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Book 65, 2018: 'It Can't Happen Here' by Sinclair Lewis.
"A vain, outlandish, anti-immigrant ,fear mongering demagogue runs for president of America and wins. And nope, we aren't talking of Donald Trump. This satirical classic was written in 1935!
Well, it is happening there, America. This satire is now your reality.
Weltanschauung!
It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis is as an important a work of literature as Nineteen Eight-Four, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Brave New World. Lewis wrote It Can’t Happen Here in 1935, and the story begins in 1936. The book chronicles the rise of totalitarianism and fascism in the United States of America. The charismatic demagogue Senator Buzz Windrip wins the presidential election through his appeals to the American underclasses, his use of scapegoats for the nation’s woes, and good old fashion violence and paramilitary intimidation.
The novel’s protagonist is Doremus Jessup. Doremus is in his sixties, lives in Vermont with his wife and youngest daughter, and is the editor of his own newspaper, “The Informer”. While most of his family and neighbors either take little notice of or rationalize away any fears that Buzz Windrip may inspirer, Doremus is greatly concerned about both Windrip and Windrip’s campaign promises.
Windrip wins the presidency partly through his own supporters and partly through the apathy and division that neuters his opposition. Windrip immediately seizes control of the government with this Minute Men, a paramilitary organization similar to the Nazi Brownshirts, and things only get progressively worse from there.
Doremus is an ardent supporter of democracy and human rights, but that does not make it easy to oppose the regime. The threats of violence and death against himself are one matter, but the potential danger to his family is another entirely. Beyond the problem of finding some meaningful way to resist, Doremus does not exactly have a list of rebels in the back of the phone book, and he knows that if anything were to happen to him he would be leaving his family by themselves at best, and sending them in front of the firing squad at worst.
I appreciated the fact that Doremus is not a young heroic man with no attachments who is thus free to challenge the tyrant knowing that he has nothing to lose other than his life of enslavement. Almost everyone has some loved ones that totalitarians so love to exploit. Far more people under dictatorship face Doremus’ dilemma than do not.
As a character Doremus is interesting. I both like him and dislike him. I admire his genuine dedication to freedom and his will to go on surviving as the world crashes down around him. Doremus also does have a sense of compassion and duty towards his fellow oppressed man.
He is not faultless though. Doremus is an adulterer, and has been for some time. I can understand that his relationship with his wife Emma is difficult at times, particularly as she either fails to notice or ignores what is happening to America, but that does not make it right for Doremus to cheat on her. He is still married. This major fault does make Doremus more realistic though, and realism is a cornerstone of this book.
Life under and the struggle against totalitarianism is hard to say the least. The state and the cruel and corrupt people running it can and will steal, abuse, and kill for any and every reason. A beating and execution hang over every person night and day. Resisting may or may not accomplish anything and is ten times as dangerous, but no one can claim that the defense of democracy and human rights is either simple or easy.
I would recommend It Can’t Happen Here to everyone, but to American readers in particular. Its setting in America is both shocking and sobering.
PEN PEOPLE
Anthropomorphizing in full force here, inspired by pen and ink heroes JJ Grandville, a 19th century cartooniste maudit and Heinrich Kley, an early “underground” artist who may or may not have survived the nazis. Look them up, they are both as great as they are unknown to the general public. This drawing is unusual for me in that it’s neither a “woe is me” type where I rant on about what I must…
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New ‘lifestyle fascism’ tag: ‘fashin police’
‘Buzz WinDRIP’ doesn’t make sense if you don’t have caps
My lifestyle fashion brand/wellness-to-fascism pipeline tag is probably gonna be #buzz winDRIP, unless I think of something better
Book Corner – September 2017 (4)
Book Corner – September 2017 (4)
It Can’t Happen Here – Sinclair Lewis The events of 2016, culminating in the British vote in favour of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as President of the US, has caused many of a liberal persuasion to question whether universal suffrage is all that it is cracked up to be. Even the so-called cradle of democracy, classical Athens, showed the limitations of allowing all and sundry to vote…
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