Warlock

I thought this time I'd write about Alan Moore. I've just started re-reading some of his early stuff: 'Swamp Thing', in this case, which I haven't read for a good few years.
I've been re-reading a few comics lately, and although those I've been reading - Garth Ennis, Jamie Delano and Neil Gaiman - are all very good comic writers, as soon as you read something by Moore, there's a jump, a widening of the scope. If you like, a simple difference in scale.
I think Moore's the best writer around today. And try as I might, I can't think of anyone who can match him. Of course, he's only written one "novel", so he's not going to be taken seriously as a writer generally. AT least, as a writer of "serious books' - as opposed, of course, to comics.

But that book, "Voice of the Fire", is mindblowing. On a level of literature, it is as experimental as anything Joyce did. Of course, it does operate on the "magical realist" level, which Western critics appear to think is OK for a non-Western writer, but is too primitivist when used by a "First World" writer.
Moore, who is far from a capitalist, once explained that he received 15 grand for 'Fire', which took him 5 years, so he was buggered if he was gonna waste his time for that. (I may be paraphrasing, it was something I read a few years back and I can't remember the source). Which, to my mind, is a shame, because I think that book is a quite incredible work of art; and I would hope that even in the capitalist system, there's space for him to write a few more books yet.

Likewise his comics though. He's often been credited with being the guy who made comics acceptable as literature, but I think that's a bit of a bollocks description, and does disservice to Alan and over-credits the critics at the same time. There was a time in the late 80's when comics got noticed, and foremost was Moore's 'Watchmen', which for sure was higly praised at the time, but which still is underrated to my mind, because I think it, is a work of fiction which can compare in scope and literacy with 'Bleak House' or 'Moby Dick' . And if you're not into comics, that might seem an assinine statement, but simply look at the quality of writing, and the range of themes that are being dealt with, then personally I can't think of their equal in modern literature.
For example: There's a character who is essentially suicidal, who ponders the meaninglessness of human life, but who comes to understand the miraculous nature of all existence through that temporal miracle of man meets woman, egg meets sperm, and the alchemical impossibility that is life come into being. And moves way from suicide, or in this case from isolating himself from other people. It's a simple, profound discurse, which has its equivalent only in the equally vulgar medium of the Elizabethan theatre.
Other books discuss the nature of political power, or the way historical forces shape our perception of "reality". But also the secret history of the CIA, or sheer superhuman doo-dadds for fun. His range is unparalleled in modern literature - at least to the best of my knowledge - yet the powerful writing, with its repetetive - almost musical - cadences; its playfulness with words and toying with cliches - smelting and remoulding them; its waltz up to cliche to buff and burnish and bring raw emotion to light; this writing retains always an essential voice.
So one simple message - read anything you can get your hands on that Alan Moore has written. You know it makes sense :-)

It's been a bad day

As the song goes. It's been a bad day...
Well, not really. But if I have to work on Saturday, at least let the upgrade go well and not have to be rolled back. (Guess that's the 21st Century IT Blues?)
Lots of things on my mind tonight, all competing for consideration under that general anger and annoyance at a wasted day. I wanna spend my weekend at least with my family, and to have that wasted is very annoying.
The Winter Olympics is on - good for Aamodt, a shame for Ahonen who deserved better. And let's be honest, Davis and Cheek were better.
Twat Sharon almost died again the day after my last post, but had his stomach ripped out or something and still lives on.
26 people at least have died in 24 hours in the cartoon riots, although they've tended to get a bit broad in interpretation now. In both Libya and Nigeria there was other shit really going down. Still, more annoying shit from the god-botherers.
Meanwhile the Neo-Con god-botherers in the States have been ramping up their "attack-Iran" bollox. I think it's time to watch part two of RIchard Dawkins' attack on the assininity of 'religious faith'.
So, in the interests of spreading a bit of optimism, here's someone: Nellie Johnson (that's her up there in the left-hand corner). Can't say I know an awful lot about her, but she was a lifelong activist, old Socialist, on eof the activists of who grew up in the 20's and 30's, and I can't help having a weak spot for those old buggers. They might have been traditionalist old Stalinists in some ways, but someone like Nellie Johnson who stood up and was counted deserves recognition and appreciation.
Of course, I was heavily influenced by that scene - Sinclair Lewis, John Steinbeck, Ralph Ellison et al. Reading's good for you, especially at 16 and you want to find out that your thoughts aren't unique after all!

Evil fuck lives on

But you've got to think he's not really enjoying it!

The article here.

Feeding tube treatment for Sharon

Doctors have inserted a feeding tube into the stomach of Israeli PM Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma since surgery for his stroke on 4 January.

Doctors said the latest procedure - carried out under general anaesthetic - was successful.

Israeli TV has reported "positive signs" in that Mr Sharon, 77, responded to commands to move his eyes and a hand. He remains critical but stable.

That's 10 days ago and we haven't heard of him since. I guess we can only hope that when Thatcher's strokes start kicking in more that she suffers as much?

Or is that being unreasonable of me?

Perhaps we should just hope she kicks the bucket quick and get busy with building the disco and the public urinals on her grave?

That's Magic!

Thanks to the power of the net, I've managed to start rereading 'Hellblazer' without starving the children of food and depriving them of clothing. I'm even going to finally read the last part of 'Rake at the Gates of Hell', which I never found anywhere in treeware in 10 years of searching.
If you know it at all, 'Hellblazer' is about John Constantine, a modern magician. (Not Constantine as in Keanu Reeves, even though the film wasn't as bad as I feared).
He's a character invented by Alan Moore, who is perhaps the greatest living writer. And Moore actually claims to have seen Constantine twice. Moore also, after his 40th birthday, became more involved with magic.
I was quite involved with the magic scene 20 years ago. I've had a few very unusual experiences. I guess I've kept out of it since because those experiences were nearly uniformly unpleasant. Not surprising, considering the environment I was in. But possessions and dead kittens are not really the sort of stuff to appeal to a guy approaching middle age!
I guess I missed the ecstatic side of magic mostly, and even when I did get that lovely flow of synchronicity running, I felt mistrustful about it back then.
Of course, it never leaves you entirely. There's still an appeal, even if these days I tend to be nearly as suspicious of that instinct as I am of all the damn god-botherers in the news these days. And I sometimes wonder what I still retain, even at work I might find myself in a meeting and catch myself using some of the techniques in basic magic - which are not so much magic really as a sort of self-projection. (Meaning people see you the way you want them to see you - glamour, it is properly known as).
We all seek meaning, they say. Personally, I think I've actually found meaning, and I try to live to that, and probably fail abysmally :-)

The passing of an age

My first real blog was about the death of Rosa Parks. A few days ago, Coretta King died, and today, the passing was announced of Betty Friedan, on her 85th birthday.
It's hard for anyone these days to truly appreciate the magnitude of what these women did. The generations of women who came after stood on the shoulders of giants - and these women were some of those giants. They came from a time when women were not so much thought of as inferior by men, as casually dismissed with a sneer - the idea of a woman having an independent life of value was in itself so absurd an idea as to be radical.
That was the basic concept of Betty Friedan's book 'The Feminine Mystique' . Which, I must be honest here, is sat on my bookshelf but I've never got round to reading the whole thing. And to give you some idea of how times have changed, that's largely because my free time is spent busy with the children, and not reading as many books as I might like!
The women of her generation seemed staid and 'square' just a few years later afterthe revolution they started had kicked in. Betty Friedan became seen in some quarters as an old reactionary. To be honest, I don't know the truth of this. I know she didn't like the lesbian separatist domination of the women's movement in the late 70's, early 80's. That effectively fucked feminism for a long time - and women today seem to me less radical than the women in the early 80's when I was growing up.
Strange, me & Es were talking earlier tonight about the way that men back then were trying to be 'New Men', trying to "get in touch with their feelings". I said that I found it quite insulting to women, because they seemed to equate "being in touch with their feminine side" as being weak and pathetic. Which are not feminine traits as far as I'm concerned.
It's hard, looking back, to understand how the radical feminist scene was then. I was almost one of those guys who became exclusively gay in solidarity with the lesbian feminists. The principle being, if women said that it wasn't possible to have a relationship with a man because there was too much cultural baggage of oppression, then I would restrict myself to relationships with men.
There were so many flaws in this logic, I can only say that it wasn't purely my logic - it was pretty common back then!
We talked about what women and men see in each other, as genders. The whole protection, child-bearing, nurture, alphamale stuff.
But I basically stick to my principle: the differences between any two individuals dwarf and common differences between two genders. Generalisation is the work of weak minds, and whether it is founded on oppression or ignorance, to guide your understanding of humanity on the basis of the gender of a person is an act of oppression in and of itself.

Busy

Shit man, I've been busy lately. I must have 15 or more projects on the go at work, and I'm juggling having to do the technical shit on them right now, and zipping to management meetings. So little chance to blog, or do much at all.
And I'm trying to find from somewhere the energy to get back into finishing the first draft of the book. Only about a third to go, and then I can start all over again, now that I'm sort of getting the main plot arcs and themes nailed down a bit. Not that I can do that now - I don't like to write seriously with a few beers in me.
Poor old kids must be feeling kind of neglected. Last weekend they were away at Oma's for the weekend, which at least gave me & Es the chance to chill - and party, to be honest. Took a while to recover - I'm not used to a hard party weekend anymore!
In fact, Christmas was 2 weeks with the kids, because I knew I'd not get a break for a good while, and since then I've also had to calm on the drinking during the week, 'cos Christmas was pretty intense! Well, it's good to know I'm not an alcoholic, despite some years on the verge :-)
There's not a hell of a lot happening in the world outside that's really inspiring me to write a blog either. Climate - well, it's been cold in Russia this winter, so not exactly a surprise there. Hamas won the Palestinian elections, but not really a surprise there. And Bush yesterday announced in his State of the Union address that America must break its addiction to oil. Which probably just means that Haliburton has moved into nuclear energy.
Stupidest story at the moment, and big news everywhere, is that some cartoons in a Danish newspaper have now led to riots, boycotts, and all sorts of shit with people getting there nose out of joint.
To be honest, the cartoons look pretty shit stuff - the sort of "swarthy Arab" stereotype associated with violence and intolerance - that is basically just racist tosh. But the reaction of the fundamentalist god-botherers (or, I suppose, Allah-botherers in this case) is as usual full of hypocrisy. They go around insulting gays, women, Jews, and gods-alone-know-who-else. So - if you can't take it, don't dole it out guys.
Don't the self-righteous just bug the shit out of you?
So, in the interests of humour, here's a funny cartoon, from these guys, and I hope they forgive me for reposting:-)