The Invisible Library

Guradian:

Dozens of literary masterpieces and international bestsellers have been banned in Iran in a dramatic rise in censorship that has plunged the country’s publishing industry into crisis.

Companies that once specialised in popular fiction and other money-spinners are being restricted to academic texts under a cultural freeze instigated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Several thousand new and previously published works have been blacklisted by Iran’s culture and Islamic guidance ministry, which vets all books.

The ban includes current and recent American best sellers, as well as classics, plus current international novels by Iranian expats and pre-revolutionary authors.

However, publishers say many books are being banned arbitrarily. “We had adapted to the previous policy but now that is annulled and they are imposing their own personal taste,” said Mohammed Ali Jafarieh, head of the Sales publishing house. “Publishers are being hurt. We rely on multiple print runs to make a profit but if these are being denied we cannot make any money.”

The rise in book censorship mirrors repression in other spheres. In September the reformist newspaper Shargh was closed after publishing a cartoon depicting President George Bush, disguised as a horse, debating with a donkey under a halo, widely seen as representing Mr Ahmadinejad. The publishers launched a replacement newspaper, Rouzegar, but it was ordered to close after five days.

This isn’t just a case of a hardline fundamentalist aligned government cracking down on some literature that isn’t sufficiently deferential to it’s particular brand of fairy tale. It’s a political statement. This is the Iranian government saying a big fat fuck you to the West, which of course is only going to bulster the case for the Right in claiming this as a Monumental Clash of Cultures. Or it would, if the idiots on the right promoting this Culture War (or a War on Culture) weren’t trying to ban some of the same books. But I’m sure that continuing to refer to them as the Axis of Evil doesn’t help matters any.

I would think that by the 21st century, we wouldn’t have to keep arguing for  the bennifts of an open society versus a closed one but sometimes, the same old song still has a beat you can dance to.

Adam Sternbergh has reached the same conclusion I did about shows like Lost:

Change the format, or at least reimagine it. When it so-called arc shows, we need something between a mini-series and an open-ended run. We need the TV equivalent of a novella: the limited-run show. Series driven by a central mystery (Twin Peaks, The X-Files) peter out precisely because they have indefinite life spans. The writers are forced to serve up red herrings until the shows choke on their own plot twists.

[…] Now let’s imagine an alternate reality in which, say, Lost was designed to run for only two seasons. Rather than getting an increasingly tedious shaggy-dog story, we’d get 48 episodes of tightly plotted, expertly interwoven suspense. Viewers would be both more willing to sign on at the beginning (knowing their investment will pay off) and more inclined to buy DVDs later (either as catch-up for newbies or as a satisfying boxed set). Sure, the show won’t syndicate well, but shows like Lost don’t syndicate well anyway. And the series finale would be huge—the kind of event TV network executives drool over.

Shows like Lost or The X-Files or Battlestar Galactica work because they are complex, challenging and, at their heart, have a mystery that can be solved. But it’s the refusal to solve anything that ultimately kills them. The X-Files should have ended in Season 5. They had a second chance in Season 7. When did it end? 3 years later with season 10, after replacing the main characters because the initial characters (and actors) that made the premise work were tired of never finding an answer. But the Executives and producers didn’t care. they just saw an opportunity to squeeze a few more bucks at the expense of the audience’s credulity. A mystery cannot go on forever. Stories need to end and in a timely manner.

Imagine if movies did the same thing. Indie never finds the Ark of the Covenant, just an endless parade of tombs and Nazis with increasingly ludicrous cliff hangers. The fellowship keeps walking up Mount Doom, but never gets to the top. There were people who complained that after the nine hours of the three movies, they just didn’t care anymore who won the blessed war or what happened to that damn hobbit and his ring. Now imagine that it kept going on for five more movies with no resolution.

This is what happened to the X-files and what is happening to Lost. They had a good idea but have let it flounder for too long. It no longer matters why the polar bear, or what the numbers mean. Two seasons equals roughly 20 hours (minus commercial breaks) of feignts, dodges and cliffhangers. That’s the equivalent of 10 movies. Imagine watching a 10 movie series and still having no idea what these people are doing or why any of this is happening. You wouldn’t because no studio in their right mind would green light a 10 picture series that never had even a momentary resolution.*

I’d really love to see the American networks switch to the BBC style of drama series. One season of 13 episodes to tell your story. if it’s popular, they’ll do another season, but each season has a story arc. Something is achieved in 13 episodes and it’s over, with a possibility of a continuation. Even the idea floated above, of a limit of two seasons, forces the writers to weed out the ideas that kinda work (but not really) and get to the stuff that shines. There’d be no silly one off episodes where everyone breaks into song. Just tight plotting and storytelling honed down to a razor’s edge.

For all the griping about Firefly being cancelled too soon, at least it didn’t peter out like Buffy did, turning to cheep gimmicks in season 7 to stay interesting. And my fondest hope is that Ronald Moore and the gang at Battlestar Galactica have an end planned for the rag tag fleet, and soon. I’d love it if they find Earth at the end of season 3, fight over it with the Cylons in season 4 and then call it the end. Because they have a wonderful, compelling drama with interesting characters, but if left to wander around the universe in their current state for five or six more seasons, the show will just become monotonous and uninteresting. And no one wants to see that.

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* I’m curious to see how many Spider Man films Sony will let Sam Raimi make. My guess is one more, but only if Spider Man 3 does really well.

Seems that the Evangelical children’s brainwashing camp “Kids on Fire,” featured in the documentary Jesus Camp will be closing.

Fisher’s camp—located in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota—has been the subject of much attention since the film’s release, with many critics and moviegoers denouncing the camp’s methods as militant and inappropriate. Upon the film’s release, the Kids on Fire camp site and the local Assemblies of God church were both vandalized, with damages at the camp totaling $1,500. Says Fischer about her decision to close down her camp: “I have a responsibility to keep the children safe.”

It’s too bad about the vandalism but I can’t say I’m sorry to hear about such a foul place shutting down. The poor Dominionists are left with just Church, Sunday School, Summer Bible Class, popular movies and the Left Behind Video Game to turn their children into Christian Terrorists.

CNN:

One of three teenagers charged with attempting to rob illusionist David Copperfield as he left a performance has pleaded guilty.

[…] Copperfield, 50, and two female assistants were walking from the Kravis Center to their tour bus when they were approached by the teens April 23. The assistants handed over money and a cellphone, but the illusionist turned his pockets inside out to reveal nothing, although he was carrying his passport, wallet and cell phone.

“He said in depositions that he had things on him, but it wasn’t difficult to make it seem like there was nothing there,” prosecutor Sherri Collins said.

Hat tip to David pescovitz at Boing Boing.

Congrats to everyone who had the fortune to live in a state where the vote did matter (especially you folks in Pennsylvania for kicking out Santorum and making his children cry.* Good show!).

and how about Rummy Resigning? Rule number one when chumming the political waters: eventually, you’ll have to feed the shark. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy.

On a final note, enough with the emails! I get it, I’m a slacker and a no good, dirty malcontent for not voting. Sue me. But when the choices are to either A) take a nice big bite out of a shit sandwich or B) Go Hungry, I’ll let the tummy rumble.

Because I live in Georgia, where the Democrats are conservative and the Republicans are Fascists (one local add for the incumbent brags about how he’s agreed with Bush on everything. Like it’s a good thing). Holding my breath still wouldn’t stifle the stench long enough for me to vote for one of these scummy DINOs, not without soiling myself or whoever was in line in front of me.

And even if the Democrats win a majority in Congress, nothing will change. It’s not as if they’ve really been in opposition to anything the Bush administration has done, except with tepid, symbolic gestures. They still voted for the Patriot Act and only made vague Kabuki gestures of opposition to the torture bill.

If the best we can hope for is the same as what we’ve had for the last six years, I can get that by staying home and drinking.

Most of the reviews for Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion go to great lengths to mention how intolerant the good doctor is towards religious intolerance. The assumption is that we shouldn’t take serious a forceful argument about such a delicate subject because as we all know, theologians are just hothouse flowers and what’s this Dawkins fellow got against your Grandma and her sweet Sunday school demeanor any how? Which is utter bullshit.

Dr. Dawkins makes a first rate argument against religious belief, especially the belief in God and does so simply by applying the same basic level of critical scrutiny that all good scientists apply to any proposition. And that really is what has so many of the Religious apologist reviewers all atwitter. Dawkins is applying logic and the scientific method to something that, historically, has been given a pass I this area. Belief in God has been granted such special status in our culture by rigging the system. You can’t question God’s existence because it relies on faith, and it relies on faith and faith alone because God’s Priests say it does. So buzz off, why don’t you. And don’t look at the man behind the curtain, the one with his pants around his ankles and an altar boys ass in the air.

We’ve reached the point in our society where clinging to irrational superstitions is no longer a quaint pass time for soccer moms and armchair theologians, but is actually quite dangerous and not just to people in New York sky scrapers or hunkered down in Mesopotamian bunkers. Religious intolerance and the violence it engenders has become a major problem on all levels of society. And trying to vaccinate holy madness by cutting it with new age spirituality and moderate belief doesn’t work. It just creates a Petri dish for fundamentalism to grow faster. So yes, Dawkins is intolerant of religion. As well as we all should be.

His arguments will not really be news for anyone well versed in the ins and outs of Atheist thought but they are compelling, thoughtfully argued and backed up by rigorous science and scrupulous evidence. And that is the really revolutionary aspect of this book. There is evidence for why religious belief is dangerous. And it is presented here in a manner that is cogent, persuasive and compelling.

Reading the God Delusion, I was struck by the thought that animals that do not evolve and adapt to their environment become extinct. It’s an elementary concept that forms the foundation of evolution: evolve or die. And since the religious leaders who have appointed themselves custodians of our culture don’t want us to evolve, it should tell you just what it is they want us all to do instead.