Review: Fury by John Coyne

   This novel starts off as one thing, and end as something completely different. I love those.

  It’s pretty much advertised as a horror story, but it isn’t, really. I would say it’s one more story not fitting into any genre, which is great. I prefer those.

  Jennifer Winters is a more or less average, no-nonsense modern businesswoman. She is frustrated beneath the polished surface, though, and doesn’t know why. When an old friend makes an attempt to pull her onto a new path, she rejects it out of hand as ridiculous.

  Later and shocking events she cannot ignore forces her out of her comfort zone, pulls her so far off the straight and narrow that she can hardly see the path ahead of her anymore, and there’s no way back to her dull, ordinary existence.

  The story begins right away. Very little of significance has happened before the first line, and there is no explanation, even though the Shirley MacLaine quote gives one possible clue for those of us knowing one crucial fact about her. We need to actually read the story for the explanation. Another good thing. We’re privy to Jennifer’s thoughts, and we experience the events through her, including her growing incredulity and fear as the story progresses. She has no idea what’s truly happening, and we don’t have either.

  The story does progress at an excellent pace. We’re slowly given more information, even though that doesn’t help much at first. The necessary confusion prevails, without the story becoming convoluted. There is a great balance to it. We’re torn between doubt and certainty in just the right way.

  The end is satisfying, and for most people it would feel a little strange, but also right, a natural progression of the story we’ve read. I liked it. I can’t claim to actually be enthusiastic, but the ending was still a great payoff. Everything makes sense to Jennifer, and to us at the end, even though it was far from the ending we expected. It made sense because it wasn’t the ending we expected.

  Recommended.

Poor man’s way of enjoying art

  There is one part of the bit-torrent and free download of music and movies that hasn’t been mentioned much, amazingly so.

  It’s a major equalizer in so many areas.

  It gives people that wouldn’t otherwise be able to pay for experiencing music and movies a great opportunity to watch and listen and not give a fuck about the inflated official prices set by wealthy and oppressive movie moguls and record producers.

  Giving them the finger is so much fun, on so many levels. Recently, for instance the show The Blacklist was pulled from the more law-abiding torrent sites because of yet another horrid court order, but I just switched to a torrent provider that doesn’t give a shit about court orders and was still able to download it.

  There are still segments of the Internet where lawlessness rules, where people reject unjust laws on a matter of principle, and I love that, just fucking love that.

Scandal

  There has been a scandal in British retail book-sale business lately, but the scandal is, contrary to popular opinion not that WHSmith has found lots of controversial novels among their titles, but that they have chosen to remove those titles from their assortment. They have exposed themselves as eager supporters of censorship.

  When you read their press releases and the explanation they give their customers, on and off their website you find one bizarre and sick statement after another. Yes, it safe to say they are practically lined up. There have been many cases like this throughout history, where mainstream citizens impose their narrow morality on everybody else. It wasn't acceptable then and isn't now.

  An oppressive society always blame art in order to distract people from what those in charge should be blamed for and this is certainly such a case. Established retailers and publishers have constantly supported this vile practice.

  A guy by the name of Jeremy Wilson in the online magazine Kernel eagerly call for censorship, and doing so without a single original and free thought in his head. He speaks of filth. What he writes is filth. Find themes most objectionable in people’s eyes, distort the truth, make things up to support your tyranny of the mind. The true scandal is that people like him and those eager beavers at WHSmith and elsewhere have any influence what so ever. The hysteria grows, as it often does in cases like this and all independent titles, those not published by established publishers come under scrutiny, which is exactly what the established publishers desire. I wouldn't put it beyond them to have planned and actually orchestrated this.

  There are lots of talk about ending censorship in foreign countries, but very little of ending it here, in the west, where it is just as bad. It's about money, of course, but also about power and influence.

  Censorship is wrong, without exceptions. Controversial titles should be hailed as a great thing, not removed from public eye. It should be proudly displayed.  It is all the boring and bland mainstream titles that should be thrown on the garbage heap where they belong.

Buyers of IPhone

  A very accurate description. People line up for days to buy that shit?
  We live in an insane world with insane people. It's really an excellent illustration how the sick consumer society is kicking into even sicker overdrive.

  It isn't strange that the world is so out of whack.

The boy doll

  I don’t know how many negative articles there are about Justin Bieber out there, since I haven’t really checked. The entire subject, the very thought fills me with disgust. But I would imagine there is quite a few. There should be.

  Here is my contribution:

  He can’t sing, literally can’t sing. Not even the wonders of modern technology can fix his weak voice.

  The songs are hardly songs at all, but a tired, old repetitive, uninventive record stuck at the end of the melody. I most certainly agree with Danish newspapers calling him as real as Santa Claus.

  He is a sale pitch, really and nothing more, a celebration of banalities, of the mindless, of prostitution, of people selling themselves. When millions of hysterical girls scream his name many, way too many young boys want to be him. He is, in short a typical early twenty-first century role model, one not first and foremost selling his songs, but an idea, a scheme of submission and enslavement, one tool among many spearheading his masters’ ambitions of a world without freedom.

  One Direction and similar boy and girl bands fit the same mold.

  When he visited Norway this week there was little difference between that and him visiting any country, anywhere. We saw stupidity incarnated. We saw rich people pay for their daughters to meet him face to face, saw him being treated like royalty everywhere and while there was some reflective thought in that and other regards, reflective and critical thought was mostly absent in the public sphere.

  The music publishing industry, like the movie and book industries doesn't sell art, but a lifestyle, one without awareness and independence. They have always supported artists serving up mindless drivel the most.

  It’s very similar to general advertising. Advertising doesn't first and foremost sell a given product, but instills in almost everybody a need for being popular, to belong, of being accepted by family, friends and society. In the boy or girl doll the modern human youth projects his or her longings, an excuse to not seek true freedom, to not live an independent and radical and aware life.

  I don’t wonder why the world is filled with silly love songs. It is because those in charge have ordained it.

Ever After by Kim Harrison, my thoughts

  «There's no witch in Cincinnati tougher, sexier, or more screwed up than bounty hunter Rachel Morgan». From Every which way but dead (book 3 of the Hollow series).

  Aside from having a «tendency» (pun intended) to name the books in her Hollow series of novels after Clint Eastwood films, Kim Harrison is quite the competent writer. I have to think so, right, since I've read every book in the series so far.

  I love the quote above. It more than suggests, in spite of the flaws that there is something more than the ordinary to these books, something confirmed at least to a point when you read them.

  Kim has set up a very elaborate universe of vampires, witches, demons and elves with more than one original twist. There have been ups and downs in my reading of the series, but I do come back for more. I don’t quite understand why, but I do.

  I like the fact that Rachel was revealed to be a demon and also accepted it without too much fuss. Most other writers in the genre of urban fantasy wouldn't have dared to do that, wouldn't have dared pushing even those minor boundaries.

  Ever After is the eleventh novel in the series. And even though Rachel has fucked up again and needs to fix it, she has reached a modicum of calm at her center, isn't the neurotic wreck she was in the first books. Even Rachel’s relationship with Ivy the vampire isn't that unlikely and filled with silliness anymore. As Kim has done earlier she continues building on themes introduced in previous books. There is a progression here that is kind of effective. She is fairly good at characterization, at least with some secondary characters for some reason.

  And I do want to know what comes next, even though I see, or at least initially saw Rachel, the main protagonist as a ridiculous, implausible character.

  One thing in particular is bad about this book. A very important event happens off camera, which can never be good. I could attribute this to the I-form Harrison use to tell her stories, but the event would be easy to work into even that, so it has to be a deliberate choice of the writer and one I can’t say I like very much.

  The stories remain a fashion show of sorts, a choice I don’t care for either.

  And my foremost criticism: These books are advertised as books for adults, but I think they are much more for young adults and hardly even that. The way sex and violence and general interaction is described (or not) is almost approaching that of a children fairy tale, not really for truly mature readers at all.

  I wish writers would stop being so cautious. I guess it has something to do with the fact that the books are published by established publishers. They don’t make waves and don’t want their writers to do so either, and that makes almost all their publications potentially very, very boring.

  As I said, I keep reading these books, but they don’t excite me and certainly not like they could have, if they hadn't insulted the reader’s intelligence.

  My conclusion, I guess, is that in spite of some positive elements in the stories, the negative outmatches them. The potential is far from being actualized. The setup is great, the execution isn't.

The sorry current state of mankind

  Most people clearly prefer the choice on the right, since that is by far the most common these days and has been for a long time.
  It says a lot about the sorry current state of mankind.

Stop shop - the world

  In November four Norwegian women made public an idea, an intended effort.

  «We’re sick and tired of being slaves of the fashion industry».

  Their aim is to not buy new clothes (in Norwegian) for a year, unless they’re absolutely necessary.

  All such initiatives are worth applauding and supporting.

  Buying new clothes only because those a month old are perceived as outdated is truly one of the more insane acts in this world.

  Say no to the consumer society. Say it loud and clear.

The dismal quality of the Young Adult genre

  I don’t enjoy any genre as a rule, but Young Adult is truly raising my ire.

  Mixed with Romance, as it often is (the two are joined at the hip) it becomes an absolutely horrible experience.

  How anyone can enjoy this crap is beyond me.

  It is teenager’s life diluted, clouded by a thousands filters of censorship and misdirection, totally empty of reason and passion both.

  There is no sex, no violence, except off camera and nothing even resembling real life.

  I read LJ Smith when I was ten and couldn't (still can’t) believe the genre she practically started has become so popular. I must «confess» I've never more than browsed Stephanie Meyer’s books, but I read more than enough to form an opinion and it’s worse than its reputation. I forced myself to read Dark Flame by Alyson Noel, just to see if it ever amounted to anything.

  It never did.

  That was supposed to be her darkest story? Ridiculous! If she wrote for Christian grandmothers perhaps (perhaps she does).

  To my fellow young adults enjoying or pretending to enjoy this shit I have only one thing to say: up yours!

  In a world where stale and unexciting storytelling is dominant, this genre is truly the bottom of the barrel.

  I want to read and enjoy completely different stories. This quote from a review I agree wholeheartedly with:

  "ShadowWalk is a powerful tale of magick and empowerment which manages not to sound like a mind-body-spirit-self-obsessed-hippie book. This is full-on reality. Blood and sweat and shit - nothing's toned down or dulled. The intensity of life comes through strong and meaty. Real life bursting off the pages".

  Review in Green Anarchist (the original and best) No. 68/69 Summer 2003.

  This is a story about teenagers, but it is so far removed from the YA-genre it is possible to come. The quote says it all, really. ShadowWalk operates on a completely different level compared to the mainstream shit we are fed continuously today.

Beyond greedy corporations

Apparently, the latest Harry Potter DVD was manufactured under a low transfer quality so people would decide to upgrade to bluray. I haven't received my pre-ordered DVD in the mail yet so I can't say for certain, but the folks at the DH pt2 board who do have the DVD have all said the same thing. They purposely made it sub-standard quality so people would go out and purchase bluray players and the blurays themselves if they want to experience the full quality.

I of course posted a lengthy post regarding how bullcrap this is, how some people can't afford to buy blurays, the players, or even HDTV's (I still have a 27" CRT). WB is cheating the good DVD buying consumers out of quality product in order to get people to upgrade and I am outraged.

Wet facts a day in March

Women earn, on average a lot less than men. We may do exactly the same job, and even do it better, but still be paid less. Many fantastic explanations are given for this, even for why it should be like this, but none of them should be taken seriously.

«The market sets the salary».

«The boss has the right to give his employees the salary he thinks the employees deserve».

This is what I have to look forward to as a female employee the next fifty years, if I’m lucky. And it doesn’t necessarily take a turn for the better, but for the worse.

We’re discriminated against solely because of our sex, among other reasons because of religious dogmatism, institutionalized through centuries. In many places and areas we’re forced to be our own warden. We’re even enraged when people dare to imply we’re being oppressed.

Burn a bible today, you, too.

Many women, among them Sarah Palin works hard to make it even harder for us, both as employees and in society in general.

We’re still seen as objects of men’s desire, as an extension of men, fifty years after we burned bras and skirts. Most women still accept society’s dogmatic views. The fact that we accept being given our male partner’s name in marriage is merely one of those. Many even kneel before the altar and repeat religious declarations of submission. Sometimes I am tempted, sorely tempted into believing that people aren’t thinking at all.

Lots of men also feel that this is a bad thing, actually. They want, as incredible as it may sound women able and willing to think and act independently, and not be men’s parrot, his doormat.

In my eyes current society is hostile to all humans, to both men and women, but that women have it slightly worse is beyond doubt.

Money can buy happiness

They can’t guarantee it, but may, for several reasons help you pretty far along. You can’t get everything for money, but you can get quite a lot, also, indirectly devotion and commitment from another human being. Most ladies or gentlemen taken for a ride in a luxurious boat or private airplane will usually be in a very good mood after a while.

Lise, as the very creative person she is, is imagining the following scenario: your new boyfriend picks you up in his limo. His private chauffeur opens the door for you. The boyfriend takes you on a daytrip to Amsterdam, where the two of you dine in a restaurant where the steak has been flown straight from Argentine. There are candles on the table. The two of you sip bubbled water. Two hours later you are fucking your brains out in the enormous suite at the hotel. Well into the next morning he proposes and gives you a giant diamond ring. You say yes with an excited howl and in wild joy.

Young and cynical and realistic Lise strikes again.