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Tarots, the I Ching etc. can guide creativity. Not because they are magic in any way; it's just that their rulesets act as a framework for thought processes.

See: The Man in the High Castle (PKD wrote it by using the I Ching) and The Castle of Crossed Destinies, by Calvino (based on tarot readings).

Have you read "The Man in the High Castle" by PKD? It kind of deals with this...

From Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle:

  To inspire himself, he lit up a marijuana cigarette, 
  excellent Land-O-Smiles brand.

Of course, this was in an alternative universe where the Axis powers won World War II...

Sometimes there are widely beloved books that I never seem to connect with no matter how many times I pick them up, but when I try them in audio-book form I see the appeal.

The Man in the High Castle and Ubik, for example.

I had the same reaction with Ancillary Justice.

The Man in the High Castle is.the best thing of his I've read. A Scanner Darkly is quite funny once you get the joke. Hope you enjoy the read. :)

There is precedent.

Look at Altered Carbon which got 10 hours for the first book, or The Man in the High Castle which was adapted into 2+ seasons for a book that's only 240 pages.

The Man in the High Castle had probably the worst ending of any book I've ever read, it's really incredible how the book takes such a sharp nosedive in the last 2-3 dozen pages

The counterfactual is explored in Philip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle"

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Philip K. Dick

I, Robot - Isaac Asimov

The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick

2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke

I read PKD's "The Man in the High Castle" years ago, but that clearly doesn't fit within article's description.

Can anyone recommend a novel/story that most clearly represents this version of dystopia?

> I didn't really like A Scanner Darkly, nor Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep and would consider them of minor import had not movies been made of them.

Yeah, a different opinion: these are his best novels, along with Ubik and The Man in the High Castle.

Reminded me of "The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick, where I Ching was the main plot-driving object.

Same author, earlier exploration: The Man in the High Castle (1962) explored it in the context of otherwise-identical objects, one of which was involved in some historic event, the other of which wasn't

It almost escalated, multiple times, where it boiled down to someone in lower chain of command refusing to take the destructive action.

The book and series The Man In The High Castle (SPOILER) is essentially about the disturbed equilibrium between a nuclear and non nuclear power.

In which case, don't pay for prime, and just pay for the pay-per-view. In any case, you're complaining about them bundling something which they are not bundling.

Since you haven't found anything interesting on prime to watch, I'll give you a couple suggestions for prime original series which I found good (or have on good authority are worthy):

Goliath - This was excellent from start to finish. It's only 8 episodes, so easy to consume.

The Man in the High Castle - Interesting to me in how the geopolitics of two superpowers in the 60's play out when those superpowers are Nazi Germany and Militaristic Japan, and the parallels to the U.S. and U.S.S.R. during the same period. A little bit of mostly unexplained and low-key science fiction in-story to drive it keeps it interesting as well.

Red Oaks - Only caught one episode, but my wife has seen it all and thought it was fairly funny and it seemed interesting in an 80's John Hughes sort of way.

Surprised no one recommended "the Man in the High Castle" it's how he won the Hugo Award! The alternate recent-history setting is unique & the character arcs were determined by random I Ching passages (It somehow works). Like most of his writing, it is significantly better than the Hollywood adaption which took the setting and completely re-imagined the characters & plot.

The man in the high castle and Ubik by Philip K. Dick. They're next on my wishlist and I've already spent my book budget for this month.

If that's not an option I'd donate it to the development of Mongrel2.

I recently have been reading Hugo Award Novels and recommend Roger Zelazny's This Immortal which is good enough to have shared the award with Dune in 1965. Lord of Light is also a great read and won a Hugo in 1968. Clifford Simak's Way Station, Phillip K. Dick's Man in the High Castle, and Walter Miller's Canticle for Leibowitz are other great Hugo novels from the early 1960's that tend to be overshadowed by more famous authors from that period such as Heinlein (not that I wouldn't recommend The Moon is a Harsh Mistress if you haven't read it).

Yeah, "VALIS" was alright. I'd definitely put it ahead of "Minority Report" and "A Scanner Darkly", but far behind "Ubik", "The Three Stigmata", and "Martian Time Slip"; and even behind some other lesser works like "Maze of Death" and "Eye in the Sky".

Of the "VALIS" trilogy, I enjoyed "Divine Invasion" much more.

I did enjoy "DADoES", but just found it to pale in comparison to the movie and to Dick's best works. Dick's evocation of compassion for animals in that novel was quite compelling. Compassion for the underdog (literally and figuratively) is a strong, ongoing theme in his work.

I've been meaning to read "The Man in the High Castle", but have kind of shied away from it because I've found that Dick is best when he writes straight scifi rather than books set in the "real world", as it were. Though TMitHC being set in an alternate history does make it somewhat more attractive for me.

Fascinating transition from the banality of evil to the suffering of the invader and the messianic journey of a religious fanatic who volunteered to go abroad to help spread death and destruction.

This piece of propaganda would be too unbelievable for something like "The Man in the High Castle" - fiction, unlike reality, needs internal consistency.

I would definitely recommend his short stories. Most of them are excellent and it's a small investment of time so you can try several to get the feel of his work.

If you're reading novels, "Martian Time-Slip" is a good first Philip K Dick book. Although I really enjoy many of his books there are several that may put you off reading more if you read them before you have an appreciation for his work. Martian Time-Slip will give you the flavor of Philip K Dick and show you how innovative and interesting he was as a writer. If you don't enjoy that one I think you will probably not enjoy most of his other novels. If you started with "Confessions of a Crap artist" or even the acclaimed "The man in the high castle" for example you might not have the best first experience with his work. "Ubik" (also mentioned in this thread) is another good choice to start with.

[cont'd]

Michael Frayn, Democracy. A compulsively readable play about an episode in the politics of West Germany in the 1970s, a subject I didn't know could be made so interesting to me. Superb.

Michael Flynn, Eifelheim. Excellent and profound SF/historical novel about aliens crashing in the Germany of the Middle Ages, and how that would work out. Avoids cheap tricks, very strong on historical research and verisimilitude.

Ross Thomas, The Cold War Swap, Cast a Yellow Shadow, Chinaman's Chance. Very well-written thrillers, typically stories about spying or political corruption. I'm usually bored by this genre, couldn't put these down. Will read more by this (hitherto unknown to me) author.

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wizard of Earthsea. (reread) Still as good as I remembered it to be.

P.K.Dick, The Man in the High Castle. (reread) Very inventive and weird in a good way, but I wish the characters would be a little different (everyone is the same highly neurotic mouthpiece for the author), and the obsession with I Ching does nothing for me. Still worth reading.

Robert Ryan, Dead Man's Land. A Sherlock Holmes novel in which 90% of the action is with John Watson rejoining the Army to help in World War I at his late middle age, and Holmes appears only briefly. Works quite well. Very detailed on day-to-day trench warfare and medicine at the front.

Michael Frayn, Noises Off. A funny short play, very meta, not as good as his "Democracy".

Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Better than his two long novels of the 2000s. A self-contained fairy tale, fun to read and well-written, but not beyond that. Gaiman's unsurpassed masterpiece, to me, is still The Sandman.

Michael Swansick, Chasing the Phoenix. SF, set on a future Earth where computers and electronic communication are outlawed following problems with runaway AIs, but there's lots of high technology (e.g. genetics) otherwise. Funny and amusing, a light read.

[edit: deleted about 20 books I didn't like or hated]

How would you improve Man in the High Castle? Like many PKD books it presents a premise which seems, naively, like a veritable paper mill that you could churn out endless books from--and then barely goes anywhere with it. That's part of PKD's style. Yes, the High Castle universe could be made to churn out whole series of formulaic literature, but it would be just that, formulaic. Go write it yourself--you don't need PKD to write it for you, once he's given you the premise.

It's like Kafka said. If you try to make a river too large, it will overflow and you'll end up with mud. There's a certain size at which a river is just right, and any more just detracts from it.

I tried reading the 1st one of the series (Gardens of the Moon) not once but twice. Both times I was quickly bored and did not make it past page 50. The book (at least in its first pages) is filled with boring descriptions and uninteresting events.

I've heard good things about it (along with that it won't be an easy read as you say) however I don't want to torture myself reading boring stuff for like 1000 pages until something interesting happens.

There are much better books to read and too little time.

Actually, that's more or less a rule I try to follow: If the book can't hook me after some pages and I keep feeling bored and not interesting I just put it away. Other books that I have started but found way too boring to keep reading them:

(* please don't downvote me for this. I know that some of these books are considered classics and many of you won't like this but remember that this is just my personal opinion; I tend to get border easily *)

- The orphan master's son
- The man in the high castle
- Metro 2033
- Neuromancer
- Catch 22
- Digital Fortress (this wasn't so boring but I hated the smart-ass characters)

I had read zero books by April 2015.
Have read the following since then.

1. 1984 by Orwell

2. Animal Farm by Orwell

3. 40 Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

4. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

5. The Man in the high castle by Philip k Dic

6. Tuesdays with morrie by Mitch Albom

7. Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie

8. The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell

9. Veronica Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

10. The Little Prince by antoine saint exupery

11. A Monster calls by Patrick ness

Books that I am currently reading very very slowly ( 1-3 chapters per week )

1. The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking

2. The Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Murakami (I am really enjoying the slow reading here)

3. Zen and art of motorcycle by Robert Pirsig

Edit: Formatting

The Bible (technically working on my 2nd cover-to-cover readthrough, but have read individual books in it many times, especially the Gospel of Matthew).

All of Kafka's novels, but especially "The Castle".

Several of PKD's novels: "The Man in the High Castle", "Through a Scanner Darkly", "Ubiq"

"The Silmarillion" (when I was a young adult)

Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency" (when I was a teenager)

I've read a few of his works, and I pretty much enjoyed them; but I really have no idea what 'The Man in the High Castle' was all about. I got friendly with a few characters, reasonably adapted to the alternate reality and so on, but I have no idea what it was trying to say...

Not that every book has to say anything to be enjoyable, but I hear many people rave about it and I feel like I must have missed something. Well read people don't rave about empty books when they got not much out of it but a read through that provoked little thought.

I left it just confused. What was he trying to make us understand? The nazi's won, and in that reality things were pretty grim, so was the point about how people feel when they're forced to live subservient to a totalitarian regime? I doubt that's new to anyone, and you don't need the alternate reality to express that -- it happens today -- and he wasn't even particularly striking in his visualizations of it so I don't do think that was it... I was pretty deflated by it really, but I suppose it left a bigger mark on me because I spent so long afterwards trying to figure out the point :P

If anyone feels differently, I'd really love to hear your views -- I just didn't 'get' it..

> see: Asimov, with his hopelessly flat characters and dialogue

What? I recently re-read the entire foundation series and was amazed at how I actually remembered a staggering number of the many protagonists from my single time reading the books almost 20 years ago.

I do agree that he might not be sci-fi writer with the best technique - Bester or Le Guin might be better there. Ironically we now suffer (somewhat) from the reverse problems: writers all have a higher education in writing: and end up writing very similarly (in my experience this is a bigger problem with American writers -- but that could be overt and non-overt selection bias: who gets published and who gets marketing/press).

On a side note: after viewing the pilot episode of "Man in the High Castle" (based on the book by P K Dick) earlier this evening, I realized I hadn't read the book. Now I'm a little over halfway through -- and I find it highly enjoyable. And more interestingly highly apropos current events with it's not-so-subtle critique of the US versus the horrors of nazism and ww2-era fascism.

TV show looks great, but I very much doubt it'll manage to pull of the dualism of the novel.

Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle is definitely worth a read. Valis [or is it VALIS?] is also an interesting read...in the psychotropic sense of "interesting".

I found Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep worth a read for the way in which it differs from the movie...the importance as status symbols of synthetic animals in the novella and its implications in regard to synthetic human lives a more compelling theme than the straightforward human rights theme of Blade Runner [or Alien from the same period in film].

What's funny is that I consider God Emperor and beyond to be the Dune series books worth skipping, but that's probably because they came out after I had read the first three...at the time, trilogies were the thing due to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Assimov's Foundation series [later to also be extended like Herbert's epic opus].