Recently in Dead Trees Category
Good questions from HST in his new book.
How long, O lord, how long? This blizzard of shame is getting a little old, isn't it? Just how low do we have to fall before the voters catch on?
Indeed. How many times can a man be robbed--on the same street, by the same people--before they call him a Rube? Bob Dylan said that, in a tattered old song called "Blowin' in the Wind." Read it and weep, you poor bastards--because Dylan was yesterday, and George Bush is now.
- Big Lies by Joe Conason
- Naked in Baghdad by Anne Garrels (gift from local public radio pledge week)
- American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Oh and I just polished off Shadow of the Hegemon from Orson Scott Card. I finished it in less than a week, so I guess I liked it considering that it usually takes me months to finish a book.
I'm looking forward to The System of the World, the final novel in The Baroque Cycle due out in October, and Cory's latest book Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town.
815 pages in 63 days. A long, hard slog indeed. I'm starting to get used to this series though. It still doesn't beat out Cryptonomicon in my mind. Up next, The System of the World, due out October 1, 2004. Then I'll have to re-read Cryptonomicon again just to get a handle on Enoch Root again.
This is from "Have I Ever Lied To You?" by Art Buchwald
The debate on Vietnam has been escalating along with the fighting, and now it's rare to go to a party and not get into a hot fight over what we should or should not be doing there.
Professor Heinrich Applebaum, the military analyst of Seventeen magazine, has just written a book titled How to Fight the Vietnam War in the Living Room. It is the only book written for both doves and hawks, and I was happy to interview him about it.
"This war will not be won in the rice paddies of the Mekong Delta, but rather in the salons and renovated basements of the American home," Applebaum told me.
"How does one start a discussion on the Vietnam war?"
"The best way is to say, 'I agree we shouldn't have been there in the first place, but—' It's a perfect opener if you're a hawk, and it shows you're willing to concede that the government has made mistakes."
"And if you're a dove?"
"Your opening line should be: I'm not for just pulling out and leaving South Vietnam in the lurch, but—' This should prove to your listeners that you're a man of reason, and you're not going to get emotional about the issue."
"As a hawk, what should you do next?"
"Mention Munich, the domino theory, and our commitment to the free world, not necessarily in that order."
"And if you're a dove?"
"Talk about the stupidity of the French, the naivete of John Foster Dulles, and the right for people to have their own revolutions without outside interference from the United States."
"How do you follow it up?"
"You have to quote sources. If you're a hawk, you quote Joe Alsop, Bob Hope, Cardinal Spellman, Barry Goldwater, and Time magazine. If you're a dove, you refer to Walter Lipp-mann's last column, speeches by Senator Fulbright and Robert F. Kennedy, and testimony by General Gavin, Robert Lowell, and Joan Baez. Even if they didn't say something, you can always claim they did. No one in the living room is going to be able to check up on you."
"Don't you quote President Johnson, Secretary Dean Rusk, or Robert McNamara?"
"It's hardly worth it. Neither the hawks nor the doves believe anything the people in our government tell them."
"Outsiders always know more," I agreed.
"Now if you see the argument is running down, you can always refer to a book you read on Vietnam. People are very impressed with anyone in the crowd who has read a book, and it shows you've gone deeper into the subject than anyone else in the room."
"Any special book?"
"The best one is a title that no one has ever heard of, particularly if it's been written by someone with a foreign name. It will make the other side very mad, and he'll have to come up with a book of his own."
"It gets harder as you go along," I said.
"The important thing is to speak with authority and pretend to know what you're talking about."
"But suppose you lose the argument?"
"You can always punch the guy in the nose."
Yes, for real comic fans Transmetropolitan has been over for quite a while. For those that buy the trade paperbacks (me) we will finally get the last chapter of the story of Spider Jerusalem. Like Cory, Transmet is what really got me into comics. Well, the few that I read anyway.
I have a confession to make as well. I downloaded the entire scanned Transmet series. Why? Because I wanted to know how the damn story ended! That's why! The comics weren't being sold new in stores anymore because I came late to the game. So the only way to get them all would be through ebay or some other source of used books. Ellis and the wonderful artists that worked with him get nothing on those transactions. So I wait for the trade paperbacks to come out. And I wait. And I wait. And then I wait some more. Now, finally, they have announced the last one. Of course, it still doesn't ship until June.
I've got a great relationship with a small indy book store here in town now. They'll order anything for me and it shows up as fast or faster than Amazon. So not only will Ellis get a few pennies from my purchase, but local folks will as well.
I still felt bad about downloading the story. I don't know why. I new I was going to buy the last one the day it came out and the only reason they weren't getting my money is because they weren't willing to sell it to me at that time. It must be the Boy Scout in me. Remind me to have that part of my brain erased someday.
The other good comic news is that another Planetary trade, "Leaving the Twentieth Century", is coming out as well.
Since everyone says webloggers are in an echo chamber, I'll go ahead and play along. Sisters is Lynne Cheney's hot lesbian sex novel. I wonder if Laura Bush read it? I hear she loves to read.
I'm not done reading Against All Enemies yes, but it is a very grabbing read. It's hard to put it down, even when I really need sleep. If you have the means, pick it up. The first chapter is a telling of September 11th from Dick Clarke's perspective that everyone should read. Not because it makes anyone look bad, it really doesn't, but because you get to see a very important part of our government working in crisis mode.
