Describe Appertaining To Books Swastika Night
| Title | : | Swastika Night |
| Author | : | Katharine Burdekin |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 208 pages |
| Published | : | 1985 by The Feminist Press at CUNY (first published 1937) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Science Fiction. Dystopia. Alternate History. Classics |
Katharine Burdekin
Paperback | Pages: 208 pages Rating: 3.62 | 1712 Users | 213 Reviews
Description In Favor Of Books Swastika Night
Published in 1937, twelve years before Orwell's 1984, Swastika Night projects a totally male-controlled fascist world that has eliminated women as we know them. Women are breeders, kept as cattle, while men in this post-Hitlerian world are embittered automatons, fearful of all feelings, having abolished all history, education, creativity, books, and art. The plot centers on a “misfit” who asks, “How could this have happened?”
Present Books In Pursuance Of Swastika Night
| Original Title: | Swastika Night |
| ISBN: | 0935312560 (ISBN13: 9780935312560) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Munich (München),2609(Germany) |
Rating Appertaining To Books Swastika Night
Ratings: 3.62 From 1712 Users | 213 ReviewsWeigh Up Appertaining To Books Swastika Night
Possibly the most troubling of the four dystopian books I have read this year, at least from a woman's point of view. Women are all but completely absent from the story, and from the society. It is set 720 years after the second world war. Germany won and Nazi's now rule all of Europe and Africa. The Japanese rule Asia and America (although they are only mentioned in passing in the story). The action happens in Germany and England (a subject nation). While Alfred (an English engineer) isRated 4.5/5 stars I'm honestly a little bit blown away by this book. It's the first "if hitler won the war" dystopia, and yet reads like something that could very well be published (and extremely popular) now. Just the way the world is imagined brings about so many discussions of racism, sexism/feminism, religion, you name it. Now I will say that some of the discussions did seem to go on for a little too long, and the majority of the book seemed to be going through the "big reveal" stage of
Swastika Night is scary. It's scary because the alternate-history/dystopian future that Burdekin explores is one that could very much come to fruition, you only have to turn on the tv and listen to the way world leaders talk about gender equality, or look at rulings in criminal cases, to see the degradation of anyone who wasn't born a cis white man. While Swastika Night does explore this concept, I did however find the writing to be lacking in several ways. For one, the plot was dry and not
Swastika Night is a dialogue driven and philosophically laden tale of a pilgrimage of an Englishman named Alfred to Germany, the center of the Holy Nazi Empire. This fusion of alternate history and dystopian fiction is set six hundred years after the German victory over the Allies where Hitler is worshiped as an Aryan god. During his pilgrimage, Alfred encounters a Nazi knight who has doubts about the effects of holding women to an animal-like status. This book should not be typecast as a
Hitler is worshipped as a god and not a single book of history remains to contradict his story...or does it?This was written in 1937, and is as remarkable a bit of prognostication as I have ever read. It suffers from excessive explaining through dialogue, clunky characters, weird ideas about women being fundamentally different than men (even once you get past the Handmaid's Tale-type elements), and general preachiness. But yowza what it got right, and ouch, how much of it feels relevant today.
I actually enjoyed this book, with its bleak look at a future that could have happened if Hitler had won World War II. Its amazing to read when you realise that this book was actually published before the war had even begun, so Burdekin not only comes up with a dystopian future based on a fiction but also predicts the war itself. The idea that Nazism moves its focus onto women once it has all but wiped out anyone else they deem unfit to be part of the so-called master race is a scary one as
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