-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Amazon's 'The Man in the High Castle' |OT| Man, that is a high castle...
- Thread starter RatskyWatsky
- Start date
- Status
ReturnOfTheRAT
Member
They're all there it seems. I didn't look past the 2nd episode title/entry for too long 
Grizzlyjin
Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
I love when these streaming services just say fuck it and throw it up early. "We'll do it live!"
Whole season is up for me too.
Whole season is up for me too.
Debating... should I go get the book from the library and read it before trying the series?
Which also led me to see that the Hugos somehow opted not to choose a winner out of these for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1963:
To which I say, what the hell? More voters chose "No Award" over Twilight Zone and Last Year at Marienbad? That's some nonsense right there.
In terms of the other nominated works:
- The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick [Putnam, 1962]
- Sword of Aldones by Marion Zimmer Bradley [Ace, 1961]
- A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke [Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962]
- Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper [Avon, 1962]
- Sylva by Vercors [Putnam, 1961]
Which also led me to see that the Hugos somehow opted not to choose a winner out of these for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1963:
- Burn, Witch, Burn (1962) (alt: Night of the Eagle) [Anglo-Amalgamated/Independent Artists] Directed by Sidney Hayers; Screenplay by Charles Beaumont & Richard Matheson and George Baxt; based on the novel Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber
- The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) [British Lion/Pax] Directed by Val Guest; Written by Wolf Mankowitz & Val Guest
- Last Year at Marienbad (1962) [Argos Films] Directed by Alain Resnais; Screenplay by Alain Resnais and Alain Robbe-Grillet; based on the novel The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
- The Twilight Zone (TV series) by Rod Serling [CBS]
To which I say, what the hell? More voters chose "No Award" over Twilight Zone and Last Year at Marienbad? That's some nonsense right there.
sometimes i game
Member
Oh sweet. I liked Hand of God, Transparent and Red Oaks. This looks like it'll be outstanding.
GavinUK86
Member
Loved the pilot, SUPER excited to see the rest. Time for bed then this and Jessica Jones tomorrow! Damn good weekend!
Glad I'm not the only one. Everyone regards it so highly I thought I was missing something.
Glad I'm not the only one. Everyone regards it so highly I thought I was missing something.
Yup right there with you guys. Probably the worst thing that I have read.
dead souls
Member
So it really is like Boardwalk Empire.
Do they explain how the Allies lost by any chance or is it just the backdrop? If not, I'll just imagine that Hitler stopped interfering with military projects and a shitload of other things instead of trying to alter something for his personal reasons or make the next big super-tank that isn't practical.
Love the premise and hope I can watch it soon. Might have a free Prime trial to use once this hack is cleared up at least.
Love the premise and hope I can watch it soon. Might have a free Prime trial to use once this hack is cleared up at least.
If I recall correctly, in this alternate reality America at the onset of WW2 is weaker than the America in our world. FDR was assassinated in 1933 and the Great Depression lasted longer. But that's from the novel this TV series is based on.
Thanks. I guess there's more to it than that but maybe U.S. didn't embargo Japan since FDR was dead and Japan didn't attack Pearl Harbor until they were in a much better position. Isolationism won until it was too late I guess? lol
Was just curious since I'd watch it no matter what just like I played Homefront ignoring the ludicrous plot in that since it gives us a unique alternate reality despite the gameplay.
Anyone recommending this book today must be a white supremacist or something. Most chapters read like an uncomfortable anecdote from your grandfather. If there's any deeper value or meaning it completely eluded me.
The novel within the novel was the biggest letdown:
I thought it was going to be about the history of the world we live in, but no, it's yet another alternate history, just one where the Nazis lose. Then there's the big reveal that its author was inspired by I Ching divinations.
EDIT: I realize this is a bold and rude claim since there are fans in this very thread, but it sure seemed that way while I was reading it.
adamsappel
Member
Yeah, but it always seems kind of wistful, like, "We could have been so advanced!"
I would tell you to read more books, but you must be doing something right if The Man in the High Castle is the "worst thing that I have [ever] read." I can understand a modern reader not appreciating it, but it's a well-written book. Dick wanted to be a serious writer, and this is one of his barely-sci-fi works. I also think he mostly wanted to write about the I, Ching, which was popular with hippies. He might have even sparked that popularity. I've seen Dick criticized for being clichéd, when he invented those clichés to begin with.
way more
Member
I don't intend to click every single thread title on OT to see if it interests me. It would be a lovely thing if they used the allotted text space to inform instead of do whatever the OP intended. Is it so wrong to want titles to be informative instead of insular?
way more
Member
It's a lot to ask for info instead of "creativity?" Leave the writing to the people who make the TV show, movie, book, music or whatever.
It's totally worth watching, at least so far. There some dodgy CGI during the first episode during a big etablishing shot, but the setting and production quality is very good otherwise.
I watched the pilot way back in the summer, episode two last month and episode three just now. I don't think i'll binge it, maybe one or two a day.
I watched the pilot way back in the summer, episode two last month and episode three just now. I don't think i'll binge it, maybe one or two a day.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
TheKingOfPain
Member
i watched the first two episodes, it's a damn good show so far.
The Jessica Jones thread asks to mark spoilers until December 1. Maybe we should follow the same timeline.
Cornballer
Member
We typically do two weeks with tags for streaming shows that drop all the episodes at once. December 1st is fine.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Well, it is a poor book.
radios shipping overview
Member
I'd like to know what in particular people have against it.
Are you able to distinguish between a story that is about racism and a story that is racist?
Are you able to distinguish between a story that is about racism and a story that is racist?
lastflowers
Banned
I'd probably watch the show first. I tend to be disappointed by adaptations, so seeing the show first helps me appreciate both.
That being said, I've already read the book and it's pretty good. It will be interesting to see how they adapt the title. Dick's works always feel a little loose and rugged, which I think helps the director/showrunner modify it to his own vision.
I don't think it is Dick's best work by any means, but it is far from a poor book. What it is, is a story about circumstance and society through a what-if alternate reality filter. It's not a good thriller. It's not a good conspiracy story. It's not a particularly good dramatic tale. But I would say it was never intended to be any of that. So... expectations I guess?
It would be like comparing Total Recall or Minority Report to the original stories.
lastflowers
Banned
Definitely agree with pretty much everything here.
Netherscourge
Banned
Wasn't there another movie or TV series a while back about an alternative post-WWII future with the Nazis winning?
I can't remember the name, but basically...
Or something like that. It may have been a History channel special.
I can't remember the name, but basically...
The Nazis didn't defeat the United States, but they managed to take over all of Europe and Russia and it was basically North America vs. the rest of the Nazi world.
BUT, one of the main reasons for this was because the holocaust was successfully kept a secret the entire time and there was less of an alliance against Hitler due to that fact. The movie basically revolved around some people or agents trying to dig up information and proof that Hitler had murdered millions of Jews and other people in concentration camps and that this was what the occupied world needed to see to start a rebellion, backed by the US.
BUT, one of the main reasons for this was because the holocaust was successfully kept a secret the entire time and there was less of an alliance against Hitler due to that fact. The movie basically revolved around some people or agents trying to dig up information and proof that Hitler had murdered millions of Jews and other people in concentration camps and that this was what the occupied world needed to see to start a rebellion, backed by the US.
Or something like that. It may have been a History channel special.
I'll see which hobby I can catch up with first, my active reading list or my DVR backlog. Fallout 4 addiction has decimated all other recreation.
In the right hands, people can take Dick's ideas and adapt them fairly liberally to good effect. But then we also get endless supplies of mediocre action-thrillers with sci-go backdrops.
whalenapp81
Member
I think you are referring to Fatherland, it was both a book and a movie.
lastflowers
Banned
zero shift
Banned
Saw the first episode. My thoughts:
Does this show get any better?
- The show itself isn't that well made. I feel that they focused too much on creating a world where the Axis powers control America rather than having a quality product
- The actors are pretty crappy. Maybe I have too high of expectations but the actors are very poor and really don't sell their characters.
- I do enjoy how they highlight the tensions between the Japanese and the Germans
- Kill La Kill has better writing than this show. The writing is just horrible.
- I really enjoyed and did not expect the
.twist ending
Does this show get any better?
adamsappel
Member
I mentioned a book earlier, Norman Spinrad's The Iron Dream. It's a "fake" novel, The Lord of the Swastika, purportedly written by a minor, pulp science-fiction writer/illustrator by the name of Adolf Hitler. It reads exactly like a science-fiction novel that would have been written by Adolf Hitler, with Aryan heroes triumphing over "mud races" and in-your-face parallels of Nuremberg rallies, with only a small bit of authorial irony in a postscript purportedly by a literary critic. It would seem to be blatant-if-uncomfortable satire. And yet:
wikipedia said:
Watched episode 3 and I don't think I'll binge this either. It's a bit run of the mill compared with the first two episodes, didn't feel like much happened and I can't say I care all that much for any of the characters yet... maybe except the trade minister, he's alright.
At least it stop feeling like the characters know their universe is 'wrong' somehow and there is a correct version of history out there.
At least it stop feeling like the characters know their universe is 'wrong' somehow and there is a correct version of history out there.
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked