Talk:The Castle in the Forest

Pre Pub

From all the pre-release reviews and excepts in the print and on radio, it appears that this new work which focuses on personal demonization of Adolf Hitler's childhood and family background is a disappointment coming from Mailer, who in the past has satirized smug self-serving middle class respectable opinion, which ironically in this instance he reflects. The crimes of Hitler, fascism and the horrors of twentieth century history generally it is hard to gainsay and surely merit not being trivialized. Those of us who grew up in middle class America, however, may be naive and know little about this. Mailer as a World War II veteran and former activist in the anti-war movement should know better and not insult us with this sort of cheap progaganda, albeit overwrought. A serious study of this individual and German fascism would focus critically on his experiences in the the Great War, in which 3 million Germans died, and the Versailles Conference, the Bolshevik Revolution etc. and the associated social upheaval which shaped him and a whole generation. Moreover, anti-semitism is an ancient medieval prejudice that goes back way before Hitler and not unique to Germany. Also, focusing all the blame on Hitler as an individual conveniently takes the onus off of the millions of ordinary "patriotic" people-to say nothing of the German military and business elites-who shared his outlook and psychology and who enthusiastically supported him and Germany's war machine. As it stands now, however, the author's frivolous story brings to mind what Lincoln Rockwell derided as "all that hooey about Hilter" (to Alex Haley for 1967 Playboy interview). More info at [[1]]

Aside from the single truism of your statement, that there was much more to it than 'Hitler's Angst,' the extreme fault of your claim here which, luckily, is only in the discussion section of an article, is reflected in the fact that you somehow cite the 3 million dead Germans as some counterpoint to an argument--to what argument?-- cite it against the immense impact of Hitler himself. Hm. Shoddy, terrible scholarship. Thanks be that his book is published and your little comment here is not.

24.177.120.179 (talk) 08:30, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Hmm... I get the feeling that perhaps this book isn't very long on subtlety. Afalbrig (talk) 15:55, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

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