The Fatal Literalization of Metaphor

In this lecture, Ken Gemes examines how the 19th century literature of degeneration served as an enabling condition for some of the most catastrophic events of the 20th century. Beginning with Hitler's Mein Kampf and its origins in the Beer Hall Putsch, Gemes shows how the text literalized metaphors of disease, parasitism, and contamination drawn from earlier thinkers like Max Nordau. The lecture traces the eugenics movement across national borders, from American sterilization laws and the Supreme Court's Buck v. Bell decision to Churchill's support for similar measures in Britain. Gemes analyzes the recurring metaphors in Nazi ideology: Jews cast as parasites, vampires, and sources of racial contamination, with syphilis and sexual perversion serving as figures for cultural decline. The lecture culminates in a warning about the persistence of these metaphors in modern political life, recalling Borges' observation that universal history may be nothing more than different intonations given to a handful of metaphors.