8FOLD: Nonfiction # 3, "The New War"

Tom Russell joltcity at gmail.com
Mon Jun 23 15:12:54 PDT 2014


On Monday, June 23, 2014 5:53:55 PM UTC-4, Andrew Perron wrote:
> On 6/23/2014 5:33 PM, Tom Russell wrote:
> 
> > On Sunday, June 22, 2014 1:25:47 PM UTC-4, Andrew Perron wrote:
> 
> >
> 
> >> ...JEEZ. How the heck do they cooperate long enough to be a giant star empire
> 
> >> if they're so *touchy*?
> 
> >>
> 
> >> (Note to self: Expand on this in the Roundup.)
> 
> >
> 
>  > Well-- as is mentioned later and you pick up on below, it might be less
> 
>  > that they're touchy or tetchy and more that they wanted an excuse.
> 
> 
> 
> Oh yes. Here, I'm illustrating my immediate emotional reaction, with logical 
> 
> fiddlings to follow.
> 
> 
> 
> >>>      "The public doesn't really get an opinion on this," says Burton
> 
> >>> with an air of academic bemusement. "This isn't a neighboring country
> 
> >>> that we can make peace with."
> 
> >>
> 
> >> Ah, yes, the ol' "we have to suspend all forms of government, because clearly,
> 
> >> my way is the right way, and nobody should be allowed to argue with it".
> 
> >
> 
>  > I get what you're saying-- and that's an attitude that certainly pops up
> 
>  > in, and is unhealthy for, political discourse and self-governance. But
> 
>  > that's not really the attitude I was trying to convey here. It's less of a
> 
>  > "there's no room for debate on how to fight against this threat of
> 
>  > planet-wide extinction, so we have to do it this way" and more "there's no
> 
>  > room for debate on whether or not we have to fight against this threat of
> 
>  > planet-wide extinction, because the alternate is that extinction".
> 
> >
> 
>  > In real world conflicts (nation-vs.-nation), one side or the other can, and
> 
>  > usually should, sue for peace. Public opinion-- anti-war or otherwise-- can
> 
>  > and should effect policy changes in a democratic society. What the guy is
> 
>  > saying is that in this kind of conflict, where it's not about redrawing
> 
>  > borders, payment of restitution, etc., there's nothing to "give" to the
> 
>  > other side. You can't sue for peace, and so anti-war protests can't really
> 
>  > effect any kind of change. Isolationism, pacifism, they're not options in
> 
>  > this case. (Or, I guess, they are options, but the end result is death, so
> 
>  > they're not really viable.)
> 
> 
> 
> Okay, but: Says who?
> 

Well, that guy, and I should be clear that I'm not necessarily agreeing with or disagreeing with him, I just wanted to more clearly expound upon where that character was coming from and to explain that it wasn't necessarily the same animal as "suspension of discourse/civil liberties" we often see when nominally democratic societies go into crisis mode.

> 
> Ahhhh, very good. Just making sure - I still haven't caught up on most of the 
> 
> pre-2008 Eightfold. [Editor's Note: I miss Jamie Rosen.]

Me too! When he first announced he had a new universe, and I came on-board as his co-conspirator, I had no idea that I'd end up being the guy running the show. If I did, I probably would have ran away screaming-- my previous attempts at launching an imprint left an awful lot to be desired. What drew me to it was getting to work with Jamie, an author I had always admired and who, along with Saxon, was among the first to make me feel a "part" of RACC vis-a-vis The Death of Cheesecake-Eater Lad cascade story.

I was able to get back into contact with him a few months ago via twitter (getting permission to take over/continue his WEIRD ROMANCE series).

>  > and mentioned a handful of other times. Hotspur has shown up once before,
> 
>  > and bonus points if you can name it without googling it... (Honor system,
> 
>  > gents and ladles!)
> 
> 
> 
> Hmmmmm. Was Hotspur, perhaps... one of the escapees in Jolt City #20?

Nope. He was kind of a throw-away character in the story in which he appeared, and yet he wasn't, as he was responsible in some way for everything that happened in that issue, and, in a way, every issue since. Kinda like Jar-Jar Binks being responsible for the rise of the Empire.


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