The Grasshopper Lies Heavy

In renowned science fiction novelist Philip K Dick's 1962 classic The Man in the High Castle, America is a divided land. Not only did the Allies lose World War 2, but the Axis powers invaded America and occupied its coastal states: the Germans taking the eastern seaboard and the Japanese the Pacific coast. In between lies the Rocky Mountain States, whose tenuous independence is supported only by its role as a buffer state between the two wary Axis empires. Life is grim for many, particularly in the eastern states where Nazi racial laws hold sway. One man in the RMS has a different view of how history might have turned out, and his counterfactual novel, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, appears throughout Dick's novel, as various characters seek out its mysterious author Hawthorn Abendsen, the titular Man in the High Castle. Here some characters discuss the novel within a novel, and how their dystopian world may have turned out if President Franklin D Roosevelt had not been assassinated in 1933.

'Abendsen's theory is that Roosevelt would have been a terribly strong President. As strong as Lincoln. He showed it in the year he was President, all those measures he introduced. The book is a fiction. I mean, it's in novel form. Roosevelt isn't assassinated in Miami; he goes on and is re-elected in 1936, so he's President until 1940, until during the war. Don't you see? He's still President when Germany attacks England and France and Poland. And he sees all that. He makes America strong. Garner was a really awful President. A lot of what happened was his fault. And then in 1940, instead of Bricker, a Democrat would have been elected -'
'According to this Abelson,' Wyndham-Mason broke in. He glanced at the girl beside him. God, they read a book, he thought, and they spout on forever.
'His theory is that instead of an Isolationist like Bricker, in 1940 after Roosevelt, Rexford Tugwell would have been President.' Her smooth face, reflecting the traffic lights, glowed with animation; her eyes had become large and she gestured as she talked. 'And he would have been very active in continuing the Roosevelt anti-Nazi policies. So Germany would have been afraid to come to Japan's help in 1941. They would not have honoured their treaty. Do you see?'
Turning towards him on the seat, grabbing his shoulder with intensity, she said, 'And so Germany and Japan would have lost the war!'
He laughed.
Staring at him, seeking something in his face - he could not tell what, and anyhow he had to watch the other cars - she said, 'It's not funny. It really would have been like that, the U.S. would have been able to lick the Japanese. And -'
'How?' he broke in.
'He has it all laid out.' For a moment she was silent. 'It's in fiction form,' she said. 'Naturally, it's got a lot of fictional parts; I mean, it's got to be entertaining or people wouldn't read it. It has a human-interest theme; there's these two young people, the boy is in the American Army. The girl - well, anyhow, President Tugwell is really smart. He understands what the Japs are going to do.' Anxiously, she said, 'It's all right to talk about this; the Japs have let it be circulated in the Pacific. I read that a lot of them are reading it. It's popular in the Home Islands. It's stirred up a lot of talk.'
Wyndham-Matson said, 'Listen. What does he say about Pearl Harbor?'
'President Tugwell is so smart that he has all the ships out to sea. So the U.S. fleet isn't destroyed.'
'I see.'
'So, there really isn't any Pearl Harbor. They attack, but all they get is some little boats.'
'It's called "The Grasshopper something?"'
'The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. That's a quote from the Bible.'

While Dick's novels have become a huge treasure-trove of potential scripts for screenwriters in the wake of the iconic success of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner in 1982, The Man in the High Castle has yet to be made into a film. Some of the novel's frank exposition of the Nazi and Japanese racial theories that are enforced in occupied America would likely be highly controversial. Yet Robert Harris' similar counterfactual novel Fatherland, a detective story set in a victorious Third Reich, was made into a 1994 TV movie featuring Rutger Hauer, which shows it can be done. Ridley Scott announced in 2010 that he is producing a four-part adaptation of The Man in the High Castle for the BBC - hopefully that will be completed and come to screens soon, because this is one of Philip K Dick's most memorable and successful works.

Social mobility in America

The American dream is that any child can make it from the bottom to the top. That may still be true in politics; the son of a Kenyan immigrant, raised partly by his grandparents, is now president of the United States. But it is much less true, in economic terms, than most Americans think. Social mobility is less easy in America than in other countries. For example, three-quarters of Danes born in the lowest-earning 20% of the population escape their plight in adulthood. Seven out of ten poor children in supposedly class-ridden Britain achieve the same feat. But fewer than six in ten Americans do so.

Similarly, with rags-to-riches stories. It is far less common for Americans from the bottom 20% in childhood to move into the top 20% in adulthood than it is in Denmark or in Britain. On the whole, America's wealthy prosper while the average citizen struggles; the richest 1% of Americans gained 93% of the additional income created in 2010. The pay workers get has failed to move in line with productivity in the past 30 years. But Americans have yet to realise the extent of this tectonic shift. In a survey conducted in 2011 the average respondent thought that the richest fifth of the population had 60% of the wealth, not 85% as is the case. The respondents' ideal income distribution would be for the top quintile to have just 30% of the wealth.

- Economist, 23 June 2012, in a review of Joseph Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers our Future.

See also:

Review: Yvonne Roberts, Observer, 13 July 2012

Interview: Jared Bernstein interviews Stiglitz, Rolling Stone, 25 June 2012

Pukerua to Plimmerton

Coastal route from Pukerua Bay to Plimmerton
(Photo taken flying into WLG, 23.09.12)

A couple of weekends ago I caught up with former workmate Helen for a coastal walk north of Wellington - the trek from Pukerua Bay round the rocky shore to Plimmerton, a distance of 9.5km. The journey took about two and a half hours with a few photo breaks, and included Helen's neighbour's dog Mr Nuts (as I addressed him - certain formalities must be addressed when meeting new individuals, don't you know?).

The day was mild but offered a few 'refreshing' showers during the walk, but nothing particularly inconvenient or unpleasant. The walk is moderately challenging due to the rocky terrain, slick footing and occasional petering out of walking tracks - sometimes we just clambered over outcrops and jumped down onto the rolling west coast boulders. There weren't many other people out, and the few hardcore walkers seemed to be travelling from south to north, in the opposite direction to us. We saw a few of these gnarled elderly walkers on the same route and they tended to be hardy sorts equipped with impressive-looking walking poles, the kind sported in pairs by ultra-prepared German ramblers.

We had initially planned to take the train back from Plimmerton to Pukerua at the end, but Mr N brought about a change of plans because no dogs are allowed on Wellington trains, apart from guide dogs - and with the best will in the world he'd struggle to pass himself off as one of those. Instead we parked a car at each end (combined age: 43), which was quite a relief to the knees after a lively hike.

Posing at the hole in the rock

Driftwood teepee

Twin peaks

In his element

The wild west coast (taken by HC)

Watching the waves smash in

   

I am glad they built me of iron; let me rust

A view of the Auckland Sky Tower from the Domain, Saturday 22 September. The tower was completed in 1997, and was designed to be taller than Sydney's more famous tower - although it depends how you measure it. The Sydney tower's viewing deck is 50m higher than Auckland's - you can get married there if you like - but the total structure of the Sky Tower is 19m higher to the tip of its antenna spire. Neither is particularly aesthetically pleasing to look at, but each speaks of its own particular decade of birth - the Sydney Tower is vintage late space-age (construction commenced 1970, completed 1981) and the Sky Tower (commenced 1994) is a sleek space needle, its rocketship design referenced by the now hugely dated Force Entertainment Centre on Aotea Square. The Sky Tower, built of reinforced concrete with composites for the upper works, mainly serves as a viewing and wire-jumping platform when it's not acting as a fireworks dispenser, such as last week in honour of Valerie Adams' Olympic gold medal. It even has a younger, slightly taller sibling - the Macau Tower was commissioned from the same architects and was constructed from 1998 to 2001.

See also:
Radio: Interview - Kevin Brass, Council on Tall Buildings & Urban Habitat, 19 May 2012
Web: Council on Tall Buildings & Urban Habitat

Wodehouse outwits the critics

A certain critic - for such men, I regret to say, do exist - made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained "all the old Wodehouse characters under different names". He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have outgeneralled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy.

- P.G. Wodehouse's preface to Summer Lightning, 1929, quoted in Isaac Chotiner, 'The Escapist', The Atlantic, June 2012, p.93

Shaggy's gritty smack battle

Robert and David are organising a party:

Robert: If we invite Freddie, Daphne and Velma there's a chance they'll bring that other one.

David: Oh God! The scrawny one, the one that doesn't wash. What's his name?

Robert: Well, we don't know! I mean, he calls himself Shaggy but I certainly don't believe that's his name. I think it's some kind of hollow sexual boast.

David: I think it definitely is. He's probably trying to present himself as some kind of stud, despite being quite ugly and incredibly cowardly. The last time I saw him he was literally shaking, and he spent most of the evening scampering up and down a very long corridor that happened to be there.

Robert: Well that's certainly no way to make people have sex with you. But maybe we're being harsh on him. I mean, he's so thin and he's always shaking - he's probably in the throes of some gritty smack battle.