{"id":1361,"date":"2007-01-08T15:52:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-08T19:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/archives\/1361"},"modified":"2007-01-08T15:52:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-08T19:52:00","slug":"fascism-is-what-you-make-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/archives\/1361","title":{"rendered":"Fascism Is What You Make Of It"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know, I know \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe I have this much to say about my weekend, either. Bear with me, one more and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m done. Since the Redhead Gallery trip was a bust, the three of us trudged off in search of oversized burritos, then pushed on through the sudden attack of chilly rain to Pages on Queen, where I spent money on books that I will have to read and then give away (I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any bookshelves). <\/p>\n

Since mentioned she had read my review and tried to buy Frank Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc300\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, only to find it was sold out everywhere, Alastair took the opportunity to object to my unflaggingly positive evaluation of the work, stating that it celebrated fascism. I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even come up with a response to that. All I could think was, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Duh, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about SPARTANS. Of COURSE it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about glorifying militarism through severe social regimentation and placing the nation above all other sources of loyalty! That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how Spartans roll, baby.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n

I know the term was invented by Mussolini, but seriously, it could be called Spartism, if that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t such a totally lame sounding word. Although I deeply respect my friend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s opinion, and his knowledge of things philosophical and political far outstrips my own, his attempt to slander a work of fiction by labeling it with a political epithet seems, well… na\u00c3\u00afve. Many, perhaps most, of the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s greatest cultural works are dependent on an unabashed, aggressive nationalism and a narrative voice that derives power from exclusion. Joyce\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcUlysses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. Byron’s ‘Don Juan’. Melville\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcMoby Dick\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. Wagner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcRing Cycle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. Milton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entire canon. <\/p>\n

As Sylvia Plath would say, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcEvery woman adores a Fascist, \/ The boot in the face, the brute \/ Brute heart of a brute like you.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Maybe not the best argument for my position, but see? Literature is chock-full of worthwhile reading that is steeped in dubious political juices. Besides, what does fascist mean anymore? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s become a hopelessly vague pejorative. Orwell wrote over fifty years ago that the word \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcFascism\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 was almost entirely meaningless, and I doubt it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made much progress towards clarity since then. But I digress.<\/p>\n

went her own way while Alastair and I sat down for tea and a chat about, of all things, Peter Singer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcPractical Ethics\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/a>(aahhh! it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go away!), and then I had to break the news that we had talked ourselves out of time to rock climb, since I was due to meet in about 15 minutes. <\/p>\n

A lot less physical than climbing perhaps, but no less mentally exhausting<\/i>, Edward and I bunked down in and \u00e2\u20ac\u2122s living room and he introduced me to the scary world of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcViva Pi\u00c3\u00b1ata\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for the Xbox360<\/a>, a game I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been having wet dreams about for months now which was a complete and total disappointment in reality. <\/p>\n

I mean, what a tease. One hears about a game whose entire premise is based on pi\u00c3\u00b1atas, and one makes assumptions. Such as that you will be allowed to smack the pi\u00c3\u00b1atas with a stick repeatedly, until showers of candy rain about your head in a sugary thunderstorm of pure insulin-crashing bliss. But no. No no no no no. Sad to say, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcViva Pi\u00c3\u00b1ata\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is just \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThe Sims\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 with paper-tissue-coated animals. <\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right, people: the first 30 minutes of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153game\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is all about hitting the shitty ground in your shitty garden with your shitty rusty shovel, then planting grass seed and waiting for it to grow so that pi\u00c3\u00b1ata worms show up (no, you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hit them, stop asking) and then, if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re very lucky<\/i>, you might attract some pi\u00c3\u00b1ata birds with your pi\u00c3\u00b1ata worms, and get a whole pi\u00c3\u00b1ata ecosystem started. And how do ecosystems continue? With sexual reproduction of course! You have to build a little house for the worms, where they can get some privacy and maybe have a glass of wine and give one another back rubs while presumably listening to some Barry White so that they can get in the mood for making whoopee. <\/p>\n

At this point, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pretty sure I turned to Edward and said, “Wait, hold on, time out – am I really playing a video game that is about WORMS FUCKING?” The silent, shaking laughter and evil smile from the other end of the futon was enough to tell me that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been waiting for that moment of horrified revelation for days. Possibly weeks. Bastard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know, I know \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe I have this much to say about my weekend, either. Bear with me, one more and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m done. Since the Redhead Gallery trip was a bust, the three of us trudged off in search of oversized burritos, then pushed on through the sudden attack of chilly rain […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consciousness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}