Review of The Turner Diaries (1978)

The book intends to be shocking. It is not. The premise, movement and logic are, ultimately, ridiculous. There is an apology for the book in the introduction where author Andrew Macdonald, a high school physics teacher, cites the Constitution and the fight against censorship as an explanation for its inception. "It's a dreadful book," he claims, and to account for the inherent racism the author states, "one of the two closest friends I've had in my life was black," a preposterous supposition, as if he needs to justify himself, which, incidentally, in-and-of-itself reeks of a questionable rationale. It reminds me of Julian in the Flannery O'Connor story "Everything That Rises Must Converge." There is no way to win here. No way out. Critics and students of O'Conner's story will point out that Julian's mother is racist, that Julian is racist, that Carver and his mother are racist, that the society is racist, that Flannery O'Connor and the story, too, are racist, which is, and must be in some ways, irrelevant. Indeed, the story is about racism and the difficulties of integration (forced for the most part) in the south and elsewhere. And as the subject is so sensitive, explosive, controversial, to explore it requires real courage and magnanimity. Macdonald, cowering and dismissive, seems to sidestep the real issue he brings to life in the book.

The success of a vision of the future requires to some degree accuracy of it, as in for instance Orwell's 1984, Huxley's Brave New World, Skinner's Walden Two, or Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. Because of this approximation, these books achieve startling and profound poignancy. The Turner Diaries fails at this painfully and embarrassingly, its analysis of human nature being questionable. It misses the mark. The idea of the Organization and the revolution is possible, but the way the events play out is simply absurd. The story poses more questions than it resolves, the tell-tale mark of confusion. The Cohen Act; the repeal of the 2nd amendment; the overzealous liberal agenda of political correctness, in short, fascism; the concentrated power of an elite, in this case it is the Jews, through control of the military, the media, and government agencies are all quite conceivable, however preposterous. The logical extension, though, of a race war that becomes nuclear and leads to world domination by the white race is exceptionally baffling, as ridiculous as Charles Manson's confounding belief in Helter Skelter. To divvy up the world along race lines seems silly, and today would be impossible. Human nature is so much more than color.

Revolution always makes for compelling narrative. Be it violent or pacifist, a fight between the System and the Organization, or the people and the state, is always happening. It all depends on where you stand, how you look at it, from what angle, what prospective, with what agenda.... Still, a book, be it pure fiction, must have a foundation. And to some degree the story must be sound. That is why The Turner Diaries will stick around only as a curiosity, an amusement, an historical artifact, a silly plaything.