The Little People, by John Christopher
I (Rachel Ninja Brown) recently received this in the mail:
I would have held a poll, but I'm sure you all know that only telophase would mail me Nazi leprechauns.
I will answer the questions that probably sprang to your minds:
1. WTF????
1. Yes.
2. Is that the same John Christopher who wrote the Tripods books?
2. Yes.
3. Are there really whip-wielding Nazi leprechauns in the book?
3. Sort of. That is, the leprechauns are not themselves Nazis, nor are they leprechauns in the usual sense. But there are whip-wielding miniature people who dress in green, live in a crumbling castle in Ireland, and are associated with Nazis, so I can't really say that the cover is inaccurate.
4. WTF is the book like???
4. See below.
The novel, rather bizarrely given the accuracy of the cover, is an attempt at a serious sf novel bringing up serious moral and ethical issues. Unfortunately, it's also written by John Christopher. If you click on my author tag, you'll see why this might not go so well.
Note that it was written in 1966, so only 20 years post-Holocaust. A woman inherits a mysterious Irish castle and renovates it as a hotel. The first set of guests include a completely ghastly misogynist (the character hates women) wife-beating scientist and his ghastly shrewish misogynist (the author isn't crazy about women either) wife, their 17-year-old daughter who seduces the castle owner's 40-something lawyer, and a thinly characterized Noble and Long-Suffering "Jewess" and her German husband who is guilt-ridden because his father was a Nazi.
The portrayal of Jews is weird and appears to be from the POV of someone who never met one but was appalled by reading news accounts of the Holocaust. We are all very noble and tragic and viewed as if through a distant lens. Unless we're miniaturized. Then we're not really viewed as Jews, but rather as a sort of non-human alien. I am not sure Christopher realized how much more problematic that is in the context of the Holocaust than it even would be normally! Women are seducers, shrews, or housewives. Unless they're non-minaturized Jews. Then they get to suffer in restrained tragic nobility.
The castle is haunted by leprechauns very small people! It turns out that the castle used to be owned by a Nazi who had experimented on pregnant concentration camp inmates and so obtained very tiny babies. He then fled to Ireland and raised them in an abusive isolation. After his death they hide out within the castle. (They're not like the Borrowers, but about a foot tall.)
The hotel guests capture the Little People and have an ethical debate over how to exploit them. I think we're supposed to notice that most of them don't sound any better than Nazis, but my prior exposure to Christopher made me uncertain of that.
It turns out that the Little People can psychically induce hallucinations, bringing the hotel guests to epiphanies and then trying to kill them. The hotel guests fight back. Some of the Little People are killed, and others escape. The son-of-Nazi goes insane from a guilty hallucination of being a Nazi and murdering his wife. His wife tragically takes him away to an asylum. Everyone else lives happily ever after, except the Little People, who are sterile and will go extinct.
I would have held a poll, but I'm sure you all know that only telophase would mail me Nazi leprechauns.
I will answer the questions that probably sprang to your minds:
1. WTF????
1. Yes.
2. Is that the same John Christopher who wrote the Tripods books?
2. Yes.
3. Are there really whip-wielding Nazi leprechauns in the book?
3. Sort of. That is, the leprechauns are not themselves Nazis, nor are they leprechauns in the usual sense. But there are whip-wielding miniature people who dress in green, live in a crumbling castle in Ireland, and are associated with Nazis, so I can't really say that the cover is inaccurate.
4. WTF is the book like???
4. See below.
The novel, rather bizarrely given the accuracy of the cover, is an attempt at a serious sf novel bringing up serious moral and ethical issues. Unfortunately, it's also written by John Christopher. If you click on my author tag, you'll see why this might not go so well.
Note that it was written in 1966, so only 20 years post-Holocaust. A woman inherits a mysterious Irish castle and renovates it as a hotel. The first set of guests include a completely ghastly misogynist (the character hates women) wife-beating scientist and his ghastly shrewish misogynist (the author isn't crazy about women either) wife, their 17-year-old daughter who seduces the castle owner's 40-something lawyer, and a thinly characterized Noble and Long-Suffering "Jewess" and her German husband who is guilt-ridden because his father was a Nazi.
The portrayal of Jews is weird and appears to be from the POV of someone who never met one but was appalled by reading news accounts of the Holocaust. We are all very noble and tragic and viewed as if through a distant lens. Unless we're miniaturized. Then we're not really viewed as Jews, but rather as a sort of non-human alien. I am not sure Christopher realized how much more problematic that is in the context of the Holocaust than it even would be normally! Women are seducers, shrews, or housewives. Unless they're non-minaturized Jews. Then they get to suffer in restrained tragic nobility.
The castle is haunted by leprechauns very small people! It turns out that the castle used to be owned by a Nazi who had experimented on pregnant concentration camp inmates and so obtained very tiny babies. He then fled to Ireland and raised them in an abusive isolation. After his death they hide out within the castle. (They're not like the Borrowers, but about a foot tall.)
The hotel guests capture the Little People and have an ethical debate over how to exploit them. I think we're supposed to notice that most of them don't sound any better than Nazis, but my prior exposure to Christopher made me uncertain of that.
It turns out that the Little People can psychically induce hallucinations, bringing the hotel guests to epiphanies and then trying to kill them. The hotel guests fight back. Some of the Little People are killed, and others escape. The son-of-Nazi goes insane from a guilty hallucination of being a Nazi and murdering his wife. His wife tragically takes him away to an asylum. Everyone else lives happily ever after, except the Little People, who are sterile and will go extinct.