SpiderFarmer

Iron Council by China Miéville

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was angered by this book. Angered, discomforted, distressed, and emotionally drained. I, like Ann-Hari, felt robbed; as though the ending of my journey had been stolen and turned into a tourist destination. I was..no..I AM angry at Judeh, the self taught thaumaturge golemist, who with a clever use of deus ex machina stopped history in its tracks.

It is one of the few books where when I was finished, I had to go have a cry; I lamented the end as I have grieved for very few imaginary characters. And unlike most books, I haven’t been able to pick up another book immediately. Rather, I’ve wandered around in a fugue for a day or so, replaying the book in my mind, trying to tease the threads that have so upset me.

Perhaps the stage for the book is better set if you are familiar with “To the Finland Station“, written by Edmund Wilson in 1940. In it, historian Wilson defines the thoughts and theories expressed on train ride of Jules Michelet, Henri de Saint-Simon, Robert Owen, Mikhail Bakunin, Anatole France, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Leon Trotsky, and Vladimir Ilich Lenin–who arrived at Petrograd’s Finland Station in 1917 to lead the Bolshevik revolution. This book could very well have been titled “To Perdido Station”.

That Miéville is also speaking of the state of perpetual war that we find ourselves in cannot be overlooked, but the overwhelming theme of the book is the impact of revolution, sedition, and self proclaimed saviors who ride out of mythology to change the face of history. That it leaves the reader feeling hopeless and incapable of fighting the powers that be; well perhaps that’s just my reading of it. I took away a particularly existential feeling, but perhaps that reading is more impacted by the current state of American politics than the book itself. I may be over-thinking this.

The voiceless hero of the entire book is the Train, which itself encompasses the Iron Council; a train-town of former slaves and indentured workers who decades ago revolted against their masters and carved out a path into the unexplored wilds of western Bas-Lag. It constantly moves, putting down new track as it rips up the old, over and over, the first to cross the continent, in a never-ending journey of freedom and hope. As such, it is the most powerful revolutionary tool in New Crobuzon. The government wants it crushed before it can return to the city as a beacon of hope, and the revolutionaries want it to arrive for the same reason.

But in the end; is the Iron Council more valuable as myth?

This book is very dense, filled with Miéville’s signature linguistic style, extraordinarily violent, and extremely political. It is not an easy read. It isn’t even necessarily a fun read. It is, however, absolutely stunning in its genius. I do not regret the investment of time and emotion that I put into reading this book.

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So Sarah Palin resigned from her first term as Governor. Nobody knows why she would do something this insane…but, ya know, it is Sarah we’re talking about here. You betcha.

Regarding the initial Palin speech, Sean Cockerham, of the Anchorage Daily News, wrote a concise article that put a lot of the rambling nonsense into context, in that what had previously seemed like Jabberwocky levels of street-rat crazy, now just seemed like normal Sarah Palin street-rat crazy.

So, the fun part begins! Get your tin foil hats on kids, it’s time to “Find The Conspiracy”.

Has anyone noticed all the press that John Coale is getting out of all of this…and how almost none of it mentions that he’s a muckity muck in Scientology?

Ok, so…here’s my new theory:

Scientology uses their incredibly well honed psyops to convince her that she’s under attack from opponents she can’t possibly defeat on her own. But..CoS can help her, they tell her. All she needs to do is spend a few weeks in a resort…say in Clearwater, Florida…and they’ll get her feeling back up to par, and then, they’ll help her get ready to run for the presidential election.

They turn her into the same unstoppable android force that is Tom Cruise. She gets polished up, trained on how to think before speaking, and using the cash and people of the CoS, she rockets to the top of the Republican charts. She’ll explain away the CoS as being “not at all opposed to our true faith beliefs in blah, blah, blah” and she’ll be believed by the ones who want to believe, and accepted by those who would do anything to get the “nigger out of the white house”.

I’m telling you, if the economy doesn’t get better, if more Americans go homeless and hungry, if old people start dying because they can’t get medicines, if the cost of foods rise and the buying power of wages continue to go in opposite directions…if people are hungry, and hot, and angry, and poor…Scientology Sarah Palin would wipe the floor with any candidate facing her.

So…there’s your scary thought for the day.

Having trouble voting? Have a question about the polling process in your state? The folks at the non-partisan 866-OUR-VOTE Election Protection Hotline are there to help. Online, they offer information about voting in your state, the ability to report problems at the polls or live chat with Election Protection workers.

Well, the Presidential election is only one day away…after which, the US begins the 11 week transition period to a new administration!

As established by the twentieth amendment to the US Constitution, “the terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January.” So what exactly happens between election day and January 20th? There are a lot of interesting stories about that, which help convey the strong tradition behind lengthy transition periods in the US. In addition to the history, the General Services Administration has various (semi-)recently documented responsibilities during this period under The Presidential Transition Act of 2000, while other branches of the government focus on their respective areas. For example, the Office of Personnel Management focuses on…personnel changes, while the military plans for possible incidents during this time. But what exactly will President-Elect Obama or President-Elect McCain be doing? As you might expect, they’ve already started planning their administrations, an activity they have far more time to accomplish prior to the “official” transition than our friends in some other countries.

Do you know what to do if your vote is suppressed? GOODVOTE.ORG is a group of volunteers from the technology community and blogosphere who simply want the will of the voters to be reflected in the result of the 2008 election. Our only purpose is to make sure that when legitimate voters are challenged they know who to turn to for help.

The New York Times reports that tens of thousands of voters from swing states have been illegally purged from voter registration lists using social security numbers.

Unsure whether your vote will count? Check here.

Project Vote 2008 aims to repair “vote caging” [discussed previously] by compiling Google spreadsheets of affected households. Check your own status, and alert friends or neighbors you find there that their voter registration status is at risk for “alleged or actual deficiencies.”

Governor Palin gets prank called. “Like we say in France, [we could go kill some baby seals].” The transcript is here.

via the gang at metafilter.com

Dear John, When becoming a soulless zombie, try to remember that brains are in the head.  Honestly, you should fire your debate prep team.

Who the hell knows what he's doing. Honestly.