Having read David Gates' review of The Kindly Ones, I feel that my view on what fiction does is somewhat quaint--of course, it does other things than teach us about human nature, depending on what fiction you're talking about. His example of Lolita is apposite; we read it because of its obvious artifice. It is clearly not about what real people are like. But the fact that a real person wrote it, well, doesn't that enlighten us in some way about human nature, and make us think about the mysteries of the creative process? But I readily admit, my taste in fiction is old-fashioned, much to Zadie Smith's apparent displeasure.
I also felt Gates' point about the extreme sexual perversity of the main character of The Kindly Ones was right on target; by making him so abnormal, it seems to suggest that only abnormal people could commit atrocities such as the Nazis did. But in reality, isn't it more frightening to think that it was ordinary people who committed the atrocities, or allowed them to happen--i.e. the banality of evil? Gates mentions an article by Ron Rosenbaum, the author of Explaining Hitler, that pleads, brilliantly, for an end to the fascination with Hitler's sexuality, as it only serves to exculpate everyone else.
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