I’m a little late with this one. R.I.P. Michael Crichton.
“Science Not Fiction was saddened to learn of the death of Michael Crichton yesterday. His 1969 novel, The Andromeda Strain, alone would have been enough to make him a science fiction legend, but he turned out string of taut technothrillers, even equalling The Andromeda Strain‘s iconic status with 1990’s Jurassic Park.
His greatest strength was in his ability to imbue his novels with a sense of authenticity; The Andromeda Strain was littered with realistic screenshots and computer printouts and came with a detailed (and entirely fictional) bibliography. Jurassic Park has become the cultural point of reference for discussions about biotechnology, cloning and genetic engineering. If Crichton had a weakness, it was his fondness for the theme which repeats over and over in his novels: technological hubris. Some advanced technology is confidently promoted by scientists as progress toward a better world. Unexpected side effects or interactions that the scientists overlooked in their dash to the future manifest themselves, and things get pretty messy from that point on (and to be fair, usually a really fun read.) But each time, it is implied that anyone who is not an overreaching scientist or an idiot would have known to leave well enough alone.”
By summary of way, this article intends to reframe your understanding of literacy before condensing the bulk of the content presented across the body of the document down to four simple steps for deeper exploration. First off, you’ll note the pretentious title. Before we get started, let me ask you to click this link. Don’t worry, it’ll open in an entirely new window, and you won’t lose your place here. I asked you to click the link to distract you from the pretentious title, but that title is likely what lead you to read at least the first three sentences in this paragraph. What does this mean?
“STUDY COURSE FOR THE PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE-In these modern times of stress and crowding, as more of us are forced to live under one roof, it is incumbent upon the churlish to perfect the art of being difficult. For that reason, famed Hollywood Guru, stargazer to the Stars of Hollywood, Anita Sands now offers a groundbreaking Course: PASSIVE AGGRESSION 101. This is a seminar you must take. In it, YOU WILL LEARN ‘state of the art’ P.A. Technology ! Yes! Up ’til now, you’ve been nasty on the natch but why should you be ordinary in anything you do? There have been important developments in behavioral systems developed for the torture of so-called superior (but really meeker) humans —by surlier, burlier ones —and, as an even cursory purusal of the curriculum of this workshop will prove, tricks in terror can be taught! You can become a doormat with TEETH. HOW?
It pays to stay au courant. Things have moved a great way from the early days of simple, caveman aggression. Advanced studies take basic human aggressiveness and refine it into sublime and ever more evolved manifestations. Use the same old Cro-Magnon fist but shroud it in a Third Millenium velvet glove! P.A. Studies 101 does not involve putting aside the mortal weapon. Oh no. It involves a lighter touch on a smaller, more streamlined club, targeting more mortal spots on the enemy. Take this class and become the shit you always wanted to be!
COLLECTING INJUSTICES –OR THE VALUE OF SCREAMING AND YELLING- (not YOUR screaming. THEM!) When people have too much patience and calm, and constantly summon the strength to be calm around you, it is incumbant upon you to DOUBLE DOWN on being outlandish. I’m talking double-dip nasty. Be hugely provocative. Make them totally lose their cool. Do exactly the opposite of what they tell you to do. Ignore any request. They say, ‘don’t leave, do the work,’ LEAVE and neglect the work and come back and tell them what fun places you went and amusing, creative things you did while they were stuck doing the work. If they say don’t make noise. CHATTER AND PLAY THE RADIO. When you have them blowing up, screaming and yelling say in a gentle, pained manner, ‘See? You’re an angry rageaholic bitch to me.’ When you can truly collect an injustice the collateral benefit is that you get to tell a few of the enemy’s friends of the cruel evils the enemy has done to you. Makes for great gossip down the line. You’ll dine for years on these anecdotes.
CONTROL TRIP: If the Enemy can approach you and talk, he will ultimately control you. Always avoid conversational approaches. As a chatty Cathy comes at you, or as Enemy moves toward you with mouth open, immediately trip switches that leave them powerless. Lock yourself in your own room, forcing them to bang, cajole, talk through the door. That leaves them in total powerlessness. Then to absolutely seize control, tell them you don’t like being yelled at through a door, that it’s insulting. This is called a reverse switch and leaves most authority figures completely stymied, and stupid ones, feeling guilty in the bargain.
HARMONY- Why should we have any harmony on earth? Life sucks. Earth is a place for SUFFERING. You’re suffering, why shouldn’t everyone else? Be the Equalizer with your own brand of the Golden Rule. Not to give others what you yourself want… No way! Your job is to give others what you got. Every glad ass is trying to sell some dumbfuckin’ harmony seminar. It’s on every street corner. Harmony has been done to death. COSMIC TRUTH: There’s harmony everywhere EXCEPT on earth. That’s how God made it. Don’t try to fix it if it ain’t broke. If God meant for humans to be happy automatically he wouldn’t have given babies painfully hungry stomachs, wee-wees, ammonia in diapers, mucus in noses, soft skulls that crush with a minor fall off a bed, necks that break with the slightest slap!
SHARING-Ever notice how high horse the enemy gets when you have the flu? It really deserves a get-back. Here you are feeling stuffy, headachy, feverish, unable to sleep and they’re perky as a squirrel going “More tea? Can I get you a Mango smoothie?” Implied by all this wussy pussy energy is ‘where’d you fuck up, you little maniac that you’re this ill? You wanna eat Big Macs with change stolen from my purse, you goddamn pay the price. Look at me. I’m in perfect health. I eat spinach. I never get the flu.” Well, fuck them and the bale of hay they rode in on. They’re made of steel maybe, but you’ve got an endless supply of kryptonite. You’ll show them! The thing to do is get them in a corner where they can’t get away like when they’re reading to you, sitting downwind and cough right in their face. Don’t bother to turn your head or cover your mouth, just casually HACK in their face. Make sure a shower of spit falls on their lips, eyes and nose. If they call you on it, do a wide-eyed huh? Like, aren’t you testy. Here I’m the one dying of a l08 fever and you expect me to HOLD BACK every cough just because you insist on sitting with me and reading me Peter Wabbit?” Then when they come down with your flu and are lying in bed missing work, hacking, as you go out the door, remind them to drink mango smoothies. It’s not expected you make it for them. You’re not Florence Fucking Nightengale. You’re Greta GetBack.”
A survey of 1,000 moms of teenagers commissioned by McAfee and conducted by Harris Interactive reached the surprising conclusion that “about two-thirds of mothers of teens in the United States are just as, or more, concerned about their teenagers’ online safety, such as from threatening emails or solicitation by online sexual predators, as they are about drunk driving (62 per cent) and experimenting with drugs (65 per cent).”
That might be how moms feel, but it’s not reflective of the real world. While moms have good reason to be concerned about how their teens use the Internet, online dangers pale compared to the risks of drunk driving. In 2007, 6,552 people were killed in auto accidents involving young drivers (16-20), according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. In 2006, nearly a fifth of the 7,643 15- to 20-year-old drivers involved in fatal traffic crashes had a blood had a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher.
Perception of Internet danger has been heightened thanks to the TV show “To Catch a Predator” and inaccurate reports stating that “one in five children have been sexually solicited by a predator.” That statistic is a misquote from a 2000 study by the Crimes Against Children Research Center. The data (which, based on a 2005 follow-up study, was revised to one in seven) is based on a survey that asked teens if they had in the last year received an unwanted sexual solicitation.
But many – possibly most – of those solicitations were from other teens, not from adult predators. What’s more, most recipients didn’t view them as serious or threatening. “Almost all youth handled the solicitations easily and effectively” and “extremely few youth (two out of 1,500 interviewed) were actually sexually victimized by someone they met online,” reported the authors of the study.
This article was original written for Key 64‘s Guns, Dope, and Fucking in the Streets PDF zine. I have no idea when the zine will see the light of day, so I’m running this here now.
If you have a fixed idea of what a “typical gun owner” looks like, the coffee table book Armed America may surprise you. If your main exposure to “gun culture” is the mainstream media, or magazines like the American Rifleman or Guns and Ammo, you could be forgiven for thinking all gun owners are rural, middle aged white men who dress in cammo and are desperately worried about protecting the families from gun toting “urban youth.” Armed America, a collection of photographs of gun owners by Kyle Cassidy, includes Montana survivalists and young urban black men, but also tattooed punk rockers, single moms, and American families who couldn’t look any more normal without being creepy.
It turns out, in the United States anyway, the typical gun owner could be just about anyone. According to the introduction of Armed America, 39% of the US population owns guns. Chances are, even if you did have a stereotype in mind for the “typical gun owner,” you actually know a few people who don’t fit the stereotype. Guess what? Those people aren’t the exception: they’re the rule.
So with such a large and diverse range of people owning guns, why is the gun culture – the magazines, shooting clubs, lobbying organizations, etc. – seemingly so homogeneous? Partially because most people who happen to own guns don’t make a lifestyle of it. Partially because some gun owners are quiet about it because they belong to communities that frown on firearms. Cassidy told ESPN.com “There was a guy in California I really wanted to photograph. He eventually declined. He said, ‘It’s like you’re asking me to pose with my pornography collection.’ It was something he just didn’t want to be known as owning.”
And partially because the established gun culture’s authoritarian and socially conservative agenda alienates many unapologetic gun owners. There are many proud gun owners interested in fighting for the 2nd amendment, promoting individual gun ownership, reading about guns, and socializing with other gun owners. Ostracized by the established gun culture, they are creating their own.
Take the Pink Pistols, for example. According to their web site they were established in 2000 to sponsor shooting courses for sexual minorities, and help them get concealed carry licenses. There are now 45 Pink Pistols chapters in the US (and one in Canada), and each group sponsors monthly shooting outings.
They even gained a bit of notoriety with a bizarre mention on Fox News. On the June 21, 2007 episode of the O’Reilly Factor, “gang expert” Rod Wheeler warns viewers of the “Pink Pistol-Packing Group” – a dangerous lesbian gang active all over the country. In an article on their web site, the Southern Poverty Law Center note that while Wheeler claims there are over 150 active lesbian gangs in the DC area alone, other crime experts say there are only 150 to 175 gangs TOTAL in the entire DC area. According to SPLC, Wheeler now claims he wasn’t referring to the law abiding, gun advocacy group known as the Pink Pistols, but to some other group using the same name (that no other law enforcement agency in the US seems to have ever heard of).
The alternative gun culture now has their own voice, a zine called The American Gun Culture Report. AGCR provides an alternative to culturally conservative, authoritarian gun magazines. In the introduction to the first issue, AGCR editor Ross Eliot writes “Supporters of censorship, unaccountable court systems, secret prison camps and torture have claimed gun rights as their private issue far too long. It’s time to take it away from them.” AGCR publishes views from the likes of socialists, libertarians, pagans, and queers – anyone alienated by the mainstream gun press.
The pages of AGCR feature articles on “unexpected gun owners” such as Eleanor Roosevelt, analysis of the political positions espoused by the mainstream gun press, accounts of discrimination at shooting clubs, impassioned defenses of gun ownership, and much more. Eliot, who describes himself as a “non-doctrinal socialist,” says he publishes many things he does not agree with. “I’m not the best writer or editor,” Eliot says, “But I’m putting together a magazine I want to read, which is why I’m not pushing a specific social agenda.”
The zine was conceived one day in mid-2005 when Eliot was reading an issue of Guns and Ammo in the break room of the factory he works in. He says the magazine was “pissing him off” and he decided it was time for an alternative. He’d never made a zine before, but “There was this huge void not being filled, so I figured I might as well fill it.” Ross published the first issue in 2006 and the second in 2007. Both are available from zine and book stores across the US, or from their web site.
Eliot bought his first gun, a Mossberg 12 gauge shot gun, in late 2004 because “I was feeling more and more socially irresponsible for not having a gun.” The Rwandan Genocide changed how he viewed social violence, he says. “It was the most effective genocide in recorded history, about a million people were killed in three months. There have been have been much larger genocides, but this happened with unprecedented speed, and it was done with machetes. One person with a gun could have made a difference.”
Surprisingly, Eliot has received no negative responses to the zine from the left, even though he distributes it at anti-war protests. “The only negative response is from the mainstream gun press and their audiences.”
Eliot says he hasn’t really considered writing for the mainstream gun press, citing the plight of writers like Dean Spier Dean Speir who were blacklisted from the mainstream gun press after criticizing major advertisers. Instead, he’d rather grow AGCR to the point where it can compete with mainstream gun magazines.
Update/Correction 9/28/09: Dean Speir commented below correcting both the misspelling of his name and my description of him as “blacklisted.” The error is my own, and not Eliot’s. Speir writes:
It’s important to note that calling my absence from the “gunzines” a “blacklisting” isn’t really accurate.
I spent the better part of three years trying to get a gunzine byline, and discovered it was pretty much a closed shop.
Then I got my foot in the clubhouse, and everyone wanted whatever I could provide.
But once “inside,” it became apparent that, like the special interest ‘zines which appeal to the automotive, boating and photography hobby-ists, there was precious little critical writing being done.
And after 12-13 years of trying to get something other than “puffery” in the “mainstream gun press,” and with the advent of the Internet as a more direct conduit for free expression, I retired, bloody but unbowed.
Is there one published who wouldn’t touch my byline with a 12-foot Chechnyan? Absolutely! Harris (Combat Handguns) in NYC.
But I still get inquiries from other Editors wondering if I’m working on anything that might interest their readers.
For the past nine-plus years, whatever fit that category, is self-published at http://www.thegunzone.com, free of advertiser interference and nervous editorial oversight.
And competing with, or ignoring, the mainstream may be their only choice. The Pink Pistols actively try to build bridges with the established gun culture. The August 2001 issue of Guns and Ammo featured a short article about the Pink Pistols and concluded “Once again, maybe we need to shrug off the things that don’t affect shooting and gun rights and step up to the firing line with our fellow shooters.” Nearly seven years later, that hasn’t happened yet. Not that it matters much for the Pink Pistols or the American Gun Culture Report. They’ve proven they need no acceptance or approval from the mainstream to build successful communities.
Women in the Netherlands who are deemed by the state to be unfit mothers should be sentenced to take contraception for a prescribed period of two years, according to a draft bill before the Dutch parliament.
The proposed legislation would further punish parents who defied it by taking away their newborn infant. “It targets people who have been the subject of judicial intervention because of their bad parenting,” explained the author of the bill Marjo Van Dijken of the socialist PvDA. “If someone refuses the contraception and becomes pregnant, the child must be taken away directly after birth.”
The shit-for-brains Malthusian mini-Hitlers love this stuff. The shrill “peak everything” people are some of the most deranged statists that I’ve ever come across. They sound like flaky greenies at first, but mention centralized government plans to implement orderly kill off/population reduction programs and pay close attention to their responses. […]
The core “peak everything” message is: There are no alternatives. Kill off is humanity’s only hope for survival. Oh yeah, fart taxes. Lots of fart taxes. These idiots should read Darkness at Noon to see where their certainty and grand Utopian visions will wind up.
Residents of a counterculture oasis in the Danish capital challenged government moves to regain control of their community Monday, petitioning a court to guarantee their right to use the former navy base they took over three decades ago.
The case is expected to determine the future of Christiania, a partially self-governing neighborhood of more than 900 residents that was created in 1971 when hippies began squatting at a derelict 18th-century navy fort on state-owned land.
Christiania became an enclave with psychedelic-colored buildings, open trade of hashish and limited interference from the government. But when authorities started cracking down on the drug trade in 2004 and later announced plans to tear down buildings to build new apartment blocks, the squatters fought back.
They sued the government in 2006, claiming they have the right to use the land, even if they don’t own it. The center-right government rejects that claim.
A bald, drug addicted architect cum mad scientist returns to the futuristic city he helped build to save its people from the misapplied “psychetecture” he designed. That’s the basic plot of Mister X, a comic series by Dean Motter and various artists first published in the 1984 by Vortex Comics. Motter, a graphic designer by trade, crafted the entire visual presentation of the series – going so far to create a new logo for every issue. The graphic influence of Mister X can be found in Watchmen, Transmetropolitan, and countless other subsequent series.
Dark Horse recently published The Mister X Archives, a complete collection of Motter’s run on Mister X. Klint Finley catches up with Motter to talk about the behind-the-scenes history of Mister X, and Motter’s future projects – including an all new Mister X series, Mister X: Condemned from Dark Horse.
Technoccult: How did Mister X come about? Did you pitch it to Vortex, or did they ask you to do something for them?
Dean Motter: It was a combination of both. Vortex was publishing black and white comics and was looking to do a color title. We all worked in the rather small but vibrant comic book community in Toronto. When they got wind of a project that original collaborator Paul Rivoche and I were developing to shop around they pulled it together.
T: What comics did you do before Mister X?
D: I had edited and contributed to an independent comic call Andromeda, which was the Canadian counterpart to Star Reach, which I also contributed to. I had also collaborated with Ken Steacy in Epic Illustrated for Marvel. I was mostly working in the music and entertainment industry at the time doing design work for LP covers, music promotion and book cover and magazine work.
T: Had you worked with Paul Rivoche before? How did you meet?
D: Paul and I shared a studio (with a number of other artists and illustrators in Toronto) for years. We met when he moved to Toronto.
T: How did you get hooked up with the Hernendez brothers for that project?
D: Back in ’84, when it became apparent that Paul and I had reached a creative impasse, the publisher (Vortex Comics) approached the the brothers to jump-start the already-delayed series. They came aboard, and took my outline and story notes and crafted the first four issues. Paul lettered and colored them the art while I oversaw the production, art direction, design and editorial chores.
T: Why, after all these years, did you decide to do a new Mister X series?
D: The time just seemed right. Diana Schutz at Dark Horse asked me if I’d like to do it. I’d worked with Diana (the first Grendel: Black, White and Red) and for Dark Horse on some Star Wars stories, and the 9/11 book.
T: Who owns the rights to Mister X now?
D: Vortex Comics still owns the rights. They no longer publish but basically run the franchise. Dark Horse is publishing the new archival edition plus the new reboot series.
T: Why did you leave Mister X?
D: It was largely financial. DC was offering me The Prisoner, and I was kind of burnt out on the project. I’d been working on it pretty intensely for years. Both in development and in the actual run.
T: Why did you re-release the final issue? How does it differ from the original version?
D: I was very unhappy with my final issue. My script was lacking. It was missing many elements I wanted to explore. Plus, it had no closure. No resolution to the whole story arc. Combined with what I felt was very poor artwork when compared with most of the series. When IBooks decided to collect the series I took the opportunity to redo it myself and address these issues in they manner I envisioned originally.
T: You say that the second volume of Mister X (and I presume also the third volume, from Caliber) shouldn’t be considered part of the same continuity as the first volume. Are Terminal City and Electropolis, in your mind, part of the same continuity as the original Mister X series? What about the new Mister X series coming in December?
D: Terminal City and Electropolis can be read as part of the original continuity. But I took care so that a reader did not need to have read the original Mister X to get into the story. The second volume and the Caliber series are ‘new’ takes. Differing from the original in the same manner as DC has told and retold the mythos of Superman. The new series is the equivalent of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One. It retells and relaunches the Mister X mythos.
T: With all the praise that’s been heaped on creators like Alan Moore and Frank Miller, especially recently, do you ever feel like your work hasn’t received the appreciation it deserves?
D: Occasionally… But the work has a loyal following. (BTW I’d add Mignola to that list. ) But their oeuvre was much more consistent.
T: One thing Mister X is remembered for is bringing graphic design sensibilities to comic books. Did you make a conscious decision to bring your design sensibilities to the comic, or did it just happen?
D: As I said, I was working as art director/designer and occasionally as illustrator in the entertainment business at the time. I wanted to elevate the design of comics to that of the music industry, since they appealed to similar demographics.
T: Any chance that Mister X will ever be made into a movie?
D: There are discussions ongoing with both Mister X and Terminal City.
T: Have you read Warren Ellis’s Doktor Sleepless? It’s obviously heavily influenced by Mister X.
D: Indeed. That’s one reason Warren was asked to write the intro to the Archives.
T: Do you have any other projects in the works?
D: Original collaborator Paul Rivoche and I have an issue of The Spirit in the works. I am working on a Dominic Fortune series for Marvel, set in 1937. I have other pitches in the pipeline I can’t discuss just yet.
Correction: The article originally stated that Mister X contained the first published work of Los Brother Hernendez. This is incorrect. The entire sentence, which also stated that Mister X contained the first work of Dave McKean and Seth, has been removed.
