On John Scalzi’s Blog: The Big Idea
July 3, 2008 @ 11:34 am
As if telling Abigail Breslin to “suck it” wasn’t enough for one day, I am also on record praising Adolf Hitler in my “Big Idea” piece on John Scalzi’s Whatever blog. The piece is about the inspiration for my books Infoquake and MultiReal, and it’s not quite as offensive as it sounds.
An excerpt:
Could Adolf Hitler ever have been the good guy?
The man was a warped, murderous bastard who ordered the slaughter of millions of people, started an unnecessary war of conquest, and permanently 86′d the dreams of an entire generation or three. But seriously — let’s say you hop in a time machine, track the dude down as a teenager, and put him through a serious reeducation program. And maybe give him a heavy dose of Prozac. Or better yet, hand him a Macintosh. Could he be redeemed?…
That was one of the Big Ideas behind my novels Infoquake and MultiReal. Create a character with Hitler-like strategic genius, with Gates-like business savvy, with Clinton-like personal magnetism, with Machiavelli-like disregard for ethics. Stick him on the fence between the ultimate selfishness and the ultimate selflessness, give him a technology that could revolutionize the world or destroy it, and see what he does.
| Filed Under | Elsewhere on the Web, Infoquake, MultiReal |
| Tags | Adolf Hitler, Big Idea, Infoquake, inspiration, John Scalzi, Macintosh, MultiReal |
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Comments
Too bad the reflection on the screen of the laptop was not modified.
Too good the reflection on the screen of the laptop was not modified.
What if Osma Bin LaLa didn;t have access to jet air liners…….?
I was just searching images for an iPad theme comparing Apple to Nazis. Taylor made.. glad for the reelection. Just need to change the arm band to an apple. Ha !
why does the reflection of it have glasses and is smiling? is it a reflection of steve jobs. comparing him to adolf? lol
John: The photo was Photoshopped from an image of Steve Jobs. No commentary intended.
it’s retarded to say “hitler with clinton-like magnetism”, when hitler’s magnetism was allegedly 1000 times better. also, hitler already had disregard for ethics.
“It’s retarded”? You really still say that in 2011?
i admire hitler
I roll my eyes at idiots.
Well i roll my eyes at you!
Gnardog: That’s permitted.
Did anyone noticed that both Adolf and Steve died at the same age?
that not fucking funny a ass hole get a life dont put hitler and steve jobs in the same picture its racists to humanity
Let me add a disclaimer for the next idiot who wants to comment about Steve Jobs and Hitler: I, THE AUTHOR OF THIS BLOG PIECE, HAD NO INTENTION OF COMPARING STEVE JOBS TO ADOLF HITLER BY PHOTOSHOPPING THE ABOVE PHOTO. I DO NOT CONDONE SUCH A COMPARISON. PLEASE READ THE HYPERLINKED ARTICLE FOR FULL CONTEXT.