J.'s comments (member since Oct 09, 2008)

J.'s comments from the To the Glory of Man group.

Thanks for the welcome, Ilyn.

If you read The Conscience of Abe's Turn, I hope you'll understand why libertarians seem paranoid of the police state. (At least that's the goal.) It's about a team of civil-rights activists who resort to espionage in order to subvert the police-state tactics of their hometown of Abe's Turn. (As Zorro or Robin Hood, but with 21'st-century swordplay.)

Everything the government does in Abe's Turn is based on actual government in America. In one case, I even took the actual words of a pro-drug-war sheriff, who clearly didn't understand the concept of "civil rights," and put those words into the mouth of my villain.

The biggest challenge I've had writing Abe's Turn is that when you take real American news stories and transplant them into a novel, they seem so fantastic, you don't believe they could ever actually happen. The defense that "It actually happened" is not good enough, because when someone's reading a novel, he wants to feel as though it "could" happen, and truth is stranger than fiction. So you have to build up the story over time through the characters' interactions. And so in this first volume, the conflicts are actually pretty tame. (Still, people have been telling me things like "I can't put it down," which is always fun to hear.)

The Conscience of Abe's Turn is actually a series of novelettes, done in the style of a TV series. The first volume includes the first 4 episodes, which take place over half a year. That makes it about the size of a novel, but (as with a TV show) there are some significant loose ends left in the overarching story line. (I have a planned 24-episode story arc.) The book also contains extra chapters, including a short story, which my father tells me is the best thing I've written. (But you know parents: they'll be as honest as they can, without hurting your feelings.)


For the list, I'm interested in any book that addresses libertarian themes, because I'm a little disheartened by pop fiction, which seems to always be conservative or liberal. And the cops are always the good guys. That disheartens me, too. So I wanted to write something that breaks with that pattern, and I like to read stuff that breaks with the pattern.

I haven't read Reason Reigns yet, but it sounds reminiscent of Ayn Rand's work. Is that an accurate impression?


The LP... Well... Sure. Why not?

Seriously, I've had some contact with my local LP. And I've voted Libertarian before, and intend to again. But whether the LP--or any third party--will ever make a significant difference in American politics? Not under the current system, and I don't see the system changing, at least not without some sort of dramatic upheaval. And the LP, like any political party, is... uh... a political party. So with it, you get all the crap you expect from political parties.

But there are some exciting things happening by people who have been connected with the LP here in Massachusetts, like ballot question 1, to repeal the state income tax. Carla Howell and Michael Cloud and company are behind that. It's kinda cool to have the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation (whose mission apparently is to make sure we keep paying taxes, because otherwise, I guess, they wouldn't have anything to do with themselves--no taxes means no taxpayers means no more taxpayer foundation)... It's kinda cool to have the MTA release a bulls*** report decrying question 1, on the grounds that it'll decimate government schools and government law enforcement. Well, yeah, I guess that wouldn't be such a bad thing. Except that it's not true. Politicians will always fund schools and police, because the populace wants those things. And they'll always take as much money as they can away from those things to spend on their pet projects, because that's how they go back to the taxpayer and say, "We're out of money, and we need more taxes in order to build a new school," or whatever. Question 1 has nothing to do with it.

But I'm going off on a tangent.

-TimK

I'm compiling a list of libertarian fiction released to print in 2008. (Including my own new release.) Most of these, I plan to read myself. I'll be posting the list at AbesTurn.com/libertarian-fiction-2008. But I'd appreciate further suggestions.

Here's the list so far (in order of release date):

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Reason Reigns by Ilyn Ross

Roswell, Texas by L. Neil Smith, Rex F. May

The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod

The Return of the Last Space Explorer by Simon Drake

Fe Fi FOE Comes by William C. Samples

The Conscience of Abe's Turn: The Birth of the Conscience (Volume 1) by J. Timothy King

Any other suggestions?