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Science Fiction and Surveillance: Zamyatin's We (BBC RADIO SHOW)

2013-11-02

Yevgeny Zamyatin's experiences in the Tyne shipyards fed into his dystopian fable "We", which was published in 1919. It depicts a city of glass where citizens are spied upon. Fans of the book have included George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Wolfe and it increasingly resonates with today's concerns about surveillance techniques. Matthew Sweet and an audience at The Free Thinking Festival from Sage Gateshead discuss the novel with poet Sean O'Brien, columnist...

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Home Front: Culture Wars

Olbermann an Ivy Leaguer? Not so, notes Ann Coulter

2009-03-05

Oh my gawd....he's been deboned and filleted. What a lying douchebag. A taste I wouldn't mention it, except that Olbermann savages anyone who didn't go to an impressive college. As it happens, he didn't go to an impressive college, either. If you've ever watched any three nights of his show, you know that Olbermann went to Cornell. But he always forgets to mention that he went to the school that offers classes in milking and bovine management. Indeed, Keith is constantly lying about his nonexistent "Ivy League" education, boasting to Playboy magazine, for example: "My Ivy League education taught me how to cut corners, skim books and take an idea and write 15 pages on it, and also how to work all day at the Cornell radio station and never actually go to class." Except Keith didn't go to the Ivy League Cornell; he went to the Old MacDonald Cornell. The real Cornell, the School of Arts and Sciences (average SAT: 1,325; acceptance rate: 1 in 6 applicants), is the only Ivy League school at Cornell and the only one that grants a Bachelor of Arts degree. Keith went to an affiliated state college at Cornell, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (average SAT: about that of pulling guards at the University of South Carolina; acceptance rate: 1 of every 1.01 applicants). Olbermann's incessant lying about having an "Ivy League education" when he went to the non-Ivy League ag school at Cornell would be like a graduate of the Yale locksmithing school boasting about being a "Yale man." Among the graduates of the Ivy League Cornell are Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Thomas Pynchon, Paul Wolfowitz, E.B. White, Sanford I. Weill, Floyd Abrams, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Ginsburg, Janet Reno, Henry Heimlich and Harold Bloom. Graduates of the ag school include David LeNeveu of the Anaheim Ducks, Mitch Carefoot of the Phoenix RoadRunners, Darren Eliot, former professional hockey player, and Joe Nieuwendyk, multiple Stanley Cup winner. One begins to understand why Harvard students threw a chicken on the ice during Cornell's famous rout of Harvard at a 1973 hockey game. If you actually want to pursue a career related to agriculture, there is no better school than the Cornell ag school. I have nothing but admiration for the farmers and aspiring veterinarians at the ag school. They didn't go there just to have "Cornell" on their resumes. In addition to the farmers, there are some smart kids who go to the ag school -- as there are at all state universities. But most people who majored in "communications" at an ag school don't act like Marshall Scholars or go around mocking graduates of Regent University Law School. The sort of insecurity that would force you to always say "trebled" instead of "tripled" could only come from a communications major with massive status anxiety, like Keith. Without even looking it up, I am confident that Harvard, Yale and Princeton do not offer degrees in "communications." I know there is no "communications" major at the Ivy League Cornell. "Communications" is a major, along with "recreation science," most commonly associated with linemen at USC. But at least the linemen can throw a football, which Keith cannot because his mother decided he was not physically robust enough to play outdoors as a child. It may seem cruel to reveal the true college of someone who already wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat worried that he's a fraud. But I believe that by pointing out that Olbermann actually is a fraud, I am liberating him. You may not realize it now, Keith, but you will look back on this day and say, "That was the best thing that ever happened to me!" Finally, you can stop pretending that you went to the hard-to-get-into Cornell. Now you won't have to quickly change the subject whenever people idly remark that they didn't know it was possible to major in "communications" at an Ivy League school. No longer will you have to aggressively bring up Cornell when it has nothing to do with the conversation. Relax, Keith. Now you can let people like you for you or not. I wouldn't want Coulter as an enemy. She's a tough one

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-Short Attention Span Theater-

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84

2007-04-12

"Hey! I really am dead! The smell is more than just my writing!" NEW YORK (AP) -- Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday. He was 84. Vonnegut, who often marveled that he had lived so long despite his lifelong smoking habit, had suffered brain injuries after a fall at his Manhattan home weeks ago, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz. The author of at least 19 novels, many of them best-sellers, as well as dozens of short stories, essays and plays, Vonnegut relished the role of a social critic. He lectured regularly, exhorting audiences to think for themselves and delighting in barbed commentary against the institutions he felt were dehumanizing people. "I will say anything to be funny, often in the most horrible situations," Vonnegut, whose watery, heavy-lidded eyes and unruly hair made him seem to be in existential pain, once told a gathering of psychiatrists. More at link.

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Home Front: Culture Wars

NEA sponsors soldiers writing about the war

2006-12-26

Moved to 12/26 due to the late posting; this deserves a full day. AoS. War has inspired some of the greatest works of literature. Writers from Thucydides to Walt Whitman, from Whittaker Chambers to Kurt Vonnegut, have been shaped by what they witnessed on the battlefield or in its immediate aftermath. Leo Tolstoy, the author of "War and Peace," once noted that great literature often emerges in the years following great wars. But until recently, the National Endowment for the Arts had never run any program to serve our men and women in uniform. With this in mind, Dana Gioia, the NEA's director, attended a poetry conference in April 2003 and stepped into that incubator of so many good writing projects: a bar. Over drinks he was prodded by the poet laureate of Connecticut, Marilyn Nelson, to launch a writing project for soldiers fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts in the war on terror. Later that year, the project began to take shape. The NEA asked soldiers and their families to submit essays about their experiences on either far-flung battlefields or the home front. And Mr. Gioia persuaded Boeing Co. to underwrite the program by donating hundreds of thousands of dollars. The results have been published in a recent book--"Operation Homecoming"--and have inspired a documentary expected to air on PBS next year. At the beginning, the NEA tried to spur on the soldier-writers by holding 50 workshops on military bases with well-known authors--e.g., Tom Clancy, Jeff Shaara and Bobbie Ann Mason. The purpose was to help each would-be writer get used to putting his thoughts and experiences down on paper. Half the workshops were in the U.S. and half abroad. Soldiers, veterans and military contractors responded enthusiastically. More than 6,000 people showed up, many of them still on active duty. In some cases, family members came to learn what their loved ones had been reluctant to tell them about the nature of war. Mr. Gioia estimates that the NEA has received some 1,200 submissions during the course of the project, all of which are to be preserved at the Library of Congress. One hundred of the best essays made it into "Operation Homecoming." The book was edited by Andrew Carroll, a historian who has studied letters home from previous American conflicts. Mr. Carroll told me that the writing from this project is on a par with what was written by American soldiers during the Revolution and every war since. He thinks that one or two of the current crop of warrior-scribes may end up as a writer of stature.

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Home Front: Culture Wars

Kurt Vonnegut, "I really was so dead I stunk"

2006-02-19

Author Kurt Vonnegut has told the BBC that he came out of semi-retirement to write his new book A Man Without A Country because of his "contempt" for current US President George W Bush. A Man Without A Country, Vonnegut's first book in five years, is a collection of short essays dealing with a wide range of topics, including humour and the difference between men and women - although the subject it tackles most is the current Bush presidency. The book is subtitled A Memoir Of Life In George W Bush's America, and Vonnegut - who is well known for his liberal views and attacks on the American right - told the BBC that he had "drawn energy from my contempt for our president." He explained two friends from his children's generation "rescued" him by persuading him to write again. "They did for me what Jesus did for Lazarus," he said. Balance at the link... if you can stomach more of his drivel. "I really was so dead I stunk, but now here I am back here at the age of 83."

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Home Front: Culture Wars

Carter book a best seller: NYT

2005-12-08

"If there's any theme to the year," said David Rosenthal, the publisher of Simon & Schuster's flagship imprint, "it's that people only want to read the truth." That explains why the NYT's circulation numbers are down. So while nonfiction sales are generally good, he said, fiction sales are best defined, in Mr. Rosenthal's usual plain-spoken manner, by an expletive. Yup, thath's the Times This continues a trend that began at least four years ago, when, after 9/11, a large segment of readers seemed to give up on fiction, flocking instead to nonfiction works, first about 9/11 itself, then about Islam, the Middle East, Iraq and United States politics. Two books that are selling well ahead of expectations this fall fit that mold: "Our Endangered Values," by Jimmy Carter, an assessment of the country's current political and religious debates, published by Simon & Schuster; and "A Man Without a Country," by Kurt Vonnegut, a series of essays leavened with the author's trademark humanist view, published by Seven Stories Press. Why do I have the susicion these are not the only two books selling ahead of expectations? "Both of these men have a moral profile" that is helping their books, said Jim Harris, an owner of Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City. He added that the authors' "authoritative voices" have attracted buyers who do not place themselves at one political extreme or the other. In Iowa city that's probably true. How about Dubuque, Des Moines, Davenport, Marshalltown, Mason City, Keokuk, Ames, Clear Lake? Well, maybe not Ames, either. Mr. Carter's book has sold nearly all of the 310,000 copies in its initial printing, said Mr. Rosenthal of Simon & Schuster, and the company has since pushed the number in circulation to 675,000. Mr. Carter has had best-selling books before, most notably his 2001 memoir, "An Hour Before Daylight," which sold 300,000 hardcover copies. Mr. Vonnegut, too, is no stranger to the best-seller lists, but he has more often arrived there with works of fiction. His latest book, his first best seller since the 1997 novel "Timequake," has sold nearly 100,000 copies, according to the publisher, and spent six weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. It is also the first entry on the Times list for Seven Stories Press, an independent publisher that in 2000 published a previous book of essays by Mr. Vonnegut, "God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian." Gerry Donaghy, an inventory supervisor at Powell's Books in the heart of Blue America Portland, Ore., said Mr. Vonnegut's book had attracted buyers because, at a time when political dialogue is increasingly polarized, "he is not as strident as Michael Moore or Al Franken." Besides, Mr. Donaghy added, while many new hardcover books are priced as high as $35, Mr. Vonnegut's has a relatively low list price of $23.95, and "many people are buying multiple copies to give as gifts." If you're not offended yet, check the NYT Non-fiction best cellars: HARDCOVER NONFICTION Top 5 at a Glance 1. OUR ENDANGERED VALUES, by Jimmy Carter 2. TEACHER MAN, by Frank McCourt 3. TEAM OF RIVALS, by Doris Kearns Goodwin 4. THE WORLD IS FLAT, by Thomas L. Friedman 5. THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING, by Joan Didion

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Fifth Column

Lileks vs. Vonnegut

2005-11-21

Last week, SF author Kurt Vonnegut made some statements in an Aussie interview praising Islamofascist suicide bombers. James Lileks comments: If these comments are reported accurately – if they didn’t remove the part where he says “nevertheless, they are horrid madmen who willingly slaughter children in the service of a depraved concept of God and human society” – then this ought to be a deal-breaker. This ought to be the point where the man is shunned, not feted, and held to account in every subsequent mention of his name and works. As in “Vonnegut, whose early works exposed the madness and nihilism of war, would later support the ‘sweet and honourable’ nature of men who set off nailbombs in public squares in the name of the organization that killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11.” But this will be regarded as nothing more than a beloved old uncle letting off a fart at a wedding and grinning widely when people turn around. Which is more likely: a book review that says Vonnegut’s criticisms of the Bush Regime must be considered in light of the author’s support of suicide bombers, or a review that says Vonnegut has made statements lauding bombers, BUT he brings up troubling issues / confronts the hypocrisy inherent in Washington / speaks truth to power / speaks Hindu to houseplants / etc. I’m guessing you’ll see the latter more than the former. Not because the book reviewer necessarily agreest. But there is nothing to be gained from pointing out that Vonnegut is an addled old fool whose brain has rusted in the antiestablishment default position for so long he cannot distinguish between suicide bombers and people who stage a sit-in at a Woolworth’s counter. There is nothing to be gained from attacking the messenger when his other message is so delicious. Of course, all it would take is a few book editors in a few magazines to say “to hell with the old coot; I have a cousin serving in Iraq, and I’ll be goddamned if I give this hairy old fool a pass because he wrote a book my brother loved in college. What’s the matter with us? Do we excuse everything because it kicks Bush in the nuts? If Madonna puts on a suicide belt in her next video and sashays into St. Peters to protest, oh, I don’t know, popery, do we give her a f*$*#ing golf clap for pushing the envelope again?” Vonnegut is described in the article as a “peace activist.” As a wise giant said in “The Princess Bride” – “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

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Home Front: Culture Wars

Kurt Vonnegut Now More Than Half-A-Bubble Off Plumb

2005-11-19

ONE of the greatest living US writers has praised terrorists as "very brave people" and used drug culture slang to describe the "amazing high" suicide bombers must feel before blowing themselves up. "Like, wow, man! I'm, like, blowing up!" Kurt Vonnegut, author of the 1969 anti-war classic Slaughterhouse Five, made the provocative remarks during an interview in New York for his new book, Man Without a Country, a collection of writings critical of US President George W. Bush. Vonnegut, 83, has been a strong opponent of Mr Bush and the US-led war in Iraq, but until now has stopped short of defending terrorism. But in discussing his views with The Weekend Australian, Vonnegut said it was "sweet and honourable" to die for what you believe in, and rejected the idea that terrorists were motivated by twisted religious beliefs. "They are dying for their own self-respect," he said. "It's a terrible thing to deprive someone of their self-respect. It's like your culture is nothing, your race is nothing, you're nothing." Somehow, though, only Muslims tend to feel that way, so I suspect religion may be involved in some small way. Otherwise people would be looking askance at Lutherans and Taoists and Jehovah's Witnesses. Asked if he thought of terrorists as soldiers, Vonnegut, a decorated World War II veteran, said: "I regard them as very brave people, yes." He equated the actions of suicide bombers with US president Harry Truman's 1945 decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Kamikaze pilots, I could understand. Truman, I can't... On the Iraq war, he said: "What George Bush and his gang did not realise was that people fight back." Vonnegut suggested suicide bombers must feel an "amazing high". He said: "You would know death is going to be painless, so the anticipation - it must be an amazing high." Somehow, I don't imagine having your body ripped to shreds is painless. Admittedly, it's a brief experience, but there's a vast difference between brief and non-existent. Vonnegut's comments are sharply at odds with his reputation as a peace activist and his distinguished war service. He served in the US 106th Division and was captured by German forces at the Battle of the Bulge. Taken to Dresden and held with other POWs in a disused abattoir, Vonnegut witnessed the appalling events of February 13-14, 1945, when 800 RAF Lancaster bombers firebombed the city, killing an estimated 100,000 civilians. The experience inspired his book Slaughterhouse Five - the title of the novel coming from the barracks he was assigned in the POW camp. The book became an international bestseller and made Vonnegut a luminary of the US literary left. But since Mr Bush was elected, Vonnegut's criticisms of US policy have become more and more impassioned. "Impassioned" is apparently the same thing as "incoherent." In 2002, he was widely criticised for saying there was too much talk about the 9/11 attacks and not enough about "the crooks on Wall Street and in big corporations", whose conduct had been more destructive. The following year he wrote that the US was hated around the world "because our corporations have been the principal deliverers and imposers of new technologies and economic schemes that have wrecked the self-respect, the cultures of men, women and children in so many other societies". Even while putting money in their pockets... But Vonnegut's latest comments are likely to make many people wonder if old age has finally caught up with a grand old man of American letters.

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