Category Archives: Culture

Fiction Reveals the Author

There’s often a huge cry from some quarters that that creatives need to keep their politics out of their arts. The arts are there for simple entertainment not any form a grandstanding.

Naturally this is an ignorant position. Art has the most lasting value when it speaks to values and that can’t be done without stepping on toes.

This is all very evident in movies, television, and literature but even in other matters of creativity the worldview and positions of the author or authors influences the art.

I run an in-person Role Playing Game, or at least I did before the pandemic shut everything down, of Space Opera a massive game from the very early 80s with an amazing detailed, if poorly edited, set of rules. In order to make the game flow quicker and easier once we can assemble to players again, I have been crafting spreadsheets to handle the more tedious and complex calculations the game often calls for. One the objectives were met I decided to expand the project and create a spreadsheet that would use the rules to automatically general star sectors and that has been an interesting experience. Certainly, my Microsoft Excel skills have been expanding but it has also revealed interesting biases of the game’s authors.

For example, a society in Space Opera is rated for its social strength on a scale from 1- 10, with a  1 signifying a society that has collapsed or is in collapse, the world of Mad Max both the original film and its sequels, while a 10 represents a society able to withstand nearly any serious shock with it institutions remaining functional and intact.

The gamemaster rolls a 10-sided die for the social strength and then modifies it based on the type of society and those modifiers express the authors’ biases.

“Open Societies” no modifier, it is whatever is rolled though the game’s heroic Terran Union no planet will score below a 5.

“Corporate Society” no modifiers, somehow you can have both corporate societies that are falling apart which seems illogical, without rule of law there cannot be corporation and societies rock solid and unshakable.

“Aristocratic Society” no modifiers, lord, ladies, kings and all that can be utterly stable withstanding any shock.

“Socialist Society” Max social strength 8, 9s and 10s must be re-generated. hmm socialist systems, without providing a real definition of that means find true stability impossible.

And in case you thought ‘Socialist’ means USSR because this game is a product of late 70s engineering.

“Communist Society” max social strength is 7 with result 8-10 re-rolled.

There buried in the rules in the modifiers are the authors’ political belief that open, capitalist societies are inherently more stable than other systems.

All art, even gaming,  is political.

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The GOP MUST be Burnt Down

Yesterday as part of my political podcast world I listened to The Dispatchwhich is part of the conservative but not pro-Trump continuum. I listen to mainstream news and political discusses from both the right and the left in part because I am not going to judge any faction by what their opponents say but rather what I hear from them myself. One of the topics of the Podcast raised by writer David French was on the desirability of the election removing Trump from office but without serious damage to the Republican office holders below the level of President. French seems concerned with ‘collective’ punishment being unfairly handed to the GOP at large.

“Collective’ punishment conjures up impressions of innocent member of a community being unjustly punished for the actions of a minority of the person who by mere happenstance are also member of the community.

That is not what has happened with Trump and the Republican Party.

First off, Trump did not fall out of the sky into the position of Leader of the GOP. He was the party’s leading choice from the moment he entered the race. The GOP had spent decades preparing a political ecosystem where someone of Trump character would thrive. They are Doctor Frankenstein and he is their monster; the responsibility is theirs.

Next, the Republican Office holders with a clear view of the man’s corruption and incompetence did not thing to limit his damage to our nation. Satisfied with tax cuts and judges and terrified of the base that they themselves had cultivated they stood by, abandoning their duty, their oaths, and their honor as they turned a blind eye to his maleficence. The culminated in, at their hands and their hands alone, the cowardice of his acquittal.

Faced with Trump corruption, criminality, and incompetence the Senate republicans turned their backs on the United States of America, pushed their fingers into the ears, squeezed their eyes shut and desperately wished for it all to just go away. The result of this abdication is the death of tens of thousands of Americans.

Had the Senate removed Trump as their clearly needed to it we would but have faced a pandemic with an incompetent, fragile ego, narcissistic failed businessman and reality television star as President. While people can have their issue with Vice President Pence, we would have stood a much better shot at a competent response to the crisis and that would have saved lives. Thousands of lives.

Of course, I am not saying that the senate knew the pandemic was rising. But they knew, we all knew, Trump was incapable of rising to a crisis and for the US President a crisis is always on the horizon.

It is not ‘collective punishment’ to hold them accountable for their inaction. An 18-year-old infantry man who through cowardice gets his unit killed and wounded would not be excepted from the consequences of his failure and neither should his elected officials be excused simply because they may advance a policy you desire. They are not being held accountable for Trump’s actions but for their own. The GOP cannot be an honorable party if it is comprised of dishonorable members.

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Quick Hits July 17, 2020

Burn the GOP to the Ground

 

Pence would have been far from perfect but leaving corrupt incompetent Trump in has made the pandemic far worse and that is entirely at the feet of the spineless Republican politicians.

 

 The Towering Inferno Still Holds Up.

 

I’ve been watching this on HBO (I have the DVD, but HBO is in High Def.) and thoroughly enjoying a style of filmmaker that has fallen out of favor. Loads with stars and taking the time to tell stories. Though you gotta wonder about a team of firemen walking around with plastic explosives and detonators.

 

New Story Ideas beginning to bubble in my brain

 

This damned crisis, both global and personal, has been sapping my creativity but an idea for another Sf/noir is starting to take form in my head. It would be on a generation ship where sharp distinct classes have formed between crew and colonists and the murder that shatters the secrecy at the heart of the noir.

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Guesses as to Why Support for Black Lives Matter Has Grown

As this graphic from the New York Times shows support for the movement Black Lives Matter has grown significantly in recent year going from ‘underwater’, that is more people opposed to popular support and I have a few guesses as to why things changed so radically.

First off, the video of George Floyd’s killing was particularly horrifying. That is not to say other deaths at the hand of the police were not horrific but rather this particular video captures the horror in a unique and unsettling fashion, dismantling many of the common rebuttals employed when this sort of event occurs. George was restrained, non-violent, and pleading but still the officer callously, cruelly, and lethally knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. There was no ‘split-second’ moment that can be used as ‘justification’ for an overreaction, there was no physical struggle, there was no ‘it looked like he had a gun,’ there was a helpless man fully under authority’s control begging to breathe. Just describing it is horrifying .

But it could possibly be dismissed as a single event and not something that would move masses of people previously unconcerned with BLM to now support the movement, so George’s cruel killing while a significant factor doesn’t explain the movement to support that started before this evil event.

I think it is vitally important to notice that support went from a net negative to positive two years after the election of Trump.

Tribalism is a powerful factor in human emotions and behavior. Someone as inconsequential as the outcome a game can generate fantastic passions purely from the tribalism of the team’s fans. It’s been well document in political science that people once they have selected a party that they identify with over time modify and change their position of issue to fit better within their tribe. You may go over to a particular party for issue A, but drift to support the party on B, C, D and so on. This I think has a large bearing on the BLM movement as we see it today.

For those paying close attention Trump’s racist history was well known when he was a candidate, but most people do not pay close attention to politics or a candidate’s history. For those people Trump was a billionaire, a businessman, a builder and a celebrity. Trump’s support has never been a majority and after two year of constant exposure and coverage his incompetence, cruelty, and racism became obvious helping to sort people into pro and anti-Trump factions.

Trump’s position on BLM is clear and obvious so if someone has identified themselves as Anti-Trump the natural and default position is to support Black Lives Matter. This leads to the question is this support durable? What happens post Trump?

I think it is durable. Some people will have come to their support through thoughtful reflection and some will have come out of reflexive opposition to Trump and his tribe, but neither will be inclined to reverse themselves. It is not human nature to publicly admit error and so their support will remain.

But only time will tell.

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Intertextuality and Vulcan’s Forge

Last night I watched a video essay on YouTube that argued the central flaw of most of Disney’s newer slates of film came down to a misuse of intertextuality. Intertextuality is when the text of one work impacted by the text of a previous work. It can be used as a powerful tool to explore themes and idea raised by the original work either in that work’s own text or as interpreted by the new text. An ideal example would be Tom Stoddard’s play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead which follows as its central character Rosencrantz & Guildenstern two minor characters from Hamlet and uses that conceit to explore concept of narrative and fiction.

The essay argued that lazy utilization of intertextuality in the Disney live action remakes and the extended Star Wars trilogy resulted in a cheap ‘fan service’ rather than using the references to earlier works to comment either those previous pieces or to deepen the content of the new ones. The exception for Disney being the Marvel Cinematic Universe which stretching across more than 20 films and ten years is a grand experiment in intertextuality and uses those connections to paint deeper, richer, and more engaging emotional lives for its characters.

This leads me to think about my own debut novel Vulcan’s Forge. I shall avoid spoilers for the plot of that story but I will touch on how it itself is a work of intertextuality.

The protagonist of Vulcan’s Forge is Jason Kessler and on the colony of Nocturnia his job is to use mass media, principally film, to create, sustain, and reinforce the colony’s culture derived from mid-twentieth century Americana. To promote an idealized version of that culture, which honestly is more mythology than history, some films are elevated in their importance while others are banned as ‘corrupting.’ Jason, an ill fit for this suffocating version of American culture, is dismissive of some films and longs for the forbidden fruit.

Ideally, and only someone who has read the novel and also is unaware of the films it references can answer if I succeeded, the story can be read and enjoyed without understanding the film references but on an intertextual level the movies that Jason derides and the ones he adores informs the readers of the nature of Jason’s character.

Hopefully my use of intertextuality expands and deepens Vulcan’s Forge but even if I missed the mark making all of those film references was damn fun.

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Revisiting: The Spook Who Sat by the Door

Last night I pulled out my DVD and re-watched the 1973 film  The Spook Who Sat by the Door.

The central plot of the film is Dan Freeman becomes the CIA’s first black officer but the processing is in reality nothing more than a stunt to lift a Senator’s sagging re-election prospects. After enduring years of racism and menial assignments Freeman resigns from the Agency and returns as a social worker to his home the mean streets of Chicago. However, Freeman has no intention of being a mere cog in the vast system and subverts his old street gang and utilizing his training from the Agency begins crafting a violent Black Liberation movement. Along the way his relationships with former lovers and close friends are tested by his radicalism and when Freeman’s devotion to his cause comes with a terrible price he doesn’t hesitate to pall in full.

Given the unrest, protests, and injustice currently flowering in our nation this film has been mentioned by several podcasts I listen to prompting me to revisit the movie. Laboring under budget and resource constraints the director, Ivan Dixon best known for his role as an actor in the sit-com Hogan’s Heroes, manages to produce a film that is tight, compelling, and without any fat. Watching the film, it is impossible to determine if the conservative directorial choices area  product of limitations or are an influence from Dixon’s long television career, either way Dixon’s makes the most of limited camera set-up and location to explore the characters and their conflicts. The only major weakness in the script is the late introduction of Freeman’s close friend Dawson, played with screen-grabbing presences by J.A. Preston. Given the emotional weight the character brings to the story and the powerful final scenes the film would have been better served introducing him in the first act along with a little revelation of Freeman’s personal history.

The film, though inducted into the National Film Registry for its cultural and historical importance, is not available on any rental or streaming service and to watch it you much, as I did, buy the DVD.

With the resurgence of racially challenging media in the wake of Get Out’s astounding financial success, there is a new adaptation of the novel in development as a series but it is unknown if this will be executed as a period piece or if the event will be transposed into the current day. I think it should remain a period piece, if for no other reason than as a faithful adaptation of the source material.

I have discovered that there is a documentary about the production of the movie Infiltrating Hollywood: The Making of The Spook Who Sat by the Door, but so far, I have been unable to locate a copy, damn it.

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Perilous Pedestals

Placing people particularly artists upon pedestals is an action inviting disappointment and hurt. People are flawed and when some are exalted it nearly always turns out in addition to their better natures, they possess darker ones as well. Artistic people are no more immune to this condition than political ones, contemporary or historical.

Roman Polanski is a brilliant filmmaker and apparently a rapist preying upon little girls.

HP Lovecraft blazed a trail into cosmic horror that people still follow today and was a virulent racist and xenophobe.

Joss Whedon championed strong, complex female characters and was a philander and an apparent control freak.

Orson Scott Card created a series that plead for understanding of the other and called for the suppression of the rights of gay people by ‘any means necessary.’

The list, sadly, is nearly endless of artists and creators that wielded considerable talent, adored by many, and then revealed corroded souls. Which brings us to the current participant in this sad parade, J.K Rowling author and creator is the massive franchise Harry Potter and The Quest for More Power.

Rowling’s recent comments, tweets, and postings on her stance attacking the rights people of the transgendered community have provoked pain, suffering, and emotional trauma among not only the target of her tirade but among her devoted supporters many of which have grown to adulthood with her fictional creation Harry Potter.

I believe that the hurt from Rowling’s abhorrent stance is amplified by a couple of factors. One, the sheer scope and penetration of her creation into the popular culture. There is scarcely a corner of our nation or world that has not been touched by Harry Potter and the wizarding world. The sheer number of fans is simply staggering gifted her with tremendous reach and power to influence.

Secondly, people crafted a tremendous mythology around Rowling and her life. The single mom who became a billionaire and then gave away so much money to charity she lost that status. The repeated assertion that the core theme of the work as a plea for understanding and a denunciation of hate. (A theme that, in my opinion, the work does not fully succeed at, but this is not a place for my issues where Harry Potter artistically fell short.)

It is that second factor that I think powers the real hurt felt by the fans. The idolization of Rowling, her morality, and the power of her myth not only lifted the artist onto a pedestal but bathed her fans in a reflected glow of morality. That they shared in her goodness by being such devoted fans so when it turns out that she has darker less admirable beliefs that too feels as though it is reflected on her fan base.

Both glows were illusionary.

Your morality is your own.

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This Year is Lost

About 2014 or 2015 after a meeting of our writers group I stood out in the evening chatting with member as our socializing tends to take place after the read and critique sessions when one member advanced the proposition that in American politics it doesn’t matter who you vote for because ‘they’re all the same.’ I strenuously disagreed. While there may be no best candidate on any particular slate there is always a worst one. In 2016 I had no doubts, none whatsoever, that the worst candidate for President of the United States was Donald Trump.

Setting aside his obvious history of racism, sexism, and corruption, and those were all disqualifying qualities, nothing in the man’s life, education, or experience remotely qualified him for the terrible power and responsibility of that office.  No matter the issues and doubts I may have held with Hillary Clinton, Trump’s deficiencies disqualified him from any serious, rational consideration.

The US Government and economy is like a massive ship, possessing nearly inconceivable amounts of momentum and not something that can be quickly turned to a new course. During his administration this worked in Trump’s favor. The steady economic growth from the previous administration continued benefiting the current occupant of the office, and the corrosion from Trump’s corruption ate at the ship’s hull but had not yet caused it to founder.

The novel corona virus and the disease it creates COVID-19 proved to be a crisis far beyond the capabilities of the little man and his limited grasp of reality. His narcissistic ego kept him from recognizing anything other than how his own image was affected and his decidedly limited intellect prevented him from taking the actions might have saved thousands and reflected well on himself.

He wasted the nation’s lockdown, never intended as a cure or the crisis’ resolution, never putting the full force, might, and capability of the Federal government into action and instead cut the various states loose to compete and cut each other’s throat as tens of thousands died. Now, while the rest of the world claws their way back to some sense of normality, albeit with serious programs in place as they deal with fresh outbreaks of this fatal disease, the USA’s health, economy, and respect sinks under the waves.

For the United States 2020 will be a lost year. We aren’t getting back to anything that even approaches normal. Three vaccines candidates are in phase III trials now and if one or more of them succeed we will not have it on hand before 2021.

Great power and responsibility should never be handed to incompetent fools.

 

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No, The NAZIs Were NOT Racist Commies

Sometime ago a friend sent me a link to a YouTube Video expounding on the tired, worn, and erroneous idea that NAZIs were actually leftwing with the conclusion that they were in the end the same as Communists just also racists.

That video was either deliberately or unintentionally deceptive. It pulled quotes from Mein Kompf out of context, relied heavily on ideology from the Ernst Rohm wing of the NAZI party a wing that was murdered out of existence during the Night of Long Knives and the video begged the question by repeatedly citing a book whose entire focus was that NAZIs were of the left.

There has been considerable effort by some on the right to popularize the idea that Fascism is of the left just as from the 1030s through the 1070s, and perhaps beyond, to portray Stalinism as a thing of the right with terms like ‘Red Facism.’ Both camps are desperately trying to disassociate themselves with their own murderous extremes but this is nothing but spin.

If you want an excellent argument why the NAZIs weren’t Socialists here’s a video for you.

 


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Into the Memory Hole

The polls, and these are a few really high-quality ones, have Trump behind Biden in all the battleground states and tied in both Georgia and Texas. Now as a smuggler once said, “Don’t get cocky, kid!” but with a scant few weekends left until the election things are looking not only for team Trump but the GOP control of the Senate as well.

Should Trump go down in the inglorious defeat he so richly deserves taking the GOP Senate with him I fully expect that all of the Republican’s explicit and complicit support that extended to him will be shoved past the event horizon of their memory hole. There will be a herculean effort to portray themselves as people who never actually supported their party leader. This will be particularly acute among the ‘anti-anti-Trumpers.’ That constellation of politicians, pundits, and commenters who have never, or at least very rarely, voiced direct support for Trump but who have been vigorous in their zeal to attack anyone who does criticize Trump and his administration. Their silence on this administration’s corruption, malfeasance, abuse of office, and its entire lack of dignity shall be forgotten as they turn their fire upon the following Democratic administration.

We can’t stop them from doing this but we can remember and point out that their silence during these dark times exposed the hypocrisy of their ‘principals’ as nothing more than garden variety self-interest and unworthy of any respect.

Also, into that memory hole will follow any sense of responsibility for the rise of Trump. Trump did not fall out of the sky light a bolt of lightning to take the nomination and control of the GOP. The ground was well tilled and fertilized ahead of his arrival making his ascendancy assured. In my search for conservative leaning podcasts to add to my regular rotation I have found two that can listen to with anything approaching regularity, The Bulwark Podcast and The Dispatch. Both come from a conservative approach that is basically hostile to Trump but have a significant difference in their viewpoints. The Bulwark appears to be grappling with how the GOP made it possible for Trump to rise within their party while The Dispatch seems to treat his existence as a ‘black swan’ event and appears to think that once Trump is gone from the stage they can simply return to the party’s previous position.

The Bulwark is at least trying to engage with reality while the people at The Dispatch are lost in their delusion.

 

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