Things are seldom what they seem

The phrase "Things are seldom what they seem" is a key intertextual reference in the novel, drawn from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore, and it functions as a coded warning that appearances are systematically deceptive in the world of the novel. The line is invoked by the Japanese Trade Mission official Nobusuke Tagomi when he deciphers a secret cable from Tokyo about the Swedish businessman Mr. Baynes, and it becomes the hermeneutic key that unlocks the novel's central conspiracy: that Baynes is not a plastics salesman but a German spy, and that the entire surface of political and commercial reality in the Pacific States is a masquerade.

Origin and Intertextual Reference

The phrase originates in the libretto of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1878 comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore, in the song "Things are seldom what they seem, / Skim milk masquerades as cream." In the novel, this cultural artifact is repurposed as a cipher key. When Tagomi receives a coded cable from Tokyo, the key phrase "Skim milk in his diet" alerts him to the Pinafore reference and thus to the doctrine that "Things are seldom what they seem." The cable's use of poetic allusion rather than literal code is a deliberate tactic to baffle Reich monitors, who can crack any literal cipher. Tagomi, consulting the I Ching, finds his insight fortified by the oracle's commentary: "Here a strong man is presupposed. It is true he does not fit in with his environment, inasmuch as he is too brusque and pays too little attention to form. But as he is upright in character, he meets with response." The oracle thus confirms that Baynes is not what he appears to be.

Narrative Function as a Hermeneutic Key

The phrase operates as the novel's central hermeneutic principle, governing not only the political plot but also the characters' personal relationships and the status of objects. The entire economy of American historical artifacts is built on a system of forgeries that masquerade as genuine antiques; the W-M Corporation's business model depends on the inability of Japanese collectors to distinguish the real from the fake. Wyndam-Matson explicitly articulates this epistemology when he demonstrates to his mistress Rita that two identical Zippo lighters cannot be told apart, even though one has "historicity" from having been in Franklin D. Roosevelt's pocket when he was assassinated. "It's all a big racket," he declares; "they're playing it on themselves." The phrase thus extends beyond the political conspiracy to encompass the novel's critique of authenticity, value, and the construction of historical meaning.

Thematic Significance: Deception and Revelation

The novel systematically demonstrates that every layer of its world is a performance. Robert Childan's entire social identity is a masquerade of deference to his Japanese customers; Joe Cinnadella's identity as an Italian truck driver is a cover for his role as an SD assassin; Rudolf Wegener's Swedish persona as Mr. Baynes is a front for his mission as an Abwehr captain. The phrase "Things are seldom what they seem" thus becomes the novel's motto, a warning that the reader, like Tagomi, must learn to read beneath surfaces. The I Ching, which the characters consult for guidance, itself operates on this principle: its hexagrams and lines yield meanings that are never straightforward but require interpretation, and its judgments often contradict their own moving lines, as when Frank Frink receives the favorable hexagram Peace but with a top line that reads "The wall falls back into the moat." The oracle, like the world, refuses to yield a single, stable meaning. The phrase's ultimate resonance is metaphysical: in a world where the Axis won the war, where history itself has been rewritten, nothing can be taken at face value, and the only reliable truth is that appearances are systematically deceptive.