The man in the high castle by Philip K Dick

This book looked at what would have happened if Germany and Japan had won WWII. It was written about 20 years after the war and set and an undetermined point afterwards. The Nazis had destroyed Africa and were colonising space but all the action took place on earth. I do enjoy the proto-cyberpunkness of Philip K. Dick but find him a little odd.

I enjoyed the setting; Nazi’s had claimed the East coast of America and Japan the West coast. I think my favourite idea was the Japanese becoming obsessed with buying American kitsch artefacts, and the fact that there was such a huge faking industry. It seemed like there may have been too many separate but interwoven storylines as I had a bit of a hard time keeping everyone straight when the story went jumping around between plots. However, I’m sure this was my fault due to not paying enough attention rather than the writers.

In the book was a novel that told the story of what would have happened if the Nazis and Japanese had lost the war, the book became a focal point for several characters within the actual novel. At first this was so self-referential it was funny but then led on to a more serious discussion about the nature of reality. It was all odd but very good and the more I think about it the more I like it.

Joan and Peter by H. G. Wells

I have to say it was a joy to go back and read another book by Wells. I just love the way that he writes. There is just something about his style that I find immensely appealing. In this book Wells looks at the problems of education and how education affects how people are able to think and how this affects the country as a whole. Here he blames the inability to govern the British Empire down to the fact that people are so poorly educated. Wells tackles Christian and classical ideas on education and children.

But this is more than simply a book of ideas. I found that I also greatly enjoyed the characterisation and that there were some genuinely dramatic moments. Peter’s mother swimming to the shore when her boat capsized was rather heart wrenching, as are the effects of the War on Peter and Joan. The book starts in late Victorian England and ends shortly after the first world war. It covers the transition between the end of the Victorian era, and the aimlessness of the next generation very well. The main characters grow up with the best education that can be found in England at the time, which is freely admitted to be not very good. They grow up and deal with love, decadence and the reality of war in a very meaningful way. I greatly enjoyed this book. It’s not one of Wells’ better-known works but I’m very glad to have found it in the charity shop. I thought it was highly enjoyable as well as very insightful.

Empresses and Consorts by Cutter and Cromwell

Empresses and Consorts: Selections from Chen Shou’s Records of the Three States with Pei Songzhi’s Commentary by Robert Cutter and William Cromwell.

I was greatly surprised to find a university press book for sale with the rest of the remainders at the Waterstones on Gower St. I bought it straight away and was not at all disappointed. Cutter and Cromwell give a good background on the changing role of women from the earliest known sources down to the Han times, and then a complete translation of the 4th Century CE source on the lives of the women of the Three Kingdoms period. Which, having read the novel and played the video game, proved to be highly entertaining. It also led me to take copious notes for my own study and reference as well as containing a huge bibliography and notes that I need to plunder as well.

When I was reading this book I was determined that I would write about it as soon as I finished as I had enjoyed it so much and wanted it to be fresh in my mind. But I have not had the time so here I will just try and recapture some of the things that I found most interesting.

In the discussion on the position of women, and the ever-decreasing status of women, particularly in Imperial life, the authors look at the importance of the Ying and Yang ideas. Yin and Yang started off as being equal, however in the Han (220BC-200CE) these ideas started to have a different interpretation. The authors mention how “yin-yang cosmology continued [in the later Han] to be provide a theoretical basis for attacking the influence of women, often as a means for criticising the emperor and his appetites” (30). In the developing theory of the five elements women were also considered dangerous. In his treatise Ban Gu (32-92CE) mentions repeated disasters than can be traced to women in the Imperial household, whether they be concubines who have exceeded their stations or sisters who have remained unmarried (31). Even the romantic poem, Guanju (which I mentioned in my journal a few weeks ago as it was the first poem in my new classical textbook) is given a strict restrictive interpretation (32). “The dangers posed by the growing influence of women at court became a recurrent refrain in the Later Han’s political and social commentators” (33).

The authors analyse the way women are included in the official histories of the Han, and how this changed (35, 38-39). It is not just historic women whose lives are portrayed differently but also the figures from legend such as Daiji. The women, (later fox spirit) who was the concubine at the fall of the Shang dynasty played an ever increasing and evil role in the downfall of her husband (42).

I also learned that there is a debate on how much Ban Zhao had written of the histories started by her brother and husband. This was something I had never seen questioned before, and was very interesting to read about (43). In her own, Precepts for women there is discussion about the importance of harmony between Emperor and consorts and their proper place.

After the discussion on changing Han attitudes the authors then looked at the position of women in the Three States period. As the translation they were looking at was concerning the this time period I felt they should have focused more on this area and less on the Han, however, it seems like not as much was known about this period, and the examples given were about specific women rather than larger philosophical or intellectual positions. I suppose that as the period in question came just at the tail end of the Han dynasty it was important to show both ideas, as not much probably changed with the few generations in question. What was more interesting was the different inclusion of women given for the three different states. It is worth mentioning that Liu Bei’s wives are not all mentioned and will drop in and out of the narrative with no explanation (48-49). The Suns in contrast had much stronger women, who took a more active role in leadership, but were still married off. (51) The discussion of marriage, and its effect on political ties was an issue the authors discussed in some detail and was interesting to read. This importance of political marriage was also reflected in the large number of wives and concubines of the would be Emperors, and how different advisors thought that the number should be strictly limited. Which brings up one problem I had with the authors. In referring to the wives and concubines they would always use the word “harem” which I thought was quite inappropriate.

After giving the history and attitude towards women in general the authors look at a few examples from the text, and show the importance of the commentary that they have included in their translation. They describe the commentary as “gossipy” as it contains more details, and often more scandalous type comments about the events. It does make for quite entertaining reading, but it also shows an interesting interpretation on the women’s actions and their roles and how they were viewed posthumously.

One of the things that was interesting about the translations was the difference in size between the different kingdoms. The Wei’s biographies were by far the largest and Wu’s was very small. Unfortunately it was not explained if this was reflective of the larger histories in general of if this bore particular relevance to the lives and importance of women within the histories.

This was a highly enjoyable and informative book and I an excellent source to have been translated. I am very glad to have been able to find this book as it greatly increased my knowledge of the changing role of women in Chinese society as well as deepening my knowledge about the Three Kingdoms period.