The Iron Dream is a book within a book. It's a sci-fi adventure novel framed by analysis of the text by a fictional critic. The novel tells the story of a stalwart hero whose strength and charisma allow him to lead a post-apocalyptic future nation against the evil mutant hordes threatening to wipe out humanity.It's a very familiar and even stereotypical premise for a sci-fi novel. What makes Iron Dream unique is that the novel is called Lord of the Swastika, written by Adolf Hitler. The framing of the novel is that, in an alternate reality, Hitler emigrated to the US instead of becoming leader of the Nazi party. The Nazi Party never rose to power, World War II never happened, and Hitler became a popular science fiction writer and illustrator.Would Hitler have been a popular sci-fi author? Of course, the answer we'd like to believe is "no." However, Spinrad makes some compelling arguments that he very well could have been.Lord of the Swastika is set in a distant future where radiation from nuclear war has mutated most of the plants, animals, and even humans into monstrous freaks. The few who have remained recognizably human live in a fortified nation called Helder. Helder is threatened by the mutant races, led by the human-like Dominators who use psychic powers to manipulate and control the world. The hero Feric Jaggard, descended from royalty, returns to Helder to take control and lead its people to their rightful place as ruler of the world.The Iron Dream, in reality, is a satire intended to illustrate how many science fiction stories subtly or overtly express elements of fascism. Lord of the Swastika is a roman a clef where the mutants are non-white races, Helder is Germany, the Dominators are Jews, and the hero is Adolf Hitler himself. The novel is about the rise to power of Hitler, and his fantasy about what would have happened if the Nazis had succeeded in their mad plot to conquer the world. It does a superb job, uncomfortably so, and made me think hard about so many movies and novels I'd read and what views they expressed.Quickly, let's review what fascism is, courtesy of Wikipedia:Fascist movements shared certain common features, including the veneration of the state, a devotion to a strong leader, and an emphasis on ultra-nationalism and militarism. Fascism views political violence, war, and imperialism as a means to achieve national rejuvenation and asserts that stronger nations have the right to expand their territory by displacing weaker nations.Sound familiar?How many science fiction stories portray Earth as the greatest planet in the universe? Doctor Who? Star Trek? Replace "Earth" with "America" or any other nation, and you get stories of fanatical nationalism.How many science fiction stories pit humans up against invariably ugly monsters, and can only be stopped by extermination? Independence Day? World War Z? Couldn't many of these stories replace "space aliens" with "illegal aliens" and tell dark tales of oppression and genocide?How many science fiction stories champion military might as the solution to social problems? Starship Troopers? Star Wars? Does reading or writing a novel about soldiers and war machines promote militarism?How many science fiction stories have had bold and valiant heroes who lead the oppressed people to victory? Star Wars? Dune? Isn't the sort of blind hero worship inherent in these stories ripe for exploitation by real power-mad dictators? In the real world, don't these type of potential saviors turn out to be manipulative politicians?I could go on, but you get the point.As a satire of sci-fi, The Iron Dream is occasionally pretty funny. The novel is written completely straight, but there's humor in how the story is told. It has all the awful trappings of cheesy pulp fiction. Everything is ludicrously over-the-top. All humans are beautiful and clean, and all mutants are ugly and dirty. The exaggerated descriptions of Jaggard's beauty, strength, and intelligence make him a perfect Mary Sue that will be familiar to anyone who's read bad fan fiction (or bad published science fiction, for that matter). Supposedly written in the fifties, it revels in the "futuristic" technology of gas-powered cars and atomic weapons.What isn't so enjoyable are the battle sequences which drown in graphic descriptions of violence. Of course, the purpose is to critique the bloodlust some sci-fi authors seem to revel in, but I admit to skipping whole chapters out of nausea. Many reviews have said Lord of the Swastika goes on too long, and I have to agree. At a certain point, the analogy hits home, and continuing to read the story becomes as uncomfortable as reading actual Nazi propaganda.The crowning achievement of Iron Dream is the closing essay, which proceeds to analyze and criticize every flaw in Lord of the Swastika, from its overly gory combat to the lack of female characters, making it clear that the author intended every single one. The critic comes to the unmistakable conclusion that Lord of the Swastika is the work of a madman that only other madmen could appreciate, which makes its supposed popularity a pointed barb at the sci-fi community.Ultimately, do I think reading sci-fi will turn people into fascists? Do I think Adolf Hitler will walk into San Diego Comic-Con and turn it into a Nazi rally? Not really. But one thing sci-fi readers love to say is that the genre is about ideas, making people think, and causing change through its message. I think The Iron Dream asks the important question of what messages we're getting across.
I’m a fan of 1950’s science fiction, and all those wonderful stories of supermen, chosen ones, and heroes with a grand destiny. Spinrad’s brilliant book falls exactly into this camp… at least initially. The hero, Feric Jaggar, was born with a grand destiny, his land lies under an evil and conspiratorial tyranny, and he is the one destined to free it. This book opens exactly like a classic SF yarn. Well, if you ignore the front matter in the book:Other Science Fiction NovelsBy Adolph HitlerEmperor Of The AsteroidsThe Builders Of MarsFight For The StarsThe Twilight Of TerraSavior From SpaceThe Master RaceThe Thousand Year RuleThe Triumph Of The WillTomorrow The WorldSee? It starts off like normal classic SF, but bends off to someplace questionable. Immediately after that comes “about the author” explaining how Adolph Hitler emigrated to the U.S. following the Great War. If you want to read that (and it’s worth it!) you’ll have to buy the book. (“He devoted the rest of his life to the science-fiction genre as a writer, illustrator, and fanzine editor.”)The title page reveals that this novel is actually titled Lord of the Swastika, by Adolph Hitler. It’s got little swastika decorations around the four corners.It begins like any fun, heroic, classic adventure yarn, feeling very much like one of those old SF books. But things don’t go well for Feric Jaggar, and he’s forced into more and more desperate situations. Our view of the world gradually becomes more and more polarized, with the forces of pure good on one side, and purely evil corruption on the other. No measure is too extreme when fighting such evil, and Ferric and his forces do not restrain themselves.In many ways, this is a perfect science fiction book. A classic SF techniques is to examine, “If this goes on.” This book applies that principle to classic science fiction books.By the end, Jaggar and his allies have been pushed into unimaginable excess. The fight has driven them far past humanity or decency. As you finish the book you feel disgusted, both with the author for having written it, and yourself for having read this (and having once enjoyed anything in that same style).…And then comes the afterward, by “Homer Whipple”. It begins as follow:The popularity gained by Adolph Hitler’s final science-fiction novel, Lord of the Swastika, in the five years since his death is an indisputable fact. The novel won the Hugo award given by the inner fraternity of science-fiction enthusiasts as the best science-fiction novel of 1954.“Homer” goes on to rip into the novel, exposing its many flaws, mentioning the rumors that Hitler actually died from complications of syphilis, and talking about how many of the ideas and imagery of the book have taken hold in parts of the American political landscape and parts of the science-fiction community. Here are just a couple of lines from the review:As anyone with even a cursory knowledge of human psychology will realize, Lord of the Swastika is filled with the most blatant phallic symbolisms and allusions.…The hero with a magical sword is a common, indeed virtually universal, feature of so-called sword and sorcery novels.…Throughout the book, an obsessive amount of attention is paid to uniforms, especially the tight black leather uniforms of the SS.…consider the astonishing fact that not a single woman appears as a character in the book.(and that was written five years before Star Wars came out!).And then there’s my favorite line (from the “About the author” entry)Ever since the book’s publication, the colorful costumes he created for Lord of the Swastika have been favorite themes at convention masquerades.It’s the afterward that makes the book. It’s brilliant, fake-opinionated (and often deliberately wrong), completely reverses your opinion of the book and author, and left me questioning my favorite ideas and beliefs.This isn’t a nice book (not past the middle), but it’s a brilliant and thought-provoking one.
Do You like book The Iron Dream (1986)?
A mi gusto es una de las mejores ucronías, y quizá de los mejores libros de ciencia ficción de Spinrad.En un mundo donde Adolph Hitler no se convirtió en un líder alemán, sino en un migrante estadounidense de novelas pulp mediocres y estrambóticas, en el libro se muestra su última novela corta, "El Señor de la Svástika" con el más puro estilo hitleriano: simplón, racista, fanático, sexista y supersticioso; es bastante admirable que Spinrad hubiera podido sostener su -digamos- disfraz literario durante el cuento sin desfallecer o tirar alguna frase autocrítica o algo.Como una concesión a los más históricamente ingenuos, Spinrad llena la segunda parte de la novela con una crítica literaria de otro personaje ficticio: Homer Whipple, de la Universidad de Nueva York que señala todos los defectos de la novela de Hitler y la contextualiza con el mundo ucrónico donde vive: sin alguna barrera a la vista, el comunismo y los sistemas totalitarios se han adueñado del mundo siendo las únicas excepciones los aislacionistas Estados Unidos, los miliaristas japoneses y los nautrales canadienses.Ante las atrocidades de la URSS extendida (el holocausto sí existió, pero no lo hicieron los alemanes, sino los soviéticos), Whipple se pregunta lo que pasaría si en Estados Unidos o Japón surgiera un líder como Feric Jaggar, personaje de "El Señor de la Svástika".Una crítica un poco más completa: http://elblogdegodmakers.blogspot.mx/...
—Israel Laureano
The Iron Dream has to be one of the most difficult books to review. The basic premise (that Adolf Hitler moved to the US and became a pulp sci-fi writer) is patently absurd, yet so weird and savvy, it’s truly brilliant. Of course, the meta-book-within-a-book, Lord of the Swastika by Hitler, is wretched (even as a clear tongue-and-cheek parody), but again, that was Spinrad’s entire point. And the final chapter of faux-analysis summed everything up in one neat and tidy package that was beyond ingenious. His psychological analysis concerning fascist tendencies within Campbell’s heroic journey was spot on. Clearly, it was a dig at the previous generation of sci-fi writers, such as Heinlein, who popularized alpha-male adventure stories with strong authoritarian and militaristic themes. The Iron Dream is the perfect New Wave novel, an experimental flipping of the entire genre on its head.
—Drake
The concept behind this book is great and made me laugh with glee. Adolf Hitler as a hack science fiction writer? Just too good! The front even includes a list of "Other Books by the Author" that stars such alluring titles as "Tomorrow, The World" and "The master Race", and a little biography of Hitler, the SF writer/illustrator.The story itself purports to be a book called Lord of the Swastika, and the narrator is clearly a stand-in for Hitler himself. In fact, the early parts of the book mirror in some ways Hitler's release from prison and attempts to re-establish himself in 1920s Germany. His ascension to power is a glorious, rocket-propelled explosion of might and...glory!But wait. The book isn't very good. Did I need to tell you that? Hitler was never renouned for his paintings, and Spinrad seems to have kept this in mind while writing a story from the point of view of "Hitler the Artist". It is an interesting thought experiment but I could barely stay with it all the way through. I recognise what Spinrad was trying to do and on one level I laud him for it, but on the other I think it's a bit nasty. I was born in 1980 but enjoy reading plenty of "Golden Age SF" stuff, and no, I don't generally agree that much of it reads like Nazi/Aryan supremacy fantasies, even if some stories do tend to be a bit one-sided and reprehensible in certain aspects (this book did sort of remind me of something like Francis Moulon's Armageddon 2419). It also helps that quite a bit of the Golden Age stuff is simply better written than this. I've read some short stuff by Spinrad and I know he's a pretty capable writer, but for the sake of the metafiction he's chopped his fingers (or maybe a part of his brain) off for this one, and it just isn't very pleasing.To alleviate the pain you may suffer while reading this book, I suggest the following....The Iron Dream Drinking Game!Take a shot of something strong every time....:1. the word Swastika is invoked.2. The protagonist/Hitler goes all starry-eyed and ga-ga describing how beautifully someone's uniform is polished or how colourful/multifarious be their decorations.3. You see an exclamation mark.4. The protagonist/Hitler appeals to a sense of justice/past glory.5. The protagonist/Hitler goes all starry-eyed and ga-ga describing the beautiful lines and contours of a machine.6. You detect homoerotic undercurrents.That's all I've got for now, but using these principels alone, you should be on the floor kicking and begging for mercy within a few dozen pages. Wake up and try it again tomorrow! Hours of fun!
—Jean-marcel
