The Regime

I've already written a post on the dumbfounding "Left Behind" series a few months back, but I am going to take the opportunity to briefly return to the topic now, since it is something I have devoted a considerable amount of time to reading and trying to understand.

I have finished the 12 book series proper, but the authors have seen fit to write three prequels as well as one additional sequel. As any number of commentators on Amazon will tell you, this is a fairly transparent scheme to keep milking the cash cow they've created. Nonetheless, I've read the first of the two prequels, having recently finished The Regime. I think it's a curious title, considering that the first thing that comes to mind when I consider the phrase "the regime" is the current administration. I don't think I'm alone on that. Anyway, the regime in question is evidently not the Bush presidency, but the regime of Nicolae Carpathia, the anti-Christ of the later books. However, Nicolae has not yet risen to power, so I'm not sure where they get off with the title.

The book came out in 2006, a time when political conventional wisdom was quite different than when the bulk of the books were published (1996-2004). Part of Nicolae's schick is that he claims to stand for peace and hate violence and he calls for global cooperation and internationalism. Making this person the anti-Christ makes political sense (for right-wingers, I mean) in the 2001-2004 timeframe, because Bush was at that time saying pretty much the exact same thing: "those calling for global cooperation are working against the interests of the United States. Only I, the one who dares confront evil head on, can be trusted to protect you, not those weak ones who want non-violent solutions." Now of course, the field is reversed. Bush has been shown to be a power-mad, war mongering imperialist, while those of us who timidly suggested that unilateral invasion of other countries is not morally right look quite a lot better than a few years back. The point of this whole exercise is to say that the book immediately feels dated because of its allegiance to a Bush-like foreign policy, which only a troglodyte could now support.

The prequels seem to be a showcase mainly for the "true believer" sort of characters to try to convert those that are not strident enough or orthodox enough in their faith. There are some marvelous scenes, such as when true believer Irene goes to the nursing home to try to make her husband's senile parents give up their life-long faith in order to accept the born again creed that she promulgates. Or take the scene where Irene (before she becomes a born again Christian) has a series of religious conversations with some other mother at a park. This other mother gives Irene a gospel tract, which though Irene pretends she doesn't care, she is secretly thrilled and rushing to get home and read this awesome piece of life-changing literature. I gather it is supposed to be inspirational, encouraging believers to preach the word to all nations, as it were. However, I think you would have to be delusional in order to see it as anything other than comic.

I still hold out hope that one day I might be able to write a thesis on the politics of the books, which are truly unpleasant, but I won't delve further into the topic now. Suffice it to say that The Regime is just as odious, and in some ways more so, than any other novel in the series. The popularity of these books is a black mark on those who try to defend Christianity as an intellectually serious set of beliefs.

Dance of Death

One thing that is inevitable if I am going to post more book review-type items, is that I must reveal the truly terrible reading habits I have. Though I am a fairly prolific reader, much of the material I consume is not exactly of high literary value, or full of insightful wisdom. I won't go into all the details, but I employ an arcane and complex system of deciding which books to read, and in what order to read them. I have so much invested in this system that I feel I must continue down this path, even though it ultimately leads to madness, and on the way to madness, leads to me reading a lot of books that are frankly, a waste of time.

The above preface is going to be true for a lot of the books I will discuss in this space, but I now want to make an argument that it is not true for today's book. The book in question is Danse Macabre by Stephen King. King is an author that gets a lot of grief, unfairly in my opinion. Of course, he is enormously popular (I think probably the best selling author in the US, over the course of his career). You can buy his novels in supermarkets or in airport lounges. And almost everybody who reads recreationally has read something by him at some time. Even if I believed his books weren't very good, the fact that he gets people who are not normally readers to pick up a book would be plenty of defense by itself for King. Except that, in addition to that, I actually do think that King is pretty good.

King sometimes lacks discipline and has page count can soar well above what is strictly necessary. However, compared to other superstar authors, his books contain well-drawn characters and contain often exquisite wordplay. And as someone who is infatuated with the horror genre, his novels have the ability to give me goosebumps better than anyone else I've read. The Stand may well one day be regarded as a classic. Cujo is a model of lean efficiency without any resorting to supernatural events. And his stories excel in creating brightness and hidden horror of small towns; they burst with a blend of nostalgia and realism that I find winning.

But, to change directions again, Danse Macabre is a departure from any of King's other work. First, you will notice it is non-fiction. It is King's effort to evaluate the horror genre from 1950 to 1980 or so. He talks casually, but intelligently, about radio, television, films, and books. He talks about the archetypes of the genre, talks about how our fears are manifested in it, the roots of the horror story, and what some of his favorites are. It is not a book for the casual horror fan, since it delves at length into these topics, but I was enthralled. King has done his homework and produced a book that is essential for horror fans. The argument for how horror fiction can represent societal fears (be they political, cultural, economic, or something more primative yet) is of course not original to King, but he has layed it out more clearly than any other writer I've encountered.

The book is like an enjoyable, long talk with a knowledgable friend. Danse Macabre, the Dance of Death, has always occupied a place in human psyche. Here is a good primer for understanding the strange ways it has been expressed; here is a window into a part of ourselves we are afraid to see.

The GWB Center for Presidents Who Can't Read Good

I learned from this morning's Hotline that Karl Rove may be tasked with running President Bush's presidential library once it is completed. I ask you what kind of non-biased information is Karl Rove likely to include in his duty as library administrator? One can only imagine. Here's the link to the short and rather vague story:

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2007/6/17/big-hitters-steer-bush-legacy-plan.html

("What is this...a center for ants!?!?" I like to imagine W saying that line.)

Homework Assignment

The invaluable Max Sawicky (he of Maxspeak! fame) has an insightful article posted at TPM Cafe about what goals the left should be pursuing electorally and practically, with an eye especially on ending the war, the sooner the better. Recommended reading:

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2007/jun/10/hows_your_romance

A Return at Long Last

Predictably, the posting schedule here has been, shall we say, erratic, at best. But I'm ready to make another go at semi-regular updates, provided I can think of things to mention or rip off from some other site.

Today I thought I would take the relatively easy route of talking about a book I recently read, something which maybe I'll do more frequently, because at least that's more interesting than what's on CNN. The potboiler I had in mind was Tom Daschle's book, Like No Other Time. I am one of the seven people who bothered to read this one. Normally I wouldn't pick up a book by a politician because, well come on. They're horrible; badly written, full of meaningless, non-offensive, uplifting rhetoric, and having little to no original insight into any problem facing the nation. Daschle's isn't appreciably different from a normal politician's book, but it is particularly interesting to me because of my interest in SD politics. So I bite the bullet on this one.

It came out in 2003, when Daschle was still in the Senate, a serious drawback. If it was written after his defeat, then maybe he could have afforded a few more risky remarks. The subtitle is something like "the 107th Congress and How it Changed America Forever." This is of course hyperbole, but it is true that the years 2000-2002 were politically turbulent. Among the events covered in the book are the 2000 election, Jim Jeffords switching of parties (and the change in control of the Senate that resulted), 9/11, the anthrax attacks on Daschle's office, the build up to the Iraq War, and the disasterous outcome of the 2002 elections for the Democrats. So there's plenty of material for the book to cover.

As I mentioned, Daschle isn't really free to talk about these subjects due to the fact that he's still in office and up for re-election the year after this book was published. The heat that the book generates comes simply from learning a bit more about his personal relations with other members of the Senate and from understanding what 9/11 and the anthrax attacks looked like from his POV while they were occurring. The 9/11 chapter is interesting, but doesn't really say anything new about the attacks. However, the anthrax chapter is easily the best part of the book. While I knew that anthrax had been sent to Daschle's office not long after 9/11, I hadn't realized how serious that event had really been. Reading the chapter made me understand how lucky his staff were that none of them were killed. There were postal service mail carriers who died from just handling similar anthrax letters; some Daschle staffers were exposed to amounts of anthrax that were hundreds of times larger than a potentially lethal dose, yet in the end there were no fatalities from his office. This chapter is riveting at times and enlarged my understanding and appreciation of the importance of this event.

The book is at its weakest in the closing chapters, when meakly defending the Democrats vote in favor of authorization of the war, yet trying to be critical of the handling. It is full of the sort of vacillation that I've come to expect from Democrats on this issue, and not convincing. I expect that if Daschle were writing this now, out of office and a few years removed from the decision to go to war, he would be much harsher on himself and others who made that terrible vote.

In the end the book was worthwhile to me only because of my particular interest in SD politics, and I can understand why it was never widely read nationwide. It is more or less what you would expect--overly cautious, in much the same way that Senator Daschle was too often overly cautious during his time as party leader.

Anna Nicole Smith

As the song says:

I don't want to die a cartoon/
in a cartoon graveyard.

So it goes.

There are plenty of others who have done more elequoent elegiacs than this one will be, but I felt I had to at least mention the passing of Kurt Vonnegut.

Vonnegut is of course the author of Slaughterhouse-Five, among other novels. I first read S-5 when I was a senior in high school. A friend had given me a copy and recommended it right before he left for college, and he mentioned something about space aliens and time-travel. The book left a deep and permanent mark on me. It is one of a handful of books that changed the way I think about the world. It remains my stock answer to the inanswerable question: what is your favorite book? The book is a diamond, constructed of short, hard sentences. The structural integrity is unimpeachable.

Vonnegut has more clarity, empathy, and humor than almost any writer you'll come across. He is both a cynic and a humanitarian; a moral innocent and a wizened old crank. He tried to warn the world about its insane impulses but was able to find joy in the strangeness of human interaction. He will be missed more than I can express. I'll leave you with some quotes from the old man:

• Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.

• Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be.

• I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.

• If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind.

• True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

• One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.

• 1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them.

• Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.

• (talking about when he tells his wife he's going out to buy an envelope) Oh, she says well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know. The moral of the story is, is we're here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don't realize, or they don't care, is we're dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And, we're not supposed to dance at all anymore.

• I remembered The Fourteenth Book of Bokonon, which I had read in its entirety the night before. The Fourteenth Book is entitled, "What Can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth, Given the Experience of the Past Million Years?" It doesn't take long to read The Fourteenth Book. It consists of one word and a period.This is it:"Nothing."

• The visitor from outer space made a serious study of Christianity, to learn, if he could, why Christians found it so easy to be cruel. He concluded that at least part of the trouble was slipshod storytelling in the New Testament. He supposed that the intent of the Gospels was to teach people, among other things, to be merciful, even to the lowest of the low.But the Gospels actually taught this:Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn't well connected. So it goes.

This could go on forever, so I'll just try to pick an appropriate one to end with:

• The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.