This text was one of the few pieces of fiction that we as a class have read this semester. Even just reading what it was about shocked me. The premise of it is genuinely horrific, and it is quite hard to believe that someone could be so set in their hatred to devote their time to writing such a thing. It is scary to know what great influence these texts have on people’s minds, as it inspired many attacks. One thing I found interesting was that Andrew Macdonald was the pen name of one Dr. William Luther Pierce. He was a PhD holding, very well credited man, which strangely makes it less surprising that he would write such a text.
While we were having discussion in class, I was made aware of an interesting parallel to George Orwell’s 1948 novel 1984, that being “Big Brother”. I was aware of this as a term, but I did not realize that it came from that book. “Big Brother” is an omnipresent figure in 1984, and is very similar to “The System” from the Turner Diaries. Apart from that, it is clear that Pierce wrote this specifically targeting some minority that he disliked. He made them the villains and framed his narrative with the idea that minorities were the evil oppressing the white people and just waiting to overthrow them and take over the world.
This was extremely violent and long, and although detailed, I felt that it lacked any sort of substance. It certainly lacks any sort of literary merit or true message other than one of hatred and bigotry.