Li’l Hitler

From the Guardian:

A three-year-old boy called Adolf Hitler Campbell has been refused a birthday cake with his name on it by a New Jersey supermarket.

Heath Campbell, 35, and his wife, Deborah, 25, say they are upset at the decision made by their local ShopRite not to write “Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler” across the cake, and that people needed to move forward.

Campbell said he named his son after Adolf Hitler because “no one else in the world would have that name”.

Also, little Adolf won’t be able to play Mario Kart with his Mii.  (Click the link to see what the couple named their other kids, and prepare to be shocked, shocked!)

The She-bear’s Cave

At Ed’s prompting I read this review of–I’m confused now which is the fake and which the real title of Norman Spinrad’s sci-fi Hitler book–by Ursula LeGuin.  I enjoyed her Earthsea books, but like most authors she’s a terrible critic of her own work and a long, pedantic harangue about how awful it was to make her books into movies and to cast white actors in roles she imagined for Polynesians turned me off.  But I take seriously, briefly, her contention that heroic science fiction is akin to NAZI historical fantasy.

I skimmed through the Wikipedia page on the book–the wikis never summarize sufficiently–and although I recognized the NAZI elements, the story didn’t remind me of any real novel.  LeGuin mentions Conan and some others I haven’t read.  Why not Star Wars?  Now that we know that Jedi are born in the blood and were done in by betrayal and trickery, perhaps we should start eyeing our X-wings with suspicion.  I’m only kidding, of course, but surely somebody has already proposed it in earnest.

Addendum: after reading a few more on-line reviews, I am amused to find no one willing to admit to enjoying the book, although everyone recommends reading it.  So is the book laudable but excruciating like Schindler’s List or reprehensible but delicious like A Clockwork Orange? -nb