Reed ’ s narrator also observes in the same passage , “ the Catholic Church was always nervous that Nicholas ’ s reputation would outflank Christ ’ s . Not only had Nicholas performed miracles and raised the dead as Christ had done , not only was he as ubiquitous as Christ was , but he could fly as well . Christ could ascend , but Nicholas could fly ! The Vatican , as the years passed , became more and more hostile to Nicholas , and in 1969 , the Pope declared Nicholas ‘ moribund .’” ( 120 ) The legacy of St . Nicholas ’ s medieval fame never waned in Russia and other regions under the influence of the Eastern Orthodox Church , which still reveres him .
As this summary attests , Reed ’ s Neo-Hoodoo aesthetic erases the distinction between “ high ” and “ low ” cultures by juxtaposing popular , folk and media culture with classic literature and other forms of “ high ” art . Among the most prominently referenced genres or texts in Reed ’ s novel are detective fiction , proletarian and naturalist fiction , A Christmas Carol , Dante ’ s Inferno , Rastafarianism , Nordic pagan religion , German fairy tales , classic Hollywood movies and the hagiography of Saint Nicholas . Reed has also long acknowledged the influence of jazz music on his writing , perhaps the most crucial element of the Neo-Hoodoo aesthetic . As in many of his fictions , The Terrible Twos ’ style and structure echo the improvisational rhythms of Be-Bop jazz .
True to its Neo-Hoodoo ethos , The Terrible Twos also “ signifies ” on other 20 th -century novels that depict the rise of an authoritarian leader or fascist-like government in the United States . Collectively these works comprise a fascist dystopian sub-genre in modern American fiction . They include Jack London ’ s The Iron Heel ( 1908 ) --the earliest modern dystopian novel-- which chronicles the rise of a tyrannical government controlled by an a newly ascendant oligarchy ; Sinclair Lewis ’ s It Can ’ t Happen Here ( 1935 ), which portrays a charismatic demagogue who ascends to the U . S . presidency to dismantle democratic institutions and replace them with a fascist regime modeled after the Nazis ; Ray Bradbury ’ s Fahrenheit 451 ( 1953 ), in which books have been banned by a near-future totalitarian government and television lulls the masses into distraction and passivity ; Philip K . Dick ’ s The Man in the High Castle ( 1962 ), in which the Nazis defeat the allies in WWII and install a puppet regime in the United States . Similarly , Robert Penn Warren ’ s All the King ’ s Men ( 1946 ) depicts the rise to power of a Southern populist politician whose career echoes Hitler ’ s in the 1930s .
11