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February 21, 2006
Narrating the War on Terror
In the comments to my entry on Frank Miller's planned Batman-Al Qaeda narrative, G. Zombie mentioned a New York Times article on other graphic novels and comics series that plan to feature war on terror plots. The Marvel "Civil War" series seems particularly compelling:
Along the way, Marvel will unveil its version of Guantánamo Bay, enemy combatants, embedded reporters and more. The question at the heart of the series is a fundamental one: "Would you give up your civil liberties to feel safer in the world?"Of course comics have a long history of dealing with real-world issues, as the many World War II comics that demonized Nazis illustrate, so I'll be interested to see how this series plays out.
I've also found myself intrigued by the recent discussion of Robert Ferrigno's Prayers for the Assassin, an alternate-reality thriller set in the year 2040 that has been promoted or reviewed relatively widely on some prominent political blogs. The basic premise:
THE YEAR IS 2040. New York and Washington are nuclear wastelands. The nation is divided between an Islamic Republic across the north and the Christian Bible Belt in the old South. The shift was precipitated by simultaneous, suitcase-nuke detonations in New York City, Washington, and Mecca, a sneak attack blamed on Israel, and known as the Zionist Betrayal. Now alcohol is outlawed, replaced by Jihad Cola, and mosques dot the skyline. Veiled women hurry through the streets. Freedom is controlled by the state, paranoia rules, and rebels plot to regain free will…While Tom Tomorrow compares Prayers to Robert Harris' Fatherland, the first association I have is Philip K. Dick, especially his underrated Man in the High Castle. I'm very curious to read Prayers, though it will probably have to wait for several weeks (I do have a long flight to and from Seattle for SCMS in a few days, so maybe then), but both Tbogg and Tomorrow's comments about the novel's politics are intriguing. While the book has sometimes been presented as "anti-Muslim warblogger porn," in part because of Ferrigno's blog, both Tbogg and Tomorrow see something more complicated going on politically.In this tense society beautiful young historian Sarah Dougan uncovers shocking evidence that the Zionist Betrayal was actually a plot carried out by a radical Muslim now poised to overtake the entire nation. Sarah’s research threatens to expose him, and soon she and her lover, Rakkin Epps, an elite Muslim warrior, find themselves hunted by Darwin, a brilliant psychopathic killer. Rakkin must become Darwin’s assassin—a most forbidding challenge. The bloody chase takes them from the outlaw territories of the Pacific Northwest to the anything-goes glitter of Las Vegas—and culminates dramatically as Rakkim and Sarah battle to reveal the truth to the entire world.
I have to run to campus and meet with some students, but I've noticed that I'm writing about/thinking about this topic a lot lately. Maybe there's a conference paper or article in this issue?
Update: Here's a CNN article about Prayers. Interesting to note that Ferrigno came from a fundamentalist Christian background that he left as a teenager. The CNN article also points to this mock news website set in a world not unlike that described in Ferrigno's novel.
Posted by chuck at February 21, 2006 11:30 AM
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Comments
That mock news website is a tie-in to the book so it was probably designed under the supervision of Ferrigno among others.
Posted by: Chris Martin at February 23, 2006 11:55 PM
Yeah, that was poorly phrased. I meant to imply that it was an extension of the novel, not a separate website. That'll teach me to blog in a rush (or not).
The mock news site is actually pretty fscinating if you play around with it a little.
Posted by: Chuck at February 24, 2006 12:04 AM