The Phantom of Fairpools

What's that? Today's big prize for guessing why this is here is a GP Taylor novel. If you can't guess you win 2 GP Taylor novels. Haha! No I'm sure they're great really. I tell you what, you can have their ashes and a deeply satisfying vid of me burning the Jeremy Vine-bothering, disturbing vicar-cop's shite book, which I own by a tragic accident. No money changed hands. Anyway I'll give you clue, it has nothing to do with The Phantom of Fairpools which is a top-notch creepy tale of the supernatural. Look it up if you don't believe me. Not sure why I brought it up really, other than to muddy the already muddy waters that were muddied enough by Muddy Waters, the legendary blues guitarist, for some reason.

Nonsense, nonsense nonsense! I must be a bit 'tooty'. Actually I'm a bit hyper and excited because this is my big, busy weekend of the year. Pity we're past the longest day.

I changed the 'Oh's' to 'O's on the last awful post because it seemed more likely in retrospect. This is, I must confess, becayse I'm not reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, I'm actually listening to it as that was the only version the local library could get me. It's on Audio Cassette. Imagine! Sure they had CDs in 2004? Still I'm happy. It's read by someone called John Chancer, who's pretty good. His default voice is slightly crisp and hissy (maybe that's the tape) but when he does Crake he sounds like a cross between HAL and Norm Sherman. The Craker's speech is the best. Maybe I should lose a 'C' and make this the Revolutionary Army of Crakers. It would actually make slightly more sense. Joking! I'm imagining poor little Crackers crying at this final rejection. I was nearly crying today on Tape 15, the bit where Jimmy is watching old Alex the Parrot videos. Phew. I mean I've enjoyed these 2 novels immensely but it always takes you by surprise when something really burrows into you like that, I had to stop what I was doing. Suppose that's how you get nominated for the Man Booker Prize, whatever that is. It is funny in places too, like Year of the Flood, which I'll have to go through again now to spot all the ironic bits, especially with Ren's descriptions of Jimmy and Glenn. Two 'N' Glenn named after the piano genius, as it turns out. Fudgefuggingmonkeys.

Er...there was more but I've forgotten it. More debate on Libya and Afghanistan. Debate is a start, especially when we've got into that American thing of almost fetishising military personnel. Heroic or not, it's still worth considering whether they're actually solving the problems behind these desperate situations or just obscuring them with action and perhaps even creating worse ones. The Gadaffi thing is a case in point. While it is undeniably desirable for the Colonel (why didn't he just promote himself to General or Supreme Commander?) to leave office, it does seem that all attempts at a cease-fire and allowing a face-saving exit for him have been ruled out. The longer the violence continues, the more acrimony builds up between the army of the State of Libya and those engaged against them. The army come to be seen by their opponents as criminals to be excluded from maintaining their role in the post-Gadaffi Libya (seen as a major error in post-Saddam Iraq) whilst the rebels come to be viewed as western puppets and risk alienating whose whose circumstances are not improved in a newly free Libya. It's true someone needs to do something about the world's fascist regimes but let's face facts, if Mubarak had massacred his own people, no bombs would have fallen on Cairo. None are falling on Damascus and definitely none in Bahrain. Why not? Because they don't really solve anything other than saving us the money we'd have spend looking after those bombs if we weren't using them. As it is we'll now have to buy some more but at least they might kill more people or be a nicer shape or colour or keep some workers employed somewhere and their bosses nice and rich. The ones who went to school with the guys at the top of the bureaucracy and the guys at the top of the arts and the guys at the top of industry and the guys at the top of the finance and the guys at top of the crime.

Defeat, defeat the power elite!

Linkees: http://www.perdador.com/f6update/illustration_f9.html