I first became interested in 1930s Vienna when I read my grandfather’s memoir. Like Anton Moritz in my novel, my grandfather was a professor at the University of Vienna, and deeply affected by the social and political upheaval of the time. From him I learned about the violence and antisemitism at the university, the rising fascism of the era, and the pressure on academics to act in ways that became details in my novel—to teach more Catholic thinkers, to join the Fatherland Front, and to avoid acting in a manner that might land them on the “yellow” list of “tendentious” professors, which was filled with the names of socialists and Jews, as well as the head of the Vienna Circle, Moritz Schlick.
The contrast between the ambitious intellectual pursuits of the Vienna Circle and the nationalist and totalitarian ideologies of the time struck me. That ideas were perceived as dangerous also reveals their power. In THE EXPERT OF SUBTLE REVISIONS, intellectual work leads to persecution, but also to power, and the possibility that it will be used for selfish ends is constant and unsettling, even when wielded for love.
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