 – 141; 1/29/20 518