Yonkers and History (and something else...)

The battle of Yonkers section in War World Z is perhaps the most visceral and shocking scene because of it frantic pace, intensity, choice of a common foot soldier as narrator; and the maddening frustration of the military command failure on display.  With so many of the stories in the book being about politicians, entrepreneurs and "idea men" and women ( remote agents in the war against Zack), I find these more personal tales of survival very harrowing and compelling.

The zombie, to me, has always been much more important as metaphor rather than monster.  The success of the zombie genre is surely due to the pliability of these cannibals as symbols.  They can represent nearly anything.  In the original Night of the Living Dead, it was racism, the new sciences of destruction emerging from WWII, and other things.  In 28 Days Later, it was rage and aggression.  At the Battle of Yonkers, I think they represent history's tendency to repeat itself. 

Great armies throughout history have been defeated through a failure to understand the nature and mindset of their enemies.  In War World I, the British military and T. E. Lawrence had a difficult time getting the Arab Revolt to understand the new tactics and destructive capabilities of emerging technologies.  In Vietnam, we failed to realize the commitment of the Vietcong and their brutal guerrilla tactics.  In the '80s, Russia underestimated the low-tech, high-return strategies of the Taliban. We did much the same thing in 2001. 

In Yonkers, the US military falls victim to their own technological sophistication and the complacency created by that over reliance.  Additionally, ingraining tactics into the minds of soldiers is a major part of today's massive, complex armies.  A conglomeration of thousands must think as one and move as one to achieve success.  But what do you do against an enemy that is utterly incapable of the same, a mass of independent soldiers immune to the confusion and pandemonium they create?  Training an entire army to respond to such new and unnatural tactics would require huge amounts of time and resources along with careful, outside-the-box leadership.  Today's modern system just isn't set up to handle that. 

As a last observation: Why is it that apocalypses always seem to be a victory for Thoreau-types dedicated to simple living, rejection of technology, and smaller communities?  Its always the old ways (bow and arrow, pointed sticks, isolationism, and the KISS method) that win out.  Is regression just the natural result of social collapse, or does apocalypse fiction fulfill some common desire to escape all the complexities and difficulties of the modern rat race?  Does everyone sitting down to watch the news at night who sees the nonsense and disharmony going on in the world secretly want to reset the clock?  Or are you more afraid of what would happen if it did?

My Preferred Databases

The UT libraries website has a number of great resources.  Conducting a few brief searches on some of the databases, I think that—in terms of this paper—the Literature Resource Center and MLA International Bibliography will be the most useful.  Both provide a number of search options and seem to have a large selection of scholarly sources.  The LRC includes many of the articles in PDF format on their site without needing to link to another outside database like EBSCO.  MLA International, however, does provide links back to the libraries' website for locating a hardcopy in the event that it is not available online, which is helpful.  And MLA seems better equipped for refining searches in-process and locating related topics through links in the descriptors.  So, I am leaning towards the latter database.

As an accounting major, ProQuest's accounting and tax database looks to be extremely helpful.  It is well formatted, clean without being overly simplistic, and provides nice advanced search options. There are journals on related topics as well as current news articles that with be extremely usefully to me during my career at UT following and exploring practical examples of accounting and business processes, principles, and important developments in the field.  

Dr. Strangelove and Childishness

I've seen Dr. Strangelove perhaps half a dozen times, and it continues to reveal new layers to its comedic portrayal of a nuclear apocalypse.  The main satirical focus of the film seems far greater than just a cataclysmic event like the cold war instigating an all out conflict between the U.S. and Russia. The target of the movies appears to be political and military power in general.

The film offers us two different military leaders in the form of the psychotic and conspiratorial General Ripper and the manic, child-like general Turgidson played brilliantly by George C. Scott.  Most men depict military leadership as being fundamentally dillusional and banal in their obsession with secret Communist plots and power grabs. 

Turgidson is continually shown exhibiting childish behavior.  There are more overt displays such as when he wrestles with the Russian ambassador over a hidden camera (that the General might have planted) and, like a young boy, mimes the motions of an airplane while joyfully describing the maneuvering capabilities of a B-52 bomber.  Also, their are more subtle clues like Turgidson's constantly chewing of gum which is reminiscent of a baby's oral fixation. 

General Ripper is, on the surface, far more serious, but displays a similarly immature mindset, absence of logic, and boyish obsession with the flashier elements of war: big guns and big military gestures. 

The difference between these two is that, while Turgidson's paranoia is tolerated, Ripper's is not.  The difference?  Ripper challenges political authority by sidestepping the President and starting war with Russian himself.  Turgidson, whether he likes it or not, plays the game. You see, the political leaders, the U.S. President and his Russian counterpart, are equally childish as evidenced in their silly argument over who is sorriest. 

The filmmakers are saying that childishness and foolishness are tolerated in military and government powers only so long as you don't step on the toes of the bigger, more important kids sharing the sandbox.

The film succeeds quite well at its depiction of power because in operates on overt and more subtle levels.  Much of the satire was lost on me the first time I saw Dr. Strangelove, but it reveals more and more levels as you watch.  This technique is very effective and almost necessary when satirizing such hot button issues as nuclear war and current institutions like our difficult marriage of government and military powers.

Hock Seng (The Windup Girl)

The character of Hock Seng stands out to me from the plethora of great characters in The Windup Girl for sheer resiliency and street smarts.  His story, more so than those of the others, weaves in and out of the upper parts of Thai society and the lower giving a perfect view of the detailed world that Bacigalupi has created.  He encapsulates the post-apocalyptic character, someone who has felt the effects of the collapse of society personally (the loss of his family and private empire) and adapted coming out the other side stronger, more capable, and necessarily ruthless.

No other character besides perhaps Emiko has as much going against them as Hock Seng who seems to face the potential for death around every corner.  He is a member of one of the lowest and most despised classes in society, his embezzling has him constantly in the cross-hairs of his boss, he's made a deal with the devil (actually organized crime), he even has to pretend to be something he's not just to survive in his own neighborhood. 

The result is that he's constantly on edge, constantly working things out in his head, planning his next move, looking around the room for the best exits.  Ordinarily, you would expect someone is his position to breakdown or make that final fatal mistake. Instead, his troubles hone his natural smarts and intuition to an almost predatory level.  Its a perfect example of Darwinian adaptability.  Like Mad Max or Robert Neville, he transforms to fit the post-apocalyptic landscape.  On the outside he is an unassuming character: small, aging, somewhat meek.  Yet he survives where other characters who are seemingly stronger and more capable (like Jaidee) fall under the complexities and demands of their strange and deadly society.

Every character in The Windup Girl has a compelling story.  Kanya is playing a difficult political game while dealing with her own past and trying to fill the large shoes of her disgraced Captain.  Anderson Lake is practically juggling chainsaws from page one while lying to everyone he meets.  Emiko's life is a living hell.  But I find Hock Seng's to be the most compelling thread, one that weaves through many of the others and connects all the various themes and tones of the novel.  There's always a hint of ruin around the bend, but you're also constantly wandering just how he'll get out of this scrape and on to the next one.

Impressions of The Windup Girl

The setting and atmosphere of The Windup Girl reminds me of Casablanca.  The city seems to be that same melting pot of individuals, that same combination of conspiracies and tensions that feels eternally on the verge of exploding into utter chaos. Every character seems to be wearing a mask and never really reveals their true objectives.  The location is described just enough and at the same time taken for granted enough that we aren't forcibly draw to any one detail but allowed to let it all wash over us.  Everything comes to life around us.

The setting doesn't really fit within the confines of a dystopia.  Sure, there is some obvious corruption and hints of tyranny in the government, but that isn't really too different from some nations today or in our past.  If anything, the world has regressed to a kind of 17th century blend of colonialism and monarchy only with modern corporate politics and power struggles. 

There has obviously been an ecological apocalypse and the loss of major energy sources has had some devastating effects on society, but human ingenuity under pressure has led to some interesting technological developments.  By genetically engineering stronger and larger beasts of burden in the form of these megodonts and perfecting high energy capacity spring technology to store kinetic energy, people have been able to come up with new ways of powering their world; and much more attention has been given to efficiency with regard to our energy usage. 

Sure things are difficult and a bit chaotic, but I think that this would be a challenging and exciting world to live in.  I don't feel like things are on the brink of collapse as they are in some of the other stories we have been reading, just in the process of starting to rebuild and figure itself out.  It would be a fascinating environment to live in.

The Windup Girl: Worth the First Frustrations

So, I'm going to be part of the group reading the Windup Girl. I actually read the book a while back, so this will be my second time through it. There's been a lot of talk about how difficult this book is to read, and I just wanted to say a few things about this: the early frustrations experienced at the beginning of this book (and they do fade after the first few chapters) are not as bad as some reviews you might read make them seem, and the whole story is definitely worth sticking around for.

The author creates one of the most detailed, believable, and lived-in worlds that I have ever read in science fiction. But he doesn't spend any time setting up the world or explaining the history/politics/sciences/terminology, you are just immediately thrown into the thick of things.  This can be a bit disorienting, but it also keeps you from getting pulled out of the story by outside-the-narrative explanations interjected for clarity, which is a problem in sci-fi that can ruin the flow or result in some very contrived scenes where characters stop to describe some piece of technology or idea that most people in that world are so familiar with that they would never think twice about it.  This kind of exposition can drive me nuts (I'm looking at you Robert Heinlein (read For Us the Living if you don't believe me, these explanations are the whole gosh darn book!)), but it does make the audience's job easier. You won't find any of that here.

And it wouldn't really work anyway with this setting. The richness and believability adds so much to the story, and it would suffer if overburdened by all of theses expository intrusions. And I think that Bacigalupi goes a good job at this. When done correctly (see anything by C.J. Cherryh) it allows the book to immediately pull you in.  So please don't be discouraged.  It will fade after the first few chapters. The story you will experience is worth the price of admission.

Wrapping Up The I-Search

I've spent a few days now hammering away at the very meaty research section of my I-Search project and laying out how I want to handle the My Conclusions and My Reflection sections, and I have had very mixed feelings.  On the one hand, I feel very much in a bubble.  I've been evaluating sources and analyzing survey responses to the point of going cross-eyed while also trying to reflect on and make sense of the project as a whole.  Right now, I'm wondering if everyone else is moving in the same direction with this as I am.  Is everyone else getting the same kinds of results with their surveys/interviews or have I gotten lost in the weeds and started taking my topic in the wrong direction.  Voluntary human extinction strays a bit from the usual apocalyptic themes, and I wonder if I've lost sight of the larger goal.  On the other hand, I am very proud of the amount of work I have done this far and excited by some of the things that I have found out.  I am relived that this is all coming to end, but also worried about how my final massive pile of data will hold up against everyone else.  Only time will tell I suppose.