tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post7118941300450874378..comments2024-03-26T23:41:10.319+00:00Comments on Authors Electric: Past, present and future by Cally Phillips Katherine Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-4151166641175222552013-03-05T10:19:51.787+00:002013-03-05T10:19:51.787+00:00I'm thoroughly enjoying Let the Great World Sp...I'm thoroughly enjoying Let the Great World Spin by the way.Dan Hollowayhttp://danholloway.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-2667851474118156372013-03-05T09:29:57.346+00:002013-03-05T09:29:57.346+00:00Dan, thanks for the tip about the Kieslowski film,...Dan, thanks for the tip about the Kieslowski film, which I'll try to get hold of.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13770069472552779217noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-21330740070975543522013-03-04T22:59:34.127+00:002013-03-04T22:59:34.127+00:00I'll take your idea of the invisible twin alon...I'll take your idea of the invisible twin along with me. julia joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09773900100240758504noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-41382888717599472772013-03-04T17:32:55.704+00:002013-03-04T17:32:55.704+00:00Really with you on this one Cally - having just (l...Really with you on this one Cally - having just (literally) returned from a close encounter with the third world in all its horrific reality. <br />And the Iraq war - with thousands of others I did a sit-in for amnesty, wrote letters, signed petitions - all useless. Bush and Blair should be tried for war crimes.Kathleen Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07645566938871914385noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-36659957548290899262013-03-04T13:40:57.171+00:002013-03-04T13:40:57.171+00:00Lee, I agree - fiction that sets out to have a mes...Lee, I agree - fiction that sets out to have a message can be utterly dreadful - I think te key is to put the story and characters first and forget the message, truting that the story you tell will do all the work you need it to. The finest example I know isn't a book but Kieslowski's film A Short Film About Killing, which follows the story of a young hoodlum who murders a taxi driver from the crime to the gallows understatedly and humanely and was according to some sources in large part responsible for the repeal of the death penalty in PolandDan Hollowayhttp://danholloway.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-11300937112811181552013-03-04T12:18:21.567+00:002013-03-04T12:18:21.567+00:00Great poem Dan. And as I sit here at my comfortab...Great poem Dan. And as I sit here at my comfortable desk, signing petitions on disability allowance, bedroom tax, mansion tax, every Amnesty appeal, repeating over and over in my mind 'the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity', knowing righteous anger burns within me, I feel the awful fog of powerlessness descending. But Jo, you're action was superb and that's how we should all react to wrong. Yesterday's Observer article about Katherine Gun at GCHQ and what happened to her after she discovered the US plot to spy on the UN in the run-up to the Iraq War was sadly instructive. Had the findings been revealed it could have made a difference: Blair was more scared of the peace march then he let on. I never used to believe in conspiracy theory. But now..?Dennis Hamleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15781139870037634374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-46380846556797319312013-03-04T09:53:24.916+00:002013-03-04T09:53:24.916+00:00No matter what your political views are, speaking ...No matter what your political views are, speaking out is undoubtedly a good thing. However, fiction written with an overt political agenda is often awfully weak in the fiction department. Despite its popularity, Cory Doctorow's <i>Little Brother</i> is a good example. When does fiction become propaganda?<br /><br />But counterexamples exist - I'm thinking of some of the best African writers - so maybe it's a question of skill, emotional range, (ugh, that dread word) depth.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13770069472552779217noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-48983139609875175202013-03-04T09:30:15.693+00:002013-03-04T09:30:15.693+00:00Off to Auschwitz tomorrow, lest we forget. (What ...Off to Auschwitz tomorrow, lest we forget. (What strange birthday presents one's sons can choose...) I bought Cally's book yesterday to read on my Kindle while in Poland.<br /><br />And a fine poem, Dan. Jan Needlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15823078224282953782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-57633253850392504682013-03-04T09:15:02.665+00:002013-03-04T09:15:02.665+00:00How strange that "political" is used as ...How strange that "political" is used as an insult *(the way peole have started talking about "human rights" as though they were a bad thing). I think we forget that however small we are, as writers we have a voice that's heard more widely than that of many, so whilst it's true that every human being has a duty to speak up, as writers we have doubly a duty to do so.<br />On the subject of Fairtrade and smartphones, a poet friend of mine, Emma Ako (do google her), is doing wonderful things campaigning about the use of conflict minerals from the Congo in smartphones - one of the hidden sides of the digital revolution (rather, not hidden at all, just one of the other things our society chooses to wholesale ignore like other forms of consumer-led exploitation). If I may, I'm going to include a poem in my comments because it's about many of these issues, and especially on your incredibly important point of the essentiality of advocacy - we hear all the time that evil wins when good people say nothing and somehow we accept that as an adequate statement when the truth is that if we say nothing we lose our right to be called good. <br />Keep up the fight.<br /><br />Murder does not begin with piles of glasses,<br />Gases, gates and railway tracks<br />Or the clack clack clack of a million boots in tune<br />Or the phosphorous perfume of the jagged ack ack ack<br />The weapons stash<br />Or lives mown down, the slash of knives, the twisted iron fence<br />Or gashes carved in innocence.<br />Murder begins with not wanting to cause offence,<br />Politely keeping up pretence,<br />Ignoring what they say for dulce and decorum’s sake,<br />Murder begins with the proffered hand you shake,<br />The gift you take,<br />The offering to heal the rift because the coffin’s beckoning<br />And the clink of coins in coffers<br />Making conscience-cleansing reckonings.<br />Murder begins with parental pacifist cajoling,<br />With smiles kept because the camera’s rolling,<br />The old man’s ignorance unmentioned for another year.<br />Murder begins with the lie that it was different then.<br />Murder begins with the lie that those who do nothing we can still call good.<br />Murder begins with the lie that anger’s worse than apathy and indifference,<br />That one voice cannot make a difference,<br />Murder begins with the lie that it’s a social crime to be pedantic,<br />That hatred’s just semantics,<br />That a joke is just a joke<br />And words are less than sticks and stones,<br />That peace is worth the price you pay<br />That nothing’s worth the fight today<br />And you should only speak if you’ve got something nice to say<br />Think twice today<br />The mercury is high today<br />The sun is bright today<br />There’s no clouds in the sky today<br />So bite your tongue before you give advice today<br />Just because there might one day<br />Be someone, perhaps, someone not yet born, in a war torn land you couldn’t point to on a map lying watching her dreams go out one by one like the stars disappearing behind the mortar smoke at night one day<br />Because you made this one small oversight today.<br />Murder begins with the neighbour who sees my curtains pulled and mutters scrounger.<br />Murder begins with words you file away as fact<br />And ends with acts you laid down years before as laziness and tact.<br />Murder begins with you, listening to this poem, as the first line blurs<br />And ends with piles of glasses,<br />Gases, gates, and railway tracks<br />And tomorrows you laugh off today because they’re simply too absurd.Dan Hollowayhttp://danholloway.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-11779466479969912212013-03-04T08:44:07.605+00:002013-03-04T08:44:07.605+00:00My opposition to the Iraq war could have cost me m...My opposition to the Iraq war could have cost me my job - I was working in the NHS, and put notices on public noticeboards about the big demonstration in London. They were taken down, I put them up again - and though I didn't advertise it was me most people know. And then the consultants must have had some sort of meeting, and the notices stayed, and most of my colleagues joined me on the march.<br /><br />We didn't change anything? We showed that, together, we can make a huge fuss. It's a beginning. I hope Cameron couldn't take us into Iran by telling lies as easily as Blair took us into Iraq.JOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03127111575563904349noreply@blogger.com