The Power of Small Things in Philip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle"

Abstract

timeless work of an artist its ahistorical nature, jewelry, though represents nothing, is alive now. This leaves Paul deeply moved. The object means itself, or as Paul says, [I]t somehow partakes of Tao. You see? He continues: is balanced. The forces this piece are stabilized. At rest. So to speak, this object has made its peace with universe. It has separated from and hence has managed to come to homeostasis (163). The triangular pin somehow conveys not a significance of reference but particular specificity of its own thingness, what Tao calls wu. And wu, like child's rag ball, or Mickey Mouse watch, is customarily found, Paul says, in least imposing places, as Christian aphorism, 'stones rejected by builder' (164). While he is essentially correct his borrowing from both Psalm 118:22, as well as its New 267 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.27 on Sat, 26 Nov 2016 04:15:01 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Rocky Mountain Review Testament counterpart Matthew 21:42, Paul makes plural what both biblical references and there are more, all singular clearly intend to be singular, their treatment of as a cornerstone.5 Dick deliberately has Paul Kasoura refer to instead of a (corner) stone because he intends a more special meaning than that of Bible, where both Psalm (Christologically) and Matthew passage are intended, by Christians, to refer to Jesus as cornerstone of all faith. Dick is perhaps less interested Christ than he is a kind of Taoistic democratic respect for all aspects of creation, including those less worthy stones a builder would reject construction of a building. Dick also intends for his readers to relate passage, its metaphorical richness, to Nazi compulsion to construct great monumental human-dwarfing edifices as well as to legend of reclusive author Hawthorne Abensen's attempts to escape world by building his own mountain top high castle isolated from humanity, or from what Dick calls the 'ordinary' world.6 This then explains Paul's re-interpretation of biblical parable. It is important, though, to distinguish between Paul's attraction for innate beauty of Frank Frink's jewelry and that interpretation which arises from within who has put wu into object, rather than merely witnessed wu inherent it (164). Nevertheless, as Paul seems to say, there can be no such idea as a thing itself containing artistic value. The viewer, or reader case of this novel, must complete circuit of creation, face [its] reality with more courage (165), risk connecting himself to it, and concomitantly be restored to his own self, his own lost individuality. By selling Frank Frink's pins, and arguing for their artistic merit, Childan at once extols art's capacity to engender creation and his own desire to begin a new life.7 In his otherwise excellent treatment of High Castle context of Dick's richest fictional narratives, Darko Suvin mistakenly dismisses Robert Childan as a duplicitous middle-class American, a racist small shopkeeper oscillating between being a helper and a deceitful exploiter of creative artificers such as Frink (166). Suvin fails to note that Childan, while he may initially appear this way a manner consistent with separate but related narratives of major characters Nobutsake Tagomi and Frink's estranged wife, Juliana, has experienced a crisis of self-confidence and faith which, once endured and understood, enables him as they to apprehend world a new profounder light. Childan's ethical oscillations cease when Paul Kasoura subtly cajoles him into accepting responsibility for unique qualities of jewelry. In order to entice Robert into this new-found assertiveness, Paul first humiliates him by tempting Robert into a get-rich-quick scheme of massproducing and marketing cheap wu-less copies of pins. But by emulating I Ching, Paul secretly urges Robert to choose between alternatives, become an active participating agent creation of his own life. Paul's ultimate purpose is, then, to make pariah Childan defend both American art and his Americanness. Challenged, Robert hesitates for a moment before a wastebasket, ready to contemptuously hurl jewelry 268 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.27 on Sat, 26 Nov 2016 04:15:01 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms