Jeff the Zombie
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Posts by Jeff the Zombie
The Civil War at Home
Sep 1st
Glenn Greenwald’s recent post regarding the lack of media skepticism leading up to the invasion of Iraq, reminds me of the lead-up to another invasion — that is, the planned Republican take-over of the House and Senate in November. Since August 2009, the media has been breathlessly reporting on the Tea Party movement, a party re-branding effort by Republican operatives like Dick Armey — we are told how these are “real Americans,” who are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. It’s like the “angry white male” that ushered in the Gingrich revolution back in 1994 only intensified a thousand times. Any bit of Tea Party bullshit is reported without skepticism — the President’s supposed foreign birth, his secret Muslim agenda, the Health Care Reform “death panels,” etc. It all helps intensify the echo chamber effect of the inevitability of Republican victory, much as the Iraq victory followed a wave of unsubstantiated claims regarding Saddam Hussein’s supposed ties to Al Qaeda, the infinite stores of “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” as well as the Iraqi government’s secret nuclear program.
“Saddam will give his WMD’s to the terrorists if we don’t invade!” cried the neocons. “Knock of the head of Iraq, and an era of prosperity and democracy will flood the Middle East.”
“Why, Iraq will even be a staunch ally of Israel!”
And so it went. With the Iraq invasion, we would be all better off. Anyone who even suggest the similarities to Vietnam – another occupation based on faulty evidence (the Gulf of Tonkin “incident,”) driven by the flawed calculus that if the communists weren’t stopped in Southeast Asia, they would spread their ideology to all four corners of the globe, terminating in the American heartland city of Boise, Idaho — was a traitor, an east coast elitist and out of touch with “reality.” Of course, we lost the Vietnam war quite decisively, dumping equipment and Huey helicopters into the ocean as we retreated from that morass. And yet, communism didn’t spread — it ended up falling some twenty years later. So much for the prognosticators on the right. The same was true for Iraq — no weapons of mass destruction or nuclear devices were found. Yet Americans bled on the soil of Mesopotamia for seven years for those lies. And the people who spoke them will never be held to account.
Which brings me back to the American Civil War, a cold war yes, but one that has recently grown hotter. Obama’s legislative successes — perhaps the greatest for Democrats since Lyndon Johnson — are widely ignored in favor of the Tea Party story, Glenn Beck’s speech on the national mall, and the notion that 25% of the population somehow constitutes an overwhelming majority. Forgotten is recent history — the unfunded invasion of Iraq, the decimation of Hurricane Katrina, the deregulation spree in the 1990′s that lead to the real estate bubble and financial collapse. These were all failures of Republican policy, yet the president is blamed for them as if he created them himself. There is some genuine disappointment in regards to the extent of the reforms he’s managed, as well as his attempts to work with the Republicans, weakening progressive legislation with their compromises, only to be beaten over the head time and again by Republicans who never negotiate with Democrats in good faith. The evidence of what will happen if the Republicans come to power again is right there, and yet the media somehow acts as though they are going to be saving the country for the “real Americans,” which is just code for white conservative evangelical Christians. Anyone who does not exist in those three categories simultaneously will never be accepted as an American by these people.
How many times does ideology need to fail before the media will step up and call bullshit? Trickle down economics and excessive tax cuts for the rich ultimately lead to the decimation of the American middle class. Deregulation which allowed companies to “offshore” their manufacturing and service sector jobs lead to the massive unemployment of today. The Republicans promise more of that, and no one calls them out on their failures. They can relentlessly shout lies into their cameras and microphones (“I take the president at his word that he’s a Christian!” “Health reform is fascism!” “the President is a racist who hates white people!”) and the media reports it without presenting any evidence to the contrary. One would think they have a vested interest in the restoration of the Republican party to “permanent majority” status.
And the Democrats, even after 16 years of dealing with the bullshit, seem absolutely feckless in their inability to recognize that the Republicans have declared war on them. Rather than fight, they choose the high ground, trying to seem bipartisan while the Republicans say that they are power mad socialists who want to destroy the country. Howard Dean may have been an inartful guy, but he knew how to fight the Republicans on their own turf (though his recent comments about the proposed Muslim community center in southern Manhattan have diminished him a bit). I’ve been wrong about Obama, before, but I get the sense that he lives inside an insulated bubble that keeps him free of understanding what’s really going on. The Republicans are going to regain power, and they will grind all government to a halt — they will refuse to pass budgets, block political appointees from moving out of committee and will generally stop the work of Washington. This will lead, no doubt, to another decade or so of Republican rule and the further destruction of government institutions, pushing Americans deeper down the third world hole we now find ourselves in. And when middle America wakes up to further devastation, they will blame the Democrats, as the media will be right there with their megaphones, screaming that it was all Obama’s fault. And no one will question the truth of it.
And if the Democrats, by some crazy stroke of luck, regain the majority and the Presidency, they will fall to the same Republican tactics that have sunk them since Nixon was president. And so it goes and goes and goes.
What was the point in giving the Democrats a majority if the Republicans will just dismantle what they’ve done? For god’s sake people, stand up and fight! You’ve had war declared on you for the past 30 years. It’s time to show up on the field with guns instead of forfeiting any chance of winning.
Why I had my Halo Emblem Tattooed on My Arm
Aug 23rd
Self Portrait, 08.23.2010
As Aaron Wolfe, my old friend and the tattoo artist who did the piece, said to me: “People are going to be asking you about this tattoo for the rest of your life. And you can tell them whatever you want — you can tell the truth, or you can lie. It’s your choice.”
There are plenty of lies to be had, for sure. One of my acquaintances thought it was an outward symbol of the apocalyptic times in which we live. A sign of pessimism regarding the future. And though I am pessimistic about the future, it’s not the reason I got the tattoo.
Nearly two years ago, as I’ve written in the past, I was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure. I was expected to die — and I went through a grueling two weeks of hospitalization that was one part health care, one part imprisonment. My clothes were stripped from me, and I was forced to wear a hospital gown that thousands of other patients have worn. No underwear, no socks of my own, my every moment managed by a legion of doctors and nurses. When I got out of the hospital, I was an emotional disaster — fatalistic, broken, riddled with anxiety and depression.
And as silly as it sounds, one of the things that got me through it was a return to playing Halo 3 online with my gamer friends, of taking up the emblem that I’d used since 2004 and Halo 2, of going into virtual battle under my standard and kicking ass. When I crossed the one year survival mark, I knew I wanted to get a tattoo — and I knew I wanted to get that emblem on my arm. It just took me some time to get up the nerve to have it done.
And now it’s there, the gas mask rendered in negative space on a solid red field. It encompasses most of my right bicep, and when I look down and see it, I remind myself that I am a survivor, that I have lived longer than any medical doctor thought I would. It is my standard, and it will always be a part of me — long after Halo is gone, or I’ve moved on from gaming, it will still represent me as a fighter and a survivor. It is inevitable that I will be hospitalized again, but I will not lose my dignity when they strip my clothes and hook me to machines. I will look down at my arm and know myself. And regardless of what’s done to my body, I will still be whole.
"I have defied gods and demons. I am your shield, I am your swords. I know you -- your past, your future. This is the way the world ends."
Review: A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan
Aug 19th
My Kindle re-read of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time continues with A Crown of Swords.
This was the termination of my initial read-through of the series — at this point Path of Daggers wasn’t out yet, and I was in for a long wait for the next volume in the series. I remember being particularly bored and disillusioned with the Wheel of Time by this point, particularly with the Ebou Dar storyline. I’ve found that on my second reading of the book some 13 years later that I enjoyed it a great deal more than during my original reading — particularly (and ironically), the arc centered around Ebou Dar and the hunt for the Bowl of Winds. Mat Cauthon is increasingly becoming my favorite character in the series and seeing him finally getting treated with the respect he deserves by the Aes Sedai was satisfying, as was Elayne and Nynaeve’s dealings with the “real” sisters and the Kin.
Although more significant events take place in Lord of Chaos, A Crown of Swords is shorter and therefore unburdened by its predecessor’s many filler chapters. Not to say that there isn’t filler here — the central storyline of A Crown of Swords is a bit of a cul-de-sac for the series, as the struggle to fix the world’s broken weather is nothing more than a distraction from the Last Battle. I found it to be a relatively brief read, and although it doesn’t further the story significantly, the character movement was satisfying, and Mat’s cliffhanger is still as strong as I remembered. Tangential though the story may be, it comes down to whether or not you like the characters — I happen to be fond of them, so spending some time with Mat, Elayne and Nynaeve in Ebou Dar wasn’t a bad way to spend a week and a half of reading.
However, on the negative side, the pacing of Rand’s arc was especially uneven. The showdown at the end seemed to come out of nowhere, given that the chief antagonist was barely mentioned in A Crown of Swords before the climax. It does show that Jordan was able to move the story when he wanted to and could have resolved many of his story lines within a few chapters. However, in this case the lack of any kind of build-up to the fight left me a bit bewildered. The ending itself is incredibly rushed, the payoff seemingly unearned given the similar ending (and better set-up) featured in The Dragon Reborn. This is something I remembered from my first read-through, and my opinion has changed little on the second.
At this point, readers know whether or not they’re invested in the series — if you like Mat, Elayne and Nynaeve, then A Crown of Swords will be a worthy read. But if you’re plowing through the series eager for the start of Tarmon Gaidon, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.
Review: Arcade Fire, “The Suburbs” LP
Aug 4th
I’ll admit it, I lost faith. Back when Arcade Fire’s first full-length LP, “Funeral,” arrived in 2004, I had only ever loved a record that much once before — Belle and Sebastian’s “If You’re Feeling Sinister.” Belle and Sebastian followed up that amazing LP with a slow, steady decline into 70′s pop music tropes. Arcade Fire’s “Neon Bible” found me similarly disappointed, so much so that it hurt to go back to my beloved “Funeral” to be reminded that such a great record came out so early in the band’s career. Like many, I thought the band was done. Not so.
Their new LP, “The Suburbs” is an impressive concept album and a return to greatness that makes “Neon Bible” a mere bump in the road. As “Funeral” dealt with the struggle to cope with loss by building a new family, “The Suburbs” charts the death of American middle class prosperity and the personal toll it takes on those who have been denied the promise of earlier generations. As “Neon Bible” was a heavy-handed polemic against life in George W. Bush’s America, “The Suburbs” charts the creeping decay of the post-World War II economic boom, its characters dwelling in houses built in the distant 1970′s, their humanity stifled by electronic communication, literally lost in a sprawling wasteland of “dead shopping malls, rising like mountains beyond mountains.”
It is as tragic and personal as “Funeral,” yet continues “Neon Bible’s” expansion into different musical territory. The record’s roots are in the New Wave of the 1970′s and early 1980′s — David Bowie, Talking Heads, Blondie, New Order, OMD. Yet it seems appropriate given the subject matter — Arcade Fire charts death and loss like no other band, their influences perfectly matching the thematic tone of the record. One feels nostalgic while listening to the songs on “The Suburbs,” which is purely intentional, as it accentuates the overall feeling of decay.
And just as with “Funeral,” I can’t stop listening, nor will these songs abandon my subconscious when my iPod is turned off. Highly recommended.
Song of the Day: “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”
Aug 3rd
My favorite song on the new Arcade Fire LP, the Suburbs.
“Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains …”
Review: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
Aug 3rd
Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy has been a surprisingly good read, and the final volume, Hero of Ages, ends the series in a way I never quite expected. The edge hard science fiction has always had over the other speculative genres has been its ability to comment on contemporary life through a high concept setting. Epic fantasy tends to be a simpler affair, focusing on the black and white battle between good and evil over examining the human condition. Generally, it’s Joseph Campbell recycled, but not so with Hero of Ages. In the final volume of the series, Sanderson deals with issues of faith and atheism, the inconsistencies of organized religion and how normal people can made into martyrs, messiahs and gods.
Picking up a year after Well of Ascension, Hero of Ages opens on the cusp of the apocalypse. The mists, once confined to the night, are staying out longer and longer through the daytime. People exposed to them are struck down by a mysterious illness or killed, and the ash mounts are throwing a near-constant spray of ash into the atmosphere. As Vin and Elend seek out clues left behind by the Lord Ruler that may hold the secret for saving the world, Spook, Sazed and TenSoon all have trials of their own to overcome.
The various character arcs converge on an endpoint that is moving, haunting and ultimately satisfying. The action sequences are as exhilarating as in previous volumes, and although some of the characterization can come off a bit flat at times, the greater subtext of the series, as well as the revelations regarding the nature of the mists, allomancy and the world itself have real resonance.
I fear saying anything more would give too much away, but the Mistborn trilogy isn’t just a great series, it also heralds the arrival of a massive (and prolific) talent. Brandon Sanderson is the real deal — I can’t wait to read his contributions to the Wheel of Time, as well as his upcoming novel, the Way of Kings. Once you get to the end of Mistborn you’ll understand just how serious he is as a writer — this is a man who walks shoulder to shoulder with George R.R. Martin. No mean feat, given how many authors have failed to live up to the comparison.
Review: Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan
Jul 16th
When I first read Robert Jordan’s Lord of Chaos back in 1997, I remember it being a grueling read that sapped my enthusiasm for the series. In many ways, it sets the formula for its successors — hundreds of pages of inertia punctuated by an event at the end. Now that I’m older and am better at deconstructing an author’s intent, successful or not, I do appreciate what Robert Jordan was trying to do with the book. The payoff is neatly executed based on themes set-up throughout the book, it’s just that it necessitates making the women of the book — particularly Nynaeve and Elayne — extremely unlikable.
Lord of Chaos is fundamentally about Rand’s relationship with the Aes Sedai, which in turn is a proxy for the relationships between men and women in general. In Fires of Heaven, Moiraine told him never to trust another Aes Sedai — Rand understands the argument, but naively underestimates the two delegations that come to him. He chooses to trust the wrong delegation, and that in turn forces a series of events that culminates in the Battle of Dumai’s Wells, perhaps one of the most visceral and exhilarating action sequences in the series. The final moments of the story proper also bring about the natural resolution for Robert Jordan’s major themes — his view of the politics between men and women, and in particular, the manipulation and humiliation of men at the hands of women and ultimately the need for women to submit to men.
I’m not sure if I would describe Robert Jordan as a sexist, necessarily, and he’s definitely not a misogynist, but he takes the “Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars” approach to an embarrassing level. The women of the book do not treat its men very well — indeed, Rand is literally tortured for being a man that can channel (though one wonders if he’s tortured for simply being a man who stands up to powerful women). This has been a problem for me throughout the series, but I find it especially troubling in Lord of Chaos. Gender is treated as a see saw, tilting the balance of power between one side or the other. There is no equality, only a struggle for dominance.
I want to continue my re-read of the series to get to Brandon Sanderson’s contributions, but I wonder how much more of this I can take. It’s especially a shame because the earlier books were so entertaining. Alas, I must grit my teeth and soldier on to the end, although each volume grows more tedious than the last.
Review: Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
Jun 14th
Brooklyn. The name floats constantly in the air, calling to hipsters of all ages from across the globe. As a resident of Washington, D.C., I have seen numerous people I know move there, some returning to Washington, some staying behind on that distant island to the north with its beckoning neighborhoods — Bed-Stuy, Park Slope, Williamsburg. Just as Manhattan was once (and still is) the source of all-consuming New York City naval gazing, Brooklyn has now seized its own chunk of the self-obsessed NYC mantle. “Brooklyn is the new Manhattan,” Ted Danson’s editor character told Jason Schwartzman’s Jonathan Ames character on the HBO series, Bored to Death. Sadly, it was only half a joke.
Jonathan Lethem’s Fortress of Solitude is perhaps the gold standard for Brooklyn narcissism. It follows the story of Dylan Ebdus, a white kid whose parents were part of the early wave of gentrification in the 1970′s, Fortress of Solitude is about how contemporary Brooklyn came to be than it is how Dylan Ebdus grew into adulthood there. Long and rambling, most chapters serve to celebrate some aspect of Brooklyn’s history, painting the city with obtuse sentences that sound good as they roll into the brain from the page (or in my case, my Kindle), but when considered for too long hardly make a bit of sense.
Just as race relations and gentrification are the sources of modern Brooklyn’s conflicts (one need look no further than Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing to see that gentrification has long been a concern for the borough), race relations inform the central plot of the novel. Dylan, being a living racial experiment for his Utopian mother, is the one white boy in a black neighborhood and black public school. Thus he is bullied and harassed for his whiteness by a sea of faceless black children. With the exception of his friend Mingus Rude, most black characters in the early part of the novel are pretty much the same character — a dehumanized other who exist solely to “yoke” Dylan for pocket change. If anything, Dylan’s experience is a reflection of white anxiety more so than the reality of race relations. Dylan’s experience is, I think, oversimplified and stereotypical. The reality of minority whites in a majority black city is much more complex — as a father with children in a D.C. public charter school, I can say with some authority that the brutalization of Dylan’s daily life does not reflect the reality my daughters see every day in our city. As a human being, I’m offended by the simplification of many of the book’s black characters.
Dylan drifts through the tumultuous 1970′s reading Marvel comics, seeing the emergence of disco, punk and hip hop, and incongruously receiving a magic ring from a flying homeless man. Literature enthusiasts will no doubt enjoy the “magical realism” of this ring, which is barely explained and may not actually be real. But as a longtime reader of fantasy, particularly contemporary “slipstream” fantasy that has its own literary ambitions, I have to say that Lethem handles the ring rather clumsily. It seems incredibly out of place in Dylan’s bildungsroman, and does not help the sprawling, unfocused narrative.
In the end, Fortress of Solitude became a chore to finish — as my enthusiasm waned, I found it harder and harder to get through its pages. Perhaps if I aspired to one day move to Brooklyn, I would have had a different experience with the novel — but as I have no affection for that magical borough, I can confidently say that this book is not for me, or others not already enamored with it.
A Better Approach for Israel
Jun 9th
Look, I’m not going too get to far into my views on Israel and Palestine — they’re complicated, and quite frankly I can see both sides of the argument. I believe that the right thing to do would be for all of them to live together in one secular multicultural state and let democracy decides who leads the country. I know this isn’t likely to ever happen, but that would be my utopian hope.
In regards to the recent Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla, it does behoove the anti-Israeli forces of the world to remember that Turkey’s hands are just as stained as Israel’s in regards to human rights. Think of the Kurds, disenfranchised and constantly under the yoke of the Turkish military, denied their own homeland, or occupied Cyprus. Ask any Greek Cypriot about their thoughts on Turkish democracy, and you’re bound to get a view quite dissimilar from the the views of the flotilla’s supporters.
So my point is, although I don’t approve of Israel’s treatment of Gaza, I also don’t approve of Turkey, either. Both countries are ethnic-religious states that claim to be secular, but are driven by religious and ethnic forces. Both states are primarily supportive of democracy for particular ethnic groups, and in the case of Israel, the Israeli’s have a much better record on Arab rights than Turkey has on their minorities.
A group in Israel is organizing an alternative flotilla in the name of bringing supplies to the Kurds in an effort to shed light Turkey’s own human rights abuses. As Andrew Sullivan has said, this would be a smarter path for Israel to take. It doesn’t necessarily negate Israel’s own issues with the Palestinians, but it does prove that Turkey is no moral authority in the world, either. And the flotilla was a cynical PR stunt driven by the Middle Eastern ethnic conflict and not genuine philanthropy.
