Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Killer reads

Tangential to this piece in The Times on the idea of books inspiring killers, I give you this, Ricky Gervais on Hitler's misreading of Nietzsche:

1 comment:

Zachariah Wells said...

A friend of mine, a college prof, wanted to teach a class on European lit and wished to include Nietzsche on the courselist. His department chair, a man with Zionist inclinations, nixed that in a trice. Pretty strange that a guy who described himself as the "anti-anti-Semite," and who was at his most vitriolic when talking about German nationalism, could have become the posterboy for the holocaust. Yet almost any time I mention my admiration for N's works, someone says, "but wasn't he a fascist/Nazi"? Read the books, people!

    A very subtle and funny writer - one I've become obsessed with over the past year - in a decidedly Muriel Spark mood. Imagine The Pr...