M.A.R. Barker, author of Tekumel, also author of Neo-Nazi book?

[pemerton]

According to Shannon Appelcline over at RPG.net Barker's pseudonymous novel has been used as neo-Nazi indoctrination material and was published by the same publisher as the Turner Diaries. Appelcline's article says everything I've been trying to articulate about this idea better than I'm able to so I'm going to drop a link to it here - I think Shannon is right about all of this.

Advanced Designers & Dragons #63: The Fall of Tékumel - RPGnet

I read that blog. Here are the two paragraphs that stood out to me:

Fundamentally, anyone interested in world of Tékumel will now have to go through the setting with a careful eye. Though it's been noted that Barker's authoring of his pro-Nazi novel was much later than his main creative period for Tékumel, we have no way of knowing how the attitudes suggested in the book may have influenced Barker's fantasy world. Some have noted that fascist ethnostates of Tékumel could have drawn upon Nazi desires, others that its history may reflect the Nazi's "Kampf um Lebensraum" concept. It's almost impossible to say whether these were purposeful (or even subconscious) connections, especially given the common (yet potentially problematic) usage of fascist ethnostates in fantasy literature and gaming. But a knowledgeable gamer is unlikely to ever be able to look at Tékumel again without worrying about these issues.

The Tékumel Foundation's decision to, at the least, passively cover up Barker's authorship of a Nazi novel for a decade makes the whole situation even more problematic. They denied a decade's worth of players the agency to make a decision about whether it was ethical to play in the world of Tékumel, and worse they denied them the personal ability to assess whether there were Nazi tropes in the design or the world or not. In doing so, they also denied themselves the ability to control the narrative, such as by bringing in experts on Nazi indoctrination who could themselves have combed through Tékumel to spot any problematic elements.​

I have trouble with the idea that we need experts on Nazi indoctrination to tell us whether or not there are "problematic elements" in Tekumel. Or that the existence of such elements, and their possible effects on readers, is in some way conditional on the political views of its author, such that either (i) we couldn't spot them until we knew those views, or (ii) a given motif will have a different effect depending on the political views of its creator.

Tekumel is what it is. It stands, or falls, on its own terms as a work. Upthread I mentioned some features which are consistent with extreme reactionary and even racist politics. As Appelcline notes, those features don't distinguish Tekumel from many other fantasy worlds. The thematic connections between fantasy as a genre and reactionary politics have been discussed for a long time. This Barker revelation is a new data point as far as those connections are concerned, and it may be significant for those who are interested in the origins of Tekumel and Barker's creative process. But the risk of Tekumel turning its readers, and those who play RPGs set in it, into Neo-Nazis is no greater today than it was yesterday. (Unless neo-Nazis develop a new enthusiasm for it in light of these revelations, and start recruiting by running RPGs set in Tekumel. But that would tell us nothing new about Tekumel - neo-Nazis could recruit just as easily running RPGs set in Greyhawk, or in Middle Earth.)

I also find the criticisms of the Tekumel Foundation a bit unfair. Nothing the Foundation did denied anyone the opportunity to assess the existence of Nazi tropes in Tekumel. You do that by reading Tekumel with an eye open for Nazi tropes; and people have been able to do that, if they wanted to, since 1975.

What they really did was kept secret a fact about MAR Barker. So they denied people the opportunity to form a fully-informed view of MAR Barker's character. Framing this as the denial of a capacity to critically examine his work, or to form a view about the ethics of engaging with it, strikes me as a round-about way of making the point.

 

[MGibster]

I'm sometimes fascinated by how someone's perception of a particular piece of fiction can radically change based on learning something about the writer. Joss Whedon is a great example. I know people who had nothing but positive things to say about Whedon's work in the 90s and early 2000s but some of those same people tell me he's a hack writer and tell me they see evidence of his creepiness in those works. I'm not arguing that such perspectives are unwarranted. Just that I find it fascinating.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm sometimes fascinated by how someone's perception of a particular piece of fiction can radically change based on learning something about the writer. Joss Whedon is a great example. I know people who had nothing but positive things to say about Whedon's work in the 90s and early 2000s but some of those same people tell me he's a hack writer and tell me they see evidence of his creepiness in those works. I'm not arguing that such perspectives are unwarranted. Just that I find it fascinating.

I thought Xander was a bit of a creep, but in hindsight the signs are more apparent.

 

[darjr]

never mind

 

[Riley]

I thought Xander was a bit of a creep, but in hindsight the signs are more apparent.

I assumed that Xander was a bit of a juvenile creep so that we could watch him grow into a wiser, better character.

And then he didn’t.
That surprised and disappointed me at the time.

 

[shannona]

I also find the criticisms of the Tekumel Foundation a bit unfair. Nothing the Foundation did denied anyone the opportunity to assess the existence of Nazi tropes in Tekumel. You do that by reading Tekumel with an eye open for Nazi tropes; and people have been able to do that, if they wanted to, since 1975.

What they really did was kept secret a fact about MAR Barker. So they denied people the opportunity to form a fully-informed view of MAR Barker's character. Framing this as the denial of a capacity to critically examine his work, or to form a view about the ethics of engaging with it, strikes me as a round-about way of making the point.

Obviously, I disagree.

A few reasons:

First, indoctrination can be subtle. It can be about suggesting a pattern of history: that it be about the actions of great men, that it depend on conflict. It can be about suggesting a norm for geopolitical states: that different races keep to themselves, that cruelty and extremism are required to maintain order. By suggesting these patterns and these norms, we move the Overton Window. Suddenly fascism or torture or ethnostates become ideas that are acceptable for discussion in the political sphere, worthwhile alternatives instead of abhorrent philosophies.

Second, you can't separate the art from the artist, as I think you want to. Any art is of a piece with the artist's character: his interests, his likes, his dislikes, his passions, his hates, it's all going to be in there. It's what makes art art. I mean, I primarily write nonfiction, but I know my character is in there. Even if I successfully expunge it from my recitation of events, it's still in there in the way I recite. Barker's character is in Tékumel, and I think the only notable question is whether his character when he created Tékumel (in the 50s) or when he developed it into an RPG (in the 70s) was any different from his character when he wrote a neo-Nazi novel (in the 90s).

You put that together, and in my opinion that makes the actions of the Tékumel Foundation both inexcusable and deeply stupid. Oh, I understand they were in a horrific position. But they stole the choice from people who don't feel, like you, that art and artist can be separated. I've seen multiple people very suddenly ending long-running Tékumel games and I know that Jeff Dee is conflicted now by his authorship of Béthorm. That's real damage that they've done to real people and it's just the smallest reflection of the anxiety and discontent churning through a lot of peoples' souls right now. In denying people that choice, the choice as to whether they want to play a neo-nazi authored game, I think they also condemned the world they were supposed to guardian to the abyss.

And I say that all because personally I think Tékumel was redeemable. I've seen no evidence (yet) that there's anything in it that would be more appealing to neo-Nazis than some of the conservative tropes scattered across our FRPGs. But, I think the artist heavily influences the art and I think Tékumel is thus going to be heavily influenced by some version of M.A.R. Barker and I think there needs to be some real critical analysis of what that means. And I think that if the Tékumel Foundation had done that beforehand, and they hadn't left many playing a neo-Nazi's game for a decade, they might have saved the world.

 

[pemerton]

I'm sometimes fascinated by how someone's perception of a particular piece of fiction can radically change based on learning something about the writer.

Sure. I think we can see new things in a work when we learn new things about the creator. But that doesn't mean that the work has changed - it's our attitude towards it, and the salience to us of some of its features, that is changing.

 

[pemerton]

Obviously, I disagree.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, and for bringing your ideas into this thread.

indoctrination can be subtle. It can be about suggesting a pattern of history: that it be about the actions of great men, that it depend on conflict. It can be about suggesting a norm for geopolitical states: that different races keep to themselves, that cruelty and extremism are required to maintain order. By suggesting these patterns and these norms, we move the Overton Window. Suddenly fascism or torture or ethnostates become ideas that are acceptable for discussion in the political sphere, worthwhile alternatives instead of abhorrent philosophies.

<snip>


And I say that all because personally I think Tékumel was redeemable. I've seen no evidence (yet) that there's anything in it that would be more appealing to neo-Nazis than some of the conservative tropes scattered across our FRPGs. But, I think the artist heavily influences the art and I think Tékumel is thus going to be heavily influenced by some version of M.A.R. Barker and I think there needs to be some real critical analysis of what that means.

If the indoctrination has been taking place, it's been taking place since 1975. And as I said, is a function of the work, not the author of the work. My Tekumel knowledge is pretty modest - I've got a copy of the Different Worlds edition with the pink cover, and have read most of it but never played it - but I've never noticed anything in it that suggests reactionary politics beyond what is fairly common in fantasy worlds. And I do regard myself as having a fairly good ability to read fiction for political and philosophical themes - I'm an academic lawyer and philosopher and I have taught Holocaust studies, though it's not my area of research; and Zygmunt Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust has had a significant influence on how I think about, and approach, political philosophy.

Second, you can't separate the art from the artist, as I think you want to. Any art is of a piece with the artist's character: his interests, his likes, his dislikes, his passions, his hates, it's all going to be in there. It's what makes art art. I mean, I primarily write nonfiction, but I know my character is in there. Even if I successfully expunge it from my recitation of events, it's still in there in the way I recite. Barker's character is in Tékumel, and I think the only notable question is whether his character when he created Tékumel (in the 50s) or when he developed it into an RPG (in the 70s) was any different from his character when he wrote a neo-Nazi novel (in the 90s).

It depends what sort of separation you have in mind. Obviously the art depends, causally, upon the artist. And the artist makes choices about what to include in, and how to present, the work. But the work then stands alone. Learning more about the artist can provide new avenues for inquiring into the work - eg maybe we learn that Barker embraced the ethnic and racial reification that is typical of fantasy fiction not because he was aping REH and JRRT but because it spoke to his political convictions. But the ethnic and racial reification is what it is - and the presence of that in Tekumel for one reason doesn't make Tekumel more or less likely to spread extreme right wing ideals any more than its presence in Greyhawk, or Middle Earth, for other reasons.

You put that together, and in my opinion that makes the actions of the Tékumel Foundation both inexcusable and deeply stupid.

<snip>

And I think that if the Tékumel Foundation had done that beforehand, and they hadn't left many playing a neo-Nazi's game for a decade, they might have saved the world.

I agree that they were stupid, if for no other reason than that it was bound to come out and when it did the blowback would be terrible.

I doubt that Tekumel could have been saved, however. I think that the association with neo-Nazism would have been there, whether it came out ten years ago or now. And I think that association is likely to be fatal now and would equally have been as fatal then.

I've seen multiple people very suddenly ending long-running Tékumel games and I know that Jeff Dee is conflicted now by his authorship of Béthorm. That's real damage that they've done to real people and it's just the smallest reflection of the anxiety and discontent churning through a lot of peoples' souls right now.

That's a fair point, with two parts. I'm more doubtful than you that there is a moral duty to tell those who engage with an artwork everything one might know about the character of its creator. But there is a moral duty not to hurt people, and you give a clear account in these sentences of hurt that they have done.

 

[darjr]

Jeff Grubb, who has written Tekumel content, has a few words.

Tekumel: Ditlana

What happens when bad people make good things? The latest serious discussion on this subject involves M.A.R. "Phil" Barker and Empire of th...

grubbstreet.blogspot.com

 

[Professor Murder]

I have trouble with the idea that we need experts on Nazi indoctrination to tell us whether or not there are "problematic elements" in Tekumel. Or that the existence of such elements, and their possible effects on readers, is in some way conditional on the political views of its author, such that either (i) we couldn't spot them until we knew those views, or (ii) a given motif will have a different effect depending on the political views of its creator.

As a professional, I have to take issue with this assumption. Most people assume they are much more media savvy than they actually are. Look how many people view Starship Troopers (the film) to be aspirational. Fascism is by design slick, stylish and seductive.