Just Desserts

 Oh, how the turn tables. 

With Trump impeached for the second time in one term - a historic first for the US - I wanted to take a moment to really just savour the backlash against him and the fascist movement threatening him. 

Despite what a small number of people on the left and liberals are saying - you know, that we ought to be kind to these discontented "patriots" trying to do their best, etcetera - the reprecussions have been severe. Delayed, granted - this should have happened years ago. Trump should never have been allowed to run. The deplatforming should have started with Alex Jones' denial of the Sandy Hook shooting, but it was allowed to go on. Still, I cannot help but celebrate. 

It was so overdue. 

Koch, Disney, and Hallmark  are a few of the names rescinding or "reconsidering" or pulling funding outright from either the Republican Congress and Senate members who encouraged the riot, or the entirety of the GOP. Dow Chemical - you know, from Dow Jones in the stock market? - announced a similar kneecapping. And this comes after Trump was banned from Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Tiktok, even Pinterest. The app Parler, which was funded heavily by a GOP supporter,  has been scrubbed from the Apple and Google app stores. 

If you're wondering why I'm gleeful rather than concerned about this, I've written about the paradox of tolerance before. Suffice to say that saying something does not mean that anyone is obligated to listen to or support what is said. Furthermore, here in Canada, we distinguish between free speech and credible threats of violence. "I could strangle him, I'm so mad" may be incriminating, but is not a crime; "We should go strangle him right now, and I'll drive. Get the rope and a shovel" has a specificity that makes it dangerous. 

After years of the Black Lives Matter movement and of antifascist protestors and the black blocs being painted as terrorists, and years of LGBTQ+ and BIPoC being silenced and treated more harshly than others on these very platforms, the other side is getting a taste of it. It will never make up for the fact that people who simply didn't want to be murdered by institutional forces were fired, traumatized, threatened, and worse - but it's progress. 

Source. 

The catch 

Unfortunately, it's not over yet. The violence in DC may betoken a wave of terrorism on Inauguration Day. Journalist Sarah Kenzior and her colleague Andrea Chalupa, as well as reporters from Slate and Vox, expressed concerns that further conflict and sabotage will occur at various state capitols - as well as at the Inauguration itself. 

As much as I'm blowing the world's tiniest noisemaker over this victory, we can't be complacent. We have to be vigilant. White supremacy-based, Christian-rooted violence has been underestimated for decades, and now we're reaping the price. 

Listen. The FBI, RCMP, police, and other bodies of law enforcement are tools of colonialism and oppression. I wish it were otherwise, but police officers were present on both sides of the terrorist acts at the Hill. Both Canada and the USA are settler nations on stolen land, founded on oppression - but these messy democracies are the best we've got, and we can keep working from within them to vote, protest, and strike for change. Democracy has to be protected and defended, and we cannot assume that the fascists, conspiracy theorists, and cult followers in Trump's motley crew will rest. 

A brave and careful person going by the handle donk_enby scrubbed terabites of identifying information from Parler, helping the FBI locate these terrorists. This is not "thought-crime" or any of the buzzwords invoked by conservatives and centrists who skim-read a few paragraphs of 1984. These were actual criminal and morally reprehensible actions, the type of which all social species have to deal with and circumscribe for their own survival. 

Even if you dislike, loathe, or distrust these institutions, the fact that they're doing what they're designed for is a win. The system is bad, but we must try to bend it to our will, and take advantage of this moment of reprisal. 

Source. 

In the meantime, while we catch our breaths, we can spare a moment to smile. For once, something fair happened to people who wanted to hurt others. A bunch of Gen Z staffers who endured school shooting drills saved the lives of many elected representatives. 

Retaliatory murder does not bring justice - only pain and and more disorder. Instead, we need restorative justice - and the prosecution of the white wannabe secessionists is a little start in that direction. 

***

Michelle Browne is a sci fi/fantasy writer and editor. She lives in Lethbridge, AB with her partner-in-crime and their two cats. Her days revolve around freelance editing, knitting, jewelry, and learning too much. She is currently working on other people’s manuscripts, the next books in her series, and drinking as much tea as humanly possible. Find her all over the internet: * OG Blog * Mailing list * Magpie Editing * Amazon * Medium * Twitter * Instagram * Facebook * Tumblr * Paypal.me * Ko-fi

The Success of Failure

Hello hello!

This month, I have an analysis of a friend's beautiful art exhibit. Bonnie Patton is an artist from Edmonton, AB. Originally from North Dakota, they came here for university, and fell in love with Canada. Conceived before Donald Trump's rise, the project has additional layers of resonance now...

 An Analysis of Bonnie Patton’s 1984 Cranes

At the heart of traditional dystopian fiction is a theme of failure.  1984 is a prime example of this: the failure of Outer Party members to resist their training, the failure of proles—thus far—to protest, and the failure of Winston Smith and Julia’s love. At first glance, it would seem to have little in common with the children’s story Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes. Patton’s art finds the links between these books and explores them, creating a poignant visual essay.

Patton started folding cranes from the last page of 1984. Like Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes, the tragedy and appeal of both books comes partly from foreboding and the knowledge that both characters are ultimately unsuccessful. Sadako, who suffers from cancer and hopes the gods will grant her wish of being cured if she folds all one thousand cranes, dies before she can complete her task. Winston Smith fails to resist indoctrination by Big Brother, and ultimately betrays both his lover Julia and himself under the pressure of torture. One character dies physically; the other, spiritually.

Photo credit: Bonnie Patton, used with permission

The fragility and ephemeral nature of papercraft highlights the fragility in the struggles of characters in these books, as well—by reducing 1984 to its very pages, Patton has, in a sense, destroyed it, just as Winston participates in the constant destruction of information and documents, erasing history. His glass paperweight, representing his soul—“so fragile after all” is crushed and broken by the state, literally and figuratively. And yet, because the pages are folded, made into something new, there is an element of transformation and memorial tribute—the cranes are bespoke, handmade objects of beauty, made from a book that is literally about the destruction of beauty by ugliness and industrialization gone awry. The book itself was printed through industrial processes, and Patton has reduced and transformed it into a sculpture, a tribute to the young Japanese girl who wished so hard, she inspired millions to remember her.

Then, too, just as the cranes themselves are symmetrical, there is a dark reciprocity created by the linking of these two books. Oceania wages war against Eastasia (as well as Eurasia). Published in 1949, 1984 was written with full context of the Second World War, and strongly inspired by it. In both Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes and 1984, it is the civilians who suffer. Sadako is one of the thousands of Japanese people who suffered from cancer (and other health complications) as a result of the atomic bombs. Winston, arguably, is one of the people who plays a role in the dropping of those bombs, reinforcing the importance of the constant war and supporting it with his actions. By using Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes to literally reshape 1984, an inherent criticism of colonialism is displayed. It is also a reversal, with the cranes “overpowering” the structure of Orwell’s book—after all, the text can still be read, but the dominant visual impression is of the cranes, rather than the book from which they were formed.

Photo credit: Bonnie Patton, used with permission

Although the delicate cranes—which could be tangled, ruined by a strong breeze or wind—are few in number, and unable to fly, their embodiment of failure is not without a hopeful aspect. In 1984, Orwell writes, “if there was any hope, it lay in the proles.” Winston fails, but also hands over the torch to the bulk of Airstrip One’s population—showing that while his personal revolution fails, it need not truly be the doom of Oceania. The book has become a symbol of the fight against censorship, oppression, and jingoistic wars. Sadako’s cranes have become a symbol of peace across the world, and thousands of cranes are still hung on her memorial every year. According to the book, she herself was unable to fold all the cranes, but many others have done it for her. August 6^th has been named International Peace Day in her honour. The cranes, in a sense, show an allegiance to peace and transformation. Though there are only a hundred and twenty-seven, they speak powerfully about two stories that have shaped the world, and connect them across time and distance. A project predicated on the failure of two books and their themes, then, is ultimately a tribute to their success. 

Photo credit: Bonnie Patton, used with permission

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