Wednesday, November 6 - Joanna Scutts on Fascist Sympathies

Tonight at 8 PM Bibliocracy Radio, KFPK 90.7 FM:  JOANNA SCUTTS on Fascist Sympathies.  I’m a longtime reader, fan, and supporter of The Nation magazine --- no surprise! --- and am grateful and delighted at the experience of finding an article, review or opinion piece which not only affirms but teaches me something, provokes, insists its argument into my life, whether demanding more reading and research, or correcting my own misperception or --- I’ll be honest --- confirming what I’d understood.  All of that happened for this happy reader after blazing through a long, packed, fun piece by my guest tonight, Joanna Scutts. Her review, not so much of a single book, but of a genre, inspired and delighted me with its careful yet urgent framing of the so-called American self-help movement and its literature, in a historical context and, yes, a political one.  It’s important to be able to critique the enduring attraction of what seems so obviously a flimsy if ideologically grounded --- in the worst way --- part of how many citizens seem to construct a worldview.  The article, which its author will read from, is “Fascist Sympathies: On Dorothea Brande," from the August 13 Nation magazine.  Who was Dorothea Brande, and how is it that so much of the all-American tradition of narcissistic and pro-capitalist, dog-eat-dog self-improvement literature, Dale to Deepak, emanates from her arguably right-wing bestseller of 75 years ago, Wake Up and Live!?  The writer is Joanna Scutts, freelance reviewer of book reviews, writer of author profiles, and cultural criticism for The Washington Post, The Nation, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Review of Books, and more.  She holds a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University and teaches writing at NYU’s Gallatin School. This is one of the most fun conversations I've had lately. Thanks for listening, on the radio or online live, or as a free download from the station's archives whenever you like.