This audacious novel is also quite darkly amusing. After all, who dares get into the head of one of the worst tyrants and mass murderers of all time and tries to be serious about it? Apparently, the book's author and whoever else translated it into whatever other language, that's who. If it was a gamble, it paid off for them, because not only is the book a bestseller, it was also recently adapted into a film.
And yet... at the same time, even as the reader laughs at Hitler getting the Rip Van Winkle treatment, the book also serves as a cautionary warning about the dangers of worship and adoration, especially in the Digital Age with the Internet and everything. It could be far too easy for Hitler (or someone like him) to harness those tools to perpetuate evil. Let this particular lesson be remembered.
This blog post of mine here isn't a proper book review, so much as it's just a reaction and a collection of thoughts on the matter. One of the novel's stronger and more amusing points is how Hitler himself tries to adjust to the modern world. True, anyone who could be instantly transported from 1945 to 2011 could be baffled and intrigued by stuff like personal computers and mobile telephones and even the Internet which increasingly connects everything, but leave it to Hitler himself to put his own racist "Aryan supremacy" and "German superiority" slants on everything. For example, he assumes that "Vikipedia" is a nod to the Vikings (and, by extension, the Germans themselves), and he mistakenly credits Siemens (a famous German company) for inventing the smartphone simply because they manufactured the model which he owns. And while I'm mentioning that, do you want to guess what his chosen ringtone is? Go ahead, guess. Once you find out, you'll know you should have thought of it right away.
And if either Mister Bulloch or Herr Vermes reads this little post of mine, I also have a list of questions, if that's quite alright...
- What would this novel's version of Adolf Hitler have thought of his name being synonymous with evil and being used as an insult?
- What would he have thought of the Nazis being used as an inspiration and a template for all kinds of fictional evil factions, such as the Galactic Empire from Star Wars or the Death Eaters from Harry Potter? For that matter, what would he have thought about their respective villains, Palpatine and Voldemort, being modeled after himself?
- What would he have thought about the Nazis being an easy-to-pick, go-to villain for just about everything else, such as in the Indiana Jones movies?
- What would he have thought about video games such as the Wolfenstein series or films such as Inglourious Basterds, where the savage joy of killing countless Nazis seems to take precedence over everything else, even the storytelling?
- What would he have thought about that novel The Boys from Berlin and its film adaptation, with its plot about trying to clone him and bring him back that way?
- What would he have thought about video games in general? Evil time-waster, or brilliant simulation device?
- What would he have thought about all the movies about him and his role in the Second World War, especially that movie Downfall and that infamous tirade scene which was endlessly parodied?
- What would he have thought of that infamous first contact scene in the movie Contact where the aliens send back his speech at the Olympic Games of 1936?
- What would he have thought about the other former Axis powers, such as Japan and Italy, and their new roles in the modern world, such as Japan's export of manga and anime? (Personally, I wonder what he would have thought of Naruto and how its titular protagonist has blond hair and blue eyes himself. Now there's a scary thought...)
- What would he have thought about the modern state of Israel and its being a homeland for the Jewish people?
- What would he think about the nuclear situation with Iran, or that country in general? (And also worth noting is how his ideas about Aryans come from Iran; note the similarity between the two words.)
- What would he have thought about his seeming modern popularity in the Islamic world? (Hey, I'm just pointing out how his book Mein Kampf has become a dubious bestseller there, as well as the Muslim protesters with signs like "GOD BLESS HITLER." I'm not making any of that up, those things really have happened.)
- What would have thought about Muslim immigration into Europe - not just the Turks in Germany (which he observed almost immediately in the novel even before he realized he had been thrown into the future), but in every other European country as well?
- What would he have thought about international reaction to the Holocaust?
- What would he have thought about the Holocaust denial movement?
- What would he have thought about swastikas being banned in Germany, as well as in several places around the world, because of their usage by the Third Reich?
- What would he have thought about all the neo-Nazi groups out there, especially those safely ensconced in the United States of America? (Something tells me that he would have been greatly amused by how America's own First Amendment is what protects their right to do that in the first place.)
- What would he have thought about all the Nazis who fled to places like South America and how they were content to simply live out the rest of their lives in hiding?
- What would he have thought about some Nazis, such as Adolf Eichmann, being captured, put on trial, and imprisoned and/or executed?
- What would he think about American's tendency to compare their enemies to Hitler and the Nazis in attempts to vilify and de-legitimize them, especially in political debates?
Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. Cheers!
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