Category Archives: Nihilism

A GRIP ON SPORTS We may be neck-deep in the madness that is college hoops see below in March but some of us are mad about pro football all year. Not me, of course, but some of us. Maybe even you.

Back in my days at St. Francis High, the priests forced us to memorize segments of Shakespeares greatest plays. In other words, parts of most of them, from Hamlet to Much Ado About Nothing. The only one I really remember, however, is the Tomorrow soliloquy from Macbeth. Mainly, to be honest, because I actually did memorize it and my buddy didnt (he shall remain nameless because he helped me through so many math and science classes), allowing me the opportunity to bail him out on the test.

The line I really remember: It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Old Will was writing about life and its lack of meaning nihilism before nihilism, really but Ive always, as in the past decade or so, equated it with the ramblings of sports fans on Twitter. See, who says Shakespeare doesnt speak to the modern world?

The latest tales told by idiots? The demise of the Seahawks.

Truth be told, we were also full of sound and fury after Russell Wilson sounded off. Mainly because its our job. But also because we were worried the lack of an offensive line was threatening to snuff out his football fire, which seemed to be at the core of his concerns.

John Schneider made one trade, re-signed a bunch of guys who have been with the Hawks before and, presto, Wilson seems assuaged if not ecstatic. That came yesterday when Schneider worked a little bit more of his magic.

Early in the offseason, Seattle cut last years best pass rusher, veteran Carlos Dunlap. Acquired midseason from the Bengals, Dunlap changed the tenor of the pressure up front, helping the entire defense improve. But his contract was too expensive to keep. And he wanted to see what he could command on the free agent market.

He found out. While he was in his learning mode, the Hawks didnt stand pat. The re-signed Benson Mayowa, the Idaho Vandal defensive end who seems to be getting better with age. And they picked up Kerry Hyder in free agency, not only adding another pass rusher but weakening NFC West-rival San Francisco in the process.

All well and good. More was needed though. Re-enter Dunlap. Hes coming back with a new contract that helps the Hawks cap situation. In fact, he and Hyder, combined, will play for less than what Dunlap was due before. Thats Schneider witchcraft all right.

And yet nothing is perfect, not in the NFL. To make it all work, Seattle needed defensive tackle Jarren Reed to re-work his deal. The team and Reed couldnt work it out. So today the Hawks best inside lineman will be cut, freeing up space on the books, sure, but leaving a hole in the run defense.

Its something Schneider will have to deal with tomorrow. And tomorrow. And tomorrow.

Jim Meehan glimpsed into a crystal ball yesterday and saw what was coming this morning. It was a driving force behind this story concerning Gonzagas recruiting in the changing landscape of college basketball. And it was prescient, as Jims story this morning shows.

Hunter Sallis, the 6-foot-5 point guard from Omaha, is headed to Gonzaga. (In other, non-breaking news, Jalen Suggs will not be back. Duh.)

As 247Sports No. 6-rated recruit in the composite 2021 rankings, Sallis becomes the highest-rated recruit, topping even Suggs, who was 11th in last years final tally. And Sallis will remain the Zags top recruit until Chet Holmgren, Suggs former high school teammate, finally makes his decision concerning next year. Like Sallis, most folks who make their living covering basketball recruiting yes, dad, you can make money doing that think Holmgren will head to Spokane as well.

And dont forget, Kaden Perry, the 6-9 power forward from Battle Ground, Wash., has already signed with the Bulldogs. USA Basketball named Perry, as well as Sallis and Holmgren, to the U.S. team yesterday for the upcoming Nike Hoop Summit. They may have been joined by Ben Gregg as well, except Gregg is already in a Gonzaga uniform, having graduated early and joined the Zags midway through this season. It is shaping up to be a great recruiting class.

Gonzaga: Besides Jims recruiting story, there is much more to read concerning the Zags. The team went to TopGolf on Thursday and Jim passes along a scouting report. Jim also has a story on the odds for the remaining NCAA teams. As expected, Gonzaga is still the favorite. And is here as well. John Blanchette delves into Hinkle Fieldhouse and how much basketball life has changed since the fictional Hickory team won the Indiana state title. Life in the bubble doesnt allow for interactions, as Ryan Collingwood explains. When in Spokane, the Gonzaga players have their favorite places to get their hair cut. Justin Reed passes those along in this piece.

WSU: Around the Pac-12 and college basketball, the conference teams have relied on outside shooting to stay alive. Oregon State, a program with questions, will need everyone to play well to get past Loyola of Chicago. Can USC do even better than Andy Enfields last Sweet 16 team? Oregon is in the way. UCLA, even without Chris Smith, has advanced farther than most would have expected in the tournament. Utahs coaching search may have to start over. A prime candidate said no. Colorado reached some milestones this season. Washington may reach a milestone: most players leaving and coming. In the womens tournament, it was an unexpected ending for UCLA. Stanford has been here before. Many times, though the first was in 1990. Oregon has a tough task in Louisville. In football news, Washington has a transfer coming its way. Arizona is moving quickly. Linebackers like Utah.

EWU: The Eagles have replaced Shantay Legans. David Riley, the former Whitworth star and longtime Eastern assistant will be the next basketball coach. Ryan Collingwood, who broke the news, has all the particulars in this story. Eastern will host Cal Poly, and former football coach Beau Baldwin, tomorrow. Dan Thompson, filling in for Ryan, has this preview of the Eastern-flavored matchup.

Preps: There are no regional or state championships to be won this year, so Mt. Spokanes volleyball team did all it could do. The Wildcats won every match. Dave Nichols has the coverage of their final one, a sweep of Gonzaga Prep. Dave also has a roundup of last nights other action. Jim Allen delves into the response the school district is getting concerning the stadium. One question. If almost everything, including the financial circumstances and parking concerns, have changed in the past couple years, why should an advisory vote on a different proposal still matter?

Chiefs: Spokane is finally home. The Chiefs will play Seattle tonight. Dan has a preview. Larry Weir spoke with the voice of the Chiefs, Mike Boyle, for the latest Press Box podcast.

Mariners: The Ms will keep their prospects even closer this season, even if it isnt easy to do. They lost yesterday.

Seahawks: The Dunlap news, and the ensuing Reed departure, is all the rage in Seattle. As well it should be. The new term around the Hawks is voidable years. It isnt just jargon.

Sounders: Seattle has a new kit and a new player adapting to the U.S.

A nice day seems on tap. And Im attending a reunion with a former college baseball teammate, one who moved to Spokane prior to the pandemic. Our plans to get together last March were derailed for some reason. We are both vaccinated now and are trying again. I expect a lot of stories and a lot of memory lapses. Until later

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A Grip on Sports: Among all the madness, there is always NFL news - The Spokesman-Review

After four years of Trumpism, weve learned that Trumpism has very few core tenets except lower taxes for the wealthy and that government is bad. Some people like Rand Paul have been running on government is bad their entire careers, but the problem with being a member of the government who wants to destroy the government is that when a problem arises that the government could theoretically fix, you cant participate because you would be encouraging the use of government.

Yes, this Republican Party is filled with men of no action. Meet the Helpless Caucusa group of laissez-faire nihilists who want you vote so they can crush the government youd like them to run.

This was on full display on Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence, when Texas Senator and Cancun visitor and Ritz Carlton stayer Ted Cruz said, Every time theres a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater Democrats propose taking away guns from law-abiding citizens It makes it worse.

Ted wasnt mad at the gunman, or even angry at the event that caused the death of 10 people, including both the store manager and a police officer. Ted wasnt mad about the gun crisis gripping our country (there have been seven shootings in the last seven days). Nor was Ted mad at the mental health crisis that has gripped our sick, sad nation. No, Ted was preemptively mad at Democrats, for their desire to legislate.

The irony of course is that the Boulder, Colorado, shooting happened just 10 days after a local ban on assault weapons had lapsed. The Washington Post points out, Police have yet to say whether the ordinance would have prevented him from buying or possessing the weapon within city limits. But as with so much legislation, it may not always work, but the point of our government should be at the very least to try, shouldnt it?

Gun violence is not the only thing that Republicans have no interest in legislating. Theres also the pandemic, which has killed almost as many people as the population of Wyoming. Former President Trump and numerous members of his party seemed at best apathetic to COVID. Trump argued that if the economic shutdown continues, deaths by suicide definitely would be in far greater numbers than the numbers that were talking about for COVID-19 deaths.

During the early months of the pandemic the White House could have use the Defense Production Act as they claimed to but they largely didnt. The New York Times noted that the Trump administration suggested that wielding that authority would have amounted to left-wing overreach. Yes, the Trump administration thought using the Defense Production Act was some kind of hippy dippy voodoo.

But wait, theres more! Trump, remember, refused to enact a mask mandate. My administration has a different approach: We have urged Americans to wear masks, and I emphasized this is a patriotic thing to do. Maybe theyre great, and maybe theyre just good. Maybe theyre not so good.

A national mask mandate would have been easy and cheap. And yet, legislating is kind of something the libs do since telling people to do things that might help them violates one of the tenets of Trumpism and Republicanism. Trump and the Republicans also refused to enact a national testing and tracing program, with Trump saying that testing makes us look bad and that he had his people slow the testing down, please.

Trump had 10 laws he wanted to pass in his first hundred days. Guess which was the only one to pass?

Trump galvanized the Republican Party as the party of no. Trump had 10 laws that he promised to pass in his first 100 days. They were part of Steve Bannons promises made promises kept, and they included the hilarious American Energy and Infrastructure Act (not passed) and the equally unintentionally hilarious Clean Up Corruption in Washington Act (also not passed). Guess which act was the only one of those 10 that passed? Give up? The one that cut taxes for people making over a million dollars. Most of the Trump presidency was pretty light on legislation and pretty heavy on theatrics.

But the party of no started earlier than Trump with the self-proclaimed grim reaper. Since Barack Obama was elected to office, Mitch McConnell has been the king of obstruction, telling the National Review right before the 2010 midterms that, The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president. That call to inaction created a kind of anti-government movement in the Republican Party. Mitch became the obstructionist in chief, making sure that Merrick Garland never got a Supreme Court nomination hearing and letting him languish for 293 days.

Republicans no longer control the House, the Senate, or the presidency. They are finally in the perfect position to live their truths and do nothing: no legislation, no anything but obstruction. And it seems clear that Republicans will run against Bidens legislation in the midterms. The American Rescue Plan (giving people money they desperately need during a pandemic) is pretty popular, but who knows? Republicans have been historically extremely good at messaging, so perhaps they will once again be able to sell their do-nothingness.

Its worth wondering why voters would support a party that wants to destroy the government when you could vote for the party that wants the government to succeed. But, again, who knows? Maybe people will embrace laissez-faire nihilism.

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The GOP Is the Party of No Hopeand Endless Mass Murders - The Daily Beast

I was agoner, says Mike IX Williams with adisarming sense of nonchalance. Talking to us from the kitchen of his New Orleans home, the Eyehategod singer is casting his mind back to the fateful morning October 10, 2016 the day he found himself coughing up blood and in abjectpain.

Two years earlier while on tour, he had been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and told that he had 12 months to live. Regardless, he carried on drinking what he estimates was at least abottle of vodka aday. Rushed to acritical care unit on that October morning, the singer was placed on alife support machine and told he needed anew liver in order to survive. As aman who had enjoyed what he calls hard life lived, he resigned himself to hisfate.

Im quite pragmatic so Ijust said to myself, This could be it. Icould be gone soon. Iwasnt really scared at all, he says. I just thought, If Igo, Igo, and if Istay, Istay. And Iwas great with staying, youknow!

For Mike and his wife Michelle, the wait to find asuitable donor was long and expensive. An intensely private man, at first he refused to inform the wider world that hed been hospitalised. In August of 2016 hed missed two shows with Eyehategod due to his faltering health his friend Phil Anselmo had stepped in to replace him. Hed also been absent for another U.S. run of shows in October with UK punks Discharge where another friend, Lamb Of Gods Randy Blythe, assumed vocal duties. While fans knew he was ill, no-one other than his bandmates, close friends, and family knew just how unwell he actuallywas.

As the medical bills increased and Mikes insurance tripled, Michelle was forced to set up acrowd-funding campaign to cover the spiralling costs. We cant do this anymore. The expenses are astronomical and overwhelming, she wrote on her YouCaring page. The response to the campaign was instant, the pair reaching their target of $50,000 dollars in mere days. But the bills continued to mount and they needed more money. The crowd-funding continued, famous friends rallied, and benefit gigs were also organised as Mike grew ever weaker and awaited atransplant.

I didnt actually die because Im still here talking to you. But when Isay Iwas gone, Iwas right up to the edge, he continues without flinching. Your liver is connected to everything, so when your liver goes, everything else goes too. Iwas sinking lower and lower, but with the help of science and some of the best doctors in the country New Orleans has some of the best doctors when it comes to liver disease and transplants they put me back together again. Ive felt 20years younger since it happened, to be honest withyou.

Mike received his new liver in December 2016. Once he was discharged, amonth of convalescing at ahospital-approved apartment followed before the singer was finally allowed to go home. In the statement that accompanied his release, he declared: This miracle of the modern medical process has literally bought me asecond chance at living! For aman armed with areputation as one of metals great nihilists, this was aremarkably un-Mike-like expression ofjoy.

It was an emotional moment for me! he laughs. The 90s were one thing where we lived for the day and didnt care what happened. You saw us then, so you know how that was. But then you finally get older and you reach that day where you realise, Wow! This may actually be killing me. It made me think. After three months in there it was quite ashock to be out of hospital. There were still alot of steps for me to take so it wasnt like an immediate thing where Iwas back out on the street jumping up and down. Having said that, four months after the surgery we were backonstage.

Mike is the first to admit he has led alife of extreme excess. Alongside his alcohol abuse, he has found himself dependent on drugs and opiates, their impact evident on landmark Eyehategod albums like Take As Needed For Pain (1993 and the promo film of the same year, Peace Through Addiction) and Dopesick (1996). In 2005 he found himself jailed for possession and was bailed by Phil Anselmo who also offered him aplace to live. I stayed in his guest house above his studio for like 10years, Mikesays.

For all of his past misdemeanours, the man we meet today is clear-headed and full of humour, his face animated by amischievous smile. He is also brutally honest about his own life and hiscareer.

Theres alot of rumours about our band and most of them are true, he shrugs, discussing Eyehategods heavy-duty reputation and his own addictive tendencies. People do like to have their fantasies about us. They want to think were living out in the swamp, shooting drugs all day. Some of thats true, you know. Not the swamp part. But people have to have to realise that were just normal people too. Anybody thats met us knows that we like to have fun. Thats why were still doing this band. Its still fun after all theseyears.

Fun is not aword often associated with Eyehategod nor with Mike himself, whose bleak worldview and propensity to write about the darkest subject matter has defined so much of the bands music. Despite his misanthropic outlook, he admits he would feel lost without Eyehategod, and that his need to continue playing was key to his successfulconvalescence.

When Iwas in the hospital Itried to keep apositive mindset and Itold myself that one day wed be back onstage playing, he says. In fact, against all odds, he returned to the stage on 14 April 2017 alongside his long-serving bandmates of Jimmy Bower and Brian Patton (guitars), Gary Mader (bass) and Aaron Hill (drums) as Eyehategod headlined the Bezerker festival at The Crofoot in Pontiac,Michigan.

That show was pretty emotional, he beams. It was also my birthday so it was doubly emotional. Everything was fine until Igot back onstage and Igot alittle teary-eyed. The kids started screaming Eyehategod! and [the band] ended up bringing acake out for me, so it was really emotional but it was great to see all the love. Imean, were called Eyehategod, and that stirs up alot of negative things which we want but on the other side, its really good too see the love that weget.

Mikes return to live performance marked the start of ashort run of shows that also took in gigs in Philadelphia and Brooklyn. As always, the singer was determined to give it his all, his performance based around acts of sheer abandonment and aferocious vocal style which, on occasion, appear to move beyond wordsthemselves.

I was alittle unsteady, Iguess you would say, he recalls. I wasnt 100 per cent there but we still put our all into it because its all about that energy. It took me afew shows and some travelling to get fullyback.

Being on the road came with its own set of challenges, specifically around Mikes propensity to head off the rails and drink. Whereas self-destruction had previously been the order of the day, now temperance wasrequired.

Well, Istill have aglass of wine, he confesses, discussing his pre-show routine. The doctors are fine with that and thats not going to kill me, but the hard stuff is pretty much gone. Im only speaking for myself here, of course, but its all about fighting that temptation, and everybody is abit different these days. Jimmys got kids, you know. Brian Patton whos not in the band right now he has kids, too. As you get older, these things happen so before the show things are abit more mellow withus.

After that initial clutch of shows, Eyehategod found themselves almost permanently back on the road and travelling to places that theyd never played before including South Korea, Vietnam and Tasmania. Despite their increasingly exotic and never-ending tour schedule, the band had also worked up some new material during Mikes enforced absence in abid to follow-up their 2014 self-titled effort, the demos being cut while he was inhospital.

We pretty much stayed on tour from 2017 up until the start of 2020. Brian had decided that he couldnt do that much touring and he left [in 2019] to take care of his family which is anoble thing, Ithink. So Jimmy said, Brians gone, youre out of the hospital, so lets re-do all those songs and add certain elements and sections. So we re-worked stuff around 2018, and then Irecorded my vocals last July in Chicago. That became the newrecord.

A History Of Nomadic Behavior is Eyehategods sixth album since they formed back in 1988. Prolific they are not. I always saw us aweird slow punk band and our evolution has been pretty slow too, reflects Mike, contemplating one of the most extreme catalogues in modern music. But Ithink we haveevolved.

In fact, the bands latest album is proof of that evolution. Jimmy Bowers riffs which have always boasted ablues-edge alongside the bands punk blast are no less hulking but they are more defined. Mike too has developed his vocal style far beyond his initial chewed-glassinvective.

I heard recently that people were talking about the new album and saying, Eyehategod sold out! You can hear what Mikes saying now! You cant win! You cant make everybody happy so we dont care. Weve never cared, he chuckles. Its been seven years since the last album and this time Idid pronounce my lyrics alittle more. Theyre not as drunkenly slurred as the old stuff! But its just the normal, nihilist Eyehategod outlook. That seems to always be there. Ive always got that kind of outlook even during the most positivetimes.

If Mike is achanged man in terms of his own circumstances, he admits that his lyrics on AHistory Of Nomadic Behavior atitle that could easily relate to his itinerant experiences as ayoung man have been shaped by recent events. Opener Built Beneath The Lies and the blasting Fake Whats Yours are examples of tunes that, while remaining oblique, are clearly loaded with Trumpian imagery. High Risk Trigger, meanwhile, sounds like ablaster for COVIDtimes.

I dont write stories. Itend to pull lyrics from all over the place. Ialso write the songs out almost as poetry, Isuppose youd say, before the words get pulled into the songs, he says. Mostly, my lyrics about the desperation of life as awhole, but Iguess some stuff did creep in terms of what weve all been through. It wasunavoidable.

The album isnt directly about 2020. But these issues have been going on for along time these issues of corruption, government abuse, police brutality. It all kinda came to head and Ithought that maybe Iwould add some of the buzzwords if you want to call them that and add some of the tension from 2020in there. Ithink it wouldve been there no matter what because thats how we are, but this album does seem as if it was made for2021.

Throughout their 33-year career, Eyehategod have always maintained that they are not apolitical band per se. Instead, Mike has focused on delivering fragmented lyrical blasts that deal with existentialism, aslew of taboo subjects, and the reality of Americas underclass. Looking at the country as awhole now, however, he admits he finds it hard to recognise what hesees.

I dont know how to view it, to be honest. Its horrendous, he sighs. All these people appear to have an umbrella under which theyre protected and where they can say all these racist things, all these sexist things and homophobic things. Its become that now. It was an underlying right-wing current before, especially under Reagan and Bush, but it really came to ahead under this last guy. Its shocking that it happened toAmerica.

Its divided the country and made it unbearable. But you have to deal with it day-by-day. Thats the only way you can do it. We cant change it over night. Its going to take time. Theres alittle hope with the new president but, at the end of the day, theyre all politicians, so does that even really matter? Idefinitely feel as nihilistic as ever. Maybe even moreso.

As the self-appointed leader of the Southern Nihilism Front aname he uses as his Instagram handle, his website and assorted other musical projects where does Mikes enduring sense of nihilism comefrom?

Youd have to ask apsychiatrist, he smiles. It has something to do with the series of events in my life. That feeling has always been there. Ithink thats what attracted me to this type of music in the first place Idont know how you even describe the music Ilike. Extreme, Iguess. Its always going to be there for me. Its just the way Ithink. Ifeel more positive now but Igot anew liver, Ididnt get anew brain. My brain is the same as it always has been. Its about not falling into super-negative holes and into acycle of drugs or alcohol. Its just amatter of staying afloat and taking it day-by-day. Idont worry about things now. Theres no point to worry because worrying just wastes moretime.

Mikes emotional identification with music lies at the heart of what he does and how he performs. Music, he admits, is the defining force in his life and he is constantly working on new ideas and collaborations. In the summer of 2020, just as he was finishing up AHistory Of Nomadic Behavior, his collaboration with hip-hop hardcore punks Ho99o9 emerged, with Mike guesting on Firefly Family, the closing track on their most recent mixtape,Blurr.

Theyre agreat band and great guys and that was fun to do. Theyre one of the only new things Ive gotten into recently because mostly Ilisten to old stuff. But theyre really original in what they do, says Mike. I also did this thing with Nick Oliveri and Steven Hanford Thee Slayer Hippie. He passed away before we even put the recordout.

Steven, the former Poison Idea drummer and well-loved pillar of the U.S. punk community, assembled the project under the name of Dead End America along with guitarist Tony Avila (of World Of Lies and Aborted Cop fame) before enlisting Mike, ex-QOTSA man Nick Oliveri, Blaine Cook (The Accsed A.D/the Fartz) and Ian Watts (Ape Machine). Stevens sudden passing in May 2020 from aheart attack at the age of 50 saw the band release Crush The Machine, afour-track a7inch single, through Southern Lord in October as atribute to their fallenfriend.

I found out he passed away one morning very suddenly, remembers Mike. That was abummer, and Im still bummedout

In the last five years Mike, now 53, has had plenty of time to contemplate his own mortality. Hes also had time to face his own emotions and examine how he really feels. So, when all is said and done, what does he think hes learnt abouthimself?

I dont know if Ive learnt much, but Ithink Ive become amore caring person maybe? he says with slight hesitation. I think Ive gotten to be more of an optimist. Being more optimistic is also apart of survival at this point. Its going to help me get through whatever obstacles Iface instead of the way Iwas in the 90s, where Iwanted to basically die and didnt really care about anything. There are lots of reasons why Iwant to stay alive now. Icant really explain it but its just about the world in itself. Theres lots of things Istill want to do and were not done with annoying people justyet.

A History Of Nomadic Behavior is out now via Century MediaRecords

Posted on March 26th 2021, 3:00p.m.

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Eyehategod's Mike Williams: Being optimistic is a part of survival at this point There are lots of reasons why I want to stay alive now Kerrang! -...

When it debuted in 2003, you'd be forgiven for assuming the superhero comic series Invincible was yet another in a slew of playful but similar riffs on the superhero genre that filled comic store shelves at the time, peopled as it was with analogues of various well-established characters. There was a team of heroes called the Guardians of the Globe who looked, if you squinted, an awful lot like the Justice League. There was an all-powerful hero from another planet called Omni-Man who read as a straight-up Superman stand-in (though he'd swapped out Kal-El's signature spit-curl for a bushy mustache). And there was a group of super-powered, perpetually squabbling adolescent heroes clearly modeled on the Teen Titans.

The look of the series, provided in turns by artists Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, was classic superhero clean lines, bright colors, and friendly, inviting, and in some cases downright cartoony character designs. It set out to tell the tale of young Mark, the half-human son of Omni-Man, who was waiting for his powers to kick in so he could follow in his father's superboot-steps. Mark was only the latest in a long line of fledgling superheroes in the Peter Parker mode: a nerd unsure of himself, his powers and his social status which is to say: it all felt familiar, old school, nostalgic.

But it soon became clear that there was more going on in the pages of the comic than playful, whimsical pastiche. The writer was Robert Kirkman, who would go on to show, in the pages of The Walking Dead, a gift for getting the reader to care about his characters, only to dispatch them in horrific, gore-flecked ways. Again and again, he ripped your heart out by having characters get their hearts ripped out, or their brains smashed in, or their limbs gnawed off, or all of the above, simultaneously. He didn't hold back.

In The Walking Dead, a zombie comic featuring grimy, gritty black-and-white art by Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard and others, all that gruesome blood and guts seemed simply part of the book's grim visual landscape. The presence of grisly, graphic violence in such an otherwise hopeful, breezy and frequently funny superhero comic, however, was striking, and unusual.

That was back in 2003. For the next 15 years, Kirkman and his artists built a vast superheroic universe around Invincible, his friends and his family. The series was dense with plot twists, sudden reveals and teenage, soap-operatic emotion, but it never shied from depicting the violent, real-world ramifications of superhero physics. The resulting perpetual tonal whiplash couldn't help but cause the quality of the series to vacillate wildly, as Invincible's youthful delight in discovering his powers gave way to his struggling with the weight of responsibility on his shoulders.

The new Amazon animated series based on the comic tells much the same story the comic set out to tell back in 2003. But the intervening years have seen countless superhero stories clamoring for our attention, across all media; the landscape has changed. Consider: At its core, Invincible's basic narrative formula (superpowers + grisly violence) has been gleefully adopted by The Boys, a live-action show on the very same streaming service, which was also based on a comic book.

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The good news: Invincible is more than its formula, and its approach is vastly different. Where The Boys comes from a place of smirking, sadistic, let's-see-what-we-can-get-away-with adolescent nihilism, Invincible seems sincerely committed to building emotional connections between its characters. It is greatly aided in this endeavor by an outstanding cast of voice actors who find the humor and pathos amid the over-the-top action, led by Steven Yeun as Mark, Sandra Oh as Mark's mother Debbie, and J.K. Simmons as his father, Omni-Man.

There's more where they came from many more: Zachary Quinto, Gillian Jacobs, Zazie Beetz, Walton Goggins, Andrew Rannells, Jason Mantzoukis, Mahershala Ali, Mae Whitman, Djimon Hounsou, Sonequa Martin-Green, Nicole Byer, Jon Hamm, Seth Rogen, Jonathan Groff, voice-acting all-stars like Clancy Brown and Kevin Michael Richardson and, somehow inevitably, Reginald VelJohnson.

Some of the series' devices now seem less fresh than they did in 2003 (a bit about using a special tailor to devise super-outfits, for example, has since become well-trodden ground), but the show combats this by devoting serious screen time to building out the dynamics between its characters in ways big and small.

The comic's grisly violence is made all the more stark and shocking when animated, as it is here. But it's not depicted with the cynical, repellent glee it is on shows like The Boys, Preacher and Utopia -- oh, it's harrowing, yes, but it's not played for laughs, which turns out to be hugely important. But if the gobbets of animated flesh flying around on an animated show like Harley Quinn turns you off, know that Invincible ratchets it up even higher.

Amazon made only the first three episodes, which drop together on Friday, March 26th, available to press. The other five episodes of this (first?) season will be parceled out over the next five weeks. There's every chance that the series will trade the emotional heart it displays in these first episodes for more literal ones, strewn across the floor and smeared across the walls; it's attempting to thread a very difficult tonal needle, after all. But the voice cast is certainly up for it, and there's 144 hugely imaginative issues (plus spin-offs) of the original comic for the writers to pull from. I'll be watching, even if, every so often, through my fingers.

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'Invincible' Is Packed With Pulpy, Visceral Thrills And Lots Of Pulpy Viscera - Wisconsin Public Radio News

A paramilitary police officer talks next to a screen showing frontier soldiers of the People's Liberation Army during an event at a primary school in Wuzhishan, Hainan province, China, on Feb. 22. On the screen are (L-R) Qi Fabao, who was seriously wounded in the border clash with Indian troops in June last year, and four who were killed: Chen Hongjun, Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuoran. China Daily/via Reuters hide caption

A paramilitary police officer talks next to a screen showing frontier soldiers of the People's Liberation Army during an event at a primary school in Wuzhishan, Hainan province, China, on Feb. 22. On the screen are (L-R) Qi Fabao, who was seriously wounded in the border clash with Indian troops in June last year, and four who were killed: Chen Hongjun, Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuoran.

BEIJING When China acknowledged this year that four of its soldiers had died fighting Indian forces on the two countries' disputed mountain border eight months prior, the irreverent blogger Little Spicy Pen Ball had questions.

"If the four [Chinese] soldiers died trying to rescue their fellow soldiers, then there must have been those who were not successfully rescued," he wrote on Feb. 19 to his 2.5 million followers on Weibo, a Chinese social media site. "This means the fatalities could not have just been four."

The day after, Qiu Ziming, the 38-year-old former newspaper journalist behind the blog, was detained and criminally charged. If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to three years.

"Little Spicy Pen Ball maliciously slandered and degraded the heroes defending our country and the border," according to the annual work report published by the country's chief prosecutor office this month.

A contrite Qiu, sitting behind bars, called his actions "an obliteration of conscience" in a taped statement aired on the state broadcaster's prime-time news show on March 1.

Qiu's is the first case to be tried under a sweeping new criminal law that took effect March 1. The new law penalizes "infringing on the reputation and honor of revolutionary heroes." At least six other people have been detained or charged with defaming "martyrs." The government uses the terms "revolutionary heroes" and "martyrs" for anyone it memorializes for their sacrifice for the Communist Party.

The detentions typify the stricter controls over online speech under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which have deterred nearly all open dissent in the country. The new law even seeks to criminalize speech made outside China.

Such is the case of Wang Jingyu, 19, who lives in the United States and is now a wanted man in his hometown of Chongqing, China. The authorities accuse him of slandering dead Chinese soldiers after Weibo reported him for a comment questioning the number of border fight casualties.

"This is killing a monkey to scare the chickens," Wang says. "The Chinese state wants to show others that if anyone wants to be like me or relay the truth, then you will be pursued."

A 2018 law allows police to investigate speech defaming martyrs. Several people have been detained as a result, according to an online spreadsheet kept by a free speech activist, but such behavior did not carry a jail sentence until now.

"Cyberspace is not outside the law," the Chongqing public security bureau said in an online notice after it declared Wang would be "pursued online" for his comments. "Public security organs will crack down on acts that openly insult the deeds and spirit of heroes and martyrs in accordance with the law."

It's unclear how authorities plan to apprehend Wang. A police officer who contacted Wang, asking him to turn himself in, did not answer calls and texts from NPR.

China's ruling Communist Party is hyper-sensitive to challenges of its rule. One of the newer threats it has identified is "historical nihilism" that is, rejecting the party's official version of history and its pantheon of revolutionary heroes and martyrs.

The four Chinese soldiers who died during the border clash last June are the newest members of this canon. They were killed high up in the Himalayas, where hundreds of Chinese and Indian soldiers armed with nothing but stones and batons beat each other bloody, with each side accusing the other of alleged encroachments over an unmarked border line. Days after the incident, India said 20 of its troops died in the brawl.

China refused to confirm fatalities on its side until this February, when it released the names of four soldiers killed and a fifth who was critically injured in the disputed Galwan Valley area. State media ran extensive footage of their service and the last hours of their lives.

The sudden media blitz infuriated Wang, he says. He had closely followed China and India's border tensions and questioned the initial lack of fatalities reported by China. He wondered about the families of the soldiers who he suspected had died, left to grieve silently in the absence of official recognition.

In late February, as he sat in the backseat of a friend's car in Europe, Wang went back and forth for half an hour over whether to write anything online. He currently lives in California but his parents remain in the Chinese municipality of Chongqing, where they worked for two state-owned firms.

"I knew if I mocked these soldiers, it would bring a negative impact on my parents," Wang says. "But I was just too angry." He pressed publish on three comments under a news item lauding the four Chinese troops.

The People's Liberation Army soldiers "deserved to die," he wrote, and the Indian forces were within their rights to confront their "offenders." Wang now acknowledges the comments were offensive, but he says he deliberately crafted them to push the bounds of speech in China.

His comments went viral and were aired on China's most-watched evening news program. Shortly after, Wang says his parents were questioned for hours by police officers.

Chongqing's police department did not respond to a request for comment.

In the days following his social media posts, Wang says his mother and father were kept under effective house arrest in their Chongqing home, where they were able to call Wang twice, briefly, under police watch. He has been unable to reach them since.

"They told me they support me, and they are proud of me," Wang said.

Amy Cheng contributed research from Beijing.

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China Makes It A Crime To Question Military Casualties On The Internet - NPR

The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolans 2008 masterpiece, is back on Netflix. By now, the superhero film as x (e.g., superhero film as thriller, superhero film as psychological drama, even superhero film as rom-com) adaptation method has become so ubiquitous as to be a cliche. Nevertheless, back in 2008, Nolan was attempting something new under the sun. The filmmaker understood what generations of comic book writers like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxanne Gay, authors of the new Black Panther comics knew and know: that pop culture is not just escapism, but a pedagogical instrument as well. Thus, growing more ambitious with each film, Nolan adapted his three Batman movies into political treatises. Be advised: There are some light spoilers ahead.

The first film, Batman Begins, is a meditation on power: The films three antagonists each have different conceptions of what power means, and a maturing Bruce Wayne, Batman, adopts and discards their positions throughout the bildungsroman. The mob boss Falcone has the most primitive understanding of power: In an early scene, he boasts that he could murder Wayne in the middle of a restaurant, in front of city councilors and judges, and no one would dare bat an eye. Slightly more nuanced than the brutish Falcone, Scarecrow adopts Machiavellis line, claiming fear makes him powerful. In contrast, Ras al-Ghul finds theatricality and deception more convenient agents than gunpowder and dynamite: He plays the power behind the throne, the kingmaker in the shadows. The political lessons are rather obvious. Who has power: the politician or the crime boss who has bought them? Then, the next rung up. Who has power: Falcone, who bought the politician illegally, or al-Ghul, who bought the politician legally?

The Dark Knight is Hobbes Leviathan in theatrical form. The Joker is the antithesis of Hobbess Sovereign: anarchy made manifest. In response, Harvey Dent, a knight, shining in the crusade against corruption, plays the role of Hobbes Sovereign: The people abrogate all their trust, their hope, their faith and their authority unto him, under the condition that he will finally end the anarchy on Gothams streets. In an early scene, Harvey even name-checks the Roman office of dictator, a unitary executive appointed in times of emergency, as a model for his own career. His girlfriend darkly replies that the last dictator happened to be a man named Caesar, echoing Miltonian criticisms of Hobbes. The film makes a strong case for the necessity of law, order and rules even wicked rules in order for society to function. In the films opening scene, a mob hack complains to the Joker, Criminals in this town used to believe in things: honor, respect. Look at you. What do you believe in, huh? Without reliable systems, be they however so corrupt, the City of Man burns.

The Dark Knight Rises is Nolans most ambitious film: an adaptation of Edmund Burkes Reflections on the Revolution in France into theatrical form. Nolan is quite explicit about his project at one point, a character quotes Dickens A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens was Burke in novel form. Nolan is Dickens and Burke on the big screen. Released just a year after Occupy Wall Street protested impotently against a decadent financial system, Nolans film plays out Robespierres revolution in New York, complete with Dickensian show trials.

However, while Nolan may have been attempting something new in Hollywood, the explicitly philosophical angle with which he approached his Batman trilogy was simply an adaptation of the intellectually rigorous moral and political frameworks present in many superhero graphic novels. Vox columnist Dylan Matthews, riffing on an interview by Michael Schur, creator of The Good Place, once remarked, Some of the most bizarre and vibrant short fiction in our culture can be found in the back pages of ethics journals. Well, some of the most approachable short philosophy in our culture can be found in the folds of superhero comics.

These graphic novels, whose subscription models rely on repeat readers, push their creators to continually invent new ethical quandaries in which to situate their protagonists. By trial and error, we learn about the character of our heroes. By trial and error, we also play out lots and lots of short philosophical experiments.

After Christopher Nolan broke ground with his Batman films, Zack Snyder began a career of adapting superhero films into short philosophy, to varying degrees of success. His original entry in the genre, Watchmen, succeeded for the same reason as the early seasons of Game of Thrones: He had excellent source material on which to build. Based on Alan Moores Watchmen comics, the film pits absolute representations of Kantian deontology, determinist nihilism and consequentialist utilitarianism against each other, and lets the viewer decide or, if you like, decide which system to adopt. Snyders Man of Steel was less ambitious: a gospel for Superman, the secular Messianic figure. He continued this theme in Batman v Superman, complete with the Messianic themes of the adoption of a child from another world, the late father-whos-not-my-father, a mother who outlives her son, a childhood spent in obscurity and hard labor Jesus was a carpenter; Superman was a farmer and the move to the big city where the great trial of the Messiah will occur (Christs persecution in Jerusalem and Supermans final fight in Metropolis). In a number of scenes, the Christology is embarrassingly blunt. Near the end, Superman is even speared in the side while standing, arms outstretched, in a crucified position. And, of course, after the burial comes the resurrection.

Superman and Batman in particular make for productive comparisons. It is widely known that Metropolis, Supermans hometown, is New York by day; Gotham City, Batmans haunt, is New York by night. But because of the circumstances of their comics, Superman tends to present a more liberal worldview while Batman presents a more conservative worldview. By liberal and conservative, I mean the lowercase-letter, political dispositions, not Democratic and Republican. Given the superheroes comparative politics, it was quite fitting that Christopher Nolan, perhaps the best conservative artist of our time, would adapt the Batman comics for the big screen. Of course, the contrast is not perfect Superman is very much the good Midwestern boy wrapped in the flag in a way that does not map onto contemporary liberalism very well. Nevertheless, the comparative political orientations of the Superman and Batman comics still present meaningful lessons about lowercase liberalism and conservatism.

Clark Kent, Superman, is a farmers child from Kansas who makes a solidly middle-class income as a journalist. Meanwhile, the biggest villain in the Superman universe is billionaire Lex Luthor, a tech CEO who uses his endless wealth to aggrandize himself at the expense of the voiceless. But in addition to class consciousness, the Superman comics introduce intra-species consciousness. Superman is an alien with superhuman abilities: In order to maintain parity, his opponents also have to be superhuman beings from other worlds. Therefore, because of the circumstances of the comic, every human character in the Superman series is inherently heroic. Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and the soldiers of the U.S. Army are all ordinary human beings fighting against gods from other worlds: The fact that they fight at all represents the best of which humanity is capable. Superman is the protector of the powerless, always punching up against the powerful. Moreover, because Superman is an alien, he is an immigrant not just to America, but to our world. And, because Superman is an alien, he can only operate within the bounds of human consent. This means that Superman has to work in cooperation with governmental bodies like Congress or the United Nations. Although there are conflicts, on the whole, in order for Superman to succeed, the government must succeed as well. Therefore, the Superman comics generally offer government and collective action favorable treatments. Finally, because Superman himself is one of many representatives of space-faring civilizations, we know that humanity will eventually progress to intergalactic capacity. The Superman comics thus adopt the view of Whig historians that the course of human history runs, generally speaking, along an upward trajectory. In American political discourse, this liberal position is most famously encapsulated in Martin Luther King Jr.s quote that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. More recently, Whig history has been championed by classical liberals like Steven Pinker in his hit The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.

Conversely, the fundamental premise of the Batman comics is blatant aristocratic apologia. As King Sarpedon explains to Glaucus in the Iliad, the powerful merit wealth and honor because they lead their people in moments of crisis. Bruce Wayne is a billionaire philanthropist who tries to save his city, the child of billionaire philanthropists who tried to save their city. Not only does Mr. Wayne generously share his wealth with societys underprivileged, the Wayne Foundations wealth is a necessary instrument for Batman to fight crime. It is little surprise that in the animated film The Dark Knight Returns: Part Two, wherein Batman fights Superman, the former is presented as a Randian hero. The rivals first interaction even takes place at Batmans pastoral cottage Waynes attempt at an Anthem-esque escape from government control.

More importantly, Batman is a human being with no special abilities. This means that, in order to develop exciting plot arcs, Batmans enemies must also be human beings of roughly equal ability. Because all the characters in the Batman story are human beings, the operating principle of his villains is to reveal the inner rot inside the human heart by either corrupting Batman or corrupting the citizens of the city he so loves. In fact, perhaps the single most important lesson of the Batman comics is the inherent fallibility of man and the wickedness of which we are all capable. Because corruption plays so prominent a role in the Batman stories, we often witness the ineffectuality to which centralized government is sometimes prone. To paraphrase Federalist 51 and invert the initial sentiment, were the government able to do its job, Gotham would have no need of Batman. In a world of such staggering corruption, only individuals acting in their private capacity can accomplish good. Finally, Gothams plot arc explicitly rebukes notions of progress. Despite the heroic self-sacrifice of the Wayne family, Gotham falls into depression after depression each moment of economic success only a temporary reprieve in cycles of stagflation. Our caped hero crusades through one dark night after another, but Gotham will always need a Batman. Even after 25 years of Bruce Waynes protection, the city never gets any better. In fact, it often seems to get worse.

From 2005 to 2012, Christopher Nolan presented political and moral philosophy to hundreds of millions of viewers in an extraordinarily accessible fashion. Much like George Lucas used the Star Wars prequels to write liberal political theory in a moment of conservative dominance, Christopher Nolan used The Dark Knight trilogy to write conservative political theory in a moment of liberal dominance his most explicitly conservative films were released in 2008 and 2012. And after Nolan demonstrated what a superhero movie could be, the entire industry, not just Zack Snyder, built on his success. Logan, the 2017 conclusion to the Hugh Jackman Wolverine franchise, marketed itself as a Western. Black Panther, perhaps Marvels best film, was a Genesis-style, brotherhood tale in Hollywood form. Snyders Batman v Superman was a gods-and-men epic in the style of the Iliad. Netflixs discontinued Daredevil series was as Boston Irish Catholic as the Dropkick Murphys. It was a show about piety and faith in the costume of a superhero show. (Disney, please give Liz Bruenig the rights to a new Daredevil/Punisher series! I would pay to watch that!) Likewise, Jessica Jones was really a psychological drama. These experiments were the products of artistic necessity, given the superhero films total financial dominance in our current cultural context, but they were only made possible by Christopher Nolans ambitious attempts to expand the boundaries of the genre.

In 2020, the Library of Congress voted to preserve The Dark Knight in the National Film Archive for its aesthetic, cultural and historical significance. But even without the Congressional stamp of approval, anyone who has ever watched the movie knows that it is a treasure for the ages. In The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan not only reinvented the superhero genre, but also produced what is still the best entry in that genre. As long as people watch movies, Nolans Dark Knight will endure.

Timothy Han | timothy.han@yale.edu

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Dark Nights and Men of Steel: The political philosophy of DC Comics - Yale Daily News

Johanna Thomas-Corrs review of Jordan Petersons Beyond Order: 12 MoreRules for Life (The Critics,12 March) struck a chord in its description of friends and relatives experiences with men who are aggressively evangelical about Peterson. I have lost good friends tored-pilling, with Peterson, Sam Harris, Douglas Murray et al being a gateway drug to the far right. I think Peterson is aware of this role he plays, and attempts to distance himself by loudly providing a better narrative of self-improvement, purportedly to dissuade young men from becoming extremists. But telling people to clean their room and to conform to social hierarchies is in reality a side-gig. His published works are often in stark contrast to what he extols online, and the veneer of self-improvement succumbs to late-night tweets and attacks on critics. It is a mystifying experience losing friends to the far right. You feel guilt, you mourn for the friend lost and you question whether the person you knew ever really existed.Glenn MassonVia email

[see also:Jordan Peterson: Agent of chaos]

Roberto Ungers inspiring article (The system cannot hold, 19 March) describes how heroic work during the pandemic has concealed an underlying incapacity for innovation within the NHS. He does not recognise that the energy and flexibility required to establish vaccination centres throughout the UK shows the power of NHS innovation unleashed. This capacity will be suppressed again unless it is allowed to flourish in normal times feasible if there is the political will.

After 40 years in academic medicine, Im astonished by the speed with which NHS research collaborations self-assemble to develop and evaluate novel approaches in the current era, in partnership with universities and industry. Im equally impressed by the willingness of NHS patients to get involved in research. Unless the proposed NHS reforms include innovation as a central pillar, a golden opportunity to step up a level will be lost.John Yarnold,Emeritus Professor of Clinical OncologyThe Institute of Cancer Research, London

Roberto Ungers interesting and engaging views on the need for the UK to renew its systems were weakened in his second sentence on reforming education: The national curriculum shackles British youth. I dont disagree, but British youth are not educated under one system or curriculum: education is a devolved issue and looks increasingly different in the four nations. If he were to look at the curriculum for Wales that will begin in September 2022 then he might find the answers to the problems he correctly identifies.

A solution to this complex issue seems very difficult to achieve in England due to the sheer diversity of education on offer as well as a lack of political will. In Wales we will have a purpose-led curriculum for three- to 16-year-olds that aims to produce ambitious, capable, enterprising, creative, ethical, informed, healthy and confident individuals ready to learn throughout their lives.

Through a culture of subsidiarity, the state is trusting teachers and school leaders and providing a vision that can achieve the innovation and creativity that Unger promotes. This is indeed radical and will take time, but it is already happening in the UK. Perhaps Unger should come and have a look, Wales is not too far.Mike DaleyVia email

From Roberto Ungers stimulating essay I took away the word imagination, which recurs throughout. This appears to be one key component to producing a transformational economy. I am not optimistic about the presence of this necessary quality in our political leadership, many of whom have been educated in crammer-style public schools and are emotionally tethered to the past: creative and analyticalthinking could be in short supply.Felicity McGowanCardigan, Ceredigion

John Grays review of Peter Salmons new biography of Jacques Derrida (The Critics, 19 March) is a classic piece of fence-sitting about Derrida as a philosopher. One can never be sure whether Gray endorses what he paraphrases, but he is not very critical of the so-called master thinker.

What is a conceptual structure as opposed to a concepts use? In what way are the concepts presence and absence not fixed? I know when the waiter is absent. In short, I apply them unambiguously. What is the endemic instability of meaning? Surely Nietzsches idea of nihilism as a crisis of values supervening on the abandonment of a belief in God is both truer and more profound than Derridas idea that nihilism is just a crisis insemantics?Edward GreenwoodCanterbury

Although I find John Grays articles fascinating, I am perplexed by some of his critiques of atheists/rationalists. In his otherwise very good article on Derrida, Gray derides Daniel Dennett for using the word evil, questioning what this word can mean for those who claim to have exorcised all traces of the supernatural in their thinking.

I think its perhaps fairer to suggest that evil is commonly used as a synonym for very bad, stripped of any supernatural connotations. And in what way does eternal optimist (Dennetts description of himself) mean someone who believes that unadulterated malevolence can be banished from the world? Is it not just someone who has a vague belief that things can get better?

Not every statement made by atheists needs to be an objective fact in order for them to be consistent.Dave ReddinVia email

It was Derrida who came up with the word hauntology, the idea that the ghosts of ideas by thinkers from the past can make their presence felt in the present in all kinds of unexpected and sometimes uncanny ways. A pandemic inevitably ushers such a concept out of the shadows.

The New Statesman should consider marking the departure of todays turmoil with a special Derrida Hauntologyedition.Ivor MorganVia email

[see also:Deconstructing Jackie]

As I contemplated this weeks New Statesman cover, I was struck by the unintended effect of the stylised union flag imposed on the UK. My beloved Cartmel peninsula has disappeared altogether. We are part of the only constituency in Cumbria that has rejected the false and inane promise of northern Toryism, and we were also one of the few deeply rural areas to oppose Brexit: theNew Statesman needs us.

I am not sure if this letter belongs in your correspondence pages or is an entry for ThisEngland.Mike GibbonsCartmel, Cumbria

Jeremy Cliffe makes a good case for rejecting the direction of travel in the Integrated Review of security, defence, development and foreign policy (World View, 19 March). However, he omits an important consideration thatthose promoting an Indo-Pacific tilt ought to have known: tilt means gameover.Les BrightExeter, Devon

The omission of the Critic at Large article about Yaa Gyasi (The Critics, 19 March) from the table of contents was an unfortunate oversight. Had it not been for the photo on page five, the actual article would have been a complete surprise, making the point about the unexpectedness of a black woman in publishing.

One sentence leapt out of the page. Describing the experience of the main character in her new book, Gyasi refers to the isolation of being hyper-visible without having any careful attention or affection reflected back to you. I wonder if this rang bells for other readers as a description of the lockdown experience and inflated role of video calling in our lives?Dorothy JerromeVia email

I read the opening paragraph of Howard Jacobsons Diary (19 March) with a mixture of agreement, sympathy and frustration. Like many others, I have been angered by the behaviour of some people I encounter on my morning walk who seem oblivious to the basic courtesy of keeping a reasonable distance. Often, it is two people together who refuse to pass others in single file. This is impolite at the best of times, and even more so now. Is it too much to ask to keep a reasonable distance from others instead of staking territorial claims to the full width of a path?Christian Twigg-FlesnerKenilworth, Warwickshire

Chris Copp of Stone, Staffordshire, is, in his own words, getting his Cheadles confused (Correspondence, 19 March). Cheadle Hulme (near Manchester) will not receive Towns Fund money. Cheadle will. There is Cheadle, Cheadle Hulme and Cheadle Heath the Cheadle area historically having been split between three sisters. They are very different places, just neighbours. And Cheadle is the poshest and most well-off.Kathryn Price (formerly of Cheadle Hulme)Romiley, Greater Manchester

Peter Wilbys report on Etons firing of Will Knowland (First Thoughts, 19 March) brought me a powerful light bulb moment. Oxbridge and the Ivy League may have gone co-ed decades ago, but Henry VIs minor foundation is still urinal-only when the call of nature comes. How long, oh Lord, how long?Peter SmithCromer, Norfolk

In his recent column Nicholas Lezard says that he is not a journalist, he is a columnist and critic (Down and Out, 12 March). I think that he is a Puer Aeternus figure who strings out his strange life to entertain us. Or is that the case? Maybe it is a facade one cannot but feel that Lezard has a more mature aspect. And maybe it is this very tension that holds us reading his column! I would like to hear more of the grown-up side of Lezard, please.Mark AngusVia email

[see also:Which of two distractions to concentrate on: a Twitter spat or a hand that has turned blue?]

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Letter of the week: Losing friends to the far right - New Statesman

Brett Stevens unleashed Nihilism: A Philosophy Based In Nothingness And Eternity, a collection of writings about nihilism, in 2016.

This anti-enlightenment treatment of philosophy rejects the idea of universalism as an artifact of the ego, and points toward an extreme, human-feelings-denying realism which sees adaptation in the Darwinian sense as its ultimate goal. This is a blood and guts, war and pain, total death and full power interpretation of active nihilism which nonetheless exposes where and how values and even spirituality can exist.

Nihilism will not please the weak of heart, morality, aesthetics or mind. Deny the false, reject the herd, look within and the possibility of understanding reality emerges, red in tooth and claw.

Most people see the world in binary categories. They believe that there is either an inherent moral good that we must all obey, or there are no rules and life is pointless anarchy. Nihilism argues for a middle path: we lack inherent order but are defined by our choices, which means that we must start making smarter choices by understanding the reality in which we live more than the human social reality which we have used to replace it in our minds.

A work of philosophy in the continental tradition, Nihilism examines the human relationship with philosophical doubt through a series of essays designed to stimulate the ancient knowledge within us of what is right and what is real. Searching for a level of thought underneath the brain-destroying methods of politics and economics, the philosophy of nihilism approaches thought at its most basic level and highest degree of abstraction. It escapes the bias of human perspective and instructs our ability to perceive itself, unleashing a new level of critical thinking that side-steps the mental ghetto of modernity and the attendant problems of civilization decline and personal lassitude.

While many rail against nihilism as the death of culture and religion, the philosophy itself encourages a consequentialist, reality-based outlook that forms the basis for moral choice. Unlike the control-oriented systems of thought that form the basis of contemporary society, nihilism reverts the crux of moral thinking to the relationship between the individual and the effects of that individuals actions in reality. From this, a new range of choice expands, including the decision to affirm religious and moral truth as superior methods of Darwinistic adaptation to the question of human survival, which necessarily includes civilization.

Inspired by transcendentalist thinkers and the ancient traditions of both the West and the Far East, the philosophy of nihilism negates the false intermediate steps imposed on us by degenerated values systems. In the footsteps of philosopher Friedrich W. Nietzsche, who called for a re-evaluation of all values, nihilism subverts linguistic and social categorical thinking in order to achieve self-discipline of the mind. As part of this pursuit, Nihilism investigates thought from writers as diverse as William S. Burroughs, Aldous Huxley, Arthur Schopenhauer and Immanuel Kant. For those who seek the truth beyond the socially-convenient explanations that humans tell one another, nihilism is a philosophy both for a new age and for all time.

***

Among the possibilities that scare humans the most, the potentiality of no meaning no inherent values, no innate truths, and no possibility of accurate communication unnerves us the most. It means that we are truly alone with nothing to rely on but ourselves for understanding this vast world and what we should do in it. This belief is called nihilism.

Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. Alan Pratt, Nihilism, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/nihilism/

In the 20th century, nihilism encompassed a variety of philosophical and aesthetic stances that, in one sense or another, denied the existence of genuine moral truths or values, rejected the possibility of knowledge or communication, and asserted the ultimate meaninglessness or purposelessness of life or of the universe. Nihilism, Encyclopedia Britannica, retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/nihilism

Nihilism rejects the ideas of universalism, rationalism and empiricism which have ruled the West for centuries. These ideas arise from our social impulses, or the desire to include others as a group and motivate them with what is perceived as objective truth.

Universalism holds that all people are essentially the same, and therefore that values are a matter of respecting the choices of each person, truth is what can be verified in a way a group can understand, and communication relies on words which have immutable meaning. Rationalism supposes that the workings our minds can tell us what is true in the world without testing, and implies universalism, or that the workings of our minds are all the same. Empiricism, now linked to its cousin logical positivism, states that truth is only found in observable and testable, replicable observations.

The essence of nihilism can be found in biology. In the tendency of human minds, many identical pieces work together to form agreement, and then act as one. In biology, abundant unequal pieces serve different roles without knowledge of a centralized plan but work together because they are united by very basic principles which cannot be deconstructed further, such as the need to feed, defend oneself, find shelter, and reproduce. Nihilism follows the organic model of different pieces of a larger puzzle working together because they share principles, but not form or the translation of those principles into specific methods. It adds a layer of abstraction to our understanding of how systems groups of parts producing an output together function.

This biological framework reveals a pattern language, or index of patterns that match functions, to both human thought and human individuals. We are not all alike, nor do we think alike, and many humans have unique roles they can serve where their proficiency makes them ideal candidates. Within the mind, we can identify patterns at a level below language or even consciousness that reveal our thought and how comparable it is to the reality in the external world. This allows us to use self-discipline to become better able to understand reality.

Without universal truth, we bypass the proxy of socially-defined goals and standards, and instead must judge our potential actions by their likely results in reality. This escapes us from the ghetto of human intent, where we judge our actions as if they were communications to others designed to show our value, instead of actions toward a purpose. We lose self-consciousness, which is really an awareness of ourselves as we appear to the social group, and replace it with world-consciousness.

The most difficult part (for modern people) involved with leaving behind universalism is that we now navigate between two poles: first, the wrong idea that there should be one rule and motivation for every person, and second, the wrong idea that avoiding the first pole means that everyone should do whatever they want. Nihilism is the death of should. Instead, there is merely is, as in each person is what he is and has the wants inherent to being that person. This means that people have different roles, of both vertical (proficiency) and horizontal (specialization) measurements, like animals and plants in an ecosystem. There is no universal role, only a shared mission, and the knowledge of what actions have produced which results in the past, from which we can derive general principles that fit our roles in the civilization ecosystem.

With this, we return to the Traditionalist idea of cause and effect with the cause being informational instead of physical. Pattern and idea dictate outcome more than the particular material elements or particularities of a time period. Consider the knowledge of man trying to start a fire:

Society would insert a third column between those for moral judgments, social feelings, personal desires and other chatter from the incessantly rationalizing mind, which seeks to find a justification for its feelings in the world and remove from itself the need to make hard decisions which remind it of existential questions like death, purpose and meaning.

When Braagh the caveman thinks about how he should proceed, he inverts the order of the two natural columns. He knows what he wants, or quickly will have to find out, and so he chooses the outcome that will fit his circumstances, and based on that, chooses the method he will use.

If Braagh is strong, he may choose to rub sticks. If he has not eaten and is tired, he may take a little more time to look for bark or flint. As a practical person, he may pray to Xuul because it makes him feel better, but he will nonetheless seek his own method of making fire (Xuul helps those who help themselves). Having bad past experiences getting very hungry waiting for lightning, he will discard that.

When his circumstances change, Braagh makes different decisions. If a thunderstorm has just passed over, he might take an hour to wander around looking for burning trees. If he is in a valley where there is abundant flint, he might go right to that method, almost bypassing choice entirely, which can be risky as he will then be oblivious to the downside of possible forest fires. If he is standing next to a tree with the right bark, the decision also seems to complete itself.

All of us have these columns in our mind, and varying degrees of the third column comprised of social and emotional thoughts. The strongest among us can balance the third column so that it fits in with the advantages and disadvantages of methods, like the possibility of forest fires. The weakest among us will think first of the third column, and then use that to choose the method, and will then rationalize from there that their choice is the best, a process called cognitive dissonance.

Nihilism rejects the third column by recognizing the emptiness of shared experience. Some experiences unify us, like love or comradeship in war, but for the most part, we are alone. What we know cannot be communicated unless the other person is willing to analyze it and us enough to know what we are nattering on about. As far as truth, there are accurate perceptions, but these are not shared among people, not in the least because most people do not care about accuracy.

Suppose that Braagh becomes a member of a troupe of cavepeople. They wander the fields and forests, foraging for food and hunting what bush meat they can conquer. Then they retreat to their cave where they feel safe. Braagh wants to make a fire, but the others either do not or are apathetic. He cannot argue with them, objectively or subjectively, that fire is needed. After all, they have fruits, berries, roots and bush meat which they can dry in the sun and eat, and they will be just fine.

But Braagh, he has a dream. In this dream, there are big hunts once a week and then the food is cooked and preserved, so that they will have more free time and do not have to go foraging every day. Perhaps Braagh wants to write the great cave novel, or dream of gods in the sky, or otherwise discover the world. For him, time is more important than convenience. This is not so for the others, and nothing he can say will logically compel them to share his vision.

If he demonstrates his idea by slaughtering a caribou, making a fire and roasting the meat and handing it out to others, they may partake. They might not, however, see the utility in this approach, because it is harder and riskier than gathering roots and killing squirrels with rocks. There is no universal standard for all of them.

Suppose that Braagh is a burly caveman who instead of arguing for his idea, simply forces others to do it by beating senseless the dissenters. Soon the troupe of cavepeople are hunting and following his path, and he heaves rocks into the skulls of those who thwart the activity. Over time, the survivors are those who share his vision, and the genes for those who are otherwise inclined have passed into history.

In ten thousand years, a civilization may arise in the place where Braagh bashed skulls. It will be based on the idea that some risk and effort that achieves a better result (second column) is worth enduring the harder activity (first column). Applying that principle, the cavepeople will start domesticating caribou and planting crops, giving them even more free time. They will invent language, writing and early technology.

After another ten thousand years, the civilization will encounter its first troubles. The people will take for granted that they will always have civilization and stop bashing in the heads of those who cannot direct themselves toward that purpose. Those, who by nature are less focused, will devote their time to the pleasures of the flesh, and become fruitful and multiplicative. Over time, they will outnumber the others.

The civilization will now take a dark turn. It will abandon the original nihilistic principle, which is that some are of the caliber of Braagh and must lead by bashing skulls, and instead turn to the principle of universalism. Everyone is welcome and all are celebrated; in fact, they like to say that they are all one. Quantity replaces quality. Realistic vision is lost. The civilization begins to die.

A strange thing will have happened to the people in this civilization. They will live almost exclusively in the third column, thinking about what others think of them, with the world beyond the ego and the human social circle unknown to them. If someone explains nihilism to them, using the language which sprung up as if out of the ground once it was needed, they will retreat in fear, like monkeys flinging faeces at a feared totem. To them, there can only be one rule for everyone the rule of the third column or life has become bad and evil.

Nihilism remains controversial for this reason. It connects us to the nothingness in life, and the necessity of sacrifice in order to achieve quality-enhancing results, which naturally brings up the question of mortality that almost all people (except pasty Goths in black) would rather not discuss. People would rather decrease quality and increase quantity, meaning that all actions would be seen as equal, because this is more emotionally convenient for them. Nihilism erases any importance granted to this emotional state.

The modern West finds itself at a crossroads. The path we are on leads to eventual death and a form of entropy that returns us to the state of the cavepeople before Braagh and his vision of fire. A new path beckons which will take us higher than the greatness of the past, continuing the idea that seized Braagh as he was wandering the veldt. For us to accept the possibility of the new path, we must first strip away the human-only mental prison in which we exist because of social influences and peer pressure.

Nihilism leads to idealism for this reason. When we remove the over-dominance of the methods we use to interact with the world, we see the importance of pattern and arranging ourselves and material according to the idea we seek. This connects to a primal idea, which is that existence itself is biological, and that life extends past the physical into the metaphysical. In short, idea is all; material including the third column is a false goal that causes us to rationalize and become confused.

In this sense, nihilism shows us the value of transcendental thought. By facing the darkness of life directly and allowing the cold wind of the abyss to lick our faces, nihilism creates acceptance of the world as it is, and then embarks on a search for meaning that is not social meaning because it is interpreted according to the individual based on the capacity of that individual. Nihilism is esoteric in that it rejects the idea of a truth that can be communicated to everyone, but by freeing us from the idea that whatever truths we encounter must include everyone, allows for lone explorers to delve deeper and climb higher, if they have the biological requirements for the mental ability involved.

For this reason, nihilism is transformative. We go into it as equal members of the modern zombie automaton cult, convinced that there is objective truth and we have subjective preferences. We come out realizing that our preferences are entirely a function of our abilities and biology, and that objective truth is as much an idol as the Golden Calf of Moses time: a fiction and consensual reality created to keep a troupe of slightly smarter than average monkeys working together. Nihilism transforms us from human into beast, and from that, to something which can reach for the stars.

***

In Nihilism: A Philosophy Based In Nothingness and Eternity, your author explores the possibilities of leaving behind the path to death and choosing the new path instead. This cannot be approached directly, because the path is an effect of a cause, which is our willingness to abandon the solipsistic tendencies of our minds and strive for something greater. It appeals to the Braaghs of the world, and not those whose skulls were smitten by his rocks.

Through the course of essays composed in the wilderness over the course of two decades, Nihilism unearths the first steps toward the wisdom of the past. It shows a path to clearing the mental confusion of this time from the mind, and seeing the value of nihilism as a gateway to re-understanding the world in a new light. While it is not for all, if humanity has a future, it is through a thought process like the journey on which it takes its readers.

In contrast to accepted doctrine, this book shows that the lack of meaning in modern society came not from the fall of gods and heroes, but from the insatiable human ego and its collectivized counterpart, peer pressure or social control. What remains of the old religion is only the idea of universal truth, and that has been reconfigured into an assumption that all that is human is good, and that nature and metaphysics are irrelevant.

Nihilism remains a terrifying topic because it removes the illusions on which our current worldview is based, but that outlook is rapidly failing. In this alternate view, the tripartite illusion universal truth among humans, equality-based values, and exoteric communication based on universal tokens has broken and died, and those who wish to rebuild civilization can use nihilism to detach from it and form the groundwork of a new era.

Touching on ideas from both the occult and mainstream religion as well as philosophies ranging from Germanic idealism to perennialism, Nihilism: A Philosophy Based In Nothingness and Eternity explores nihilism as a fully-developed philosophy instead of the melange of anarchy and self-centeredness by which it is portrayed in most literature. In doing so, it discovers a way out of our landlocked modern thought, uniting both wisdom of the past and possibilities for the future into a single vision.

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Nihilism

Tamara Lindeman had a feeling that The Weather Stations new album was pretty good. Recorded in 2019, and finally released in February 2021, Ignorance felt like a nice change of pace in her critically acclaimed discography of intricate, delicate folk rock. Sure, the move to disco-inspired rhythms and beefy basslines was a sharp departure from the 70s British guitar lines she brought to her debut, 2015s Loyalty. But the critical response was deafening: 9.0 and Best New Music from Pitchfork, and a 4-star review from Rolling Stone.

Honestly, it's overwhelming. I'm kind of shocked, Lindeman told GQ from her home in Toronto. Obviously, we worked very hard on the record but I would not have expected the response at all from the world, she adds. Thats not to say that Lindemans previous albums werent well received. But listening to Ignorance is like listening to a new band entirely: The acoustic guitars are traded in for icy synths, and her voice bites like the Canadian cold she experiences daily. I thought my very sweet British folk fans are not going to be stoked on this record, but I'll make another record, life is long, she says.

The Weather Station is a project deeply informed by the climate crisis, and Lindeman began writing Ignorance after a particularly intense year of studying the depressing numbers around it. What emerged wasnt nihilism, but a confidence in communal action: The odds are still against us, but Lidenman feels less alone than ever before. Lots of people are talking about this and lots of people are sharing these feelings. I don't feel crazy anymore, she explains. Looking the future of humanity right in the eye is a daunting task, but studying activism helped Lindeman function as a better bandleader. I'm not a good leader. I prefer to be sitting in the corner, listening, and not having to speak. It was hard, but activism helped me find my voice, she says. Her perspective is jaded by stasis but hopeful that decisive action is on the horizon. With The Weather Station and with our planet, Tamara Lindeman isnt satisfied with the same old, same old.

GQ: How are you feeling about the way people are responding to the record?

Tamara Lindeman: It's strange because I'm still under lockdown here in Toronto, so it's very surreal to experience this broad global response to something I've made while still under a stay at home order, not seeing any human beings. It's kind of metaphysical. It's very interesting because normally as a musician, you have the physical reality of playing a show and people respond to it. Now, it's all very theoretical, but it's astonishing. I just did not think people would have this response.

Have you been able to interrogate why people responded to this record more than your previous albums?

It has a lot to do with the production. It's a much more approachable record, sonically. It's more in line with the way music tends to sound in the modern time, which was a complicated undertaking because my taste is not that. I had to find a way where my taste could align with that, where I felt like it would still be mine. My records in the past have always been slightly esoteric in sound, because I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I'm often chasing a sound that is not considered the norm. I understand that the sound of this record is much more approachable in some sonic sense.

Beyond that, there were things in the record that spoke to a communal experience. Sometimes my songs come from my surroundings. I'm not always sure whether it's my feelings or the feelings around me that I'm writing about. On this album, I did actively think a lot about how music moves in the world and what it does. I was actively thinking about giving voice to things in this blunt, emotional way, in a way that music through time often has done.

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How The Weather Station Learned to Cope With Climate Change - GQ

PARIS IN THE EARLY 1980s: 68 is in the rear-view and the soixante-huitards are running the show. Mitterrand is president; the welfare state is being expanded. Meanwhile, Frances former colonial subjects are existing in a state of perpetual subalternity, destined to prepare the takeout food and deliver the drugs of their white counterparts.

This is the reality that the memorable unnamed narrator of The Sympathizer steps into at the start of Viet Thanh Nguyens new novel. A refugee several times over, hes fleeing both Vietnam, where he was brutally tortured by his own allies in a reeducation camp, and the United States, which has rejected him in its own fashion. With The Committed, the captain now sets his sights on the contradictions of another colonial empire. If you thought the US was a warmongering, racist hypocrite of epic proportions, just wait until you hear about France!

Nguyen is a perceptive, scathing, and genuinely funny writer, qualities which suffused The Sympathizer and are somewhat more unevenly on display here. Other artists (Marie NDiaye, Michael Haneke, Kamel Daoud) who have explored the long and brutal legacy of the French Empire have done it more subtly and to more devastating effect. In comparison, the captains observations as he arrives to his new place of refuge feel, well, American: obvious and somewhat oversimplified. There are near-constant comparisons between the two countries ways of doing colonialism. I felt a little like I was reading Adam Gopnik if hed been sent to a reeducation camp and forced to mainline Fanon.

What these observations are not, though, is sanitized or sentimental. There are no rose-colored glasses to be found here: the captains Paris is the Paris of pervasive dog shit, filthy bistros, pigeons, drunks, casual police brutality, and the priphrie. Forced to clean toilets at the worst Asian restaurant in Paris, he takes to selling drugs, disguising himself as a Japanese tourist to bypass suspicion as he goes to visit his clients. It works on the street, the cops look right past him, their attentions focused on Black and Arab immigrants instead. Nguyen accurately and convincingly depicts a city that both leans on and marginalizes its immigrant and refugee populations. He also illustrates what the contours of that city might feel like to someone who is unwanted in the uncanny way that Parisians make any outsider feel unwanted, but also unwanted because he is Vietnamese, a refugee, a boat person, as one of the supposedly liberal friends of his aunt reminds him.

Over the course of the novel, the narrators already divided consciousness splinters further. Here more commonly referred to as Crazy Bastard, hes haunted by visions of people more ideologically committed than he: the two men he killed in Los Angeles; Bon, still living, who hates communists with such a fervor that he will not hesitate to kill his own best friend; and the communist agent who was gang-raped as he watched and did nothing to stop it, in what remains the most nauseating depiction of sexual violence that I have read. Wracked by guilt, our narrator tries to atone for these sins by doing things like reading Julia Kristeva, performing cunnilingus, and saving the life of a rival drug dealer, which mostly feel like embarrassingly insufficient acts of restitution. But he is also cracking up, the controlled interplay between his two selves that Nguyen explored in The Sympathizer collapsing and dissolving.

The insistence on cycling between pronouns to depict this disintegration often feels more like a gimmick than a convincing literary device. Still, Crazy Bastard remains a fascinating narrator: mordant, impotent but lascivious, filled with shame and rancor, attuned to absurdity, and prone to long bouts of philosophical rumination. He spends much of this novel in pursuit of oblivion, which he courts via dope, cognac, the cheeky use of an alias, V Danh, which means anonymous in Vietnamese, the mindless comforts of a high-class sanatorium, and an extended torture session that nearly delivers him. Though The Sympathizer planted the seeds for this nihilism, that novel ended on a surprising note of hope. The death drive has clearly won out here. The novels epigraph is Nothings more real than nothing, a line from the Franco-Cambodian filmmaker and Killing Fields survivor Rithy Panh, and repetitions on that theme abound.

Then there are the supporting players: a lawyer who defends war criminals and sleeps with the narrators aunt, to his confusion and titillation; a Senegalese bouncer obsessed with Aim Csaire; a troupe of diminutive and fiendishly scatological sidekicks called the seven dwarves; a bourgeois socialist politician, and someone described simply as the Maoist PhD. I cant quite make up my mind about these characters. No matter how richly drawn, most of them remain types, designed to say things about power, war, race, gender, and colonialism, or merely to provide comic relief. As the novel progresses, the socialist politician reveals himself to be a virulent racist rather than the initially assumed run-of-the-mill paternalist; otherwise, there is little in the way of meaningful character development.

But Nguyen is also articulating a perverse truth here about the corrosive effect of nation-states, political ideology, and imperialism on the individual. In a world where colonial empires have manufactured and enshrined racial difference, people are never really just people. At one point, the narrator tries to give a lecture to a pair of Algerian drug dealers about banding together to fight against their common colonial overlord and ends up barely escaping with his life. Im sorry I dont know any racial slurs for you, Crazy Bastard politely tells one of them later.

Nguyen is a maximalist par excellence, and the furious pace of this novel rarely lets up. The Committed includes one seven-page sentence that begins with the narrator getting beaten up in a park and ends with him trying heroin, and a scene in which a Corsican business associate of his waxes philosophic while cycling through various positions of the Kama Sutra. We move from torture session to brothel and back again. The narrator is often sobbing. There is an orgy involving cartoonishly racist costumes (a funny riff on the libidinal power of race) and a truly disgusting series of interludes revolving around a clogged toilet. Nguyen relishes in articulating the essential scumminess of humans of all stripes, and he has a particular knack for revealing just how pathetic and vile our supposed masters of the universe are. No stone revealing human filth is left unturned.

There is almost no respite from this, and thus almost no room for the reader to feel the full weight of the horror that underlies this world one where ideological allegiances cleave the oldest and dearest of friendships, and the children of colonized nations fight to the death for a drug route while their actual oppressors stay comfortably high, shielded from the violence their indulgences have produced. That may be the real nihilistic point that this novel is making: that centuries of colonial pillage and subjugation have created a world in which solidarity does not and cannot exist. Im not sure if I agree, but the point hits home regardless.

The moments of pause, when they do come, testify powerfully to this reverberating violence, and to Nguyens considerable skills as a novelist. I was struck by a scene where the narrator wakes up at a brothel to encounter Madeleine, the Cambodian sex worker assigned him, distraught over a newspaper headline exposing mass graves in her home country. He is surprised to find that she blames him for the news, or at least what he represents: Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978 and occupied the country for a decade, though the Vietnamese are not responsible for this particular atrocity.

The night before, Madeleine was all artifice, perfectly playing the role of doting, hyperfeminine mistress. Now, in the cold light of morning, she is revealed: alone and far from home, surviving on what she can, and every bit as haunted as the narrator. He tells her goodbye, but shes closed her eyes against him. Coffee and a hashish cigarette serve as Madeleines madeleine, transporting her back into a past that will never exist again. [S]he was undoubtedly watching a movie only she could see, the narrator thinks, the rickety reel of memories in which everyone she knew was still alive.

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Where Solidarity Cannot Exist: On Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Committed - lareviewofbooks