{"id":202700,"date":"2015-11-23T19:10:44","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T19:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=202700"},"modified":"2015-11-23T19:10:44","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T19:10:44","slug":"myths-of-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/myths-of-empire\/","title":{"rendered":"Myths of Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The release of The Man in the High Castle<\/i>, a streaming film series<\/a> produced by Amazon and based very loosely on Philip K. Dick\u2019s 1962 novel<\/a> of the same name, is an occasion for us to examine the myths of empire \u2014 that is, the narratives that are woven around actual historical events, which are rarely accurate, and which are designe to buttress the prevailing political order.<\/p>\n

We can do this by examining, first, the differences between Dick\u2019s version,
\nas presented in the original novel, and the Amazon film version, which deviates
\nconsiderably from Dick\u2019s vision. The novel, like the film version, is an alternate
\nhistory \u2014 a \u201cwhat if\u201d story \u2014 that portrays a world in which the Axis Powers
\nwon World War II. In the novel, as in the film, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is
\nassassinated, and subsequent US Presidents John Nance Garner<\/a> (FDR\u2019s
\nanti-New Deal Vice President) and \u201cisolationist<\/a>\u201d Sen. John
\nW. Bricker<\/a> allow the Nazis and the Japanese to achieve military superiority,
\nwhich ends in their joint assault on the US and the division of the US into
\noccupied territories, with the East Coast controlled by the Nazis and the West
\nCoast occupied by Japan. The same scenario unfolds in the film, although without
\nreferences to either Garner or Bricker<\/p>\n

The key difference is in the plot device that moves the novel \u2014 and the film
\n\u2014 forward: the existence of a subversive text that is banned in both spheres
\nof occupied America, entitled The Grasshopper Lies Heavy<\/i>. In the film,
\nthis isn\u2019t a text but a movie, made by the mysterious Man in the High Castle
\nand distributed by the Resistance, an underground movement seeking to liberate
\nAmerica from both the Japanese and the Nazis. What it consists of is left deliberately
\nvague, but what it purportedly depicts is a world in which the alternate history
\npremise is reversed: the US wins the war, and its value to the Resistance is
\nthat it shows a world worth fighting for, one in which American power is restored
\nand its enemies vanquished.<\/p>\n

In Dick\u2019s novel, however, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy<\/i> is a novel, one
\nin which Roosevelt isn\u2019t assassinated but instead turns into a constitutionalist
\nwho doesn\u2019t run for four terms but instead limits his reign to two. He also
\nstrengthens America\u2019s defenses and the Axis never even sets foot on US territory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The release of The Man in the High Castle, a streaming film series produced by Amazon and based very loosely on Philip K. Dick\u2019s 1962 novel of the same name, is an occasion for us to examine the myths of empire \u2014 that is, the narratives that are woven around actual historical events, which are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-202700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}