Quote:Truthfully? Not really. I got the impression that the support for the Nazis was based on some level of legitimate respect on the author's part. If anything, the support for the Nazis was intended to point out "flaws" in modern-day society like our general unwillingness to go apeshit and kill every living thing we see in times of conflict. Basically "yeah, they were racists and bastards, but they knew how to run a war!"
Did any of the readers of the book get the idea that Ringo trying to use false sense of support for something as horrible as the Nazis to point out a flaw in society?
....which, I have to point out, they didn't. If they did, they would've won. But I digress.
The thesis is not new. It's that Hard Men of Will Are Needed In Times Of Crisis, and Hard Men Must Stand Up When Weaklings Cower, etc. etc. Standard he-man bullshit with a helping of Dolschtosslegende on the side, nothing particularly noteworthy save for the whole Nazi-veneration thing.
If you want Swiftian parable about Nazis in SF/F, you want Spinrad's The Iron Dream. Beautiful Howard pastiche and unsettling commentary on certain tropes in Howard pastiches all in the same package. Ringo and Kratman... not so much.
And that is all I'm going to say on the subject. I've said my thing.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"