Friday, August 11, 2006

Coming of Age


Arising out of pulp fiction for the masses Science Fiction is now fully out of the literary ghetto.

It has now been claimed by the U.S. Government as a cultural artifact of America.
Society, Science Enriched by Science Fiction

Does this then make SciFi an official State Literature?

If so there might be some competition in that regard.
The St. Sputnik Project: Modern Russian Sci-Fi - Online Resources ...


Also See:

LEM RIP


Heinlein

Andre Norton RIP

Octavia Butler RIP

Lagrange 5

And Then They Built An Ark

Another Character Generator

Good Morning Dave

New Age Libertarian Manifesto

Gothic Capitalism Redux


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Oriental Origins of Post-modernism

What is post-modernism? Well it orginates in Modernist art of the decadence; in the Fin de Siecle of the 19th century.

Post modernism supercedes modernism with the invasion of the dialectical concisouness of Imperialism/Anti-Imperialism when the post WWII colonial/colonized world enters the space of capitalist decadence and speaks.

It is the dialectical result of the West's fascination with and creation of Orientalism which results in modernism and thus post-modernism;
the authentic Oriental voice's revenge.


POSTMODERNISM / FIN DE SIECLE
It is interesting to reread Ihab Hassan in this regard. Hassan's first book, after all, was called The Literature of Silence (1967), and made the case for a "new literature" written in the wake of Dachau and Hiroshima, a literature whose "total rejection of Western history and civilization" leads either to the apocalyptic violence and obscenity of a Henry Miller or a Norman Mailer or the silence, randomness, and indeterminacy of Samuel Beckett or John Cage. By 1971, Hassan referred to this "change in Modernism" as Postmodernism and drew up the first of his famous lists or tables, a table made up of binary oppositions :

Modernism

Postmodernism

1. Urbanism 1. The Global Village (McLuhan), Spaceship Earth (Fuller), the City as Cosmos--Science Fiction. Anarchy and fragmentation.
2. Technologism
2. Runaway technology. New media, art forms. Boundless dispersal by media. The computer as substitute consciousness or extension of consciousness.
3. Elitism 3. Antielitism, antiauthoritarianism. Diffusion of the ego. Participation. Community. Anarchy.
4. Irony 4. Radical play. Entropy of meaning. Comedy of the absurd. Black Humor. Camp.
5. Abstraction 5. New Concreteness. Found Object. Conceptual Art.
6. Primitivism 6. Beat and Hip. Rock Culture. Dionysian Ego.
7. Eroticism 7. The New Sexuality. Homosexuality , Feminism, Lesbianism. Comic pornography. Repeal of Censorship
8. Antinomianism 8. Antinomianism. 8. Counterculture. Beyond alienation. Counter. Beyond Law. Non Serviam. Western "ways." Zen, Buddhism, Hinduism the occult, apocalypticism.
9. Experimentalism 9. Open form, discontinuity, improvisation, Formal innovation. New language. Antiformalism. Indeterminacy. Aleatory Structure. Minimalism. Intermedia.


Postmodernism, Etc.: An Interview with Ihab Hassan

Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Preface to Orientalism

Orientalism
A website devoted to the controversies surrounding Orientalism and Western representations of Islam and the Arabs. Located at www.orientalism.org.


A symphony of civilizations

China's re-emergence - there is no "China rise", but only China's restoration to its historical position - is already having considerable impact on the global village. Understandably, observers and analysts discuss the nature of Beijing's behavior on the international scene. Will China behave like an empire trying to dominate and extend a pax Sinica, or act as a cooperative force working for a foedus pacificum, a league of peace, to use Immanuel Kant's expression (Perpetual Peace, 1795)?


Lolita and Beyond

Epistemically I am trying to see how this mutation of Orientalism to Area Studies to active privatization of knowledge production (pretty much on the model of the privatization of certain aspects of the US military, such as intelligence gathering and torturing people) actually works. Meanwhile, I am also trying to keep a record of who is saying and doing what in these terrible times—for these criminal comprador intellectuals will have to be held historically accountable for what they now say and do.

What lies beneath

The legacy of Edward Said's 1978 book Orientalism, in which he argued that the west possesses a monopoly on how "Arabo-Islamic peoples and their culture" are viewed, was the subject of debate at the British Museum. Historian and novelist Robert Irwin kicked off by attacking what he decribed as Said's falsification of the past and poor understanding of Arabic, and argued that his "revolutionary" assertions were in fact part of longstanding Muslim and Marxist critiques.

A Marxist Critique of 'Third World

. [We] could start with a radically different premise: namely the proposition that we live not in three [or more] worlds but in one; that this world includes the experiences of colonialism and imperialism on both sides of [the] global divide; that societies in formations of backward capitalism are as much constituted by the division of classes as are societies in the advanced capitalist countries; that socialism . . . is simply the name of a resistance that saturates the globe today, as capitalism itself does; that the different parts of the capitalist system are to be known not in terms of a binary opposition but as a contradictory unity-with differences, yes, but also with profound overlaps.

The world [is] united not by liberalist ideology [or humanistic universalism] but by the global operation of a single mode of production, namely the capitalist one, and the global resistance to this mode, a resistance which is itself unevenly developed in different parts of the globe.


Tribute to India in world’s oldest caves

There is an Indian chamber in the Jenolan caves, which are said to be the world's oldest discovered open caves, according to cave-dating research published by Australian geologists.

“In the early 20th century, orientalism was a big theme in western societies, especially in the British Empire. Early cave explorers called it the Orient cave because of the red colour. It contains the Indian Chamber, Persian Chamber and the Egyptian Colllanade.

It was discovered in 1904,” explains Dr Armstrong Osborne, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney.

A five-year study has shown that the limestone caves, which each year attract thousands of tourists, including Indian visitors, date back more than 340 million years.

Napoleon on the Nile at the Dahesh Museum of Art

Initiated under the patronage of the young General Napoleon Bonaparte as he invaded Egypt in 1798, and completed in 1829 during the reign of King Charles X, the Description was among the most significant, and certainly the most tangible, consequences of the French military’s occupation of Egypt (1798-1801). Not only did it form the foundation for the modern discipline of Egyptology, but its large and magnificent plate illustrations influenced the course of "Egyptomania" and “Orientalism” in western fine and decorative arts for two centuries.


Gallic grandeur

Where Brown really excels is in the description of Flaubert's voyage to Italy and Egypt (1849-51) with his close friend Maxime du Camp and a heap of photographic equipment. Flaubert was, like many of his contemporaries, hooked on orientalism, which included an early version of sexual tourism as well as an astonished revelling in what is now mostly lost, although even then the railway and western trousers were already creeping in (Flaubert travelled by rail as early as 1843, but favoured Turkish robes). Brown emphasises Flaubert's excellent horsemanship, and the image of him galloping across moonlit African plains makes it easier to understand why he spent so much of his life recreating not just a banal Normandy, but a lost and splendid antiquity, most memorably in his novel of Carthaginian magnificence and cruelty, Salammbo (1862).

Collection of Orientalist Imagery Reveals Roots of American Views ...

The imagery has long been appropriated for use in American film posters, cigarette packs, pulp fiction and popular music: scantily clad harem girls, tyrannical despots and turbaned mystics have personified an imagined Middle East in the popular culture.

Hundreds of objects reflecting that imagined realm has just wrapped up its first run at the University of California at Los Angeles. "Seducing America: Selling the Middle Eastern Mystique," an exhibit of Middle Eastern-inspired ephemera, is about to be launched as an extensive on-line data base complete with music samples, selected film clips and a comprehensive assortment of "Middle Eastern Americana". There are artifacts such as sheet music, souvenirs, book jackets and consumer goods, many bearing Middle Eastern insignias, and the accompanying advertisements which range from the crass to the cartoonish.

Objects included comic books from the 1930s, pulp fiction book covers with titles such as "Desert Madness" and "Spicy Adventures," video games such as "The Prince of Persia," vintage sheet music for songs including "The Sheik of Araby" and "Rebecca Came Back from Mecca," photos of topless women on the covers of CDs, fierce warriors on the covers of DVDs, "Turkish" tobacco products, Egyptomania films, and various and sundry consumer items such as Palmolive beauty products, Ben Hur flour, Sheik condoms - and a couple of Shriner fezzes.

Noble Dreams Wicked Pleasures Orientalism in America, 1870-1930

Indeed, one of the fascinations with Orientalism is how nicely it blends into other artistic styles of the 19th Century such as Pre-Raphaelism and Art Nouveau as well as the Aesthetic Movement. Orientalism, Pre-Raphaelism and Art Nouveau are various manifestations of lush, richly embued, symbolic decorative aesthetics, often tinged if not overwhelmed by a sense of history and prior historic periods. The Aesthetic Movement, of course, emerged from these influences to produce a "modern" style based on them.

In his excellent essay, Oleg Grabar finds the "roots" of American Orientalism in "the Protestant search for the space of the biblical revelations," European aristocratic taste, popular culture in freemasonry and other fraternal organizations, and "the spirit of skeptical curiosity and adventure.


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Also See:

Bureaucratic Collectivist Capitalism

Ibn Khaldun 14th Century Arab Libertarian

My Favorite Muslim

The Need for Arab Anarchism

Peter Drucker RIP

Breaking Out Of The Cultural Burka

Muslims Discovered America

Anti Islamism Manifesto

Two Excellent Sources For Islamic Studies

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Compassionate Capitalism


It seems some Blogging Tories just don't understand compasionate capitalism. To them generousity and business don't go hand in hand or else they would understand the following axioms;

a) rock & roll is a business
b) rock & roll musicians are businessmen
c) business is capitalism
d) rock stars are capitalists.

Since the time of the Beatles Apple Corp. and the Moody Blues Inc., this has been the case.

Bono gets richer still

Bono buys piece of capitalist rag

So why all the fuss, if Bono buys into Forbes magazine, while lobbying to end poverty. What? Did you forget Kellog, Hershey, Owen, and yes Engels. They were compasionate capitalists, social reformers. Heck what Bono is doing is no different than Gates.

AIDS Funding: Gates Steps Up as Rich Countries Step Back

In fact the intelligent business man recognizes philanthropy is good for business and social stature. Which is why the robber barons of the fin de siecle during the Guilded Age in America invented it. To give back to the community some of their ill gotten gain. Oh and it's good for a tax break.

As the old adage goes one needs to make money to spend money, or was it visa versa. Bono is spending and investing his money well, and putting it where his mouth is. He is using his capital for social good. Ironic he should be criticized for doing the right thing as a hip capitalist by the right.

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Cap't Crunch


Before there were hackers there were technology gurrellias like Cap't Crunch (aka John Draper)who invented the Blue Box, which was follwed by the black box and red box. Simple electronic beepers that when sent through the primitive switching technology of the seventies Tele Coms allowed you free long distance calls. It was promoted by the Yippies and by TAP .

The Youth International Party Line
(YIPL; later, the name was changed to TAP for Technological American Party or Technological Assistance Program), started by Hoffman and Al Bell in June 1971 was the pioneer phreak magazine.

We were known as phone phreaks. Every time Tel Com security found a way to block the tones, a new box was invented. Thus hacking was born. Pre-PC pre-Internet.

Why Cap'n Crunch?

John Draper once gained fame (and prison sentences) from his skills in manipulating the telephone system. His "handle" came from the inclusion of a plastic whistle in Captain Crunch cereal in the 1960's which could, with proper manipulation, send out a control tone that would affect telephone systems of the time.

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PC is 25 years old


The modern age of computing began 25 years ago when Time Magazine declared the personal computer "person of the year'. And as they said back then in commercials; "you've come a long way baby".

The commodore 64 is, along with the Apple II and the Atari XL computers, the most famous home computer. According to the 2001 edition of Guinness book of records, the C64 was the most "prolific computing device ever manufactured". During its production run from 1982 to... 1993, about 30 million (!) units were sold. To put this number in perspective, that's more than all the Macintoshes in the world.

And the PC did not begin as an offshoot of IBM but rather the gaming industry.

The original Atari was a pioneer in arcade games, home video game consoles, and personal computers, and its dominance in those areas made it the major force in the computer entertainment industry from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. The brand has also been used at various times by Atari Games, a separate company split off in 1984.

To think about how far we have come in 25 years, a mere quarter of a century, let's just look back to the original Apple computer and where Steve Jobs is today; promoting IPOD technology.

And what had been a cumbersome clunker of a a computer with 64k memory was available as a hand-held Palm Pilot.

first-gen PDAs like Palm, which could also work as text readers. Heavier than a hardcover book, they were less portable and harder to read in direct light. But it was just these complaints that sparked killer app innovation.


This is literally expansion at the speed of thought, imagine the Gutenberg Press and twenty five years later you have the Xerox.


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Independent Lieberman


Independent Lieberman says he can be now be himself
So is that an Independent Democrat or and Independent Republican? Running against Lamont he should at least be honest and run as the latter.


Also See:

Lieberman

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Mining Merger Mania


You can't tell the players without a program.
CHRONOLOGY-Key dates in Canada mining takeover wars
This is a case of globalisation of Canada's mining industry, dog eat dog captialism. Much like the current wave of steel takeovers. Canadian miners flush with cash try to buy each other out to gain a monopoly in the marketplace, leaving themselves open to hostile takeovers by foreign corporations. Ain't capitalism grand. This is more exciting than Canadian Idol. Will they won't they get the brass ring. No wagering please.

Also See:

Mining



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Home of International Terrorism

Pakistan.

The current raid on terrorists in London finds several arrested in Pakistan. The July 7 bombers in London were trainind in Pakistan. The Taliban fighting Canadian and NATO troops in Afghanistan are located in Pakistan. Terrorist members of Bin Laden Inc. /Al Qaeda operate out of Pakistan. Kashmir terrorists operate out of Pakistan. Pakistan ships nuclear technology to rogue states.

Hmmm what was that George Bush said about States that support terrorism....oh yeah Pakistan is America's new buddy in the war on terrorism. Instead of invading Iraq to bring democracy to the folks there, perhaps the US should have invaded the military dictatorship and home of International Terrorism; Pakistan. Oh yeah they couldn't Pakistan has nukes.


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Fordism In Korea

The Fordist economy of South Korea has now reached the level where that country is officially a modern capitalist economy, the workers there now have a five day work week, but it is causing them some stress as they were brought up in the command economy of a militarist based State Capitalism.

More play, less toil creates stress for some Korean families

The shorter week has come as a particular shock to older members of Korea's predominantly male work force. Mr. Kim, for instance, grew up listening to official nation-building propaganda songs with lyrics like "Let's wake up early in the morning, work hard and make a good town." School books of the day hammered home such lessons as: "I was born for reviving and rehabilitating our nation." For Koreans in their mid-forties and older, "feeling guilty, staying long hours, and not knowing how to rest is part of the legacy of Gen. Park Chung Hee," says Park Tae Gyun, a Korean-studies professor at Seoul National University. The dictator ran South Korea during nearly two decades of rapid industrialization until his assassination in 1979.

Also See

Take Time From the Boss


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Plundering Tax Payers


The Edmonton Journal reported yesterday that Big Oil in Alberta and other Alberta corporations like Telus and West Jet made increased record profits. Thanks to you and I.

That's right they would have made profits anyways, but thanks to Martin/Harper/Klein tax cuts you and I paid them out of our pockets to increase their bottom line.

Tax cuts
and public private partnerships are a form of State Capitalism, the public pays for private profit.

Any trickle down effects as espoused by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation are a myth, these guys take the cash and run. They do not reinvest the money, but use it for playing the stock market.

BY THE NUMBERS

WestJet Airlines made a profit of $22.4 million after tax cuts of $11.2 million, while a $107-million tax reduction helped Telus Corp. to a $356.6-million profit.

Here's what five of the largest energy companies saved on taxes in the latest quarter:

- At Husky Energy Inc., tax cuts saved $328 million, helping earnings more than double to $978 million.

- Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. made a profit of more than $1 billion after a $438-million tax gain.

- Suncor Energy Inc.'s taxes dropped $419 million, helping the company make a profit of $1.2 billion.

- Imperial Oil, Canada's largest energy company, saved a $110 million in taxes on the way to a $837 million profit.

And if they didn't get tax cuts these guys would find other ways of avoiding paying taxes ( such as setting up income trusts), unlike you and I who have no choice.How the US super-rich 'dodge' taxes



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