Nazi Literature in the Americas

in #currentlyreading7 years ago (edited)



I had this book in prison, even in the SHU, and did not get to it til now.
It's a collection of stories about Nazi sympathizing writers throughout the Americas. The stories range in styles. They catalogue the triumphs and defeats of their lives; although they are Nazis, more or less, I ended up sympathizing with their struggle to lead their lives.
Some of the plots involved can be trite or obvious but there is enough imagination on display to keep you tuned in. The entire book is fiction, and the stories are condensed biographies of these fictitious writers. These fictitious writers are sometimes thinly veiled versions of real-life writers.
Roberto Bolaño since 15 years old, running wild in the streets of Mexico City, which Andre Breton, the famous surrealist, described as "the most surreal country in the world", was a constant heckler, along with his gang of poets, to the elite literati. His gang of poets, the "infrarealistas", would heckle Octavio Paz, the major Mexican writer, at his readings because he sold out to the government and wrote according to their guidelines. This was bordering on fascism, Bolaño thought. You do not control the media and influence people if you want to have freedom.
His work, especially Nazi Literature is infused with anti-fascist sentiment and resentment. Almost all of the fictitious writers were paid by their dictator run governments.
What we see in Nazi Literature is piercing satire on the people involved in the humanities during an inhumane regime. I'm not saying this is a good book to read in these American times, but it is a better read than most to explain the madness we have seen in the media as of late in USA of the Americas.

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Just shows you we all are all really the same once you take away all the superficial layers. Great post man