common thematically with earlier dystopian fiction while also sharing the bleak vision of U.S.
mass (media) culture put forward by Frankfurt School theorists Theodore Adorno and Max
Horkheimer in their foundational study, The Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947). But The Terrible
Twos diverges sharply from these earlier writings, whether fictive or scholarly, through its
farcical and absurdist depiction of a near-future neo-fascist America in which mass (media),
celebrity and entertainment culture reign triumphant even as spaces of resistance take shape amid
a seemingly overdetermined ideological and cultural landscape. The novel’s multicultural
(postmodernist) “Neo-Hoodoo” aesthetic, modeled after the cultural syncretism of the Vodoun
religion that emerged from the African diaspora, further contrasts Reed’s novel to earlier
evocations of a future neo-fascist United States. 2
In writings about dystopian fiction published in the wake of Trump’s victory, Reed’s novel
and other postmodernist dystopian fiction have been largely overlooked. 3 At the same time,
amid the deluge of journalism on Trump, the legacy of the Frankfurt School and its critical
relevance to the Trump phenomenon have been lost. Reed’s novel and its sequel, The Terrible
Threes (1989), have always received less critical attention than they deserve. As the Trump
presidency ushers in a new era in which a celebrity icon has in fact taken the reins of the White
House, Reed’s novel, and its intersection with dystopian fiction and Western Marxism, offer an
urgently needed critical framework for reading news media coverage as well as “mass culture”
approaches to our fraught historical moment.
Written in response to Ronald Reagan’s election to the presidency, The Terrible Twos
narrates the story of Dean Clift, a former model who, because of his fame and “sex appeal,” is
chosen to be a vice-presidential candidate. Shortly after winning the election, Clift’s running
mate dies, leaving him to assume the Presidency. Like Trump, Clift has no background or
experience in politics, and, perhaps also like Trump, possesses the emotional maturity and
intellectual capacity of a toddler. The “terrible twos” captures President Clift’s emotional and
intellectual condition, forming a running figuration in the novel for American individualism run
amok. It also alludes to the United States’ Bicentennial, celebrated a few years before the novel’s
2
See Rushdy for an insightful overview of the four primary scholarly interpretations of Reed’s Neo-Hoodoo
aesthetic. Also see Reed’s “Neo-Hoodoo Manifesto.”
3
See, for example, Feffer’s discussion of the Trump presidency in relation to dystopian fiction and Hefner’s
similar analysis of major U.S. dystopian novels. Although neither work discusses postmodernist dystopian fiction,
Hefner’s essay addresses the issue of why racial bigotry was not foregrounded in early dystopian fiction.
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