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Thread: Has anyone else read Mein Kampf?

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    Registered User ScribbleScribe's Avatar
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    Has anyone else read Mein Kampf?

    I am re-reading it right now and I am having difficulty trying to find people to discuss it with without the fear of them being like "OMG! NAZI!"

    Uhm, no. Not going to turn me into a Nazi. I just want to discuss it.

    Obviously it's a political text. It has a lot of hate-speech in it. Interesting autobiographical narratives that are probably more than a bit slanted. Nontheless, I find it interesting.

    Yes I know this book has been a favorite of a few school-shooters. Yes I know the author has killed a lot of people.

    Why is it then, such a crime to find it interesting?

    Anyway, what do you think of this book?

  2. #2
    Quack! Patito de Hule's Avatar
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    Incredibly boring. I don't intend to reread.

    If you're a real masochist, try Wealth of Nations and Capital.

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    Voice of Chaos & Anarchy
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    I started it, but it was amazingly boring, but that might have been the fault of the translator.

    I have read parts of Das Kapital, and that is as boring.

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    Registered User Emil Miller's Avatar
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    Alright, but it's worth remembering that they weren't written for literature geeks
    and all of them had a more profound effect the mass of people than almost any book that was.
    "L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.

    "Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ScribbleScribe View Post
    I am re-reading it right now and I am having difficulty trying to find people to discuss it with without the fear of them being like "OMG! NAZI!"

    Uhm, no. Not going to turn me into a Nazi. I just want to discuss it.

    Obviously it's a political text. It has a lot of hate-speech in it. Interesting autobiographical narratives that are probably more than a bit slanted. Nontheless, I find it interesting.

    Yes I know this book has been a favorite of a few school-shooters. Yes I know the author has killed a lot of people.

    Why is it then, such a crime to find it interesting?

    Anyway, what do you think of this book?
    It's not a crime to read it, not in this country. I'm sure my grandfather has read it, he was a Nazi sympathizer and was interned for two years while living in Canada in the 1940's. He used to give pro Nazi speeches. I knew none of this until after he died, I was just a kid.
    If you find it interesting it's probably because it is an important piece of history.

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    Card-carrying Medievalist Lokasenna's Avatar
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    To follow the general trend, my objections to it are on literary grounds: it is really horribly written. The fact that the ethos is presents is monstrous does not help, but as a text I'm more inclined to criticise the presentation.
    "I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance. And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity- through him all things fall. Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity!" - Nietzsche

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    Registered User ScribbleScribe's Avatar
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    I have mein kampf in an audio format so when I can't sleep, I turn on my ipod and listen to it until I feel tired.

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    Something's gotta give PrinceMyshkin's Avatar
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    As a Jew who has read widely about the Shoa (Holocaust) I have a superstitious dread of even holding or touching that book, as if something filthy would rub off on me.

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    In the fog Charles Darnay's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ScribbleScribe View Post
    I have mein kampf in an audio format so when I can't sleep, I turn on my ipod and listen to it until I feel tired.
    That's strange, and slightly disturbing.

    I will admit that it is difficult for me to look at this book objectively, but in my effort to do so, I find the writing pure garbage, particularly when compared with transcripts of his later speeches. Politics aside, he had a good sense of rhetoric that just does not come through in this book.
    I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...

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    Quote Originally Posted by PrinceMyshkin View Post
    As a Jew who has read widely about the Shoa (Holocaust) I have a superstitious dread of even holding or touching that book, as if something filthy would rub off on me.
    I don't blame you, I would too. I have even felt guilt concerning my grandfather, who I loved. And that's probably why-because I did love him, but I was only 9.

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    Registered User ScribbleScribe's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Charles Darnay View Post
    That's strange, and slightly disturbing.

    I will admit that it is difficult for me to look at this book objectively, but in my effort to do so, I find the writing pure garbage, particularly when compared with transcripts of his later speeches. Politics aside, he had a good sense of rhetoric that just does not come through in this book.

    I wonder why it doesn't come through. Maybe he was a better speaker than writer. But they are both language, so kind of confusing this would be bad.

    Maybe it was really editorialized or he wrote it before his speaking skills were developed. I don't know.

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    Registered User ScribbleScribe's Avatar
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    People say the bible is boring but its one of the most analyzed texts in history. So, yeah, not all literature is interesting I guss.

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    Registered User Emil Miller's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Charles Darnay View Post
    That's strange, and slightly disturbing.

    I will admit that it is difficult for me to look at this book objectively, but in my effort to do so, I find the writing pure garbage, particularly when compared with transcripts of his later speeches. Politics aside, he had a good sense of rhetoric that just does not come through in this book.
    This is probably because the book was written in 1924 when he was in prison and unable to use his "good sense of rhetoric," until he became chancellor in 1933.
    "L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.

    "Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.

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    Jethro BienvenuJDC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ScribbleScribe View Post
    People say the bible is boring but its one of the most analyzed texts in history. So, yeah, not all literature is interesting I guss.
    Perspective...I find most of the Bible quite interesting.
    Les Miserables,
    Volume 1, Fifth Book, Chapter 3
    Remember this, my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators.

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    Registered User ScribbleScribe's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BienvenuJDC View Post
    Perspective...I find most of the Bible quite interesting.
    Actually, as do I. Religion minor here.

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