Natt Mazzoni's Reviews > Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success

So let's recap. This book is self help disguised as fiction (I don't think it was trying to catch anyone off guard but the person who recommended it to me did so deceivingly by describing it as fiction, that's why I read it). It's about Napoleon Hill (hilariously described on wikipedia as a conman) interviewing the Devil in 1937. Don't get excited though, this is not at all about the Devil, don't fall (like I did) for the idea that this will be an interesting analysis of human nature though the lenses of how a person interacts with the complex and interesting character of the Devil, like Faustian literature often does. No, this book is nothing more than a self congratulatory self help book that he author uses as framing to condemn all the actions he disapproves of, and expose all the ways in which people like him are good and right.
The argument of the book is that 98% of people are under the corrupting power of the devil and only 2% are not. The people under the influence are called alienated, and the devil will describe many ways in which he turns a person into an alienated. Alienated people, according to Hill, are anyone who is fat, poor, unmotivated and also ill. I can't stress enough how much Hill HATES fat people, he HATES poor people, he LOATHES any form of disability, which he says is self inflicted lazyness. He openly and literally says that all the richest people on earth are the strongest forces against alienation. But at the same time he also openly says that feeding people will create more alienation, that once people are fed, they lose all motivation to work hard. So which one is it Hill??? Are people who have money and therefore are fed good or are people who are poor and therefore are not fed good???? I, of course, know the answer here, he just means that you shouldn't give anything to other people, people should get rich though serving capitalism the right way until they amass wealth through the system.
Ironically this book easily grabs anyone who is not willing to think about what they are reading in critical ways, because it uses all those common tricks of self help books, being vague and contradictory in a way that any person can see themselves in the positive descriptions, thus making THEM feel great about how they are NOT alienated. After all, yes I do actually have defined plans for my future and work hard to achieve them! It's everyone around me that doesn't! I AM one of the 2%! And on top of that it has an in built shield against criticism, by ending every chapter with the devil talking about how his pawns will criticize and reject the ideas of the book, of course, only the alienated will hate this garbage.
I will not say it was a complete waste of time because it gave me a great insight into the brain of the person who recommended it to me. And also it took like 2 hours to read and I didn't pay anything. But I'll still say that if you come across this book, burn it on the spot.