Forbidden Texts

By: Charlie Buckreis

Hitler wrote Mein Kampf while in prison after staging a protest against the current German government. He felt the government was weak – because of them losing WWI and being forced to sign away a lot with the Treaty of Versailles – and needed reform. He, alongside many other Germans, felt that the current government, the Weimer Republic, needed reforms due to the rampant inflation and unemployment the country was suffering under that government. The country was facing conditions that made it a breeding ground for extremist groups like the Nazi party, and it was in this environment that Hitler spent much of his teen and early adult years.

Anti-Semitic sentiment in Europe had been fluctuating in Europe for a while prior to Hitler; however, it spiked in Germany at the end of WWI with rumors and speculation that the Jews were the reason that Germany had lost the war. Additionally, texts like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion had been published a few decades prior and were circulating widely during this time, adding to the anti-Semitic sentiment in Germany and across Europe.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, directed by Tom Tykwer and based on Patrick Süskind’s novel, is a dark, atmospheric film that delves into the life of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a man with an extraordinary sense of smell and a twisted obsession with scent. Set in 18th-century France, the film begins with Grenouille’s birth in the filthy streets of Paris. Abandoned and raised in harsh conditions, Grenouille discovers his unparalleled olfactory abilities early on. He becomes fixated on capturing the essence of scent, particularly the scent of young women. Grenouille eventually apprentices himself to a perfumer named Giuseppe Baldini, played by Dustin Hoffman. Here, he perfects his skills in creating perfumes, but his obsession drives him to darker pursuits. Grenouille becomes determined to create the perfect perfume by distilling the scent of young virgins, leading him to a series of murders. Grenouille’s killing spree culminates in the creation of a perfume so powerful that it overwhelms the senses of anyone who smells it, leading to a dramatic and grotesque climax. Ultimately, Grenouille’s quest for olfactory perfection reveals his profound alienation from humanity and ends in a tragic and ironic twist. The film explores themes of obsession, identity, and the nature of beauty, using rich and evocative visuals to convey Grenouille’s internal world of scent. Its lush cinematography and haunting score add to the immersive experience, making “Perfume” a compelling and disturbing narrative about the extremes of human desire and the pursuit of perfection. The movie stars Ben Whishaw as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, Rachel Hurd-Wood as Laura, and Alan Rickman as Antoine Richis. Its unique blend of thriller, horror, and historical drama elements has garnered both critical acclaim and controversy for its unflinching portrayal of its protagonist’s dark journey. The film does a pretty good job at interpreting the novel but still doesn’t do it its complete justice. Patrick Süskind’s use of imagery to contribute to his grotesque landscape is completely unparalleled and cannot be replicated.

A 1997 film directed by Adrian Lyne and written by Stephen Schiff. The movie is a retelling of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita. The story follows Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged literature professor, who becomes infatuated with the 14 year old Dolores Haze, or as he affectionately calls “Lolita”. Humbert moves to a small town and rents a room in Charlotte Haze’s house, Lolita’s mother. In an attempt to stay in her daughter’s life Humbert marries Charlotte, but after her accidental death, Humbert takes custody of Lolita and embarks on a cross country road trip with her. Humbert’s infatuation and obsession for Lolita grows and he begins to sexually abuse her while taking a fatherly role in her life simultaneously. In this adaptation of the novel, Jeremy Irons takes on the role of Humbert Humbert, a part he was initially hesitant to accept. Irons grappled with the decision, concerned about the potential for being perceived as “politically incorrect”. His close friend Glenn Close points out his success and how he has worked with fantastic directors, scripts, and roles and that this one was not different from the rest- so why was he saying no? Irons took the role and his goal was to portray a Humbert that had remained “sexually immature” rather than became a “dirty uncle”. Humbert’s obsession with Lolita is depicted as a romantic and youthful love in the movie, mirroring Nabokov’s novel. Nabokov’s son, Dimitri, remarked that this adaptation aligns more closely with his father’s vision and would have pleased him, unlike Kubrick’s film, which he found deeply disappointing. I personally also prefer this movie because it is more akin to the novel. It presents the viewer with a difficulty of how to feel about the main character Humbert, because he is obviously in love with Lolita romantically and sexually abuses her but he also cares for her and loves her as a father figure as well. I think that both the novel and movie challenge the audience on topics such as love and desire, that are seen as very “black and white” when there is a lot of moral ambiguity surrounding them.

A 1962 black and white film directed by Stanley Kubrick. The movie is a retelling of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita. The story follows Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged literature professor, who becomes infatuated with the 14 year old Dolores Haze, or as he affectionately calls “Lolita”. Humbert moves to a small town and rents a room in Charlotte Haze’s house, Lolita’s mother. In an attempt to stay in her daughter’s life Humbert marries Charlotte, but after her accidental death, Humbert takes custody of Lolita and embarks on a cross country road trip with her. Humbert’s infatuation and obsession for Lolita grows and he begins to sexually abuse her while taking a fatherly role in her life simultaneously. In this rendition of the novel the story seems to be more “black and white” (no pun intended). Kubrick’s adaptation dulls more of the explicit elements of the story that make it such a compelling work. In his film he focuses on the psychological and emotional aspects of the characters’ relationships more closely. Kubrick even ages up Lolita from the young age of 12 in the novel to 14 further taking away from the nature of the story. The film received mixed reviews upon its release but has since become a significant work in Kubrick’s filmography, noted for its daring subject matter and compelling performances. Although Kubrick benefited from the movie Nabokov was said to be deeply disappointed with the portrayal of his work. I believe this adaptation does a disservice to Nabokov’s classic literature. The novel’s status as a classic stems from its intricate and controversial examination of pedophilia through the distorted perspective of its narrator, Humbert. Without the complexities of the plot the story falls flat and becomes just about the fact the Humbert is a 40 year old man raping a 14 year old girl.

The European Declaration of Independence is a1,500 page manifesto written by the British author and white nationalist, Colin Berwick, and was published in 2000. The document calls for a radical break from the political and cultural status quo in Europe, urging Europeans to reclaim their identity and independence from what Berwick sees as the destructive forces of multiculturalism, immigration, and globalism. Berwick’s main argument is that Europe’s traditional cultures, particularly those of the indigenous white peoples, are under threat of erosion due to mass immigration, corrosion of national borders, and the cultural mixing of foreign ideologies. His desire is to return Europe to ethnic and cultural purity, stating that Europeans must reassert control over their lands and future. In his manifesto Berwick states that non-European peoples have overtaken Europe and calls the Europeans to action to reclaim their national sovereignty. Much of his declaration is either inspired by Ted Kaczynski, also known as the “Unabomber”, or legitimately copied and pasted from his manifesto. Although when he would directly pull from Kaczynski’s work he would have minor changes such as replacing the word “leftist” by the phrase “cultural Marxist”. Currently, the Unabomber is serving a life sentence for carrying out a bombing campaign in the United States from 1978 to 1995, sending a total of 16 bombs which killed 3 and injured 23, from the comfort of his remote cabin in Montana. It is funny to me that such a large amount of Kaczynski’s work was reused in Berwick’s own manifesto because he is sitting in jail. He may have had a lot to say but all his crimes landed him in jail and unable to continue to propagate his ideology. Then after Berwick publishes his declaration he begins to commit mass murder, which he saw didn’t work all that great for Kaczynski, and lands himself in jail. To be honest if you want to spread an idea it’s hard doing that from a jail cell.

By: Charlie Buckreis

Fanon wrote Wretched of the Earth in 1961. WWII weakened pretty much all of the European powers. As a result, a wave of decolonization swept across Europe. This fueled nationalist movements in many places that had previously been colonized by those European countries as they declared independence. Those European countries quickly faced increasing pressure to grant those places independence and eventually, most places did gain their independence. Some through violent revolution, others through peaceful political means. Many of these newly independent nations struggled with economic, social, and political issues, however, due to the lasting impact of the European colonization and imperialism.

Fanon wrote a lot on the Algerian War of Independence with Algeria fighting against French colonial rule. Fanon himself supported the National Liberation Front. He worked as a psychiatrist and activist during this period, and his experiences with that helped to inform his analyses in Wretched of the Earth. He argued that colonization and imperialism inherently oppress and traumatize the native people and that this trauma destroys their identities and has strong negative impacts on their social bonds and relations.

The Turner Diaries was written by William Luther Pierce (also known by his pseudonym Andrew Mcdonald) in 1978. Pierce, formally a physics professor at Oregon State University, was an avid follower of George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party. At the time of his novel’s publication, Pierce was the head of the neo-Nazi group National Alliance. It was also in the National Alliance’s newspaper, Attack!, that his novel, The Turner Diaries, ever appeared in. The novel is also theorized to inspire Timothy McVeigh, who was responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, killing 168 people. Although it was never truly confirmed and Pierce vehemently denies any correlation. Still, the arrest of McVeigh and the continued publication and distribution of the book initiated talks about censorship for the novel. The protagonist of the novel, Earl Turner, joins “The Organization”, a white nationalist group, in an effort to overthrow the United States government. Turner wishes to establish an all white society and take down “The System” because it is dominated by minorities. Without the consideration of the hate, violence, and racism, the novel is just bad writing. Pierce really couldn’t find better names other than “The Organization”, “The System”, and “The Order”? Also even for a racist it is just weird how he describes his characters. He constantly refers to non-white characters by bluntly calling them things such as “A Black” or “The Black” not only to distinguish their non-whiteness but also to demean them by referring to them as things rather than the complex human being they are. Also, in his world of fiction, it is the assumption that if a character is not defined by their race that they are white; it is almost as if being white is the “default”. All in all the book isn’t that great of a read just because of how it is written but also its just a white supremacy novel. 

Industrial Society and Its Future is a manifesto written by Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber. In it, Kaczynski argues that industrialization and technology are harmful to both society and the environment. He believes that modern technology has taken away our freedom and is causing damage to the planet. His main point is that technology has created a society where people are controlled by big institutions, rather than living freely as individuals. Kaczynski says that as technology keeps advancing, people become more dependent on things they can’t control, like governments and corporations. This leads to a feeling of powerlessness and loss of freedom. He believes that technology harms the environment and that it will only get worse as time goes on. His solution is to reject industrial society and return to a simpler, more natural way of life that doesn’t rely on technology. One key idea in the manifesto is Kaczynski’s criticism of “leftism.” He argues that left-wing movements, which focus on social equality, end up making the problems caused by technology and industrialization worse. Kaczynski thinks these movements don’t do enough to challenge the systems causing harm and instead just try to fix the symptoms without addressing the root problems. While some of his ideas raise questions about technology and society, Kaczynski’s violent actions, including bombings that killed three people, show how extreme his beliefs became. Industrial Society and Its Future continues to be controversial because it forces people to think about tough questions regarding the role of technology in our lives and how it shapes the future of society. Even though his views are extreme, they still make us think about where technology might be leading us.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is one of the most infamous pieces of propaganda in modern history. It first appeared in Russia in the early 1900s, but its real origins are shady. The text claims to reveal a secret plan by Jewish leaders to dominate the world, but it’s completely fake. It was written to spread fear and hatred against Jewish people, and it’s full of lies. Most historians believe it was created by anti-Semitic writers working for the Russian secret police at the time, who wanted a scapegoat for society’s problems. The Protocols were presented as if they were the meeting notes of a Jewish group planning to take over politics, media, and economies. But it didn’t take long for experts to realize that the text was plagiarized. Large chunks of it were copied from older works like a French political satire written decades earlier that had nothing to do with Jews. Even though it was exposed as a hoax pretty quickly the damage had already been done. People who were looking for someone to blame still used it to justify their anti-Semitic beliefs.The Protocols spread like wildfire especially during times of political or economic turmoil. It was translated into multiple languages and used by groups like the Nazis in the 1930s as part of their propaganda campaign. The text fueled conspiracy theories and violence, which had devastating consequences, especially during the Holocaust. Today, the Protocols are widely recognized as a fraud but it’s still cited in some extremist circles. It’s a good example of how fake documents can be used to manipulate people’s emotions and beliefs. Understanding its history is important because it shows how dangerous propaganda can be when people accept it without questioning the facts.

The European Declaration of Independence by Andrew Berwick (which was the pen name of Anders Behring Breivik) is one of the most disturbing and controversial documents to come out in recent history. Written in 2011, it’s a 1,500-page manifesto where Breivik laid out his extremist views about European culture, immigration, and Islam. He argued that Europe was being taken over by multiculturalism and blamed politicians, the media, and feminism for what he saw as the decline of Western civilization. The manifesto mixes conspiracy theories, personal rants, and even sections copied from other sources. The document shocked the world because of what happened right after it was released. Breivik carried out a horrific terrorist attack in Norway, killing 77 people—many of them teenagers—to draw attention to his beliefs. The connection between the manifesto and the violence made people view the text as extremely dangerous. For many it wasn’t just words on a page it was tied to real devastating actions and that made it even scarier. When people first heard about the European Declaration of Independence reactions were a mix of horror, anger, and disbelief. Most people saw it as the ramblings of a hateful extremist, but the fact that someone acted on these ideas made it impossible to ignore. Critics pointed out that parts of the manifesto were plagiarized and that it was more chaotic than coherent. Still others worried about how these extremist ideas could inspire more violence. Even now the manifesto is controversial. Some see it as a symbol of dangerous radicalization and extremism while others study it as a warning about the spread of hate and conspiracy theories. Either way, it’s a chilling example of how hateful words can lead to real world violence.

The SCUM Manifesto was written in 1967 by Valerie Solanas, and it was… intense to say the least. SCUM stands for the “Society for Cutting Up Men,” which already tells you this isn’t your average feminist essay. Solanas argued that men were responsible for basically all of society’s problems and that women should overthrow men entirely. She described men as “biological accidents” and said women didn’t need them for anything. Not emotionally, financially, or even for reproduction. So yeah, the manifesto was wildly provocative. When it was first published, it shocked people. Some took it literally and thought Solanas was seriously calling for a violent uprising against men, while others saw it as satirical, using extreme language to make a point about sexism. Even feminists at the time were split. Some thought Solanas took things way too far and made the movement look bad, while others appreciated how unapologetically angry it was—she said what a lot of women maybe felt but were too scared to say out loud. The SCUM Manifesto also made people uncomfortable because it was brutally honest about gender roles and power dynamics. Solanas basically rejected the idea of women working within the existing system to gain equality. Instead, she called for burning the whole system down. That kind of radical thinking terrified people, especially men who felt attacked. But at the same time, the manifesto became this punk, underground symbol of resistance for women who were sick of playing nice. Today, the SCUM Manifesto is still controversial. Some people think it’s outdated and just too extreme to be taken seriously, while others see it as a powerful piece of feminist rage.

Frantz Fanon was born on 20 July 1925 into a part of the French colonial empire, Martinique. When he was young he attended school in Martinique and would go on to serve in the Free French Army in the Second World War. After his service Fanon studied in France at the University of Lyon completing his studies in psychiatry and medicine. While he was the head of psychiatry at Blida-Joinville Hospital in Algeria he treated both Algerian and French soldiers alike and he began to see the severe effects that colonial violence had on the human psyche. Shortly after he joined the Algerian liberation movement, the National Liberal Front. In 1956 he became the editor of the National Liberal Front’s newspaper, El Moudjahid, and in 1960 he was appointed the ambassador to Ghana by the Algerian liberation movement’s provisional government. This period in Fanon’s life was the most influential and eventually led to his book The Wretched Earth. Fanon wrote The Wretched Earth as a critical analysis of the dehumanizing effects of colonialism and the necessity of violent revolution for the colonized to reclaim their dignity and freedom. It makes one wonder what atrocities he must have seen not only during his time serving in the war, taking care of soldiers (colonizer and colonized just the same), and working with the liberation movement, to move him to write such horrific things. Although his book is quite harsh in nature he does bring much to light about the atmosphere between the colonized and the colonists as well as decolonization and postcolonialism. His book was received widely by postcolonial scholars and his idea that “decolonialism cannot end without the use of violence” was even furthered by the publication of Jean-Paul Sartre’s preface to the book.

By: Charlie Buckreis

I watched the movies The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and Schindler’s List. The Monty Python movie was probably my favorite. The other two were also good.

I thought Life of Brian was very funny, which is somewhat expected given that it’s a Monty Python movie. I especially found the satire on Christianity funny. I think Monty Python’s method of satire is great because, to me, it’s so overdone that it’s hard to feel offended if it’s directed at something relating to you. For example, I’m a Catholic, but I didn’t feel at all offended by the satire in Life of Brian that was directed at the Catholic Church and Christianity as a whole.

I thought The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was done very well. I don’t get emotional easily, and this movie almost made me tear up. I had to read the book a few years ago for English class and I think the movie evoked a much stronger emotional response in me than the book did.

Schindler’s List was also quite good. The camera work was great and the acting was excellent. Spielberg’s choice to use primarily black-and-white coloring brings the audience’s attention to the stark, haunting truth of that time, while his occasional usage of color helps to underscore whatever emotion a scene is trying to convey.

The overall message that Solanas has is that men are the lesser sex, and that men have to keep women down because they want to be women and if women start living up to their potential they will realize men are useless and get rid of them. This is why men have created things like social expectations, economics, patriarchy, etc.

She also has some frankly bizarre views on the psychology of men, saying that men love death because they are already dead inside, and that all men want to be women, and the only men who SCUM should generally accept are the ones that embrace the fact that they are less then women and accept that they want to be women.

She essentially takes the sexism that women have faced for centuries and flips it, claiming that women are better and men are lesser and that the sexism we face is actually a construction to hide this fact.

Additionally, her writing is just not all that good, and she doesn’t really back up any of her arguments, just stating them as fact and ranting about it further. Her organization is also a little strange to me.

By: Charlie Buckreis

The European Declaration of Independence by Andrew Berwick is his thousand-ish page long manifesto detailing his anti-Muslim, anti-feminist, and anti-immigration beliefs. He is a Norwegian neo-Nazi who staged multiple terrorist attacks – a van bombing and a mass shooting – in July 2011 and has been in prison since 2012. Before the trial, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia (just like Kaczynski) by one team of clinicians, but a second team found that to be false and diagnosed him with Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder, a nasty combination. Let’s examine this.

Antisocial Personality Disorder is often overlooked by professionals. People with the disorder usually show very little – if any – concern for the rights, lives, and safety of themselves and/or other people. They may steal, cheat, lie, or manipulate others for their own gain. They may have issues with drug or alcohol abuse and may act impulsively without considering potential consequences. They may violate laws and they typically show very little to no remorse or guilt for the consequences of their actions. Looking at Berwick’s actions, this diagnosis does make some sense.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder is characterized by feelings of grandiosity – superiority – in a person’s thoughts and feelings. It is also characterized by occasional bouts of vulnerability, where the person is extra sensitive to criticism and failure. People with NPD are usually very self-centered and pretty much only act in self-serving ways. Berwick has reportedly been continuously trying to sue the Norwegian government for imprisoning him, claiming it violates his human rights, which could be a result of the NPD.

This museum is incredibly well thought out and well executed. This topic is very serious, and I think the museum created an atmosphere that made people aware of this even if they didn’t know much about it, and if you didn’t know about it, you would learn a lot about it by the time that you left that day.

Going through the permanent exhibition, which covers three floors, you really begin to grasp a level of the severity of everything that happened in the holocaust. You could easily spend upwards of an hour on each floor just taking in all of the information and reflecting on it all. They had videos of survivors playing, describing their experiences, instalations showing the shoes of people from camps, images explaining how the chambers worked, and more. Every section of the museum was utilized to show people the extent of what the Nazi’s did and how many people were affected by their actions.

There’s no possible way someone could understand what went on but this museum allows people to grieve and remember the people who suffered in this tragedy.

It is Fanon’s belief that decolonization cannot end without the use of violence; that a simple gentleman’s agreement cannot ensure that decolonization actually occurs. This fact is because colonialism is entrenched within violence; the colonists took over land by violent means which means it must be taken back in the very same way. During colonialism there are two separate worlds: the colonized and the colonists. Fanon describes the colonists and colonized as two different “species” defined by race. The colonists are “the other”, whites from a different land that come to the land of the indigenous and colonize them. Each “species” is wildly different and unequal. They are purposely segregated with the colonists receiving better living conditions and the colonized are oppressed. The colonized are so oppressed that they would give anything to switch to the life of a colonist; they are envious of this life. Not only this but, the colonized are seen as “a burden” that the colonists must take on, to the colonists, they have no values or ethics and their culture and traditions are “evil”. The proposed answer to the colonized idiocy and evil is Christianity. To ensure that the oppressed stay as such the colonists take any act of resistance to colonization of these peoples as unreasonable and in need of further intervention. This book is shocking for its jarring ideas but honestly not as appealing to me as one may think. To be frank, it is not a new concept in this day in age that “decolonialism requires violence” because today there is just so much conflict around the world that is due to century old conflict. Compared to many of the other texts that I read for this course it is truly mild to what some of the other author’s proclaim. We are used to violence and seeing it in our daily lives. What does that say about our current state of life that a statement such as this is just slightly surprising?

A lot of the context for this book is actually in the book. Hitler decided to write down his views while in prison (which he was supposed to be in for 5 years, but actually got out in less than a year) and he turned it into a long autobiographical explanation on how he hates Jewish people and how the Aryan Germans were superior to all. He explains how he got all of these viewpoints in his own writing, citing the newspapers he read in his youth.

Uncomfortably, his book is still printed and sold today to a degree that is frankly unsettling. After the war the copyright claim was given to the Bavarian government in an attempt to stop its spread in any way, but regrettably and predicatably, versions and translations still got out. People online for years have passed it around and many people alive still agree with his beliefs, I see a lot of this in America especially, and it’s very disconcerting to see how disconected from reality these people are (because they must be to agree with Hitler – especially this book, which in my opinion calls more to why you shouldn’t trust anything he said, because it is incredibly poorly organized and unnecessarily long winded.)

I first read Industrial Society and its future when I was 12 and I came back to it sporadically over the course of my adolescence. I do not condone random acts of violence or believe that what Theodore K did was right. I do think he massively anticipated most of the issues with modern society and oversocialization which were infinitely worsened by the invention of the internet. His discussion of leftist beliefs being diluted into raw identity politics with white upper class leftists personalizing the struggles of marginalized groups is spot on. I have personally seen many people who have grown up in positions of immense privilege who have attached themselves to social issues entirely which could be attributed to a lack of anything at stake in daily life. This is not to invalidate the fact that making attempts to help those who suffer oppression is a good thing, but rather to say the way that some of these leftists go about aiding various groups seems more about their feelings towards themselves than a moral motivation. The simple truth published by Kaczynski is that our behavior and psychology evolved in an environment alien to the one we currently reside in. The way human beings attach themselves to goals and reward themselves with dopamine has been hijacked by technology infinitely more complex than we could have imagined even 100 years ago. In the time since the first bombings by Kaczynski social media has used algorithms tailored to take up all of your attention to completely hijack the way we pursue media. The effects that will arise longterm from this are unseen and deeply worry me. Technology has placed us in a position where the aims we have on a daily basis are being attempted by systems designed to help us hunt large mammals and avoid predators. I am not a proponent of Anarcho Primitivism. I am not saying we should be accelerationist and degrade society so we live a more dangerous life. If we do not design technology and systems of power for the way they affect human beings soon we will influence ourselves in profoundly harmful ways.

Mein Kampf is a long series of rambles that restate the same points over and over again.

I didn’t expect much going into this text, but wow was it hard to read. I think I spent at least an hour reading the same five points he had on how he managed propaganda for his organization– the gist was just that there are some people who were meant to be followers and there are people who are able to become members of an organization. Propoganda is meant for followers, and members people had to manually bring in.

See what I just did, was explain in two sentences, what he spent like 20 pages on. How you might ask? Because I don’t feel the need to keep explaining this point 40 more times after you already understand it.

Maybe this is because he did more speeches than writing, and because people couldn’t go back and relisten to the words he just said like you can with reading, but I don’t care, because I wasted hours of my life reading this man talk about propaganda for many pages with some irrelevant biggoted comment mixed in once per paragraph.

Overall, I hated reading this, thank you for reading.