I was idly listing out all the supposed “children’s books” that deal with fascism or totalitarianism in one form or another, and as the list grew longer I wondered why this lesson is never learned. Maybe my post-war generation was just especially saturated with it, like war movies.
Then I remembered how little I can recall of the vast swathes of education and reading I’ve been exposed to. In fact, my title is probably the start of a Socratic dialogue in Plato somewhere. As in, is there any point in paying these peripatetic teachers for their supposed knowledge and subsidizing their drinking at banquets? Maybe I do remember something about it.
Here’s a beginning list:
1. Animal Farm, Orwell. “Some animals are more equal than others.”
2. The Harry Potter books. Hello, I loved the Weasley brothers creating a swamp in Hogwarts as part of their Resistance to Umbrage. Resistance theatre.
3. A Wrinkle in Time. L’Engle. I don’t have to spell this out, do I?
4. The Tripod books by John Christopher, a dystopian’s dystopian.
5. Yes, yes, Fahrenheit 451 one of my least favorite of Bradbury’s books. A fine writer reduced to agitprop. Not really a kids’ book, but a godsend for teachers since it has a “message.”
6. I’d add Lord of the Flies if it had a coherent point, but I think it was simply an excellent example of misanthropy, appealing to those who find children nasty, brutish and short.
7. Hunger Games, of course, although that might be a bit reductionist.
I’ll leave you to guess why I’ve been thinking about totalitarianism, but I will say I’ve been having ongoing conversations in my head with my WWII and Korean veteran father (no longer with us) who was a keen reader of Western world vs. Soviets espionage and thriller books, especially those set during WW II. In fact you could argue that one proximate cause for my existence was McCarthyism and the hysterical fear of communists during the 50s which prevented the State Department from hiring anyone while my father was waiting to hear back about his Foreign Service application. Instead of doing sneaky things at embassies, he ended up marrying my mother and embarking on a completely different career. But he never lost his interest in that east/west conflict and the realization that we had enemies that could annihilate our country. I wonder if he would find our current situation more comprehensible than I do, having been schooled in the genre that deals with KGB-generated disinformation campaigns and tactics. Yeah, Dad, you were right, I should’ve paid more attention.
(For those of you who didn’t waste your impressionable youth reading Mad magazine, the above images are from Spy vs. Spy, a regular feature providing an intellectual challenge similar to that of Wiley Coyote and Road Runner.)