The Antisocial Socialist

The murderer is not going to return to the scene of the crime, simply because the murderer is the scene of the crime. The murderer is the system.

The nice thing about my ridiculous commute is that I just burn through books like you wouldn't believe. So I finished reading The Uncomfortable Dead by Paco Ignacio Taibo II and Subcomandante Marcos this afternoon on the ride home. It did not disappoint. I was worried that it might—you know the thing about how revolutionary sorts frequently don't make particularly good writers? Marcos is a good writer. Taibo is better, at least to my taste, but their contrasting styles worked for the sort of pomo-absurdist book they were going for.

The Uncomfortable Dead is structured as alternating chapters (PIT writes the even-numbered chapters, Marcos the odd) about intertwining mysteries involving government corruption and repression. In Chiapas, Zapatista investigator Elías Contreras is sent to Mexico City ("the Monster," as the Zapatistas call it) by Subcomandante Marcos to seek out "the Bad and the Evil," and in particular, a man named Morales who betrayed the EZLN and may have had a hand in the Acteal Massacre. Meanwhile in the city, the one-eyed detective Héctor Belascoarán Shayne is also searching for a man named Morales, who may or may not be the same Morales, who reportedly murdered a former political prisoner. But the aforementioned activist may not be entirely dead—Belascoarán learns of him after he leaves a series of rather hilarious messages on a former comrade's answering machine.

I mentioned that the book was pomo—it's written in a mishmash of styles, from multiple viewpoints and tenses (the narrative is, at one point, snatched from Elías by a gay Puerto Rican mechanic named Julio who, much to his annoyance, disappears entirely from the book after his chapter is finished). Elías is dead, though we never find out how he died or, more crucially to the plot, when. Marcos appears several times as a character in his own chapters, from Elías' first-person point-of-view, both a Trickster archetype and the omnipotent author. One of my favourite bits involved multiple characters being irritated with Marcos because, having written the book, he should know how it ends and tell them already. Oh, and there's Barney the purple dinosaur. Trust me, it makes sense in context.

At any rate, some of you should read it so that I have someone else to blabber on about it with. It's terrible amounts of fun mixed with good politics and a serious emotional jolt, so go check it out.

1. Via audrawilliams. This is worse than TV Tropes: There's a website for the Bechdel Test. I need to stop looking at it or I will not get to sleep tonight.

2. I'm halfway through The Uncomfortable Dead by Paco Ignacio Taibo II and Subcommandante Marcos. It's making me look forward to my daily commute, which is the best possible endorsement I can give a book. When I am done my big stack of readings (I still have a ton of comics and such to get through) I am going to drive myself insane trying to find the rest of PIT's books in English.

Has anyone else read it, by the way?

Shorter Hugo Chavez: ( Trot now! )

In other sectarian news, the IWW resolution to adhere to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacondon Jungle failed by a narrow margin. That's just embarrassing. In the greater scheme of things, it doesn't matter all that much, given how small the Wobblies are, but it means that the organization that I'm part of and that I identify with the most, ideologically speaking, does not have its head screwed on straight at the moment.

Oh yes, and one other little thing. The U.S. just murdered 31 Somali civilians and hardly anyone's said a peep about it. (Hat tip: douglain.)

Still no interwebs at home (we're looking at about two weeks before I'm back online), but from what I gather:

Commandante Ramona and Irving Layton are dead.
Ariel Sharon is still alive.

Life isn't fair.

(More later: I have a lot of posts to read through.)

Strangely enough, though I've spent most of the week doing political things, I haven't actually gotten any news. Which means that I didn't hear about the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona until today, despite a great deal of rumours during the conference.

So, okay. When I left town, there was a red alert in Chiapas. Now I've seen various translations of the Declaration floating around, although I haven't read all three parts -- the bit that I've seen sounded quite ominous.

C. was going to go there in two weeks. When they called the red alert and asked international supporters to leave, I got immensely worried. (Which, by the way, is the sort of thing that I promised myself that I wouldn't do. Because it's really not my business what he does, and he's a sensible person who doesn't have a death wish. But still.) Anyway, he's not going. Trip postponed indefinitely on account of indefinite events about to possibly expode. I'm relieved that he's keeping himself out of harm's way. I am quite fond of the boy, after all.

Now I just get to be worried about everyone in Chiapas.

Anyone want to bring me up to speed on what's going on there?