Authenticity and Value

‘This is most authentic of dying old U.S. culture, a rare retained artifact carrying flavor of bygone halcyon day.’

Mr. Baynes opened the box. In it lay a Mickey Mouse wristwatch on a pad of black velvet.’

This quote appears in Chapter 3 when Tagomi greets Baynes with a gift. Earlier, readers saw Tagomi calling Childan, impatiently asking why the Civil War poster he ordered hadn’t arrived yet. Tagomi is preoccupied with making a good impression on Baynes and believes giving him an authentic American antique, the watch, will show ultimate respect. Tagomi’s ulterior motive is extracting intelligence from Baynes, whom he believes is a Swedish official with special knowledge about the plastics the Germans use in their space program. Tagomi chooses a Mickey Mouse watch from Childan’s collection as a replacement item, and Baynes is offended when he opens the box, not realizing Tagomi is giving the item to him in earnest. Dick uses the episode to show how occupiers (in this case, the Japanese) often consider the people they conquer as exotic and their wares as having special value. The watch, possibly considered cheap junk by readers’ standards, is now an authentic and valuable antique.

He hung up. No carrier Syokaku for seventeen years. Probably no Admiral Harusha. The man had been an imposter. And yet—

The man had been right. The Colt .44 was a fake.

In Chapter 4, Childan calls to check up on a customer who recently came into his store calling himself Admiral Harusha and trying to buy a dozen antique pistols on behalf of the captain of his ship, the Syokaku. The man tells Childan his antique guns are fakes, which shocks and insults Childan. The man calls into question Childan’s credentials, telling him he can’t trust that any of his items in his store are authentic because Childan can’t tell the difference between a forgery and an authentic item. Childan is embarrassed. The man is Frank Frink, who is employed at the factory that manufactures forgeries of antique guns. The forgeries are well-made because Frink is skilled, so Childan’s mistake isn’t that great. Here, Frink, a man in disguise, who makes valuable, well-crafted fakes, and Childan, a man not in disguise who is supposed to be in the business of telling real from fake, meet. As is common in the novel, the truth is revealed through what is false. The truth is the guns Childan sells are fake, and this is revealed through something fake: Frank Frink in disguise.

‘One of those two Zippo lighters was in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s pocket when he was assassinated. And one wasn’t. One has historicity, a hell of a lot of it. As much as any object ever had. And one has nothing. Can you feel it?’ He nudged her. ‘You can’t. . . . There is no ‘mystical plasmic presence,’ no ‘aura’ around it.’

This quote appears in Chapter 5, after Wyndam-Matson, who sells well-made forgeries at his metalworking company, receives a complaint about the quality of the fake antique pistols he sells. Wyndam-Matson is a businessman and is out for profit. The Japanese are in control and drive the market, and the Japanese value American antiques, so that’s what Wyndam-Matson produces. Trying to prove that the Japanese’s prizing of historicity is bunk, Wyndam-Matson shows his girlfriend two lighters—one that was with President Roosevelt when he was assassinated, and one that is just a regular lighter. Wyndam-Matson claims the authenticity of the one owned by Roosevelt can’t be traced by the senses—it can’t be smelled, seen, or felt—which, to Wyndam-Matson, proves his point that value and authenticity are arbitrary. This idea is challenged later in the novel, however, when Paul Kasouras senses the wu in Frink’s jewelry. In that case, Paul can sense the invisible quality in the piece that gives it value and authenticity.

Versions of History

What upset him was this. The death of Adolf Hitler, the defeat and destruction of Hitler, the Partei, and Germany itself, as depicted in Abendsen’s book . . . it all was somehow grander, more in the old spirit than the actual world. The world of German hegemony.

This quote in Chapter 8 reveals that German Reich Consul Hugo Reiss certainly doesn’t like the version of history presented in Abendsen’s novel The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. Nevertheless, Reiss is spellbound by the book—he can’t put it down and gets angry when he’s interrupted several times reading it. Here, Reiss reacts to an excerpt from the novel that describes Adolf Hitler’s funeral. Reiss feels this version of history oddly feels truer to the spirit of Hitler’s Germany than the form of German hegemony that exists now, in the 60s. He also acknowledges that this book isn’t a history book at all, either—it’s a work of fiction—yet he acknowledges that words are words and have the power to enact ideas that will influence people’s thoughts. This scene suggests that fiction has the power to reveal history more than a factual recording of events. It also implies that history is perceived differently by those in power and those not in power. People who have no political power, like Juliana, are fascinated by the book. Those who do have power, like Reiss, are infuriated.

Interrupting, Joe said, ‘You know what he’s done, don’t you? He’s taken the best about Nazism, the socialist part, the Todt Organization, and the economic advances we got through Speer, and who is he giving the credit to? The New Deal.

In this quote from Chapter 10, Joe Cinnadella and Juliana Frink are arguing about the novel The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, which tells an alternate history of the outcome and events after World War II. In the novel’s version, the Allied won. Joe is bothered by the version of history told in the novel because he believes it casts the Germans as undeniably evil and doesn’t give them enough credit for their socialist reforms leading up to and during the war. Readers may note that, in reality, the New Deal was a package of public programs enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to help the United States recover from the Great Depression. Joe, who is secretly a German assassin, sympathizes with the German cause, while Juliana is fiercely adamant the novel tells a truer picture of Germany’s evil. In this exchange, Dick highlights the idea that history is constructed by different viewpoints, and suggests the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

‘It’s Chung Fu,’ Juliana said. ‘Inner Truth. I know without using the chart, too. And I know what it means.’

In this quote, which occurs at the end of the novel in Chapter 15, Juliana is at Abendsen’s house. She has become so fascinated with his novel, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, that she’s gone to his home to ask him a very important question: Why did he write the book? To Juliana, the book feels real, and accurately records the horrors of the Nazi regime. She wonders what this alternate world Abendsen describes would be like. She finds Abendsen is coy, however, and resists answering her question directly. It is Abendsen’s wife who tells Juliana that the book was written by consulting the I Ching, thus the I Ching is the true author. So, Juliana consults the oracle right there on the spot, and it answers that it wrote the book for “Inner Truth.” This quote closes the issues of both Dick’s novel and Abendsen’s: Neither gives accurate versions of history. In Dick’s novel, the Japanese and Germans have won, and in Abendsen’s, there are some facts about historical figures that are incorrect. Yet they both reveal an “Inner Truth” about history itself, which is to be apprehended by readers through these fictional mediums.

Social Class and Rank

It was a chance to meet a young Japanese couple socially, on a basis of acceptance of him as a man rather than him as a yank, or, at best, a tradesman who sold art objects.

This quote occurs in Chapter 1 just after Childan takes a call from Tagomi, who is incensed the American Civil War poster he ordered hasn’t arrived yet. Tagomi, purposely or not, mispronounces Childan’s name, which infuriates Childan. Childan is bitter about being part of the new lower class and having to pander to the Japanese, who’ve assumed power over the Pacific Coast States. The appearance of the young Japanese couple who have entered his shop, however, has lifted Childan’s spirits, since they’ve invited them to their house for a private showing, which he perceives as a chance to prove to them he’s more than just a yank. The quote shows how class-obsessed Childan is, and how inside-out life is now for those who are currently on the receiving end of subjugation. The quote also sets up one of the key themes in the novel—social class and rank—and how it will affect the characters’ psyches.

‘You, sir, are of American ancestry. Although you have gone to the trouble of darkening your skin color.’ He scrutinized Mr. Ramsey.

 

Mr. Tagomi speaks these words in Chapter 2, to his assistant, Mr. Ramsey. Ramsey is a white American man who has a position of power in the Japanese government by being a high-ranking official’s assistant but only in appearance. The Japanese have set up a pinoc government of Japanese-controlled white people who serve in political positions. Ramsey has gone to the trouble, as Tagomi says, of even changing his appearance to look more Japanese to fulfill the role. Ramsey has no real social rank, and his sense of self-sovereignty has been hollowed out by his attempts to fit into the new social order. Still, Tagomi needs Ramsey to help him choose an authentic piece of American artifact to impress Baynes because Ramsey has something of value—he’s an actual American who can accurately discern which American pieces are valuable and which are junk. Social class, as Dick shows, is a somewhat artificial structure that morphs and changes the actual, inherent power of those involved.

Was he supposed to deny the great masters of European music, the timeless classics in favor of New Orleans jazz from the honky-tonks and bistros of the Negro quarter?

Childan wonders these thoughts in Chapter 7, while at the home of the Kasouras, the young, wealthy Japanese couple whom he met at his store. They’ve invited Childan to their home for a special showing of his antique collection. The invite gives Childan a surge of confidence and makes him feel like, for once, he can be considered more than a white yank. During dinner, the group turns to typical dinner topics—culture, music, art—and the Kasouras mention they like American jazz music. Here, Childan’s internal thoughts begin to spiral as he prefers European classical music, but he's scared to mention this for fear of offending their tastes. The Japanese have conquered America and now consider all of its culture something precious and exotic. Whose tastes are correct—Childan’s or the Kasouras?  In this exchange, Dick shows how class-conscious Childan is, but also how arbitrary taste can be when it’s dictated by class structures.

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