Two novels. Robert Harris' "Fatherland" and Phillip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle". As I've mentioned in previous posts, the novels, while sharing a setting (the 1960s in an alternative history in which Nazi Germany won the Second World War) could not be more different in terms of how they tell their respective…
How to Normalise Fascism, Part 5
And we're back. As the title says, this is the 5th post in a series. You can read all of the ones that have gone before, or you can read none of them. I'd prefer if you read all of them, multiple times, identified codes, themes , ideas, whatever, that I hadn't intended or noticed,…
That Time my Friend Robbed the Tate Modern
Clickbaity title alert: My friend didn't rob the Tate Modern as in: rush in there with a gun, brandishing it around, and fleeing with half of Hirst's cow sculpture or a bunch of money. But he did steal from there. It's not a big thing, but it was kind of funny at the time, and…
How to Normalise Fascism, Part 4.
Preambular Note: I didn't know what the German word for 4 was. I learned the words 1, 2, and 3 from the movie "Cool Runnings". Preambular Note (2): If you read what I post on WordPress, and if you're thoroughly sick of reading about "Fatherland", don't worry, I'm sick of writing about it. I initially…
How to Normalise Fascism: Part Drei
Happy New Year to all who read this, except for those of you who believe that this thing that I'm writing (more than 3,000 words after this post) should be an instructional kind of thing. Because it's not. I don't know why I should have to say it, but it's because fascism shouldn't be normalised…
How to Normalise Fascism: Part Zwei
In my last post about the novel "Fatherland", I very briefly got into the weeds, so to speak, of the novel's characters and plot. For the purposes of this post, I've put on some gloves, grabbed a secateurs and a pitchfork, and I'm going to attempt to clear it out a bit. As I said,…
The Nihilistic Right…Returns
It's not really returning. I'd like to do a proper close reading of Dostoevsky's story that I based a meandering series of posts on, and whenever I finish Joseph Frank's biography, I think I will. Instead, what I want to do is draw attention to the very excellent jacobinmag.com, which is carrying an interview with…
How to Normalise Fascism
Riddle: There is a man standing on a stage. He is a Nazi. 10 other people are listening to him talk. How many Nazis are in the room? Question: What bestselling alternate history novel featured a very young American journalist giving an SS Major, a character whom, according to the New York Times, represented the…
Reading Joseph Conrad
Provided you have the means, and the health, this Covid epidemic has at least provided some opportunities for personal growth. For example, Ivanka Trump famously said that she was using her Corona-based free time to learn to play the guitar. Notwithstanding my own musical ability, dreams of stardom, and total disregard for truculent upstairs neighbours,…
The Nihilistic Right (I promise this is the end)
I feel like I've been writing about this topic much longer than necessary, and part of it is because I dedicated so much space to the history of serfdom. Why, asks the one person who has probably been following this (thanks, Uncle Michael)? Well, it's at least in part because it's an unusual (under)statement to…
