IT'S HARD TO FOLLOW 07.14.2021
July 14, 2021
Good Wednesday morning. I'm author Richard V. Rupp, writing from hot Burbank, California. Welcome to Rupp's Notes/FBI Special Agent Hartman Series posts.
My last post, THE LEARNING PROCESS, was rejected by FaceBook for broad distribution. I still have not figured out why. If you are interested in reading it, you can go to my website at www.richardvrupp.com and click on Rupp's Notes, then THE LEARNING PROCESS listed on the left.
They were testing the fire alarm system in my apartment complex yesterday. My ears are still ringing. So, I didn't get a lot of writing done. To get away from the beeping sounds, I started out on a walk, but it was too hot, so I ended up down the street at the Wokcano Restaurant bar mid-afternoon for a tall gin and tonic.
I know I'm behind the times, but for some reason, I started watching 'The Man in the High Castle.' I've been binge-watching it, which started out as a mental challenge for me. My Amazon Prime system would take me back to the first episode when I hit resume. Because of the nature of the production, I had a hard time figuring out what I had previously watched. If you watched it, you would know what I mean. Finally, I printed out a list of the episodes, and I check them off after watching them. What an experience. I'm now halfway through season 3. It is not an easy series to figure out or follow.
I had no idea what the story was about, nor that there were 40 episodes. 'The Man in the High Castle' was one of Amazon television's first productions. The pilot for the series debuted on January 15, 2015, and turned out to be Amazon's "most-watched since the original series development program began by them." The production is based on a 1963 novel by Philip K. Dick. He presented an alternate history where Japan and Germany win World War II.
One review indicated, "Extensive research was done for the cultures, particularly areas such as costuming, technology, and music, to develop an alternate world which merges aspects of WWII Nazi and Imperial Japanese cultures with the cultural progress of mid-1950s America. Although the series is set in 1962, the use of the 1950s for many touchstones suggests the cultural stagnation that would have occurred under totalitarian occupation."
It definitely is an adult-oriented series. I say this because there is extensive sex, nudity, drug use, and questionable language in the production. Even the storyline is controversial. I gained interest because of some of the things the storyline conveys about society, such as social control by an elite group, discrimination, segregation, and tribalism. These are the same things I write about in my novel SKYWARD. And, the story mentions the Nazis establishing colonies on Mars and Venus, which relates to the theme of my novel, of course, without the Nazis' presence.
There are a lot of things about the production that drives me crazy. One is the use of 'Edelweiss' as the opening theme song. I have always loved the 'Sound of Music' and watch it over and over again. 'Edelweiss' was written for that movie by Rodgers & Hammerstein as a patriotic protest by Austrians who opposed it being annexed by Germany. Why it was selected as the theme to 'The Man in the High Castle' is beyond me.
The 'The Man in the High Castle" certainly gets you thinking.
Back to working on my manuscript SKYWARD, then later this evening watching the next episode of 'The Man in the High Castle.'
Cheers,
Richard V. Rupp, Author
Website – www.richardvrupp.com
Email – rupprisk@gmail.com
Copyright©2021 by Richard V. Rupp