John C.A. Manley's Blog, page 3

Jordan Henderson's response to my critical review of his latest painting

In response to my critical review of Jordan Henderson's latest painting, he sent me this email:

Thank you for reviewing my latest painting and sharing the review with your readers. I appreciate that you are willing to critically review it and say what you don't like — that makes the times you do like something much more significant as it establishes that you won't shy away from stating what you really think: people too often choose niceness over honesty, and no matter how nice a reviewer, to be good they've got to be honest.

Your critique is of course valid: no previous sociopolitical painting of mine has relied almost entirely on written statements to convey its message as has this one — it directly and almost completely breaks the show-don't-tell rule.

For various reasons though I decided to go forward with it, break that rule, and tell rather than show, and I'm pretty pleased with the telling — though I certainly get why some viewers might find a direct tell, highly objectionable.

Thanks again for the review,

--Jordan

Well, I wouldn't say I found it "highly objectionable" — just slightly disappointing. It was a great cartoon, just not the usual style or approach I love about Jordan's artwork. It was sort of like when M. Night Shyamalan produced The Happening after such great films as The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and The Village.

I followed up with Jordan, saying that I'd love to know his reasons for breaking the show-don't-tell rule. I'm fond of rule-breaking. I also asked if I could share his response with you, my blazing readers. So stay tuned.

John C.A. Manley

P.S. If you missed my review of Jordan's painting you can check it out here: Why I'm disappointed with "Contraindication" (Jordan Henderson's latest sociopolitical painting)

P.P.S. And don't miss the documentary-style interview my son and I did with Jordan back in 2022: Exposing the New Normal Wolves

Why I'm disappointed with "Contraindication" (Jordan Henderson's latest sociopolitical painting)

I'm disappointed with Jordan Henderson's latest painting. Usually, I'm thrilled with his paintbrush creations (especially the covers he created for my two novels), but "Contraindications" falls short of his usual brilliance.

In it, he depicts a crowd of protesters holding signs with contradicting slogans, such as "My Body My Choice | Get the damn vaccine!" While this does show the muddled and contradictory thinking of the masses, I feel the painting relies too heavily on words, rather than images, to convey its message.

And I'm a wordsmith, so it's not like I have anything against words. But, in some ways I do, because I'm also a novelist (as well as a closet poet). Both poetry and novels focus on using words to conjure up images in the imagination (or the nation of images that Kris Kringle alludes to in Miracle on 34th Street) of the reader. We shy away from using words directly to explain the moral of the story. If we do, it's often only at the end of the tale.

I believe this is why Jordan Henderson's latest painting (which you can view on his Substack) felt less like immortal art and more like a political cartoon that somehow found its way into an art gallery. The contrast is clear when displayed alongside some of his past masterpieces:

• Sanity, Her Son, and the Credulous said so much in one image that it ended up inspiring the creation of two characters, and an entire subplot, in my novel, Much Ado About Corona.

• Brighter Future manages to depict the horror of the vaccine mandates with the hope of the opposition it awakened.

• Victory of Science shows the malevolence of the COVID-19 vaccine clinics in a way that no amount of scientific evidence could ever impart.

People's Choice shows the pointlessness of voting with only four visual elements and one word (which he could have dropped).

• Sheep, Shepherd and a Goat said so much in one image that I produced a one-hour documentary-style video interview with Jordan going over all the elements he packed into that 42 x 68 inch canvas.

So, while I like Jordan's latest thought-provoking social-political painting, I think it lacks the emotional and philosophical impact of the image-based works of art he's done before.

John C.A. Manley

PS I've purchased greeting cards, prints, jigsaw puzzles and even an original, of Jordan's artwork. And I encourage you to do the same through his online store.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.

"Can't Unsee It"

Martin Kerr outdid himself with his new music video, "Can't Unsee It," which opens with:

Living in this world
Sure doesn’t feel good
People keep suffering
Powerless to stop it

Everybody’s gotta pick a side and dig in
Are we gonna make a little time for healing?

He follows up with the stirring chorus, evocative of the Gaza genocide:

When you said we're building peace, well I believed it
Oh but these days there's just no way to guarantee it
So you send your thoughts and prayers
As all your bombs fly through the air
Now I've seen the children die, I can't unsee it
I can't unsee it

The haunting folk melody is as moving as the lyrics. You can watch the official "Can't Unsee It" music video on Martin Kerr's YouTube channel or listen to the single on Spotify.

John C.A. Manley

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.

"While professors are busy strangling everything with jargon and footnotes..."

Professor Michael Rainsborough holds a Ph.D. in War Studies and has taught strategic theory for 25 years at the University of London. Here's what he has to say about the power of novels:

"While professors are busy strangling everything with jargon and footnotes, novels and poems are out there doing the real work: showing us what it actually feels like to be alive.

"In Contingency, Irony and Solidarity (1989), [Richard Rorty] suggested that a good novel will expand one’s moral imagination far more than any philosophical tract. Literature is a better moral compass because it throws us into the vivid chaos of individual lives, instead of forcing human experience into some procrustean theoretical framework.

"Sometimes a single sentence from Orwell, or Solzhenitsyn, or Camus tells us more about integrity, honour, cruelty and hope than a thousand pages of scholarly ‘analysis’ ever could....

"Great literature, not academic gibbering, gets closest to the essence of human affairs. The Greeks, the Bible, the great tragedians — they all saw to the bottom of things long before we in the academy began layering insights with qualifiers, footnotes and the faint aroma of career anxiety.

You can read the entire article, The Return of the Unfashionable Gods, on The Daily Sceptic.

John C.A. Manley

P.S. For more on how three famous novels, plus my not-quite-as-famous novel, have shaped our perceptions about history and humanity, check out this three-minute clip from my interview with Just Right Media — available on YouTube, BitChute and Rumble.

The Illicit Ice Hockey Chapters: One of the most popular scenes from Much Ado About Corona

Last post, I shared a testimonial from NHL veteran, Mark Bell. That sure brought back fond memories of all the time I spent watching endless hockey games (purely for research, I swear) and writing and rewriting the chapters of Much Ado About Corona with the ice hockey scenes. Many readers tell me those were some of their favourite chapters in the novel.

Set in December 2020, the arena in the small town of Moosehead is shut down under scamdemic lockdown orders. But when you're a true Canadian who loves hockey, a little thing like an $880 fine (and hypothermia-inducing temperatures) won't stop you from getting your ice time. So Vincent McKnight and his buddies decide to face the bitter cold of Northern Ontario to play on the French River.

Here's a snippet:

Léo skated to centre. I pushed forward to meet him.

"Nah," said Léo, shooing me aside with his stick. "Let me face off with Raj."

"Sure."

I shrugged and skated back toward the net, as Raj glided into my spot.

"Here's the deal," said Léo, looking at Raj, big smirk across his face. "If I score, then you get your mother to let me have a real date with your sister. If you score, then I'll get you a date with my sister."

"But I don't want a date with your sister," exclaimed Raj. "She's a moose."

"Hey!" I cut in. "Whaddya got against moose?"

"Nothing. Just don't want to go out with one."

"Then you better let me win," said Léo.

"Forget it, Léo," said AJ, holding the puck out in the air between the two. "Her mother's never going to let her marry a plumber. Bindu's a lawyer. Her husband must be a doctor. It's astrology 101. Time to move on."

"Thanks," said Léo, eyes fixed on centre ice, "but I never take dating advice from a surgeon."

AJ snorted behind his mask.

Then he dropped the puck.

And covered his ears.

Rrrrrrr!

The short wail of a siren blasted across the ice.

Raj froze and Léo took off with the puck.

My head snapped in the direction of the riverbank. A police cruiser, lights flashing red and blue, had just pulled up beside the bread van.

The moose joke will only make you really laugh if you've read the setup in the earlier chapters. So, if you haven't read Much Ado About Corona yet, you can get all the ungulate humour (and if you don't know what an ungulate is, you'll learn that, too), plus find out what happens next, by purchasing a copy.

And if you already own a copy, why not order more as gifts for all the die-hard hockey fans in your life? Nothing says "I understand your love of the game" more than a story about four guys who are willing to risk jail time to slap a puck across a frozen river under a sky full of stars.

John C.A. Manley

PS Did you miss NHL hockey star, Mark Bell's review of Much Ado About Corona? Then skate on over here to read it now.

Goal Scored: NHL veteran finds Much Ado About Corona a breakaway page-turner (that didn't get benched)

Blazing Reader,

Mark Bell has faced down 200-pound defensemen on the ice. Apparently, dystopian fiction doesn't intimidate him either.

A retired NHL forward player, Mark Bell has played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks and Anaheim Ducks.

He has also read my novel, Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story.

You can read his slapshot testimonial here.

John C.A. Manley

P.S. Between coaching power plays and serving on his town council, Mark Bell is skating between responsibilities faster than a winger on a breakaway. Yet he still found time to read all 500 pages of Much Ado About Corona. Find out what kept him turning pages instead of turning in early by reading his overtime endorsement.

How to use your body to deprogram your mind

Truthers talk a lot about brainwashing — where the mind becomes programmed to think in certain ways.

Some of the programming may be kind of useful, like how to brush your teeth and play the piano.

While other programs lead to bad habits, toxic people and addictive substances that can send you into a kamikaze spiral.

Most of these programs were installed back when we were kids. Some were survival software for coping with abusive and/or neglectful parents. Others were viruses purposely uploaded into our psyche at mandatory indoctrination camps (a.k.a. school). And, of course, TV "programs," commercials and Hollywood brainbusters didn’t help the coding.

Figuring out what is good code, what's bad code and what's really you... can be tricky without the right debugging tools.

My wife, Ina Backbier, recently held a live workshop here in the Netherlands, training people in a particular debugging tool which one might call "somatic epistemology." Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that deals with the means by which we determine what is true. Many philosophies emphasize a cognitive approach to acquiring knowledge from outside oneself. The somatic route sees the body and its stored emotions as another avenue to self-knowledge and discernment.

We talk about mind viruses, but rarely about the emotions and feelings that may be driving those Trojan horses, which hide out in the body, rather than the brain.

Today, Ina has released a seven-part video series from her last live workshop, explaining how to use somatic self-inquiry to free the body, mind and emotions of repressive programming, so that you can be... you.

If you're a fan of books like vad der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score, Rothschild's The Body Remembers and Maté's When the Body Says No, then you'll probably love Ina's seven-part mini-course on emotional repression inquiry.

To sign up for free or find out more about the somatic approach to authenticity, head over toInaBackbier.com

John C.A. Manley

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.

9 examples of how subliminal camera tricks make US presidents appear saintly

Check out this slide from Étienne de La Boétie²'s "To See the Cage" presentation, showing 9 examples of how subliminal camera tricks make US presidents appear saintly:

https://blazingpinecone.com/news/2025/08/25/#collage

John C.A. Manley

P.S. Please share this one with family and friends. It's a fun one (or disturbing, depending on how you take it).

Étienne de La Boétie² lists 16 reasons there's "really no difference" between Biden and Trump

In Tuesday's post, I shared a memorable one-liner from Stefanie Müller in my novel, Much Ado About Corona: "Trump or Biden, Pepsi or Coca-Cola, it’s all the same."

This fizzy little analogy, however, originates from investigative journalist James Corbett (who Stefanie credits in my tale).

This week, my son and I watched James Corbett's Solutions Watch interview with Étienne de La Boétie². About halfway through the video, Étienne shares an illustration from his new book, To See the Cage is to Leave It. It's titled "Meet the new boss: Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum." It depicts Biden (Dee) represented by a can of Pepsi and Trump (Dum) by can of Coca-Cola. Personally, I think he might have the attributions reversed, but the visuals are amusing.

More importantly, Étienne lists 16 ways there "isn't really a difference" between the two presidents.

You can read the list in this screenshot from the interview here:

https://blazingpinecone.com/news/2025/08/23/#list

John C.A. Manley

Cybernetic Wildlife and Cosmic Twists: Part 2 of my Rabbit in the Moon review

In Fiona Moore's novel, Rabbit in the Moon, North America has shrunk due to rising sea levels, leaving a dwindling population fighting over fertile land and dwindling resources.However, people are still driving around in gas-powered vehicles, so I assume they stopped blaming CO2.

Either way, this flooded future world has a new and mysterious problem beyond how to stop the human race from going extinct. Free-range robots and cybernetic wildlife are appearing across the continent, collecting debris, blowing up people and constructing large pyramid schemes.

The story focuses on Ken Usagi, a journalist from Nunavut, who is investigating this phenomenon, and Totchli, a university graduate in Mexico, living even farther in the future, who has been assigned to solve another mystery.

The two characters' stories slowly start to come together, as more is revealed. That said, the final chapter provided an unexpected twist that suddenly tied both plot lines and characters together — revealing an otherwise overlooked depth to the entire story.

For example, one of my complaints about the novel, as I was reading it, was that the characters of Ken and Totchil seemed way far similar in personality. I felt the author had slacked a little in the character development arena. But, upon reaching the final chapter, I understood why this was and can only applaud the author for having pulled off the two characters the way she did.

The final chapter, too, had an unexpected metaphysical twist along with the surprising plot twist. Here's a small example, where Totchli is questioning the afterlife:

He'd never given it much thought. His mother, with the slightly distracted agnosticism of the Ontario Scots, had told him about heaven and hell, but had admitted that, probably, it was just a myth. He'd heard about near-death experiences, a bright light moving towards you, a spirit guide, but dismissed it as superficial foolishness. Learned about traditional Inuit beliefs in school, but the Inuit kids made it plain they didn't welcome converts, especially not swamp-boys. He'd flirted a little with a New Age group in university, but found the idea of reincarnation as difficult to believe as the idea of an afterlife.

The final pages of the book hint at another afterlife scenario, which I'll avoid spoiling, because I'm sure by now you'll want to purchase for yourself a copy of Fiona Moore's Rabbit in the Moon over at my Blazing Pine Cone Bookshop.

John C.A. Manley

PS If you missed it, here's "prologue" and part one of my book review of Rabbit in the Moon.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.