Historicity
Historicity is the novel's central, contested concept: the quality of having a genuine, verifiable connection to a past event, which in the world of the Pacific States of America determines the immense value of pre-war American artifacts. It is not an inherent property of an object but a socially constructed and fiercely debated attribute, a kind of secular aura that collectors, dealers, and forgers all manipulate. The entire economy of American Artistic Handcrafts Inc. and the W-M Corporation's forgery operation rests on the belief in historicity, a belief that the novel systematically questions and ultimately undermines.
Definition and the Wyndam-Matson Critique
The most explicit definition of historicity comes from Wyndam-Matson, who cynically deconstructs it for his companion, Rita. He demonstrates his point with two identical Zippo lighters, one of which is supposedly the one in Franklin D. Roosevelt's pocket when he was assassinated. "One has historicity, a hell of a lot of it," he explains, while the other has none. He challenges Rita to feel the difference, asserting there is no "mystical plasmic presence" or "aura" around it. The value, he argues, is purely in the mind, proven only by a "paper of authenticity" like the Smithsonian Institution's framed certificate he owns. For Wyndam-Matson, historicity is a "mass delusion," a racket that he and his forgers exploit. This perspective is the novel's most direct challenge to the concept, framing it as a commodity fetish rather than a genuine quality.
The Market and the Threat of Forgery
Historicity is the bedrock of the market for American artifacts, a market driven by Japanese collectors. Robert Childan's entire business depends on his ability to sell objects imbued with this quality. The devastating blow of the Fake Admiral Incident, where a supposed Imperial Navy officer identifies a Colt .44 revolver as a six-month-old imitation, reveals the fragility of this system. The University of California lab confirms the gun is a "reproduction cast from plastic molds," artificially aged. This event shatters Childan's confidence, forcing him to confront the possibility that much of his stock might be fake. The threat is not just financial ruin but a collapse of the entire belief system that gives his trade meaning. The fear is that a "Gresham's Law" will take hold, where fakes undermine the value of the real, a prospect that keeps the entire industry—from forgers to dealers to collectors—complicit in a willful ignorance.
The Alternative: Wu and the New
In direct opposition to historicity, the novel presents the concept of wu, as articulated by Paul Kasoura when he examines the Edfrank silver triangle. Paul describes the piece as having "no historicity, and also no artistic, esthetic worth," yet it partakes of an "ethereal value" he calls wu. This is a value found in the object itself, in its balance and its connection to the Tao, not in a documented past. Paul explains that the artisan has "put wu into the object," making it "alive in the now." This represents a new kind of authenticity, one that is intrinsic and immediate, not historical. For Mr. Tagomi, who is spiritually adrift after killing two SD men, the silver triangle becomes a desperate object of contemplation. He tries to extract meaning from it through all his senses, seeking a truth that historicity could never provide. His profound, disorienting experience in Portsmouth Square, where he feels he has glimpsed the "clear white light" of the Bardo Thodol, suggests that wu offers a path to a deeper, more personal truth than the commodified historicity of the collector's market.
The Persistence of Historicity
Despite the critique and the alternative, historicity retains a powerful, almost supernatural hold. After the shooting, Mr. Tagomi notes that the historicity of the event is "bonded into nylon tile of floor," suggesting that even a violent act creates an ineradicable historical residue. The concept is not simply dismissed; it is shown to be a fundamental way the characters understand and assign value to their world. The novel's final revelation, that The Grasshopper Lies Heavy was itself written by consulting the I Ching, presents the book as a kind of artifact whose own historicity—its truth as a depiction of a world where the Axis lost—is revealed through the oracle. This final turn suggests that the search for authentic meaning, whether through historicity, wu, or the oracle, is a persistent and necessary human endeavor, even if the grounds for that authenticity remain elusive and contested.
