On the fourth of October, 1936, a coalition of Jews, unionists, Labour Party members and communists of various kinds, not to mention ordinary stopped the fascists under Oswald Mosley marching through the East End of London. In the Battle of Cable Street they stopped him and his blackshirts cold, despite a heavy police presence there to protect the fascists. It was a huge victory, hugely symbolic in that it was the victims who stood up to the fascists and their police escort; it would inspire antifascists decades later, even though there are always some who’d belittle these achievements.
Let’s face it, it isn’t working, is it? All those measures the Serious People have taken since the bankers’ crisis hit in 2007 to get out of recession have failed. Now it’s not just banks, but whole countries that need to be rescued, where being rescued means that everybody suffers but the bankers and while the Greek government might push through their spending cuts, it’s at the cost of risking a new civil war. Meanwhile the housing boom and crash all over Europe has led to a lot of people with huge mortgages who’ll be fscked if they lose their jobs, many banks still have loads and loads of dodgy debts on board, while governments are standing by to pump more money into them, like just happened with Dexia, wif/when these debts turn poisonous. It’s all a big, complicated mess and nobody has a clue what to do.
Since running a post-capitalist, marxist dictatorship of the proletarian is not quite on the cards this year, let’s try something equally radical, from the bible: let’s have a jubilee. In the Jewish tradition, a Jubilee was held once every fifty years, in which all debts were annulled, land returned to the original owner and slaves were freed. We need one now, in which everybody and everything in the EU starts with a clean slate. If you have a mortgage or credit card debt: poof, it’s gone. In return, all these banks owning money to governments will have their debts forgiven while the governments itself should just default. No more debt, no more problem. We get to start over and not have to worry what “the markets” will think.
Luckily Michael Minneboo, Holland’s hardest working comics journalist didn’t and recorded an impression from late in the afternoon. This time it wasn’t held in Lambiek, but at Studio K, who of course blogged about it, with lots of artwork samples.
10,000 Light-Years from Home
James Tiptree, Jr.
255 pages
published in 1973
Ther may have been something ineluctably masculine about James Tiptree Jr’s writing, as Robert Silverberg will never live down writing in his appreciation of Tiptree, but he’s still part of my Year of Reading Women project. Because as we all know now, but Silverberg didn’t, “James Tiptree Jr” was a pseudonym for Alice B. Sheldon. Sheldon’s reasons for chosing a male pseudonym were many and complex and if you want to know all about it, read Julie Phillips James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon. Suffice to say that at the time of 10,000 Light-Years from Home, Tiptree’s first collection, the secret was not out yet, as is obvious from Harry Harrison’s introduction, full of what “he” did during the war. All of which was true by the way, just with the genders flipped.
James Tiptree, Jr. therefore was an obvious entry for my little project; the reason I chose this particular collection was just because this was the only one at hand. I’ve read quite a lot of Tiptree stories, as well as several under her other pseudonym, Raccoona Sheldon, but mostly through various anthologies rather than her own collections. Because 10,000 Light-Years from Home is such an early collection it misses most of Tiptree’s best stories. Worse, some of her better known early stories, like e.g. “The Last Flight of Dr. Ain” or “Your Haploid Heart” are also missing. Yet what remains is still a very good collection of short stories any writer could be proud of. What struck me is that some of the stories in this collection could’ve been published in Analog unaltered, which is not what you’d expect from Tiptree’s reputation as a “difficult”, too feminist, New Wave writer who helped ruined science fiction, as some of the troglodytes online would have it.
JL#1 still baffles me. Could it really be as bland as I think it is? Could it be that the creators achieved exactly what they wanted? Am I missing something: are the references to Lexcorp and Darksied key in some way?
For me, superhero comics can’t be good when they’re burdened by a need to be an earth-shattering event, taking us back to DAY ONE and starting all over again. Every aspect of this comic works toward attaining the same register: High Intensity. It has little sense of verbal or visual rhythm—there’s no flow and no mystery.
And it has little plot to speak of, other than heroes fighting aliens and bickering. Much of this “plot” revolves around the big reveal of Superman on the last page, a moment Batman and Green Lantern have been anticipating . . . and fearing. When he appears, it’s a major deal for them. But not for me, and I doubt for most readers.
This is a problem. The story may be compelling for the characters living it out, but as a reader who knows exactly where it’s going—having seen hundreds of comics take this worn path—it’s not an event, but a drag.
It’d be like thinking you’re writing a “mysterious stranger” narrative, but you show him on the book’s cover, name him early on, and talk about him a few times, and make him a character that literally every reader knows: America’s most recognizable icon, the Man of Steel.
Now of course, this being a superhero comic being dissed at the Journal, the fanboys out of the woodwork came. Yet there’s something off about the very first comment, which complains about Ken complaining about Green Lantern creating a big green fighter jet for him and Batman to travel around in. See if you can spot what’s off about this and remember, this is the first issue of the first comics in the post-reboot DC universe. Take it away Francisco Silva:
Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern, is a fighter pilot by profession, it makes perfect sense he would make a fighter plane. Actually seeing as his power is to make green light constructs, he actually knows the mechanics of the F-15, therefore being able to make it work. From the moment you don’t get the character, or his motivations, I am pretty sure you are not going to get anything else.
That’s right, how does Francisco know this? Nowhere in Justice League #1 is Green Lantern’s profession mentioned, nor any of the details of how his powers work that people later in the thread come up with to explain why GL made that frikking fighter plane. The only way we know that this is Hal Jordan, who was a fighter pilot before he became a cosmic cop is that we remember this from the old DC universe, where this was true. But this isn’t meant as a gotcha against Francisco, because as Ken also indicates in his review in those last two paragraphs, this comic, the first in a bold new DC universe depends for all its impact on the associations the readers bring along from the old DC.
Thought experiment time. For Batman, Green Lantern and Superman, substitute one of the very many imitators they’ve all had over the years, some dumb old analogue from one of the nineties superhero universa that nobody remembered or cared for. Having doen so, would this comic make any sense, once you lose all the emotional baggage “Batman”, “Green Lantern” and “Superman” bring with them?
I think not.
It’s the fundamental irony of this reboot: for all it tries to be new, different and accessible for new readers, it still depends on the seventyplus years of baggage these characters drag with them, because otherwise nobody would care. Without that history as a crutch, a reboot like the NuDC is just not possible. And of course it does mean that the reboot will fail and the “new” continuity will get as tangled as the old one was, within the year.
(Apart from all that, Justice League #1 is still a bad comic which doesn’t even tells a complete story or even a chapter in a story, but just goes through the motions as it cycles through a series of bad action movie scenes.)
Somewhat of a fiction heavy month this was, largely because I hadn’t gotten any books from the library recently, my main source of non-fiction. But I was also in a mood where I justed wanted to read a good story. The gender balance is a bit out of whack this month: seven books by male writers, four by female writers. Must do better.
The Gabble and Other Stories — Neal Asher
A collection of short stories set in his Polity universe. Not the worst way to get introduced to the full Asher experience.
Rule 34 — Charlie Stross
You already know that this is the sequel to Halting State. You also know that this, like the original is written in the second person, which costs you little trouble to adapt to, but others might struggle with it. You also think that reading a review this way would get old fast.
The Ghost Brigades — John Scalzi
Sequel to Old Man’s War, starring Jane Sagan who we first met in the last third of the previous book. Fun adventure sf, with a bit more of a look behind the curtains of the OMW universe showing that things aren’t quite as black and white as the first book showed.
The Last Colony — John Scalzi
The final book in the trilogy, teaming up John Perry and Jane Sagan in defence of the new colony they lead.
Cryoburn — Lois McMaster Bujold
The latest Miles Vorkosigan novel is a fun adventure, but almost a throwback to the earliest books in the series and missing Ekaterin in this is criminal.
Needle in a Timestack — Robert Silverberg
Fun collection of short stories. Nothing spectacular.
Invader — C. J. Cherryh
Sequel to Foreigner, sharing many of its flaws, mainly that the protagonist is fairly passive and in the dark about what’s going on.
Be My Enemy — Christopher Brookmyre
Another one of Jack Parlabane novels. Jack is invited on a survival/team building exercise weekend up at an isolated Scottish castle turned hotel, to which Jack looks forward if only to pour scorn on it in his newspaper column later. Then the survival aspects turns out to be more pertinent than expected…
10,000 Light-Years from Home — James Tiptree Jr
This month’s entry in my Year of reading Women project. A very good collection, made better by the realisation that these are not even Tiptree’s best stories.
All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye — Christopher Brookmyre
When somebody tries to kidnap Jane Fleming’s granddaughter, it turns out her fitness lessons are not a complete waste and she’s good for more than babysitting…
Temeraire — Naomi Novik
All you need to know about this: Horatio Hornblower, with dragons. I was going to finish that Richard Miles history of Carthage, but this took only two pages to suck me in.
