Day: June 1, 2005

I understand that Tom Kratman’s book, A State of Disobedience, is his first novel. It’s sometimes rough around the edges, as novels early in a writer’s career can be, and it definitely has a didactic agenda, but still… pretty well-written, enough so that I’ll get his next book, Watch on the Rhine (written with John Ringo), either by pre-ordering through Baen Books or Amazon.com, or via Baen’s Webscription service. (eBooks have their place. 🙂

A State of Disobedience is a cautionary tale concerning just what could happen if the Fantasists (and their cynical masters in politics, the media and academia) actually did decide they had enough power to compel everyone to toe their Fantasist line. It’s not a pretty book, and the denouement is decidely noir, but still, what kind of optimist would it take to look at current knuckling under of a majority Congress to minority whining and, well, lying to expect our polity to become more civilized over the next few years?

A brief taste from the intro to the book will give you enough to rough out and idea of the basic conflicts involved.

Briefly, things seemed to be on the road to improvement. National political and philosophical differences seemed cast aside one terrible morning in 2001 amidst the shrieks of thousands of bombed, battered, burning victims of a vicious terrorist attack that threw all awry.

With the screams of the dying in their ears, the vision of the flames seared onto their eyes, no one, not Republican, not Democrat, not the man or woman on the streets resisted for a moment the most severe curtailing of civil liberties in the history of the Republic. Thus when, seven years later, the United States emerged victorious from what was known in some circles as “The Arab War,” in some as “The Moslem War,” in most as “The War against Terror,” not only were all the previous differences found to be still largely intact, the mechanisms of control had been much improved and enhanced.

Worse, as it had been in 1860, the balance was near perfect . . . and perfectly precarious. The slightest shift left or right could tumble the entire shaky edifice into ruin, even into civil war.

As polemic fiction, it does suffer from the excesses of the genre: demonizing the antagonist(s), hagiography of the protagonist(s), etc. But with that as a reminder, and the fact that it’s a very quick and entertaining—though at times shocking—read, I’d say it was well worth the purchase price and time spent reading it.

NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only

I keep seeing the note reproduced above in various forms on some blogs. I suppose this disclaimer is meant to discourage the feebs in our Fed’ral Gummint or some Mass Media Podpeople’s Army minion from persecuting the writers who post it. (It refers to the Fair Use doctrine of U.S. Copyright Law.) OTOH, I don’t need no steenking disclaimer. I do a pretty fair job (heh) of following Fair Use and I have this, instead of a disclaimer:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Read it and weep, petty bureaucratic tyrants and Mass Media Podpeople’s minions.

(One technical question: how does one type a representation of giving someone the raspberry?)

UPDATE: In comments, Spurs suggests, for the raspberry:

And so, “Thhbbbbbtttttt!!!” it is. As it has been written, so let it be.

From the Cornell Legal Information Institute:

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work [the work quoted-ed] is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors….