How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
They know a million tricks, those novelists. Take Doctor Goebbels; that's how he started out, writing fiction. Appeals to the base lusts that hide in everyone no matter how respectable on the surface. Yes, the novelist knows humanity, how worthless they are, ruled by their testicles, swayed by cowardice, selling out every cause because of their greed—all he's got to do is thump on the drum, and there's his response. And he laughing, of course, behind his hand at the effect he gets. (8.83)
We've seen social, economic, political, and military power, and now we have "Artistic" power. Reiss reads Grasshopper Lies Heavy and is moved without wanting to be. So it's no wonder that Reiss connects artistic power with feelings usually considered negative, like lust, cowardice, and greed.
Quote #8
"But to demolish the fiction they must resort to legalities. That is the genuine purpose; not to deceive, but to require the formalities in case of exposure. You see for instance that to apprehend Mr. Baynes they must do more than merely shoot him down... which they could do, were he to travel as—well, travel without this verbal umbrella." (12.24)
There's an awesome scene in Hitchcock's Notorious where an Allied secret agent takes a woman away from a party. There are several Nazis who would want to stop them from leaving, but because the party is in public, they can't. That's close to the situation Tedeki is describing here: everyone knows what's going on, but they can't act because everyone's pretending. Let's add this to our example of how fiction (or "Lies"—see our Theme section on that) have power.
Quote #9
"The moral practices of the black shirts exceed in ferocity that of the Wehrmacht. But their power is less. We should reflect solely on reality, on actual power. Not on ethical intentions." "Yes, we must be realists," Mr. Tagomi said aloud. (12.65-6)
This leads us to a big question about this book: Is Tagomi correct when he says that they shouldn't worry about who is more evil, but rather about who is more powerful? It seems like a good argument here, but it sure does feel weird to root for Heydrich.