Now that kind of leads to an important question: What is great literature? It is my view that great literature is something that touches some core pulse in you as you read through it...humanises you by asserting or awakening the importance of time cherished fundamental values in you as a reader  ....makes you complete, sensitises the reader to his position in the confusing scheme of things that he is born into, builds a modicum of acceptance of things at hand and sustains hope and belief in the fairness of things around him... despite the dark forces that she is forced to interact with. That to me is great literature

But why this preamble? I have just completed Tom Wolfe's highly acclaimed " A Man in Full". It was without a doubt an enjoyable read. Immediately after its publication it kicked a literary dust of storm with John Irving, John Updike and Norman Mailer declaring that this book cannot be considered worthy of classifying as literature. In precise terms each of them had the following to say:
 
John Updike " (A Man in Full) is entertainment, not literature, even literature in a modest aspirant form."  Norman Mailer : "At certain points, reading the work can even be said to resemble the act of making love to a three-hundred-pound woman. Once she gets on top, it's over. Fall in love, or be asphyxiated." John Irving: "yak"..... "journalistic hyperbole described as fiction ... He's a journalist ... he can't create a character. He can't create a situation."

As expected a writer of Wolfe's caliber and reputation would not take it lying down and especially criticism of this book which took 11 years to write. As a counter punch he wrote a now famous essay called " My Three Stooges" where he trashed the observations of these three eminents writers of America as people inhabiting imaginary literary worlds and that they have to include realism of their times and life around them into their work. In no uncertain terms Wolfe asks them to get off their high saddles. Besides the literary pugilism that is on display, Wolfe also uses this essay as a medium to present his views on rise, decline and fall of the American Novel in the 20th century and its root causes. The views presented are refereshingly new and quite thought provoking.  Elsewhere Wolfe also warned that if the literary trio don't embrace "full-blooded realism, "then their reputations are finished." He also offered Irving some additional literary advice: "Irving needs to get up off his bottom and leave that farm in Vermont or wherever it is he stays and start living again. It wouldn't be that hard. All he'd have to do is get out and take a deep breath and talk to people and see things and rediscover the fabulous and wonderfully bizarre country around him: America."

Yet if one were to apply the same judging criteria that Wolfe describes in his essay to "A Man in Full" -- I am not sure if his book will pass the test. For example let us take any of the characters that Steinbeck has created in Grapes of Wrath -- Ma Joad, Tom Joad, James Casey -- one will remember them for a long long time -- they are real life characters - full of scars and beauty spots that life has given them.  The question is who in Wolfe's characters has that sturdiness? A man like Charlie Croker who can rustle up USD 500 Million debt from the banking system increasingly starts looking like a clown making the silliest of mistakes. In the place of a tenacious empire builder you get to see the bumblings of a buffoon and weakling and that to me sounds quite unrealistic. "A Man in Full" is littered with such characters -- Conrad is another feckless character that one gets to see. I did not find the depth in many that can be reckoned as great characterisation

On aspects of creating realistic situations too I felt that Irving was correct to a large extent. However, Wolfe does display, at places, a highly refined sense of situation building. One only has to look at the so called "workout sessions" by the bank's recovery men while attempting to recover debt from Charlie Croker -- absolutely hilarious. More appealing are the situations that describe the "post workout session" confabulations of the bank officials -- which is how banks are. Contrast the jail situations in " A Man in Full" with similar situations one finds in say Stephen King's "Green Mile" or Alexander Solzhenitsyn's "One day in the Life Ivan Densivotich". I found that Wolfe's depiction despite being realistic (read brutal), inexplicably, does not have the human element and anguish. There are any number of examples that can be pointed to in this book where the human touch is not palpable. There is something synthetic in the texture of the book which I could not lay my hands on clearly. In a 700+ page book one expects to a see many more realistic yet appealing situations which are coherently knitted and I did not find them

The plot is fairly well constructuted with multiple threads starting independently and gradually gets knitted into a single coherent scheme

Where I think Wolfe excels is in his ability to accurately portray the diction of a variety of people that he populates his book with -- Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, whites from down south... it is an extraordinary talent at display. In my limited reading I have seen that kind of ability in Anne Proulx, Zadie Smith and to a certain extent in Anne Donovan's "Buddha Da" (scottish accent)

Wolfe has been credited with immense ability to portray the Zeitgiest of America during the 80's. In the book America comes out as a soulless place devoid of warmth and compunction.  But is America a soulless place that Tom Wolfe makes it out to be? I am not sure. The political and financial systems during the time of writing this book may have descended into that state of soullessness yet the greater majority of average Americans, I am willing to believe are warm and senstive despite what people comment about America. They are the ones who make America the fabulous and wonderfully bizarre place that Wolfe thinks it to be. It is this multitude and their presence that is completely missing in Wolfe's book.  And that to me has been the most disappointing aspect of this book

John Irving once said that "A fiction writers memory is an especially imperfect provider of detail; we can always imagine a better detail than one we can remember. The correct detail is rarely exactly what happened, the most truthful detail is what could have happened or what should have....." Wolfe sticks to what has happened and therein probably lies his failure to make "A Man in Full" from a good read to a great read.

Having said all of the above I still feel that Tom Wolfe is one of the greatest chroniclers of our times. One only has to read his essays in his subsequent book viz. "Hooking Up" to understand and agree with what I am saying

I am sure that when the debate raged about Wolfe's "A Man in Full" many would have taken sides. Going by the criteria that Wolfe laid out, anyone who has not liked his book for lack of percieved characterisation, situation building and the conventional "literary" touch would have been on the side of the "Three Stooges" characterised as yet another inconsequential stooge. If that has been the criteria then............ I am willing to be Wolfe's nth stooge in the debate

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by Stephen Lendman
Global Research, May 15, 2008

Review of Frances Fox Piven's book

Frances Fox Piven is a Canadian-born Professor of Political Science and Sociology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). Her career is long and distinguished. She's the recipient of numerous awards, has combined scholarship with activism, and is the author of many important books. Most notable is her 1971 classic "Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare." It's a landmark historical and theoretical analysis of how welfare policy is used to control the poor and working class.

A more recent book is her 2006-published "Challenging Authority" and subject of this review. It's about how social movements can be pivotal forces for change because ordinary people in enough numbers have enormous political clout. Abolitionists, labor movements and civil rights activists proved it. Piven examines their collective actions plus one other in the four examples she chose - the American Revolution.

Piven's book is succinct and masterful. Howard Zinn calls it a "brilliant analysis of the interplay between popular protest and electoral politics." Canadian Professor Leo Panitch says the book is "theoretically profound, yet immensely readable," and sociologist and social movements expert Susan Eckstein describes the book as "quintessentially Piven-esque." It "eloquently (shows) how ordinary people....have taken it upon themselves to correct injustices."

Piven's theme is powerfully relevant at a perilous time in our history. The nation is at war on two fronts, a third one looms, constitutional protections have eroded, social services erased, the country is militarized, dissent repressed, and the government is empowered to crush freedom and defend privilege at the expense of beneficial social change it won't tolerate.

Introduction

In light of the current situation, Piven's introductory Thomas Jefferson quote is relevant. It was his response to the repressive 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts. He wrote: "A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles." Disruptive social actions have done it in the past, and Piven puts it this way: "ordinary people (have) power....when they rise up in anger and hope, defy the rules....disrupt (state) institutions....propel new issues to the center of political debate....(and force) political leaders (to) stem voter defections by proferring reforms. These are the conditions that produce (America's) democratic moments."

Electoral participation alone won't do it. "In the real American political world, numerous obstacles" remain - structural, legal and practical. Despite liberalization of the process through the years, "large numbers of ostensibly eligible voters" are effectively disenfranchised. Former restrictive laws are gone, but new schemes replaced them - intimidation, misinformation, electoral fraud, and the corrupting power of money in a nation beholden to capital at the expense of the greater good.

Piven cites more as well:

-- the power of incumbency,

-- the two-party system that shuts out independent and minority interests,

-- the construct of the law that empowers the powerful,

-- the revolving door between business and government,

-- the corrupted dominant media,

-- the lack of accountability to voters,

-- arbitrary redistricting for political advantage,

-- believing markets work best so let them,

-- disdaining the harm they cause,

-- feeling interfering with market excess is "moral trespass,"

-- sacrificing democracy in the pursuit of profit,

-- and it all turning the public away from a process they no longer trust.

It shows in declining voter turnout with half or less of the electorate showing up at the polls and many without conviction.

Post-WW II, "most political scientists viewed American democracy with a self-satisfied complacency." It wasn't perfect, but it was the best possible at the time. Two decades later, system imperfections were more apparent, and more recently political science professor Robert Dahl said our system is "among the most opaque, complex, confusing, and difficult to understand" to show how badly we fare compared to other democracies.

Inequalities are extreme and growing, and Piven calls it "pernicious." It breeds "patterns of domination and subservience (and) undermines democratic capabilities." She quotes political analyst Kevin Phillips saying Washington is "the leading interest-group bazaar of the Western World," and economist Paul Krugman calling our political system "utterly and perhaps irrevocably corrupted."

Bad as it now is, Piven says democracy "never worked well in the United States." Citing the 19th century, she notes how it "was stamped and molded by intense religious and ethnic allegiances (that in turn created a culture of) political parties (at all levels) steeped in patronage." It was at a time corporate power grew and began to gain advantages that are now commonplace and harmful to the public interest.

Nonetheless, egalitarian reform is possible, and Piven recounts four crucial times when it showed up. Each time, protest movements achieved it by influencing American politics, "if only temporarily." It's no surprise that power "flows to those who have more of the things and attributes valued in social life." But times emerge when "workers or peasants or rioters exercise power," it's "distinctive....disruptive or interdependent," and it happens when conditions are right for it to be actualized.

Piven states the "central question" of her book: "given the power inequalities (in America)" and how it corrupts the political process, "how does egalitarian reform ever occur" at all? It's only been at times of "disruptive protest movements" with their "distinctive kind of power" Piven calls "disruptive power."

The Nature of Disruptive Power

First a definition of power in the abstract. Piven notes the "widely held thesis that (it's) based on control of wealth and force" - big landowners over peasants, rich over poor, armies over civilians, and so forth. However, it's not always the case, and "history is dotted" with examples of "people without wealth or coercive resources....exercis(ing) power, at least for a time."

She notes how societies organize through cooperation and interdependence, but disparate interests at times conflict. While workers depend on management for jobs, managers, in turn, need a work force to produce. If labor is withheld, production halts. Both sides have leverage. Either one can activate it. Piven calls the "activation of interdependent power 'disruption.' " It's a power strategy based on "withdrawing cooperation in social relations." Protest movements "mobilize disruptive power." They achieve leverage by breaking down "institutionally regulated cooperation" as in strikes, boycotts or riots.

At these times, ordinary people (potentially) have enormous power - "their ability to disrupt institutionalized cooperation that depends on their continuing contributions." Key is that great reforms in history have been "responses to the threatened (or use of) disruptive power." In the US, it achieved representative government, ending slavery, the right to organize, social welfare and civil rights. Grassroots bottom-up "disruptive power" produced them.

But it takes more than marches, rallies, slogans, shouting or even violence. It's also too simplistic to think power from below is there for the taking. Actualizing power depends on the ability to withhold cooperation. But it's not "actionable" until certain problems are solved:

-- recognizing interdependence and the potential power from below such as workers withholding their labor or wives their domestic services;

-- the necessity of people breaking rules; rules are power strategies; they allow some people to dominate others, establish property rights, become law, and so forth;

-- individuals must coordinate their disruptive power for strategic advantage;

-- they must overcome constraints of an entire matrix of social relations; examples are the influence of family ties or the threat of religious excommunication;

-- disruptive power must be sustained, cooperation withheld, and be able to withstand whatever reprisals occur; and

-- the determination to stay the course in the wake of threats and uncertainty - employers who may hire scabs or relocate their plants and facilities.

New strategies aren't invented for each challenge. They're "embedded in memory or culture, in a language of resistance (and) become a 'repertoire' (of a) specific constellation of strategies to actualize interdependent power." New repertoires from below are developed in response to social and economic change. They become "forged in a political process of action and reaction." Popular struggles change over time, so, for example, food riots became rare and strike actions typical. However, they're now threatened with weakened labor protections, the growth of temporary workers, and the ability of employers to operate anywhere in the world under WTO rules.

Slowly over time, new repertoires emerge to respond to conditions of the times. Lessons are learned from defeat, anger and defiance builds, and creative imagination invents new solutions to old problems.

The Mob and the State - Disruptive Power and the Construction of American Electoral-Representative Arrangements

Disorderly and defiant crowds or mobs figure prominently in the history of disruptive movements. They played an important role in the Revolutionary War period and years leading up to it. American elites allied with mobs because they grew uneasy about British rule and developed radical ideas about the right of the colonies to self-government. Without mob support, the war with England couldn't have been won. They provided the troops who fought it.

Most colonists were from England, and by the mid-1700s numbered around 1.6 million. Most had egalitarian ideas and were ordinary people - artisans, apprentices, sailors, laborers, urban poor, farmers, bonded servants, and so forth. They also relied on mob action for results.

In the pre-revolutionary period, "riots and tumults" were commonplace. Bacon's 1676 Rebellion of discontented frontiersmen and slaves was the first one of note. In the next 100 years, another 18 uprisings erupted (according to Howard Zinn) against colonial governments along with six black rebellions and 40 riots.

Tensions grew as the years passed. They challenged Britain and colonial elites. Inequalities also increased, and they spawned protests against them. One study cited 150 riots in cities and rural areas between 1765 and 1769. In addition, merchants and landowners grew angry with the Crown. In 1763, it sent a standing army to the colonies, introduced new taxes, made demands to billet British troops and to curb colonial assemblies' power. It introduced the Sugar Act, Tea Act and a new Stamp Act. Colonists resisted and mob action was crucial.

They made Stamp Act enforcement impossible and dumped tea into more than one harbor to prove it, besides the notable December 16, 1773 Boston action. Historian Edward Countryman called it the "final rupture" leading up to war. Those who took up arms wanted popular democracy, and it affected the post-revolutionary drafting of state constitutions. They reflected "egalitarian and libertarian ideas that were spreading up and down the eastern seaboard." They wanted popular liberty and drafted laws that limited executive powers, established unicameral legislatures or at least powerful lower houses, short terms of office to force elected officials to face voters more often, and essentially make government accountable to the people.

It alarmed the nation's elites who, in turn, precipitated efforts to reform the new state constitutions and reign in their democratic excesses. Defeating England unleashed electorate demands, and they showed up in popular rebellions. They were fueled by postwar depression, debt, and legislative imposition of poll and property taxes on farmers. They petitioned for relief, got none, so armed mobs closed the courts to stop debtor suits and stave off foreclosure on their farms. Rebellions spread across New England with Daniel Shays leading the most famous one in 1786 and 1787. The rebels were dispersed, but they got amnesty, tax relief, and most imprisoned debtors were released.

Elites were alarmed, excess democracy had to be curbed, and the 1787 Constitutional Convention became the way to do it. There were other problems as well. The Articles of Confederation were unwieldy, had to be replaced, and a new document was needed that would last into "remote futurity" to serve the interests of "the (only) people" who mattered. They were established white male property owning delegates and members of state conventions who rammed the ratification process through in the face of a largely indifferent and uncomprehending populace left out entirely.

The challenge was to offer democratic concessions, create an appearance of democracy, but frame a document for rich property owners in charge of the process for their own self-interest. Only the privileged could vote. Women, blacks, Indians and children couldn't and most who qualified didn't bother. The process, and what it produced, showed operatively democracy is little more than fantasy, but it wasn't designed to appear that way.

The "people" got to elect lower house members, who, in turn, elected senators to the upper chamber. The system stayed that way until the 17th Amendment (ratified in 1913) allowed voters in each state to elect representatives to both Houses of Congress.

Also proposed was a chief executive, a national judiciary with a Supreme Court, and provisions for admitting new states with republican governments. In addition, the Constitution had procedures for amendments and much more, including terms of office and staggered elections to prevent too many officials being unseated at the same time. In the end, the final product was a bundle of compromises, yielded little of substance to "the people," and assured power was left to the powerful.

The Constitution's opening words were "We the people," but, in fact, they were nowhere in sight. The framers "engineered a conservative counter-revolution....whose purpose....was to thwart the will of the people in whose will they acted." Government under the new document was created to fill the vacuum created by the defeat of Great Britain. It restored the essential British commercial and financial system and put it under new management. Monarchal wrappings were removed, everything changed, and yet everything, in fact, stayed the same. Rarely, if ever, was there so much rebellion with so little cause, and with so little to show for it.

Consider the Constitution's crowing achievement, at least so we're told - the Bill of Rights. Adopting them made the difference to get 13 states to ratify the document and make it law. Their protections weren't for "the people." They were for the privileged who wanted:

-- prohibitions against quartering troops in their property;

-- unreasonable searches and seizures there as well;

-- the right to have state militias protect them;

-- the right to bear arms, but not the way the Second Amendment is today interpreted;

-- - the rights of free speech, the press, religion, assembly and petition - largely for the monied and propertied interests;

-- due process of law with speedy public trials; and

-- various other provisions worked out through compromise; two additional amendments were proposed but rejected; Jefferson and Madison wanted them; Adams and Hamilton were opposed; they would have banned monopolies and standing armies; in the end, the first 10 alone were adopted; we never saw what difference the other two might have made.

Piven's main point isn't that "constitution-making" limited "popular power." It's that "disruptive power challenges (of the time) could not be (entirely) ignored...." The founders established a republican government, popular liberties (to a degree) were conceded, and the idea (if not the reality) of the "consent of the governed" became a fundamental principle of political thought.

Further, in subsequent decades, suffrage expanded, taxpaying requirements replaced property ones, and these, too, were gradually eliminated. By the 1830s, most white men had the right to vote. It's unlikely these changes would have happened under British rule. So while was no disagreement on how government was to be run, (in John Adams' words, by "the rich, the well born, and the able,") the mob, according to Piven, "played a large if convoluted role in the construction of a new state with at least some of the elemental features of democracy."

Dissensus Politics, or the Interaction of Disruptive Challenges with Electoral Politics - The Case of the Abolitionist Movement

Piven defines "dissensus" as a tug of war between the need for political leaders to "mobilize majorities" and "disruptive challengers work(ing) to fragment them." She also calls this "the key to understanding" disruptive protest power over public policy decisions. Political coalitions are at times fragile and vulnerable. When opposition to consensus surfaces and builds, it can be fractious, disruptive, and an "opening (to get) policy concessions on the (breakaway) movement's issues."

Case in point - "Abolitionism." By one estimate, free blacks numbered around 59,000 in 1790. By the start of the Civil War, the total had increased eightfold to about 488,000. In the run-up to the Revolutionary War, slavery issues were contentious with hints early on about what later might develop.

In spite of owning slaves himself, Jefferson's first Declaration of Independence draft included grievances against the Crown's involvement in trafficking. Southern representatives took issue, the clause was dropped, and to build postwar consensus the South had to be reassured that their slave system would remain intact.

It led to Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution saying that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a person for purposes of allocating congressional representation. According to historian Gary Wills: For southern states, this issue was "a nonnegotiable condition for their joining the Union" and with it they got "a large and domineering representation in Congress."

Consider some other relevant facts:

-- large slave owners had disproportionate power; they controlled state legislatures and selected senators;

-- most American presidents until the Civil War were southerners and slaveholders (including Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson);

-- the first US 1790 census reported 757,000 blacks or nearly one-fifth of the total four million population;

-- in 1807, Congress outlawed the importation of African slaves after 1808, yet trafficking illegally brought in another 250,000 until 1860;

-- enacted slavery provisions were for the North as well as the South; only Pennsylvania and the New England states outlawed the practice; in 1787, most states were slave states, and the new Constitution protected their holdings;

-- intersectional planter, commercial, banking and manufacturing interests tied the North and South together; slavery and cotton enriched the South, production boomed, and northern manufacturing also benefitted;

-- the human bondage system affected radical abolitionists; they knew that ending slavery meant "overturning" the Constitution;

-- to accommodate consensus politics, compromise was preferable to conflict; to protect the South from the majority nonslave North, "balanced" admission of new slave and free states was agreed on as well as a similar arrangement for presidential and vice-presidential tickets;

-- nonetheless, compromises were fragile and sectional conflicts arose; one instance was over the Mexican War, annexation of Texas, and disposition of 650,000 square miles of new territory; neither side was satisfied even though compromise was achievable on matters of tariffs, centralized banking, internal improvements, and free western land.

Given the enormous costs of dissolution, why weren't both sides committed to preventing it? Piven cites "the strident and disruptive abolitionist campaign with its demands for immediate emancipation. Abolitionism fractured....the sectional accord" that held disparate elements together - until 1860.

Who were the abolitionists? According to Howard Zinn, they were "editors, orators, run-away slaves, free Negro militants, and gun-toting preachers." Together they "shaped....the movement and contributed to its disruptive power." Its effects fractured intersectional parties, divided the nation, and led to the Civil War and legal emancipation.

"Evangelical revivalists" were committed to reform. They believed slavery was sinful, and would accept nothing less than ending it. In 1831, William Lloyd Garrison founded The Liberator. It became the voice of militant abolitionism. "Garrison was no gradualist." He refused compromise and demanded "immediate and unconditional emancipation."

Others were equally committed. They formed antislavery associations, edited papers, spoke publicly, and by 1841 claimed 200,000 members. Religious passion and enlightenment fervor spread throughout the North. In the South, it was opposed by "Southern rights" societies that used the Bible to claim "slavery fulfilled God's purposes." It produced schisms and strife, got Garrison paraded through Boston with a rope around his neck, and vigilante welcoming committees awaited northern abolitionists coming south.

Nonetheless, abolitionism grew, congressional antislavery petitions mounted, Congress claimed no authority to act, and thousands of slaves took matters into their own hands. They resisted by "evasion, sabotage, suicide, or running away." There were also slave revolts - in 1800 in a march on Richmond; 1811 on a plantation near New Orleans; 1817 and 1818 in Florida; and Nat Turner and 70 other slaves in Virginia "kill(ing) all whites" and sparing no one.

Most disruptive was the Underground Railway with whites and free blacks involved. It defied federal antifugitive laws and freed tens of thousands of southern slaves. Abolitionist disruptions "inevitably penetrated electoral politics." It fragmented both parties, made compromise impossible, and led to the emergence of the Republican Party. It opposed expanding slavery as new states entered the union, and in 1860 got Abraham Lincoln elected president. His platform - containing slavery and condemning threats of disunion as treason.

The South responded. Seven states seceded, Fort Sumpter was attacked, the Civil War began, four more slave states joined the others, and Lincoln committed to war to restore the union. As conflict wore on, its horrific toll drove him toward emancipation. Piven notes that the "insurrectionary role of the slaves....was probably critical to his decision." During the war, hundreds of thousands of them refused to work, deserted plantations, and crippled the Confederacy's ability to feed itself. In addition, around 200,000 slaves fought with the North, and their numbers were significant in achieving victory.

Abolitionism grew, southern secession spurred it, and in January 1865 Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment banning slavery. Nominally, former slaves got more rights from the Fourteenth (due process and equal protection) and Fifteenth (forbidding racial discrimination in voting) Amendments as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

"Abolitionists had triumphed," they did it through electoral politics by splitting the parties, yet their victory was limited. Post-emancipation, the movement "melted into the Republican Party," southern and northern leaders became accommodative, and elites in the South "moved rapidly to restore their control over blacks." Nonetheless, an impressive victory was won even if only marginally, and it would take another century before blacks got any of their constitutional rights.

Movements and Reform in the American Twentieth Century

Throughout American history, disruptive protests were common, yet rarely did any have a "big bang" effect. Decades elapsed between successful abolitionism and New Deal reforms. In the 20th century, Piven notes that almost all important labor, civil rights and social welfare legislation got passed in just two six-year periods - 1933 - 1938 and 1963 - 1968. There was one exception - the 1972 Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for the elderly poor and people with disabilities.

Great Depression hard times spurred important reforms to provide emergency relief:

-- the Civil Works Administration (CWA) for work relief; it reached 28 million people (22.2% of the population);

-- overall social spending rose from 1.34% of GDP in 1932 to 5% by 1934 and showed that government works for the people when it wants to;

-- the 1935 Social Security Act established the framework for all future income support programs - retirement benefits, unemployment, supplemental income, subsidized housing, and all categories of "welfare;"

-- most entitlements expanded in the 1960s - old age pensions; unemployment insurance; quadrupling the numbers of women and children receiving Aid to Dependent Children; Medicare; Medicaid; new nutritional programs, including food stamps and school lunches; federal aid to education; and inner-city development through the Model Cities Act of 1966.

Overall in the 1960s, social spending rose from $37 billion to $140 billion in the post-1965 decade. By the mid-1970s, poverty levels were down from 20% in 1965 to 11%.

Each period also saw political rights expand. Mass strikes of the early 1930s produced the landmark 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). For the first time, it gave labor the right to bargain collectively on equal terms with management and provided legal protections to strike actions. The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act established national minimum wages and maximum hours. These laws advanced worker rights over the next three decades.

In 1964, civil rights actions got the Twenty-Fourth Amendment passed. It prohibited poll taxes in federal elections, and along with the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act overrode state and local franchise restrictions that were in place in the South since Reconstruction. As Piven put it: The 1960s civil rights movement "finally won, a century later, the reforms first announced (but never gotten) in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments." In addition, the 1964 Equal Opportunity Act (antipoverty program) provided federal funds for poor communities.

Why these "big bangs" then and not at other times? It's because they were gotten during periods of "mass disruption" that mobilized "interdependent power from below...." Veterans marched on Washington, rent strikes spread, people commandeered food, labor walkouts occurred, demonstrations demanded relief, so Roosevelt had to act. It wasn't out of benevolence, and his 1932 platform showed it. It contained the same old 1920s planks that kept Republicans in power throughout the decade. Conditions now changed, disruptive protests demanded help, echoes of the 1917 Russian Revolution were still audible, so Roosevelt acted to save capitalism. He gave a little to save a lot for the privileged who understood the fragility of their position.

The 1960s saw other disruptive protests - this time by a massive black insurgency on one side against white southern "resistance" on the other. It came to a head in the mid-1960s in the form of civil disobedience. It began in the South, spread across the country, resulted in harsh police crackdowns, greater disruptive riots, and they forced the federal government to intervene. Turbulence, social unrest, and a climate of general crisis produced reforms to diffuse the disorder of the times.

Electoral forces also played a role the way Piven explains. She calls the "interplay between electoral shifts and political leaders....the most influential explanation of twentieth-century policy change." Big bangs were "big electoral" ones. Two credible hypotheses explain how they occur:

-- the "mobilization" thesis (during hard times) raising the level of voter turnout; new voters are key; they provide impetus for realignment under this theory; and

-- the "conversion" thesis (also during hard times) detaching voters from their traditional Republican Party affiliation; here shifting loyalties explain it.

Either way, political leaders respond, strive to win and/or hold their support, and they enacted social relief measures in the 1930s and 1960s.

More is in play as well as voters by themselves have little influence over policy. In addition, politicians need broad majorities, and building them takes avoiding conflict, building consensus and striking familiar appeals for prosperity, God, country and family. As a result, electoral shifts alone don't automatically produce bold new initiatives. In fact, they rarely do unless special times produce extraordinary responses. In the 1930s and 1960s, disruptive protests and potential institutional disorder got Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson to act quite differently than they would have had conditions been normal.

Under the right circumstances, protest movements are powerful and provide the impetus for social reform. "The urgency, solidarity, and militancy that conflict generates lends movements distinctive capacities as political communicators." At least for a brief time, "marches, rallies, strikes and shutdowns can break the monopoly on political discourse otherwise held by politicians and the mass media." They can bring vital issues to the fore and get politicians (out of fear) to address them. Potential or actual "voter dissensus is the main source of movement influence on public policy." It was true in the 1930s, again in the 1960s, and the latter victories inspired other movements for women's rights, the disabled, gays, lesbians, and so forth.

The Times-In-Between

Unfortunately, disruptive movements are short-lived. After a few years they pass as politicians mount rollback initiatives when the pressure is off and they're able to do it. New state constitutions stripped away hard-won abolitionist reforms. Labor rights underwent a gradual erosion after peaking in the 1930s. Union membership declined from a post-war 34.7% high. It was 16.8% after the Reagan era and is currently around 12% overall today but only 7.4% in the private sector.

Social gains have also eroded, and now have Democrats as much against them as Republicans. Why so is the question? It's because protest movements lose their energy when the reasons causing them subside. Further, it's because internal movement dynamics are hard to sustain. They wane from exhaustion. Exhilaration can't last forever. In addition, defiance entails costs and sacrifice. Strikers lose wages. Workers get fired. Plants relocate, and governments support business and sometimes with force.

Protests also fade when gains are won. They always fall short and yet fail to embolden more action. Movement leaders also get co-opted, become more conciliatory to management, get more enmeshed in party politics, and sometimes run for office at federal, state or local levels. Dissensus has its limits. Inevitably, gains come at the expense of concessions, the movement runs out of energy, disruption ebbs, and hard-won reforms get rolled back. Nonetheless, these are glorious times in our history, momentous advances get achieved, and the lesson is that at other times for other reasons it can happen again.

People in large numbers and with enough will have enormous power provided they use it. Nonetheless, it's disconcerting that the Constitution was designed as a conservative document to protect what Michael Parenti calls "a rising bourgeoisie('s)" freedom to "invest, speculate, trade, and accumulate," and to assure that (as John Jay believed) "The people who own the country (ought) to run it."

After Reconstruction, Abolitionists lost out as well. Southern states regrouped, enacted new laws, and curbed the rights of newly freed blacks. The old planter class was gone but not its mentality. A new capitalist planter class replaced it, many from the North, and it proved easy for them to devise new ways to exploit cheap, vulnerable black labor.

The Supreme Court went along much the way it does today. In a number of decisions, it rolled back civil rights gains, including enough of the Fourteenth Amendment to restore near-total white supremacy in the South. Its 1896 "separate but equal" Plessy ruling added insult to its 1857 Dred Scott support for slavery.

Post-war, blacks were nominally free but light years from equality, and southern states intended to keep it that way. Property tests, poll taxes and literacy qualifications were imposed to enforce disenfranchisement. Jim Crow laws multiplied and lynchings became a way of life. Washington was dismissive.

Labor also lost out in the post-New Deal years. What the NLRA gave, Taft-Hartley and other regressive laws took back. Labor got progressively weaker, its leadership became part of the problem, while business ascended to omnipotence with plenty of friendly governments on its side. Early on, workers hoped the Democrat Party would represent them. How could it in the conservative (anti-labor) South and, in the North, where big city bosses ran things. Over time, business took over and effectively created a one-party state with "two right wings," as Gore Vidal explains.

Post-WW II, Piven notes that America's economic dominance was unchallenged for 25 years, so business opposition to New Deal gains was largely muted. But once Europe and Japan recovered, they became formidable competitors, profit margins got squeezed, and a conservative counterassault gained momentum to roll back earlier social gains. Piven cites four ways:

-- a "war of ideas" beginning in the early 1970s with the formation of a right wing "message machine" - corporate-funded think tanks like Cato, Hoover, Heritage and AEI; they preached cutting social programs, weakening unions, ending costly regulations, military spending, tough law enforcement, privatizing everything, and using the dominant media for propaganda;

-- building up a business lobbying capacity; "K Street" became a household term, and so is the "revolving door" arrangement between business and government;

-- the growth of right wing populism, "rooted in fundamentalist churches" as part of the powerful Christian Right; also pro-life, defense-of-marriage and gun groups, along with others opposed to progressive ideas, racial and sexual liberalism, and the notion that public welfare is a good thing and government ought to provide it; in their best of all possible worlds, markets work best so let them, and democracy is only for the priviliged; and

-- the effective merging of Republicans and Democrats into one pro-business party with each pretty much vying to outdo or outfox the other; it took Democrat Bill Clinton to "end welfare as we know it," continue shifting more of the tax burden from the rich to workers, enact tough law enforcement measures, offer big giveaways to business, cut social benefits as much as Republicans, and pretty much make the 1990s a new golden age for Wall Street and the privileged. James Petras calls the decade "the golden age of pillage."

George Bush then took over and went Clinton whole new measures better - declaring open warfare on workers, waging real wars on the world, enacting repressive police state laws, surrendering unconditionally to business, smashing every social service in sight, desecrating the environment, pretty much acting as despotic and vicious as the worst third world dictators, and getting away with it.

Since the early 1970s, and especially since Ronald Reagan, most notable in Piven's mind is "the striking rise in wealth and income inequality" that economist Paul Krugman calls "unprecedented." Moreover, "as wealth concentration grows, so does the arrogance and power that it yields to the wealth-holders to continue to bend government policies to their own interests."

With business so omnipotent, government as its handmaiden, the scale of corruption extreme, the electoral process so flawed, it makes the task of redressing social gains lost formidable but not impossible.

Epilogue

Given the state of things, Piven poses the essential question - is another "popular upheaval" possible? She calls this "the big question for our time." Nothing is certain or simple, but historically "hardship propels people to collective defiance," especially in times of extreme inequalities of wealth. The current American era is the most extreme ever, so how long will people tolerate the decline in their standard of living as the rich grow richer and multi-billions go wars without end.

How does the Bush administration respond - with a dominant media "message machine" touting an "ownership society," scaring people to accept the outlandish and fraudulent "war on terror," blaming victims for their own misfortune, letting (Christian) faith-based groups take over welfare, preaching God and markets solve everything, and calling a lack of patriotism the equivalent of treason.

Piven, nonetheless, is hopeful. Independent polls show Bush's approval at record lows as well as a large majority opposing the Iraq war. In addition, she sees "an intimate connection between what people think is possible in politics and what they think is right." Popular aspirations tend to rise for what people believe is "evident" and "reach(able)."

So she asks: "What, then, are the prospects for the emergence of new social movements that mobilize disruptive power?" Global justice demonstrations in Seattle and around the world aren't enough. Much more is needed. Labor must become resurgent, but it's no simple matter doing it and without committed leadership impossible.

Yet it happened in the 1930s at a time of great need, and Piven suggests that "Maybe workers need to see the possibility of worker power again." Activists and organizers must concentrate on "developing and demonstrating power strategies" for a "new economy" that's increasingly service-based, high-tech and global.

Millions still live here, their standard of living is declining, business pretty much has it all, and it's high time that changed. People have power but only if they use it. New times need "new forms of political action, new 'repertoires' that extend across borders and tap the chokepoints of new systems of production (and governance)" where they're most vulnerable to mass disruption.

Piven closes by saying that history shows that "collective defiance" and its subsequent "disruption" have "always been essential to the preservation of democracy." It's no different today than it's ever been, and that's an idea to build on.

Global Research Associate Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research New Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Mondays from 11AM to 1PM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests. Programs are also archived for easy listening.

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A Whispering of Fish - Christopher Murray. TAG Hungerford Award winner in 2000. This will be my fifth Hungerford winning novel out of a possible seven (with an eighth soon to be published).

Sixty Lights - Gail Jones. I wanted to read Jones' "The House of Breathing" but it was out, so this was the next best thing.

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell. I recently enjoyed reading "Black Swan Green," and thus I am enthusiastic about reading more of Mitchell's work.

The Alphabet of Light and Dark - Danielle Wood. I don't know anything about this novel, except that it was a winner of the Vogel award, but I love the title so much I had to pick it up. Outstanding titles are hard to come by, and often adorn mediocre novels. For instance, there is a science fiction writer by the name of Philip Jose Farmer who once published a novel called "To Your Scattered Bodies Go." That's my favourite title of all time, but certainly not my favourite novel.

Brion Gysin: Tuning into the Multimedia Age. Brion Gysin was William S. Burroughs' long-time collaborator. He is an interesting writer and innovator in his own right. He invented something called the 'Dreamachine.'

Title: Neverwhere
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publication Date: 1996
Pages: 370
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy
Count for Year: 24

Like probably many others out there, I had read Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's novel, Good Omens, which I absolutely loved. (My mother thought it might be an evil book and took it from a book sale to make sure no one else was corrupted by it. Luckily, I "saved" it from her.) My wife has read several of Gaiman's books, including American Gods and Anansi Boys, both of which she loved, but this was my first book by Gaiman by himself.

Back in the days when we had cable or satellite (we still have TV, just rent what we want from Netflix), I remember a mini-series with the same title being shown on BBC America. Both my wife and I at the time thought it looked too weird to watch. Now reading the book, I regret having not given the mini-series (which I believe from what I'm reading came first) a chance.

"It starts with doors," an old woman at the beginning of the novel tells Richard Mayhew, a London accountant after she gives him an umbrella with a map of the London Underground on it. From that lead-in, Gaiman creates a world beneath the streets of London that can't be found on that particular map, at least as it exists today. This world is inhabited by rats and mice who speak, men who have lived hundreds of years and angels who have lived thousands of years. And, oh, Mayhew suddenly finds himself non-existent, or at least to the people above.

I don't know if it just was the fact that I had read a ho-hum of a book right before I read this one or what, but it was like this book was a revelation to me. I felt like this is how fantasies are to be written, each page pulling you deeper and deeper into the fantasy until you don't know how you're going to get out, but you don't care, because you don't want to leave. For that reason, my...

Final analysis: 10/10, this was pure magic to me, from beginning to end. I won't often give a 10 out of 10 to a book, but this one, I felt deserved it.

If you've reviewed this book, drop me an e-mail at justareadingfool [at] gmail [dot] com and I'll link to your review too.

Author: Eda Shapiro & Rick Kardonne

Format: Hardcover

Number of pages: 136

ISBN: 13 978-965-229-410-4

Date of publication: January 2008

5 stars: One everybody should read

"I first saw Anne Frank when she was only four years old, in March 1934.... Even in those early minutes of our acquaintance I was struck by her large, dark brown eyes; those probing, searching, questioning eyes."(pg 34) So said Victor Kugler of his first meeting of Anne Frank.

I had doubts about this book.  I knew that "The Diary of Anne Frank"was published by her father in order to get her story out there.  However, not knowing anything about Victor Kugler, I was afraid that this was yet another person trying to make money by telling their story.  I was relieved that this was not the case.  My fears about this book were set to rest after reading the preface.  Victor Kugler told his story to Eda Shapiro from 1969-1973, and later died in 1980.  After Shapiro passed away, her husband Iriving Naftolin had Kugler's memoirs published with the help of Rick Kardonne.

To many, the name Victor Kugler may be unfamiliar.  Those who have read "The Diary of Anne Frank"will recall Mr. Kraler being the man who hid the Frank family and their companions.  Kraler and Kugler are one and the same.  It was hard to read this book knowing that Kugler's hiding place would eventually be discovered, and what would happen to the Franks. 

"Again and again they tried to movie it but they failed.  Finally, they found the hook that kept it in its place.  The hook was unfastened and they moved the bookcase.  The door leading to the staircase and rooms above was now exposed.

My heart sank.

The moment I had been dreading for two years had now arrived.

I realized the object of this search.  I knew we had been betrayed.  The secret had been revealed and our plans had failed.  The eight people in the Secret Annex were now doomed.  A terrible fate awaited them all." (pg 52)

7006.  That was the number that was sewn onto Kugler's jacket in the concentration camp he was sent to after the Franks were discovered.  From there he traveled to two other concentration camps before amazingly escaping on a bicycle while his group was attacked by British Spitfires.  He credits his survival to many who helped him on his travels, and he remembered them all.  Among them were farmers who sheltered him and gave him clothing, a woman who warned him about a dangerous road, and a boy who directed him.

There were a few things I was disappointed in after reading this book, but there weren't many.  One was the length.  I found it entirely too short. Added to that, there are sections that aren't really Victor Kugler's story.  I wanted to read about Kugler, and how he helped the Frank family.  Honestly, I wasn't sure I'd care to read any more after the Secret Annex was discover, but I stuck with it and found I couldn't turn away from Kugler's experiences in the concentration camp.  I found them both sickening and alarming, but how could anyone feel differently?  I do admit that I found the later sections, after Kugler's move to Canda, a bit boring since Kugler was no longer in the thick of things.  Overall, this was a very moving book.  Like Anne Frank, Kugler's story should never be forgotten. 

(Thanks to LibraryThing's EarlyReviewers Program, and Gefen Publishing House)

Three of my favorite books when I was young were the stories of Eagle Child/White Bull, a Piegan Blackfoot boy in the 1850's American west.  I plan to reread these books because I have recently found copies of all three titles: The White Calf, The White Peril and The Smoke Horse, by author Cliff Faulknor. 

My measure of a great book, one deserving of the coveted and rarely bestowed 5 heart rating, is if I feel bereft when I arrive at the last page. I've fallen so enthralled with the world and so in love with the characters that returning to the real world is physically painful and I must run out and grab the rest of the books in the series IMMEDIATELY. Mr. Wonderful is grudgingly tolerant of these 11 pm dashes across town to the Barnes & Noble, but he knows I need the next book like I need air to breathe.

Patricia Briggs has written one of these books. I want to chat with Mercy as she fixes my biodiesel Jetta and eat popcorn with Warren and Kyle. I want to date Adam and talk about babies with Samuel. I want to move to the Tri-cities, and I've been to the Tri-cities.

I read her novella in On the Prowl and was hooked, so I picked up Blood Bound (erroneously thinking it was the 1st book in the series and that it was a paranormal romance, since On the Prowl is a paranormal romance). The books are not romance (def: a story about a growing love relationship between a couple that has an HEA ending), but I hear Mercy finally picks one of her suitors in the third book Iron Kissed (which I will be buying as soon as Barnes and Noble opens in the morning!).

Mercedes is a Volkswagon mechanic who was raised by werewolves in Montana. She is not a werewolf, but a Walker: she can shift into a coyote at will, is independent of the moon cycle, and is resistant to many forms of magic. When a young werewolf, hungry, homeless, and lost, shows up at her shop looking for a job, she gives him one and introduces him to Adam, the local alpha of the Columbia Basin werewolf pack who is also her overbearing and handsome neighbor. Men bearing guns show up in pursuit and suddenly all hell breaks loose. Adam's daughter is captured, Adam is wounded, and it falls to Mercy to save the day. What else can a girl do? She wipes the axle grease off her hands and gets to work hunting down the killers, braving crazed vampires, crafty fae, and Samuel, the man who broke her heart.

Mercy is a great heroine: tough as nails but still sympathetic. She's loyal, smart, brave, and not afraid to get her hands dirty. The other characters are just as well crafted. I often have trouble relating to the heroines and heroes in Urban Fantasy, because they have too hard an edge and are too cynical. Ms. Briggs succeeds in creating dark urban fantasy with heart. The world-building is fabulous too, particularly the interactions of the werewolf pack.

I highly recommend this original and action-packed book, and eagerly anticipate following the rest of Mercy's adventures.

Reviewed by Brad Dykens for OnlineWorldofWrestling.com
http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/information/books/wrestlecrap-book-of-lists/

From the makers of the original WrestleCrap book, inspired the universally popular website by the same name, glorifying the absolute worst that professional wrestling has to offer, comes the highly anticipated sequel - the knee-slapping WrestleCrap Book of Lists!

This is quite a unique publication. Make sure you bring your sense of humor, as you get filled in on such topics as; Wrestling nick-names that didn’t catch on, Most stereotypical wrestlers, Top wrestlers from outer space, Greatest wrestling perms of all-time, Most offensively dressed wrestlers, Worst acronyms, Examples of how wrestling and religion don’t mix, Wrestlers who should have a reality show, Top wrestling mug-shots, Excuses for not doing a job, Worst victory speeches in wrestling history, Wrestling-themed restaurants, Greatest wrestling DVD’s to never hit the store shelves, and that is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Each list is hilarious in its own special way. I’m not exactly sure how many lists are featured in this book, but there is plenty for everybody!

When you pick up this book, and you WILL pick up this book (right?), be sure to put it directly in the bathroom - where it belongs! Let me be clear, because that sounds like the start of a BAD review! I really enjoyed reading this book, but it was certainly not intended to be read all at once. Do yourself a favor and hide within arm’s length of your toilet so you can pick it up and read a couple of pages while you’re dropping the kids off at the pool. I think there would no better tribute to the writers of the book than to read it while you’re sitting on the crapper. I’m sorry, but I’m cracking myself up as I typed those words. What I’m trying to suggest is that you slowly devour this book a little bit at a time. Pick it up, entertain yourself with a couple of comical lists, and then put the book down again. It was meant to be a fun book for both the readers and the writers.

Would you expect anything less from the two disturbed gentlemen who are proud of the fact that they purchased the Katie Vick mannequin at a WWE auction? That’s crap, but we love it!

Reviewed by Brad Dykens for OnlineWorldofWrestling.com

Review part 2: Some of Us: Chinese Women Growing Up in the Mao Era (edited by Zueping Zhong, Wang Zheng, and Bai Di). Rutgers University Press. USA: 2001. Review by Prairie Fire (monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com)

Some of Us is an anthology of autobiographical writings by Chinese women from petty-bourgeois backgrounds who grew up during the Cultural Revolution decade, but later moved to the U$ to pursue academic careers. The authors are certainly not representative of the majority of Chinese women. Many of the authors are hostile to Mao. The outlook of the authors is far from that of Maoism-Third Worldism. The book suffers from the inherent limits of oral history, an anecdotal approach. Nonetheless, the book complicates the victim/victimizer narratives of the Cultural Revolution decade; it contains important insights into gender in the Mao era. 

There is no easy way to sum up the diverse observations on gender contained in Some of Us. What is refreshing about the anecdotes is that they convey the complexity and difficulty involved in the Maoist attempts to remake the world without gender oppression. Even though the Maoist attempts were not perfect, one gets the sense that the Maoist efforts were sincere, very real attempts to forward the cause of human liberation. In this respect, the book differs from various cynical, Western narratives. 

The depth of the Chinese social revolution, and the sheer number of people involved, is why the Cultural Revolution is the furthest advance toward communism in history. A quarter of the world stood up. China leaped from foot binding to the advanced pratices of the Cultural Revolution. The Maoist movement in China was the greatest feminist movement of all time in terms of its impact on the status of women. However, analysis of gender in the Maoist era lagged behind practice. Some of the most advanced social experiments in gender equality in human history lacked an adequate theory as a guide. In the Maoist years, socialist moralism wielded as much, if not more, influence on the everyday than revolutionary science. Even so, the testimonies in Some of Us attest to the power of simple maxims and slogans such as “Time has changed. Men and women are the same. Whatever men can do, women can do, too.” Jiang Jin recounts her experience:

"I grew up in a revolutionary era, an era marked by a loud, distinctive voice announcing, “Times have changed; men and women are the same.” The Western reader may be skeptical about the idea that men and women are the same; but in the context of the newly established People’s Repubic of China, this slogan, in its simplistic way, conveyed a powerful message to millions of Chinese women that in this new era men and women were equal. The new constitution gave women the same rights as it gave men. The state called upon women to work outside the home and promised to reward them with equal pay. The new orthodoxy also held that men and women were equal in terms of intellectual competence, political consciousness, and even physical strength. The rhetoric of women’s liberation and a state policy that fostered gender equality informed my growing-up experience in the Maoist era and, to a large extext, shaped my identity and the life path I have chosen." (100)

Similar experiences are recalled throughout Some of Us. Naihua Zhang:

"In some ways I was aware of gender and so were my peers. When writing compositions on what they wanted to be when they grew up, many female students dreamed about being “female scientists,” “female engineers,” “female pilots,” and “female tractor drivers,” etc. It was apparent that we were aware of occupational segregation, and we were inspired to take nontraditional gender roles -- thus the emphasis on “female” for all the occupational roles mentioned above. No one mentioned anything about growing up to be a mother. One of the students wrote about wanting to be the wife of an ambassador in my middle school. This incident was picked up during the CR as evidence of how the bourgeois education of our school had corrupted innocent minds: this female student desired a social status acquired through marriage to her husband rather than by her own making... The Cultural Revolution’s popular slogan, based on Mao’s quotation, was “Time has changed. Men and women are the same. Whatever men can do, women can do, too.” These words inspired girls and women to take unconventional roles and to enter male domains. For example, our commune’s well drilling team was made up of young girls, following Dazhai’s “iron girl” model. They worked on heavy equipment, moving from village to village to drill deep irrigation wells. Our all-girls brigade orchard and the commune experimental farm led by a female zhiqing were also products of this specific historical context. In retrospect, I actually benefited as a zhiqing and a woman. My formal education as a zhiqing granted legitimacy to “scientific” farming experiments, and, in the “can do” atmosphere of the CR, women were encouraged to do what men did and more women were appointed to leadership positions." (14-15)

In the United $tates, people can hardly imagine healthy community life. For Westerners, distant from healthy social interaction, the egalitarianism and altruism of the Maoist years could be nothing other than a false projection of a evil totalitarian society that brainwashes its population. Even though her account is misinformed by certain First Worldist feminist assumptions, Wang Zheng flips the script on the cartoonish, anti-communist narrative:

"Not long after I arrived in the United States, I met an American woman at a friend’s home. She told me with apparent pride that her daughter was a cheerleader. I did not know what kind of leader that was. Hearing her explanation, I could not bring myself to present a compliment, as she obviously expected. I just hoped that my eyes would not betray my destain as I thought to myself, 'I guess this American woman has never dreamed of her daughter being a leader cheered by men.' I feel fortunate that I was 'brainwashed' to want to be a revolutionary instead of a cheerleader... 

Was brainwashing girls to become young vanguards in socialist construction more oppressive and limiting than brainwashing girls to become cheerleaders for football games?" (36-37)

All societies shape the behavior of their populations. The nature of any society is to reproduce itself. This entails reproducing itself, imprinting society, on the level of the personality. Maoist social goals have their correlates at the level of the individual. Ideological remolding for socialist ends was carried out on a massive scale during the Maoist years. Society itself was seen through the paradigm of a “great school of Maoism,” an outlook that had originated in the PLA just prior to the Cultural Revolution. 

In capitalist societies, the social processes that shape desires, hopes, emotions, tastes and so on, are largely obscured to the individual in the everyday. Even though technology of social programing is everywhere, most visible in the huge marketing eyesores that are everywhere in our urban landscapes today, people do not see themselves manipulated by it. Unlike Maoist China, in the contemporary world, Western liberal states do not announce the intention to reshape society as such, on a mass scale. The Maoist view dispenses with the bourgeois illusion of the self as one’s own. And, in doing so, the Maoist approach opens up the possibility of collectively taking control of those processes by ever broader segments of the population. Unleashing the creative power of the masses means giving the masses the scientific tools, the analysis, to manipulate their own social programming, unleashing a “spiritual atom bomb,” for the purpose of reaching communism. 

The question is not whether or not a society is “brainwashing” its population. The question is whose interests are being served. Communism is the elimination of all oppression, of nations over nations, classes over classes, genders over genders, groups over groups, people over people. Patriarchy is one of the main systems of oppression. Ending gender oppression is one of the the key steps to reaching communism. Maoists reorganize cultural and institutional power in order to overthrow patriarchy. The authors of Some of Us are hostile to the Communist project overall. Yet even these liberal, bourgeois feminists understand that the Maoist years had a positive, profound effect on their gender identity. 

[This review will be continued in part 3. Also see part 1.]

“Now he's the latest overnight literary sensation. But luck had nothing to do with Diaz's success. He earned it with his talent. … Talent this big will always make noise.”

Let’s leave aside that “overnight literary sensation” isn’t just hyperbole but a cliché. If big talent will “always make noise,” why couldn’t Herman Melville get an advance for Moby-Dick? (His publisher claimed he hadn’t earned back the money he received for his last book.) Why have so many other great writers died broke and neglected by readers?

To say that luck has nothing to do with literary success is an example of the American denial of luck, a romantic myth. Díaz has talent, a lot of it. But he was also lucky. He came along when doors were opening to groups – including women, blacks and Dominican-Americans like Díaz – whose voices traditionally had been suppressed. This change is the most important – and welcome – to occur in publishing in my lifetime.

But to say that even today talent “will always make noise” is to imply that publishing is an unfailing meritocracy and injustices no longer exist. This is untrue. The authors who are certain to “make noise” today aren’t those with the most talent – they’re the ones with the best chance of sharing a sofa with Oprah.

© 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.

Buffy Season 8 rocks. I've only read 1-4 so far, but I can already tell these comics are in a different league than previous Buffy comics and Whedon's Serenity comics (which I still love). Season 8 (hence the name) takes up where Season 7 of the TV series left off.

***SPOILERS***

Buffy and her crew have awakened all of the potential slayers, and now it's up to Buffy to train them for battle. Xander, sporting a super cool guy look (complete with eye patch), serves as Buffy's new Watcher from a hi tech/hi magic base of operations. The first thing fans of the TV series will want to know is that Buffy is not actually dating "The Immortal" as Angel and Spike supposedly learn at the end of the Angel TV series. That Buffy was actually a decoy (set up by Andrew) to make it harder for Buffy's enemies to find her.

Okay, volume one goes like this: While fighting some gruesome baddies, Buffy and the slayers uncover a weird mark on some of the victims and set out to investigate. Meanwhile, readers learn that the military knows about Buffy and the slayers and has plans to wipe them out (believing they want to create a master race and take over the world).

A big (literally) surprise in this volume (ignore the bad pun) is that Dawn has turned into a giant (most likely the result of some ill-advised copulation with a thricewise--which I think is a really powerful warlock). Even more surprising, Amy reappears at the end of volume 1 (dug up from the rubble of Sunnydale) and agrees to help the military find and destroy Buffy.

Andrew comes back in volume 2 (yay!), Dawn takes a giant bath and Buffy gets trapped in a dream world just as Amy returns to kill her. Thankfully, the new and improved Scoobies have set up a forcefield around Buffy, so Amy is all stabby, but no blood. Amy calls the undead to help her, but the Scoobies get a little help of their own when the awesome Willow returns!

I would have bought volume 3 just for the cover, but the story rocks, too! Ethan Rayne comes back, Buffy has a hot (and hilarious) dream scene involving a naked Angel and Spike and some viking cherabim and Willow and Amy face off. Will and the crew manage to capture Amy. Good, right? Wrong, it was all a trap. Amy sucks Willow into a vortex and she ends up trapped in a military lab at the mercy of a very old, and very flayed enemy. As if this isn't awesome enough, Whedon also raises the possibility of a Willow/Buffy relationship in the future. (Okay, maybe it's a longshot, but I thought I'd throw that in there).

In volume 4, Amy and her new boyfriend (a very skinless Warren) torture Willow in the military lab, while Buffy and the slayers make a plan to save her. Some uber powerful witches (or forces) also come to Will's aid. Buffy harnesses some of Will's mojo to take on Amy. She frees Willow, finds Ethan Rayne dead and learns about the military's plan to destroy her (and all of the slayers).

Needless to say, I am going straight to the comic book store tomorrow morning to get the rest of the issues. These comics really capture the essence of the show, including the action, characters and humor. Everything that makes Whedon great.

I just hope he doesn't stop at Season 8.

DweebMeter: 5/5

Links

Buffy Season 8 on Dark Horse Website

Buffy Season 8 on Wikipedia

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Join author Mario Picayo 
at the presentation of his children's book
 A Caribbean Journey from A to Y 
(Read and Discover What Happened to the Z)
May 22, 2008, 6 PM
Virgin Islands Council on the Arts Gallery
5070 Norre Gade
St Thomas, United States Virgin Islands 
Reception to follow

For information: 340-774-0100 / 212-721-4062
or write to: info@editorialcampana.com

This event is part of the Active Voices of Authors Series, 
presented by the Office of Cultural Education with collaboration from the 
Virgin Islands Cultural Heritage Institute and the Virgin Islands Council on the Art

2008 Américas Award Commended Title

"From his personal experiences [Picayo] has compiled a fascinating collection of historical and natural facts. All young people in our islands and elsewhere would gain immense knowledge and enjoyment from the lively narrative and brilliant illustrations. A Caribbean Journey should be on everyone's reading list."

--Prof. Roy L. Schneider, M.D., Former Comm. of Health, Former Governor, United States Virgin Islands

"Mario Picayo's A Caribbean Journey from A to Y is a book sure to motivate kids to read it over and over. The illustrations and the artistic appeal of the book make it really stand out among other children's books."
--Glenn "Kwabena" Davis, Director of Cultural Education, Department of Education of the Virgin Islands

"From a Caribbean perspective, this book is relevant to both children living in the Caribbean and also those children living outside the region. A Caribbean Journey is a must have in every library and great learning tool in which a person of any age could pick up and learn a thing or two."
--Myron Jackson, Executive Director of the Virgin Islands Cultural Heritage Institute

"I can think of no better book for children to begin the life-long adventure of knowing the Caribbean."
--Silvio Torres-Saillant, Author ofCaribbean Poetics and
An Intellectual History of the Caribbean

"The text, simple enough for very small children to understand and sophisticated enough to entertain and educate older ones, offers way more than any ABC book I've seen to date."
-Tanya Torres, Artist, Cultural Activist and Writer, New York

Photographer and cultural activist turned author Mario Picayo will visit his old home turf, St. Thomas, this coming week to talk about his illustrated children's book A Caribbean Journey from A to Y (Read and Discover What Happened to the Z). The talk and book presentation, followed by a reception, will beon Thursday, May 22nd at 6 PM at the VI Council on the Arts Gallery. The event is part of the Active Voices of Authors Series, featuring artists and writers whose work promotes cultural awareness. There will also be a book-signing event on Saturday May 24 between 12 and 2 PM at Dockside Bookshop in Havensight.

The Active Voices of Authors Series is presented by the Office of Cultural Education with collaboration from the Virgin Islands Cultural Heritage Institute and the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts

Born in Cuba, Picayo called St. Thomas home from the mid seventies until he moved to New York in the 1990's. He is known in the Territory for his work as photographer and video artist with a strong socio-cultural component.

Picayo does not stray very far from his passions and obsessions with this intelligent, fun, and gorgeously illustrated children's book. A Caribbean Journey from A to Y (Read and Discover what Happened to the Z), more than a typical ABC is a guide to the islands, one letter at a time. In its 64 pages the reader can explore the history, culture, fauna, flora and geography of the Caribbean. With colorful, richly detailed illustrations and the simplicity of language required to engage small children, the book succeeds at several levels, and introduces words and concepts ripe for discussion. The letter "S" alone includes animal extinction (Caribbean seals), sailing, sugarcane, and slavery ("one of the saddest of words", as the text reads). Little known facts are inserted in almost every page, and simple questions (sometimes with no quick answers) make the reading interactive. Do you know the difference between a tortoise and a turtle (letter "T"), a house and a home (letter "H"), from which island is the Caribbean's only astronaut? (letter "R"). There is also pleasure to be found in searching the illustrations for words that begin with the page's letter: bananaquit and bougainvillea are two examples from the letter "B" and St. Thomas' own unmistakable Fort Christian serves as background for the letter "F".  There is so much information contained in the pages that even after several readings one can still find some hidden surprise, or "catch" the author's intent behind his selection of words.

The book's title with its reference to a mystery, "Read and Discover What Happened to the Z" does not let children or adults down. Picayo turns the last letter into a closing and an opening, recognition to our heritage and a perfect farewell to this delightful journey.

Don't miss the chance to meet and talk to the author. Books will be available for purchase at both events.

For more information call Alicia Castaneda at 845-247-0546, visit www.editorialcampana.com, or write to info@editorialcampana.com.

As this final installment in the Better Days series opens, Inara's former client (an Alliance man) has taken Mal and plans to put him on trial for terrorism (if he doesn't kill him first). Zoe, loyal to the end, confesses that she was the Dust Devil (not Mal), and she embarks on a suicidal mission to save the captain. 

The crew gets a little help from the mysterious techie guy from parts 1 and 2. He blows up the Alliance ship where Mal's being held just in time. Mal escapes, but not before the techie guy's missiles morph into gun-toting robots. Along the way, Jayne has some funny moments, and both River and Shepherd get a chance to show their scary side.

No surprises here: the crew gets away clean, but not without a hitch. Someone (I think the techie guys) steals their cash.

But if the ending doesn't bring any surprises, one of Inara's revelations does. In a conversation with Mal, she hints that she has a secret "relationship" with Simon. The exchange certainly leads readers to believe that Inara may have taken Simon as a client, but her words are ambiguous enough to keep everyone guessing.

Overall, an enjoyable, but lackluster conclusion to this three part series. The action sequences are confusing, and there just aren't enough character moments. Still, whether or not there's ever a second Serenity movie, I hope Whedon continues making the comics.

What can I say? I can't get enough of the verse!

DweebMeter: 3.5/5

Links

Robert Moore's Amazon Review

Pat Shand's Amazon Review

An incredible book that I only wish I had read earlier in my life. Once I started the book I had difficulty putting it back down except to do the things that I was obliged to do. I loved the book completely, but I am still after finishing it unsure what my thoughts and feelings are towards Victor Frakenstein or his monster. I want to feel compassion for the monster in his only desire for love and to not be alone but at the same time I fear that if I had met him in the city that I would scream in fear and desire to kill him myself. As far as Victor, he is someone who at times I felt sorry for and other times I wanted to hate him more so than the monster for his crazy ambitions to do such a thing and then to abhor and desire the death of his creation. A great book that I would recommend to anyone

Rating: 5/5

Summary and Review: Superhuman speed, eyesight and hearing sounds good to me but for Tally, as usual, being not only perfect but a special special just isn’t enough.  Specials is the third installment in the Uglies series and begins with Tally, Shay, and their gang (Specials known as the cutters) crashing a party to get more information about the New Smoke.  Tally enjoys her new job as a protector of the city more than she expected.  The Smokey they were trying to get to made an exciting escape that was full of twists and turns that made for a thrilling and page-turning beginning and the excitement didn’t stop there.  Zane, Tally’s boyfriend from Pretties, returns to New Pretty Town after his surgery.  Tally and Shay agree to help Zane escape and find the New Smoke, each is unaware of the secret plans of the other two along the way and they all get more than they bargained for.  While at times I still tripped over the word choice I am more comfortable with it this go around and find it mildly interesting.  Westerfeld continues to capture my attention with his exciting and oddly realistic world from a fantastic future.

Thus journalist Michael Pollan begins his book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. And once he makes his case for returning to a diet without processed foods, you see that those three rules are truly as simple as they look.

But first, the complicated bits. Raj Patel recently demonstrated how the agro-industrial complex has almost taken over the world's food supply, to the vast detriment of, well, everything. (Countries' economies, small farms, food quality, people's health etc.) His book, Stuffed and Starved, looked mostly at the macro level of the world's food systems, from the viewpoint of a former World Bank employee.

Now Pollan delves into the same history, showing us more of the micro level: how the agro-capitalist takeover has undermined the health and well-being of millions of people, and how it's getting worse very, very quickly.

It's called the "Western diet." And wherever it has spread, since the early twentieth century, observers have noted a drastic rise in heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, alongside an astonishing increase in malnourishment. It consists of massive volumes of highly-processed foods (Pollan calls them "edible food-like substances"), marketed by corporations, prepared and eaten quickly, in large portions of non-nutritious, empty calories. (Even supposedly healthy fruits and vegetables now suffer from the same problem.)

And it goes hand-in-hand with what Gyorgy Scrinis labelled "nutritionism" - an almost religious belief in isolating "nutrients" in food, which then requires a scientific high priesthood to decree which nutrients can be processed out, and which must be processed back into our new, improved imitations of food.

The first problem, says Pollan, is that science can only talk about nutrients it's discovered - and there are thousands it hasn't isolated yet, even in simpler foods. And food scientists rarely examine how nutrients interact with each other (especially if they haven't discovered them all), so it's no wonder they're always finding a new "essential nutrient" that becomes the latest rage. One year, it's trans fats (look how that turned out!), another year it's oat bran; this year it's Vitamin D.

So nutrients don't do what they're supposed to, scientists study more, add other nutrients that don't seem to work, study again, add other nutrients, and on it goes. You start wondering what logic justifies processing out the original nutrients if they're just going to have to add them back in again, hoping they'll work this time. (One guess: huge corporate profits!)

The engineering extends further, back to crops or animals, feeding them simplified, processed food, again ignoring the millions of nutrient reactions they need that science hasn't discovered - and the original foods, too, become less nutritious despite all this "healthy" care.

As consumers of the "Western diet" have become more and more obsessed with nutrients and "healthy" eating, the more unhealthy they've become. Yet humanity ate the whole foods in traditional diets, and maintained excellent health (or they'd have stopped eating them!) for thousands of years before all this "help." They didn't know what nutrients the foods contained - they just ate them, and thrived.

Pollan carefully and convincingly traces the history of the "Western diet" and the eager (and profitable) marketing of "nutritionism" while correlating it with the rise in associated ailments. But if that was all he did, a reader might be tempted to despair. However, he suggests ways to return to a diet that produces real health.

Eat Food. Meaning whole, unprocessed food from growers and producers who don't process their crops or animals. Try farmers' markets. Or, if possible, food brown in your own garden.

Not too much. Consumers of the "Western diet" really consume- partly, Pollan suspects, because the body keeps trying to find enough nutrients among all those empty calories. He believes it's easier to be sated if the body is nourished on whole foods without the nutrition processed out of them.

Mostly plants. We can obtain all the nutrition we need (even iron and protein) from a diversity of plants, supplemented if we want by fish and only occasional servings of meat.

Pollan's book is well researched, clearly and understandably written - and full of dire information. Yet it does not feel dire at all, and Pollan remains cheerfully optimistic that people not only can reverse the effects of the "Western diet," but gradually reclaim the world's food production systems. His infectious optimism leaps from the pages of his book and makes you want to go out and find a farmer's market immediately.

"Victor Kugler: The Man Who Hid Anne Frank" by Eda Shapiro & Rick Kardonne

This book is one that I received through the Early Reviewer's program in March over at LibraryThing.  It was the first book I got through the program so I was very excited to get it.  It arrived not too long ago.  I'm almost done reading it, and I'll post my review here, over at LibraryThing, and on Amazon.com.  The subject of the book is pretty much explained by the title :)

"Songs for the Missing" by Stewart O'Nan

This book came in the mail today!  I signed up for the First Look Program over at Barnes&Noble back in April, and this is the book I got.  It's fiction about a girl who goes missing, and how her family deals with it.  I've never read anything by this author, but it looks great.

"The Bridge of San Luis Rey" by Thorton Wilder

This is the book I was assigned through the Penguin Classics Blog.  I was one of the first, I think, 1400 people to sign up (sorry but they are no longer offering books!) and this book was randomly chosen for me.  I'd never heard of it.  Amazon's summary says: In this Pulitzer Prize winner, a bridge collapses in eighteenth-century Peru; five die. Who were they?  Sounds interesting, but makes me think of "Hiroshima" by John Hersey.

"The Aviary Gate: A Novel" by Katie Hickman

This one I snagged thanks to a heads up by Carey over at LibraryThing.  I've never read anything by Katie Hickman, but this is historical fiction so it's right up my alley.  I hope it's not too much romance and not enough plot, but we'll see!  You may still be able to get a copy of this book to read and review.  Send an email to marketing@bloomsburyusa.com with the subject line- Shelf Awareness ad for Aviary Gate copy.   I'd also include your name and address, and a blog if you have one in the body of the email, with a line about how you'd like to read it.

"The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Short Stories" by Pagan Kennedy

Again, thanks to Carey over at LibraryThing.  I've never read anything by Kennedy either, and although this is a little outside my comfort zone, I decided to give it a shot.  This one, like "Victor Kugler" is nonfiction.  Like the above book, you may still be able to get a copy to read and review.  Send an email to info@sfwp.com with the suject line- Pagan Kennedy Advance Copy.  I'd also include your name and address, and a blog if you have one in the body of the email, with a line about how you'd like to read it.

“Farworld–Water” by J. Scott Savage

This is the very first book blog tour I'll be involved in, and so I'm very excited to read this book.  I've heard that the books are going out sometime in May.  Plus I'll be having J. Scott Savage on my blog in early August for an interview, and also I'll be giving away a copy of his book then too.  Head over to his blog to see the cover art, and a sneak peek at the first two chapters.

Sorry, no "In the middle of it…" this week because I JUST FINISHED Epic by Conor Kostick!

In Erik's world, everyone clips into Epic—a computer game that is also the government and economic system. If you win in Epic, the easier things will be for you in the real world. If you lose, your real world life also suffers. The rich and powerful become more rich and powerful, while the working class has to slave away to survive both in the game and in the real world. Erik is fed up with this imbalance of power. When his father is exiled, Erik wants to change the rules of the game. Determined to defeat the committee, Erik leads his friends on a quest that, if completed, will grant them with enough riches to make them unstoppable.

Believe it or don't, I LOVE playing RPGs. So, when I started reading Conor Kostick's Epic, I was hooked. Of course, if MY life depended on how well I did in a video game, I don't think I'd get very far. (Hey, I never said I was GOOD. :)) Gamers will sympathize when Erik groans at the tedious task of fighting low level monsters for piddling copper coins while rebels will cheer the Osterfjord players on as they challenge the authority.

The best part is Saga, the sequel is in stores now! Look for it in the library soon!