FICTIONS and NEWSPEAK

FICTIONS

Dear Readers:

At times you may have noticed that weird fictional entries appear that seem to have little to do with me or the subject of this blog, although the topics here are myriad and sundry. The relevance of these excerpts has to do with my attempt at writing a novel some years ago, at the turn of the millennium.

It is a long manuscript that in many ways fulfills the description E. M. Forster once gave of the 19th century novel as a “loose, baggy monster.” In fact, this was always the working title. It is the apocalyptic story of the rise of Zeke Pluto, a social outcast and autodidact who develops a worldwide cult following. It is set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Belize, C. A., India and other places I can’t remember at the moment.

POLITICS

Spin. Spin. Spin. Isn’t it interesting how the press, as Noam Chomsky describes it, “manufactures consent.” In the send up to the Iraqi debacle/quagmire the media was complicit in perpetuating fear via phony information (where’s Orwell when we need him?). Ironically today is the anniversary of the U. N. weapons inspectors report in 2003 that Iraq was progressing towards full disclosure in the search for WMD’s. The woefully inadequate reportage on the U.N.s findings thus aided the rush to judgment on Iraq.

Now comes 2008. Shortly after the Feb. 1 double suicide bombing in Baghdad it was reported that, “A senior commander in Baghdad, said there were indications that the women were mentally disabled and were unwitting victims of insurgents”(2/21/08 NYT). This led to further reports that “Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni extremist group that American officials say is led by foreigners, has been using mentally disabled people (Iraqi officials said that the women had Down syndrome, a genetic disorder) as suicide bombers.”(2/21/08)

Those dirty terrorists! They’ll stoop to anything! Next thing you know they’ll be torturing people.

This just in, “BAGHDAD – Psychiatric case files of two female suicide bombers….do not contain information indicating they had Down syndrome, American officials said Wednesday.” Hail newspeak!