With another pointless letter to Jonah:

2. A while ago, you mentioned that a reader had urged you to see the sci-fi flick Zardoz (staring Sean Connery and Charlotte Rampling, written and directed by John Boorman [!]). At the core of the story is an almost perfect society with ageless beautiful people . . . living off the labor of miserable wretches outside of the magic circle (literally). I have always thought of this conceit as a fairly imaginative but still standard commentary of the us-versus-them, privileged-elite-verses-the-exploited-masses sort of tale. But I was struck by the parallels between Zardoz and Staudenmaier’s description the Third Reich’s environmentalist-infused “expansionist politics of Lebensraum (the plan of conquering ‘living space’ in Eastern Europe for the German people).” In his telling, the tool of ruthless state control was deployed in the service of the despicable goal of elevating the environment and lives of one Volk at the expense of the rest of humanity. I’m not sure I’ve seen you discuss that aspect of German fascism.

Jonah:

2. Good point. Will ponder and discuss.

Oh good. The Zardoz angle. How very … very. Excuse me while a go buy a dildo so I can trade it in for a gun with which I might shoot myself. The gun is good and the penis bad, after all.