Well, I can’t say I wasn’t warned about the Turner Diaries. From the introduction of the book to discussions in class, we were all sufficiently cautioned about the hatred that pervades the text. Nonetheless, it is still an important piece to analyze and what do you know? There is apocalyptic thought woven throughout.
Although we don’t know the details just yet, the New Jerusalem of Turner’s America is going to be established around 1999. This is foreshadowed through the constant references to time as BNE (Before the New Era) which, besides literally taking place at the turn of a millennium, has the reader envisioning his version of a post-millennial society. Even before that, Earl Turner is convinced that although the Organization has its faults, they have successfully created a microcosm of the New Jerusalem. Specifically, Turner argues that his unnatural organization has led to “natural” relationships between him and Katherine. After he seduces her in the shower and presumably sleeps with her regularly, he catches himself calling them a “married couple.” The idea of a normal, heterosexual family unit is fresh in our minds from the recent films we’ve watched, but it is twisted in the Turner Diaries because we know that the Organization and Turner’s relationship is actually not bringing any normalcy at all.
Turner also uses phrases and language that is clearly reminiscent of the Book of Revelation. From the beginning, Turner talks about his plan for a widespread public recruitment in an effort to “purge the organization of the fainthearts and hobbyists – the talkers.” This reminded me immediately of the verse in the Book of Revelation which condemns the “halfhearted and lukewarm” Christians. Turner is clearly influenced by this totalistic mindset, although he admits to not becoming religious until later on in his life. Additionally, his blatantly anti-Semitic language can also be seen as a borrowing from the Book of Revelation, which we now know condemns all Jews to hell.
Furthermore, reading Turner’s diary allows us to understand his motives and emotional responses more readily. When he admits in several occasions that he feels depressed or awful after killing someone or blowing up an entire building, I am reminded of a discussion we had early on in the semester about good and evil. The discussion centered on the question of ‘Can there be something that is 100% good or 100% evil? Or is there a spectrum?’ Turner’s actions are unarguably evil. However, when we read about his emotional dilemmas, we are reminded of the fact that 100% evil actually does not exist. He may be 99% but it’s still not as totalistic as the Book of Revelation may want us to think.
On a bit of a more random note, I continue to notice Eastern European characters pop up in the stories and movies we’ve encountered – Carpathias in Glorious Appearing, Marichka in Children of Men and the landlord in Turner Diaries. I don’t know if it’s lingering Cold War sentiments or simply a use of comedy/lightheartedness, but it’s interesting to see this theme of Eastern European characters in apocalyptic novels and films.
On a completely different note, after reading the first half of the Turner Diaries, I was able to shift my consciousness toward some kooky short films at the Doomsday Festival. They were all very different but a lot of fun to watch! Two of the films – “How to Prepare for Survival” and “Desert of the Real” used humanless landscapes to portray a post-apocalyptic (or post-industrial) America. I personally liked “Desert of the Real” much more because the director was able to capture relatable and familiar NYC sites uninhabited by people to create a really cool, eery effect. Additionally, as I mentioned to Professor Quinby at the festival, I immediately thought of Whitney at the end of Mutantland because it had a very non-traditional ending in which a rabbit-frog (yes – you read that correctly) slurps the blood out of a slaughtered human-like protagonist. Matthew 24:14 was one of my favorites. It centered on a real-life character, Matthew, who was one of the people warning us about the projected end of the world on May 21. During the Q & A afterwards, one of the viewers praised the director for not being snarky or critical of Matthew in the film. Her comment really resonated with me because it can be so easy to criticize fundamentalists like Matthew. In the process, the critic can easily reflect the totalistic attributes and “I have the truth!” mentality that they were using to criticize the fundamentalists. So, this balance is something that I think we should all try to keep in mind as we complete our creative projects.
All in all, I enjoyed watching the short films because several of them were able to deal with the apocalypse in a light-hearted and quirky manner. It was a breath of fresh air after having read part of the Turner Diaries and watched films that are so grotesquely apocalyptic.
I found it interesting that you brought up the question of the existence of “good” and “evil.” While I see why we might call Earl 99% evil, I would suggest that looking at his character in terms of how we looked at fundamentalist Christians, and trying to establish some objectivity (challenging as that is) allows us as readers to go deeper into thinking about what drives the fundamentalist mindset. As outsiders from the Organization, we do not believe in the cause, and therefore see no possible justification for the violent and radical actions of Earl and his counterparts. While reading The Turner Diaries, I tried to keep in mind the necessary dissociation that occurs within the paranoid’s mind. It’s fascinating to examine Earl in relation to Strozier’s article, which I talked about in my post this week. I think we are quick to jump to stamping “good” and “evil” on characters or groups, especially when their actions are so very drastic and unnecessary from our point of view. But, like you mentioned, pure good and pure evil are very difficult to determine, which forces us to step back and look at what else might be functioning on a person or group that we would readily deem “evil.”
I am particularly enlightened by your observation of the time designations. I hadn’t thought about the significance that the BNE era would have on our understanding of the novel. Initially, I just thought it fit great into the context of an apocalyptic text. However, now I’d agree that this time slot sets us up for some type of catastrophic event. This automatically puts us in the doomsday mindset and prepares us for the beginning of the end. Now, reading Turner’s take on the problems that pervade in society (overpopulation, disease). Thus, we wait for the Organization to bring about a change and use their violence to restore the “natural order” of things. Of course, this is all relative, considering that natural to Turner requires all the Jews obliterated from Earth and the System destroyed. To comment on your analysis of Earl and Katherine’s relationship, I would say that the heterosexual family unit says a lot about what Macdonald envisions the post-apocalyptic household to be. If Katherine’s seduction is so natural, then we can conclude that the author’s apocalypse reverts back to traditional feminine gender role, at least to some degree.