How do you write a biography of a true monster without becoming an unwilling collaborator in excusing their monstrosity? Once we understand Satan's troubled upbringing, his inner torments, how he is repeatedly rejected by people who think they are better, can we not feel at little compassion? If we were in Old Nick's shoes, you know, so many souls so little time? Even if I was the direct victim of his works isn't there that thing called the Stockholm syndrome? Maybe not so much evil, maybe just misunderstood or ill?
If felt these emotions reading Laurent Binet's HHhH, a novel/biography (of sorts) of Rienhard Heydrich, The Hangman, The Blond Beast, Himmler's No.2 and the brains behind the final solution. The legacy of this man's life is pain, misery and death on an astronomical scale. The only thing he seems to ever regret is inefficiency. Though not actually the metaphysical incarnation of absolute evil, Heydrich does a pretty good imitation of a great Satan.
I went into the book knowing all this, but Binet's style presents information (if not always facts) in a neutral way. On one level it could be argued that this is a positive. However I am not so sure. There is no book long enough to do more than summarise the crimes of the man. Instead little human biographical details sweeten and skew the narrative. Piles of bodies in a trench, are piles of bodies in a trench. Heydrich was top of the class at school, champion swordsman, part time fighter pilot until Hitler stepped in to stop him. A bright young man down on his luck in 20's with a young wife. A wife who was there to support his career. And compared to all the others? He is not a fat pig like Rohme, weak and squeamish like Himmler, a bloated failure like Goering. And of course he had to endure the taunts from his youth, the 'false' allegation he was Jewish. Stop stop stop! All this stuff conjuring up the man gives excessive and unwarranted ballast to the vile reality of his life. All this Anakin Skywalker stuff explaining away the Lord Vader.
Is it possible to write a biography of the life a man like Heydrich without spinning the story in his favour? He was a man, he wasn't the Devil, he was driven by the things that drive men. And responsible for them as a man. He is not Darth Vader, Voldemort or Bloefeld. But how does one write the biography of a Heydrich without either turning him into cat stroking pantomime super villain or diminishing the crimes with humanising detail?
If felt these emotions reading Laurent Binet's HHhH, a novel/biography (of sorts) of Rienhard Heydrich, The Hangman, The Blond Beast, Himmler's No.2 and the brains behind the final solution. The legacy of this man's life is pain, misery and death on an astronomical scale. The only thing he seems to ever regret is inefficiency. Though not actually the metaphysical incarnation of absolute evil, Heydrich does a pretty good imitation of a great Satan.
I went into the book knowing all this, but Binet's style presents information (if not always facts) in a neutral way. On one level it could be argued that this is a positive. However I am not so sure. There is no book long enough to do more than summarise the crimes of the man. Instead little human biographical details sweeten and skew the narrative. Piles of bodies in a trench, are piles of bodies in a trench. Heydrich was top of the class at school, champion swordsman, part time fighter pilot until Hitler stepped in to stop him. A bright young man down on his luck in 20's with a young wife. A wife who was there to support his career. And compared to all the others? He is not a fat pig like Rohme, weak and squeamish like Himmler, a bloated failure like Goering. And of course he had to endure the taunts from his youth, the 'false' allegation he was Jewish. Stop stop stop! All this stuff conjuring up the man gives excessive and unwarranted ballast to the vile reality of his life. All this Anakin Skywalker stuff explaining away the Lord Vader.
Is it possible to write a biography of the life a man like Heydrich without spinning the story in his favour? He was a man, he wasn't the Devil, he was driven by the things that drive men. And responsible for them as a man. He is not Darth Vader, Voldemort or Bloefeld. But how does one write the biography of a Heydrich without either turning him into cat stroking pantomime super villain or diminishing the crimes with humanising detail?
No comments:
Post a Comment