I spent the whole day at the festival which was contained within a whole city block park with a statue of Prince Albert, of the Victoria era, on horseback with a pigeon perched on his head most of the time. There were probably hundreds of people which seemed a bit more managable than the thousands I was expecting. Tickets were needed for every event and very fancy tents and comfy chairs were set up for everyone. First I went to hear Michael Gove and Phillip Cole, both authors of recent books about the Bush Admin/Iraq War. Cole focused on the idea of evil figures in literature that then embody a person’s idea of what to fear, like Frankenstein, or Mr. Hyde. So the question is what figure has George W. decided on. It’s clear to everyone that the man doesn’t read, so that leaves comic books. Well, nothing much was funny about any of the talk, since its really war we’re discussing, but they each presented an analysis of the conditions leading to the current crisis from the perspective of Islam. One thing that particulary interested me is some interviews with British born would be suicide bombers. They all felt themselves to be Muslims first, then British citizens. So I wonder if the folks who voted for Bush consider themselves Christian first, American second. Maybe I’ll do a survey when I get home. If I can find anyone who would admit it.
My second event was the Amnesty International sponsored readings of blogs from Iran. They were read by 4 authors who are members of AI and doing something else at the festival. The blogs were all reporting a crack down by the Iranian govenment on internal freedom, esp. internet, in the last few months, including some arrests and torture of bloggers. The bloggers blame Bush, is this a familiar theme?, as his posturing is creating a backlash for anything seen as western or modern in Iran. A blogger from China is in prison now for publishing on his Yahoo blog a directive from the Chinese govt. not to mention anything about Tianaman Square as the anniversary is coming up. So he published their order, they found out, contacted Yahoo to find out who the blogger was and Yahoo told them. I have some flyers asking for his release that I will bring home for us to join the campaign. Makes me glad I use gmail and wordpress but I don’t know what they would do. Maybe its time to ask such questions and get the companies to have a policy for human rights.
One of the readers is a very popular Scottish science fiction author, Iain Banks. It so happened that I bought a book of his short stories for a certain someone and asked Iain to autograph it after the reading. The woman who wrote Bookseller of Kabul was there at a later panel and so now I have her book too. That’s about it for bringing things home as my pack is approaching too heavy again.
The last panel was the above woman journalist and an American George Packer who just published the Assasins Gate. Sorry about the spelling. There was a long conversation about the war in Iraq and George has been there most of the time. There was nothing hopeful to report, I asked about American troop withdrawal, he said yes of course, it had to happen but now the Iraqi’s can’t trust anyone in an Iraqi police uniform because most of them are stolen, so they’ve been ordered not to open their door unless coaltion forces accompany the Iraqi police. The Americans are keeping a lid on outright chaos. He said its been a civil war for quite a while and hundreds of thousands of people are leaving their homes to go to the side of the Tigris where their sect has the majority so eventually it will be Sunnies on the west side and Shi’a on the east. Also the middle class is being targeted for specific killings to interrup supplies, merchants and medical care. A disaster of the first water. Mark says that a lot and I don’t quite know what it means but seems to fit here.
Well it was a serious day at the Book Fest., but I also met several women who chatted me up and one who wants to meet me again on Friday to gossip about the royalty, ie the Brits and Jackie Kennedy, the closest Americans ever got. With that to contemplate I’ll leave my blog for now before the authorities get after me. Love, Ellie
Sounds like a pretty political day, dear. Even Banks, the SF author, usually writes about politics and social issues in the future. Another good Scottish SF author (if anyone cares) is Ken MacLeod.
Finally found where the comments was. a bit wee me thinks. Any way I enjoy your ramblings and rovings. You are a good story teller. Thanks. John