ADJUSTMENT TEAM
A short story by Philip K. Dick
“Adjustment Team” is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick that was first published in Orbit Science Fiction (September-October 1954). It has been reprinted several times, including in the collection, Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick (2002), which is where I read it. The story is the basis for the current film, The Adjustment Bureau, written and directed by George Nolfi and starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, and Anthony Mackie.
The story focuses on a real estate salesman named Ed Fletcher who accidentally sees the truth behind reality. On a bright sunny morning, someone from the Adjustment Team known only as “Clerk” must make sure that Ed is in Sector T137 which is scheduled for adjustment. Clerk assigns the task of making sure that Ed is at the right place at the right time to Ed’s dog, Dobbie, a “canine Summoner.”
Of course, things go awry. Ed arrives at his job and sees the world in an altered state. He ends up knowing something he shouldn’t know and is soon on the run from the Adjustment Team. How he resolves this crisis will determine his ultimate fate.
Like much of Philip K. Dick’s work, the “Adjustment Team” deals with themes of dislocation, paranoia, and unyielding bureaucracy, but there is, this time, also a theme of yearning for a connection with a higher being. When Dick has Ed meet the Old Man, the boss of the Adjustment Team, Dick has Ed begging the Old Man to understand his plight. It isn’t a stretch to see this as Dick’s take on the powerless everyman who seeks mercy and understanding from a higher authority – a tyrannical power inflexible about its rules. Still, the everyman believes that his request is reasonable, even in the face of a power that insists on the opposite.
Overall, Adjustment Team is a minor story. The characters are soft, although Ed Fletcher is more filled out. The adversaries are largely underutilized, although I’m sure the film, The Adjustment Bureau, makes more use of them. The ending of “Adjustment Team” suggests an optimism that is surprising, but that makes this story more charming than the beginning and middle indicate.
B
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
John Cory's Beautiful Wisconsin
Beautiful Wisconsin
By John Cory, Reader Supported News
28 February 11
Reader Supported News - Perspective
When he began the book, he wrote: "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this."
It started three years earlier as a series of articles for the San Francisco News. He investigated camp life, and even drove Route 66 so he would know the terrain. He walked and talked with the people, capturing language and lives, and then put ink to paper.
The book was an immediate bestseller - revered and reviled - banned and bought. The corporate world denounced the author; the FBI compiled a file to track him, and radio and political pundits pummeled him. He was called a socialist, a communist, a propagandist, and for good measure, a socialistic communist propagandist agitator. One slur is never enough.
The book spent a year on the bestseller list and won a Pulitzer Prize. A year later it was turned into a movie. Twenty years after its publication, the author won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
John Steinbeck wrote "The Grapes of Wrath" to tell the story of the Great Depression. Of farmers turned into migrants, of every-day citizens turned into beggars, while the corporate owners grew fat and fierce and greedy for more. He wrote to give hope amidst the vicious and divisive tactics of corporations and to remind them and us: "... the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed."
At the end of the film version of "The Grapes of Wrath," Tom Joad lays it out: "... A fella ain't got a soul of his own - just a little piece of a big soul. The one big soul that belongs to everybody ..."
And there is the beauty of Wisconsin.
The big soul gathered together, just like the motto says, "From the many - one."
And that is the fear of the corporate sponsors of Gov. Walker and the would-be owners of America. The people. We, the people - coming together.
The facile mantra of "what's good for business is good for America" is nothing more than the promotion of indentured servitude. And if we accept it then we are truly lost.
The Wisconsin issue is not about politics, economics, or good governance. It is about stopping "we the people" from gathering together. It is about stirring envy and crisis in order to corporatize, consumerize, and conformitize the masses for the profit of the few, the rich - the privileged owners of America.
This is all about the separation of we, the people - divide and conquer - about turning neighbor against neighbor, scrabbling for crumbs while the corporation steals the loaf.
Where once we cheered 'united we stand, divided we fall,' we are now sold on 'looking out for #1.'
Steinbeck learned that those greedy bastards couldn't be shamed. They could be blocked if we banded together and supported one another in the battle for rights and equality and dignity.
What does it say about America when unions are more regulated, more controlled, and have more oversight than Wall Street, or corporations that profit from pollution and poison? What does it say about America that our Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are persons and money is free speech and therefore persons with lots of money have more free speech than persons without money?
The people of Wisconsin say different.
Wisconsin says that people matter, that we, the people matter, and that we, the people belong to one another and not the corporate states of America.
The banks and Wall Street profit from selling us a house and they profit from our mortgage debt by slicing it up in multiple slivers for investors to profit off our payments, and when our jobs go away, the banks and investors profit off foreclosure. Heads, they win. Tails, they win. And when we have nothing, they tell us we must sacrifice more in order to save The American Dream, Inc.
Tom Joad said: "They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money. If they don't get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat ... The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it."
Too big to fail. Too big to be managed. Too big to be held accountable.
The beauty of Wisconsin is that the people have no fear. The fear comes from the political puppets of corporate sponsorship. The people do not fear the power of the wealthy; the corporate lackeys fear the loss of power over we, the people.
Maybe it is true that the wealthy manipulators of the Tea Party and corporate conservatism of the modern GOP are taking America backwards, back to the Gilded Age of 1890. But we can only go backwards, even a single step, if we allow ourselves to be pushed without pushing back. And that is the beauty of Wisconsin.
"The great owner ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at repression ... For a man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, and emerges ahead of his accomplishments ... he may slip back, but only half a step, never a full step back ..."
That is what the barons of business fear most, and why they grab as much as they can, as fast as they can. They may not acknowledge that "little screaming fact" of history, but deep inside their soulless hearts and minds, they know it is coming. That is their fear - the fear of we, the people.
And that is the beauty of Wisconsin. Even in the snow, 70,000 - 100,000 people showed up this weekend. Thousands of people across the country did the same in their own communities in support of Wisconsin, regardless of whether the corporate media covered any of it.
The people know.
The people understand.
"... in the eyes of the people there is the failure: and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."
Beautiful Wisconsin.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
For the original, go here.
By John Cory, Reader Supported News
28 February 11
Reader Supported News - Perspective
When he began the book, he wrote: "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this."
It started three years earlier as a series of articles for the San Francisco News. He investigated camp life, and even drove Route 66 so he would know the terrain. He walked and talked with the people, capturing language and lives, and then put ink to paper.
The book was an immediate bestseller - revered and reviled - banned and bought. The corporate world denounced the author; the FBI compiled a file to track him, and radio and political pundits pummeled him. He was called a socialist, a communist, a propagandist, and for good measure, a socialistic communist propagandist agitator. One slur is never enough.
The book spent a year on the bestseller list and won a Pulitzer Prize. A year later it was turned into a movie. Twenty years after its publication, the author won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
John Steinbeck wrote "The Grapes of Wrath" to tell the story of the Great Depression. Of farmers turned into migrants, of every-day citizens turned into beggars, while the corporate owners grew fat and fierce and greedy for more. He wrote to give hope amidst the vicious and divisive tactics of corporations and to remind them and us: "... the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed."
At the end of the film version of "The Grapes of Wrath," Tom Joad lays it out: "... A fella ain't got a soul of his own - just a little piece of a big soul. The one big soul that belongs to everybody ..."
And there is the beauty of Wisconsin.
The big soul gathered together, just like the motto says, "From the many - one."
And that is the fear of the corporate sponsors of Gov. Walker and the would-be owners of America. The people. We, the people - coming together.
The facile mantra of "what's good for business is good for America" is nothing more than the promotion of indentured servitude. And if we accept it then we are truly lost.
The Wisconsin issue is not about politics, economics, or good governance. It is about stopping "we the people" from gathering together. It is about stirring envy and crisis in order to corporatize, consumerize, and conformitize the masses for the profit of the few, the rich - the privileged owners of America.
This is all about the separation of we, the people - divide and conquer - about turning neighbor against neighbor, scrabbling for crumbs while the corporation steals the loaf.
Where once we cheered 'united we stand, divided we fall,' we are now sold on 'looking out for #1.'
Steinbeck learned that those greedy bastards couldn't be shamed. They could be blocked if we banded together and supported one another in the battle for rights and equality and dignity.
What does it say about America when unions are more regulated, more controlled, and have more oversight than Wall Street, or corporations that profit from pollution and poison? What does it say about America that our Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are persons and money is free speech and therefore persons with lots of money have more free speech than persons without money?
The people of Wisconsin say different.
Wisconsin says that people matter, that we, the people matter, and that we, the people belong to one another and not the corporate states of America.
The banks and Wall Street profit from selling us a house and they profit from our mortgage debt by slicing it up in multiple slivers for investors to profit off our payments, and when our jobs go away, the banks and investors profit off foreclosure. Heads, they win. Tails, they win. And when we have nothing, they tell us we must sacrifice more in order to save The American Dream, Inc.
Tom Joad said: "They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money. If they don't get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat ... The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it."
Too big to fail. Too big to be managed. Too big to be held accountable.
The beauty of Wisconsin is that the people have no fear. The fear comes from the political puppets of corporate sponsorship. The people do not fear the power of the wealthy; the corporate lackeys fear the loss of power over we, the people.
Maybe it is true that the wealthy manipulators of the Tea Party and corporate conservatism of the modern GOP are taking America backwards, back to the Gilded Age of 1890. But we can only go backwards, even a single step, if we allow ourselves to be pushed without pushing back. And that is the beauty of Wisconsin.
"The great owner ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at repression ... For a man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, and emerges ahead of his accomplishments ... he may slip back, but only half a step, never a full step back ..."
That is what the barons of business fear most, and why they grab as much as they can, as fast as they can. They may not acknowledge that "little screaming fact" of history, but deep inside their soulless hearts and minds, they know it is coming. That is their fear - the fear of we, the people.
And that is the beauty of Wisconsin. Even in the snow, 70,000 - 100,000 people showed up this weekend. Thousands of people across the country did the same in their own communities in support of Wisconsin, regardless of whether the corporate media covered any of it.
The people know.
The people understand.
"... in the eyes of the people there is the failure: and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."
Beautiful Wisconsin.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
For the original, go here.
Dogs: Bullets and Carnage: Aggressors and Strugglers
I read Dogs, Vol. 5 (Dogs (Viz Media))
I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps).
I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps).
Sunday, March 6, 2011
2011 NAACP Image Awards Literary Winners
The 42nd NAACP Image Awards ceremony was held Friday night (March 4th) at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. The Image Awards celebrate and honor the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of film, television, music, and literature. The awards also honor individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors.
This honor isn’t just for African-Americans/Black people, as Latino and Asian and Asian American artists have also received awards and nominations. In fact, Sofia Vergara, the Columbia-born actress and star of ABC’s hit series, “Modern Family,” won an Image Award this year in the television category. I was unable to watch the entire awards broadcast (on FOX), so a hearty thank you to the website Current.com for their complete winners list.
42ND NAACP Image Awards Literary Category Winners List:
Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction: Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan
Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/Auto-Biography: You Don’t Know Me: Reflections of My Father, Ray Charles by Ray Charles Robinson, Jr.
Outstanding Literary Work – Instructional: A Boy Should Know How to Tie a Tie: And Other Lessons for Succeeding in Life by Antwone Fisher
Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry: 100 Best African-American Poems by Nikki Giovanni
Outstanding Literary Work – Children: My Brother Charlie by Holly Robinson Peete, Ryan Elizabeth Peete (Authors), Shane W. Evans (Illustrator)
Outstanding Literary Work – Youth/Teens: Condoleezza Rice: A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family and Me by Condoleezza Rice
http://current.com/145e14c
This honor isn’t just for African-Americans/Black people, as Latino and Asian and Asian American artists have also received awards and nominations. In fact, Sofia Vergara, the Columbia-born actress and star of ABC’s hit series, “Modern Family,” won an Image Award this year in the television category. I was unable to watch the entire awards broadcast (on FOX), so a hearty thank you to the website Current.com for their complete winners list.
42ND NAACP Image Awards Literary Category Winners List:
Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction: Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan
Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/Auto-Biography: You Don’t Know Me: Reflections of My Father, Ray Charles by Ray Charles Robinson, Jr.
Outstanding Literary Work – Instructional: A Boy Should Know How to Tie a Tie: And Other Lessons for Succeeding in Life by Antwone Fisher
Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry: 100 Best African-American Poems by Nikki Giovanni
Outstanding Literary Work – Children: My Brother Charlie by Holly Robinson Peete, Ryan Elizabeth Peete (Authors), Shane W. Evans (Illustrator)
Outstanding Literary Work – Youth/Teens: Condoleezza Rice: A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family and Me by Condoleezza Rice
http://current.com/145e14c
Arata: The Legend - Omens and Premonitions
I read Arata: The Legend, Vol. 5
I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps).
I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps).
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Leroy Douresseaux on HARBOR MOON, an Original Graphic Novel
HARBOR MOON - OGN
ARCANA
WRITER/EDITOR/PRODUCER: Ryan Colucci
WRITER: Dikran OrnekianSTORY: Brian Anderson
ARTIST: Pawel Sambor
ART ASSIST: Nikodem Cabala
ART DIRECTOR: Karol Wisniewski
ISBN: 978-1-897548-95-0; paperback
140pp, Color, $19.95 U.S.
Published by Arcana, Harbor Moon is a new original graphic novel (OGN). It is the production and brainchild of writer Ryan Colucci. Part small town mystery and part horror comic book, Harbor Moon tells the story of a man who travels to his father’s hometown only to find a conspiracy of dark secrets that is decades old.
The story focuses on Timothy Vance, a lone wolf type. He receives a mysterious phone call from a man claiming to be, Andrew O’Callaghan, his long lost father. Tim follows the call to out-of-the-way Harbor Moon, Maine, but the residents of this sleepy town don’t take to strangers. In fact, some of the townsfolk get downright violent with Tim, and even Sheriff Roland Sullivan seems reluctant to help him.
Tim does find a sympathetic townie in the form of Kristen, principal of the local high school (among other things). She gives Tim some information, but it is clear that Kristen, like everyone else, is holding onto an incredible secret. As Tim begins to discover that he has something in common with the residents of Harbor Moon, danger from inside and outside the town threatens everyone.
Anyone can read Harbor Moon and pretty early into the book figure out that the creative talent behind it is new to producing a graphic novel. A reading of the entire text will also tell you something else: when they do get more experience, these creators will be scary because Harbor Moon is a damn good read.
Sometimes, the art, by Pawel Sambor, does not clearly convey the story or action, and the figure drawing is a little awkward in places. For the most part, however, the compositions are exciting, the graphic storytelling electrifying, and the shimmering colors make the art jump off the page.
There are times when a writer telling a mystery story is a bit too vague and oblique in his attempts to string the readers along by keeping them guessing. In Harbor Moon, writers Ryan Colucci and Dikran Ornekian do that to an extent, but their story is still exciting. The first half of Harbor Moon is a sort of detective story rich with suspects and subplots. The second half of this graphic novel explodes in a fury of blood splatter and shocking revelations. From beginning to end, this dark tale is a joyous race.
There are some faults, here and there, but the book rises above them. I guess that the best thing I can say is that I didn’t want Harbor Moon to end.
Readers who like Ben Templesmith and Vertigo comics will want to give Harbor Moon a try.
B+
http://www.harbor-moon.com/
Jacques Tardi Retrospective at Fantagraphics Bookstore March 12 2011
Master French cartoonist Jacques Tardi featured at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Saturday, March 12.
The work of French cartoonist Jacques Tardi was introduced to American audiences more than three decades ago. His work was championed by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, who included him in their prestigious RAW anthology in the early 1980s. For the remainder of the century, several North American publishers endeavored to draw attention to Tardi. Yet with the exception of the alternative comics cognoscenti, his work remained marginalized in the United States. Only with the persistence of Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books – who have published no fewer than five Tardi titles in the past 2 years – has this acknowledged genius found a substantial American following.
“Better Tardi Than Never: How France's Greatest Living Cartoonist Took a Mere 32 Years to Break Through to American Audiences” examines the life’s work of Jacques Tardi. Organized by Fantagraphics Books co-publisher, editor, and Tardi translator Kim Thompson, the exhibition includes pages from the artist’s earliest English translations dating back to 1977. Thompson began translating Tardi in 1983 with an excerpt from It Was the War of the Trenches in RAW #5. He has been a tireless advocate of this extraordinary artist, translating and publishing his work in several anthologies until American readers finally caught on. The exhibition will include examples of each Tardi translation to reach American soil, along with a narrative explaining the context.
The opening reception on Saturday, March 12 will feature a slide lecture by the show’s curator Kim Thompson at 6:30 PM. “You Don’t Know Jacques. Tardi: 20 Books in 20 Minutes” examines the cartoonist’s career in France. The event will also feature the world premiere of Fantagraphics' fifth Tardi book, the epic “icepunk” tale The Artic Marauder.
The opening on March 12 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM coincides with the colorful Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack featuring visual and performing arts presentations throughout the historic neighborhood. For more information and a map of participants see: www.geogetownartattack.com.
Listing information:
BETTER TARDI THAN NEVER
How France's greatest living cartoonist took a mere 32 years to break through to American audiences.
Curated by Kim Thompson
Opening Saturday, March 12, 6:00 – 9:00 PM
YOU DON'T KNOW JACQUES
Tardi: 20 books in 20 minutes
A slide presentation by Fantagraphics co-publisher, editor and translator Kim Thompson at 6:30 PM on March 12.
http://www.fantagraphics.com/news/bettertardi
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale St. (at Airport Way S.)
Seattle, WA 98108 206.658.0110
Open daily 11:30 – 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM
http://www.fantagraphics.com/
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