Pete Sutton's Blog, page 20

Did JG Ballard predict Donald Trump?

I’ve read a triptych of books in the past week that all throw light on our particular situation.

The first was Suffragette: My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst

The second was It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

And the third is Kingdom Come by J G Ballard

Suffragette was an eye-opener. Of course we all know the basic details, women agitated, sometimes violently, for the vote. However this book fills in a lot of detail, and the political thinking behind the struggle.

In this day where we have proto-fascists in the White House and the MRA, some of whom advocate that women should remain at home, it is odd to see that we have both progressed and that some things remain the same.

This book should be required reading by those who want to #Resist. History has treated Pankhurst with some equivocation. The received wisdom is that her violent protest – the window smashing campaign, the mailbox burnings etc. set the women’s movement back. However it is difficult to credit that view when reading this book. The government of the day forever put off the question, giving it a very low priority whilst women were just asking nicely.

This shows that petitions (in fact the right to petition in person was lost to us because the government of the day changed the rules specifically to thwart the suffragettes) and gentle protest and even rallies can be easily ignored.(cf the march against the war in Iraq)

The absolute vehemence that the men in power showed in resisting progress is enlightening. As is the duality of how they treated male suffrage and home rule movements against how they treated the women’s movement. The Cat and Mouse act was particularly cruel. Women, let out of prison on medical grounds due to hunger strikes were re-arrested as soon as they were fit again, and so the cycle continued.

As I said, it was an eye-opening read and one I thoroughly recommend.

Next and more immediately prophetic was Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here which is an alternative history book about how fascists took over 1930’s USA (published in 1935).

“… they’ve realised that this country has gone so flabby that any gang daring enough and unscrupulous enough, and smart enough not to seem illegal, can grab hold of the entire government and have all of the power and applause and salutes, all the money and palaces and willing women they want”

Buzz Windrip runs for president on a “Make America great again” platform and wins. It is a mostly racist campaign against both people of colour and jews. He institutes a private army, called the Minute Men, and redivides the USA according to corporate rules. There is talk of war with Mexico.

This does have some similarities with today’s situation especially in the form of Buzz:

“… could not explain his power of bewitching large audiences… was vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar easily detected, and in his ‘ideas’ almost idiotic… Certainly, there was nothing exhilarating in the actual words of his speeches…”

It spends much more time concentrating on the little man, the hero of the piece a mild-mannered newspaper editor, than on the movers and shakers of the fascist state.

It doesn’t feel very dated, although Lewis’s style is to tell the reader through narrative summary virtually everything, using immediate scene sparsely. This makes for quite a dry read full of distance. The world of the book also felt very small with no great sense of the States as a nation.Although some of the horror is muted because of the aforementioned distance, it is still there, there is still the sense, when reading, of ‘what would I do?’

From Wikipedia:

Keith Perry argues that the key weakness of the novel is not that he decks out American politicians with sinister European touches, but that he finally conceives of fascism and totalitarianism in terms of traditional American political models rather than seeing them as introducing a new kind of society and a new kind of regime.Windrip is less a Nazi than a con-man-plus-Rotarian, a manipulator who knows how to appeal to people’s desperation, but neither he nor his followers are in the grip of the kind of world-transforming ideology like Hitler’s National Socialist.

If it wasn’t for Bannon I think this could apply to Trump & his regime…

The last book in the triptych is Ballard’s last book – Kingdom Come and that’s the one that seems the most prescient and the most descriptive of where we are now in Britain, but also predicts a Consumerist authoritarian fuhrer – a la Trump. And its message is that Consumerism can lead to Fascism:

“The danger is that consumerism will need something close to fascism to keep growing.”

Ballard posited that consumerism was the great cause of our age and that it leads to a spiritual boredom, a desire to break free with social pathology. A collective and willing madness that desires a bloodletting:

“People still think that the Nazi leaders led the German people into the horrors of race war. Not true. The German people were desperate to break out of their prison… and they chose Hitler to lead the hunting party… They needed a psychopath god to worship… ”

Ballard paints a bleak picture of England (the book was published in 2006) – riddled with apathy and ennui and a longing for belonging that is not being fulfilled. A land where ugly nationalism is beginning to rear its head, where in a motorway town in Surrey the men wrapped in St George’s cross rule and ethnic minorities cower in fear. Towns, where the only commonality to bind people is consumerism:

“You have to think of England as a whole… The churches are empty, and the monarchy has shipwrecked itself on its own vanity. Politics is a racket, and democracy is just another utility, like gas and electricity. Almost no-one has any civic feeling. Consumerism is the one thing that gives us our sense of value.”

“We have to keep buying or we fail as citizens. Consumerism creates huge unconscious needs that only fascism can satisfy. If anything, fascism is the form that consumerism takes when it opts for elective madness…

‘And the fuhrer figure?’

‘He hasn’t arrived yet. He’ll appear, though, walking out of some shopping mall or retail park… Everyone will be waiting for him, and he’ll seize his chance.”

This is eerily prescient I think. Ballard spotted that the zombie horde (cf Dawn of the Dead) are merely the foot troops of a new fascism. That our collective ennui seeks an outlet and that elective madness is our escape valve. (cf Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds). And he spotted that we were ripe for another bout of madness. His bleak vision noted that liberalism was dying and that the population was colluding in its own delusion.

The elective madness is “… primate behaviour at its most extreme. Witch-hunts, auto-da-fés, heretic burnings, the hot poker shoved up the enemy’s rear, gibbets along the skyline. Willed madness can infect a housing estate or a whole nation.”

I choose to view Brexit through this lens. A willed madness – all the signs point to our divorce from the EU being a massively self-harming gesture and yet it is ‘The will of the people’ and those that say otherwise are the new heretics.

“Consumerism is optimistic and forward-looking. Naturally, it asks us to accept the will of the majority. It’s driven by emotion…”

It is the ennui of consumerism, the failure of globalism, that have led us here. Progressive policies that have engendered equality are being pointed to with fingers of blame. To many, loss of privilege feels like oppression. In the USA this has led to a whitelash, here in the UK there is s strand of this, but our most vitriolic demagogues rail against the East Europeans as much as against the Islamists.

“We have to prepare our kids for a new kind of society… The old ideas of citizenship… are really rather selfish…What’s the use of free speech if you have nothing to say? What’s the point of privacy if it’s just a personalised prison? Consumerism is a collective enterprise… it celebrates coming together. Shared dreams and values, shared hopes and pleasures.

‘So Liberalism, liberty, reason?’

‘They failed. People don’t want to be appealed to by reason any more… liberalism and humanism are a huge brake on society. They trade on guilt and fear. Societies are happier when people spend not save. People long for authority…”

It’s a deeply cynical vision but one that feels realistic. There is an emptiness at the heart of our society and deep down we all know it.

“The human race sleepwalked to oblivion, thinking only of the corporate logos on its shroud.”

 

 

 

 

 

Into the Mist Review

Into the Mist by Lee Murray

I picked this up as it was on the Stoker preliminary ballot and I’m not disappointed. Reading like a mix of Congo, Predator and Valley of the Gawnji set in New Zealand, Murray provides a white-knuckle ride from page one. Throw in a hefty mix of Maori mysticism and you have a unique monster tale.

A geological survey team with a military escort is sent into Te Urewera, an area of mostly forested, sparsely populated, rugged hill country in the North Island of New Zealand . The escort is there to investigate some disappearances, including a previous military expedition.

Murray excels at action and the novel has many thrilling page-turning moments. There is a large cast of characters and mostly I was able to keep them straight but occasionally the fast pace made me think ‘who was that again?’ The landscape is evocatively crafted, although, having been to NZ perhaps my memory provided some of the backgrounds. The mists visibly swirled throughout the pages and the unique New Zealand fauna breathed in the margins.

I would definitely read another of Murray’s books and this one gets a recommendation from me, If you like monster movies or military SF you should check it out.

 

 

Bram Stoker Award Preliminary ballot

Surprised and happy that A Tiding of Magpies is on the preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker award

To celebrate my publisher has put it on Price drop for a few days and you can get it for 99p for a limited period at Amazon

 

Metronome by Oliver Langmead

 

First of all – what a beautiful cover! And it really does set the scene of the book. This is a gorgeously produced book and you just know that care and attention has been lavished on it. And the writing needs to be special to deserve that attention doesn’t it? Luckily Langmead’s second novel does.

The book opens in an old folks’ home where we are introduced to William Manderlay, an aging violinist who once wrote an album whilst in a fever-dream. When Manderlay starts having bizarre dreams he discovers that his album, Solomon’s Eye, has a deeper meaning in the world of dreams.

Most of the action takes place in a lovingly built dreamworld. Here Langmead excels, the worldbuilding plays a starring role. That’s not to say that characterisation or plot or any other factor is neglected, but the worldbuilding lifts it all up.

There are a couple of small niggles, but not enough to spoil my enjoyment. I did wonder what the point of setting up the old folks’ home was, apart to set up Manderlay’s character, which could have been done whilst the plot got rolling. Also the ending left me a little unsatisfied but maybe due to the fact that it left me wanting more. Although I think what I wanted more of was development of the idea revealed late on (no spoilers).

Langmead also excels at action and the plot skips along merrily. There’s some great imagery in there and it was a very quick and enjoyable read. I look forward to seeing what he does next.

Discoverability Challenge

Last year I attempted the Discoverability Challenge as prompted by fellow Bristol writer Jo Hall

I failed. Miserably.

I read 15 books by women last year, but most of them weren’t new to me. And as a percent of total books read it was a miserable 16%

So this year I’ve decided to repeat the challenge, and at the same time at least double the % of books I read by women to boot.

To fully qualify the writer must be a woman, I must have never read their work before and they should be both alive and still writing to benefit from a review.

Some people may think this smacks of ‘positive discrimination’ which makes them uncomfortable, but it is merely a recognition that I need to make a special effort to read contemporary women writers because left to my own devices I tend not to do that.

The first book that qualifies, and is therefore my January Discoverability read is Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither by Sara Baume.

The book is told as an ongoing ‘conversation’ between a man and his dog One eye.

You find me on a Tuesday, on my Tuesday trip to town. A note sellotaped to the inside of the jumble-shop window: COMPASSIONATE & TOLERANT OWNER. A PERSON WITHOUT OTHER PETS & WITHOUT CHILDREN UNDER FOUR.

The book explores the friendship of man and beast, with both being outcasts and misfits. It is often lyrical and beautifully developed. It is literary but not self-consciously though, I’ve read reviews that say it is plotless, which is a little unfair. There is a sense of forlorn loneliness that runs through the novel and it could have been maudlin if mishandled. But Baume has a deft touch and it is therefore touchingly melancholic. But it is still a pleasurable read as Baume’s imagery and poetic prose is a delight.

Initially, I wasn’t sure if I’d get on with the style but I soon settled into Baume’s rhythm and couldn’t wait to get back to the book on the few occasions I had to put it down.

I’d highly recommend this book

 

The Demon-Haunted World

I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no-one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

 Carl Sagan – The Demon-Haunted World 1995

This book has been on my radar for quite some time, and on my Amazon wishlist for several years and I finally got it as a birthday present. Sagan is a great communicator, and in this he is, I think, a forerunner to the likes of Dawkins et al (although his disgust with superstition didn’t really manifest as railing against religion). The book is an easy and entertaining read although feels more like a loose collection of essays rather than a structured whole (some chapters did indeed start as essays) but Sagan’s prose is breezy and pulls you along.

There are many things to take away from this book, and I’d heartily recommend it to one and all (although for me it was preaching to the choir) such as the Baloney Detector and a plain English explanation of the fundamentals of critical thinking.

I think it’s a fair bet that Sagan would have been horrified with the rise of anti-truth in politics and modern life.

This is really a book extolling the virtues of science, and as with all proselytising there is a hint of one size fits all – science is the best model for understanding the nuts and bolts of the universe for sure, but it is not a universal panacea. However, I’m all for evidence-based ‘beliefs’ and critical thinking skills and if this book was widely read there may be a few less gullible people in the world.

For more critical thinking tools I’d recommend the Great Courses – Your Deceptive Mind

Obviously reading this could be depressing – the great harms done through e.g. the Inquisition or the Witch Hunts, the lack of fact-checking in the media exposed by Randi’s Carlos hoax, the McCarthy era etc. However I ended up feeling hopeful –  seeing that in the last few years there has been a retrograde step, that many of the battles of the 20th Century need to be refought, that credulity and cynicism seem to be on the increase – but we’ve been here before, and won most of these battles before and can do so again.

The candle in the dark is still lit even though the darkness feels like it is pressing closer recently.

 

The year in writing

This year so far I have three short story deadlines and two novel deadlines –

Seven Deadly Swords is in revision so the early months of this year will mainly be spent on that.

Novel # 3 – tentatively entitled “The Certainty of Dust” (more details in a few months time when I’ve finished the planning) will mostly take up the rest of the year.

I’ll also, all things being equal (it IS publishing after all) be in an essay collection which is something I’d like to do more of (take note passing publishers)

My goal for this year is also to get in a magazine (apart from in a review like Sick City Syndrome in Geeky Monkey January) so a short story published in one of the notable specfic mags. Which means writing more short stories.

If you’re a BFS member you’ll have seen my first published story this year – You have reached your destination in the BFS January bulletin. If you’re not a BFS member you can join here:

 

Start the Year

So the first book I’m reading this year is one I received as a birthday present –

The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan

This is a book I’ve been wanting to read for a long time but have never managed to track down. It basically should be on the required reading list at school – now more than ever – as it teaches you about critical thinking. Sagan does so mainly with the alien phenomena but also with many other pseudoscience subjects. I’m about half way through and it really does need to be pressed into the hands of woolly thinkers everywhere!

 

 

Defragging

As part of an overall review and update on how I’ll be using social media from 2017 I’ve retired the BRSBKBLOG

All future bloggage will be here

This is the end

As I now have a website, and am able to blog there, I feel that having a separate blog is no longer needed and so I'm closing this one.

I'll still be reviewing, interviewing, having guest posts and blogging over on my website:  https://petewsutton.com/ but I will no lonnger be updating this one.

If you'd still like me to do a review have a read of this 

So one door closes, but another opens, come and join me on my Website