Have fun.
Gamal
The Blog of Power, Seduction and War
Have fun.
Gamal
Many successful writers advise other writers to read more than they write. I enjoy reading, so I accepted the advice without much fight. I set out to read thirty books in 2014 and according to my tracking on Good Reads, I managed to get through forty books this year. A few books were horrible, several were excellent. To look back on my year, I’ve compiled a list of my favorite books for 2014.
Keep in mind this list is for books I read this year, I’m not worried about when the book was released. I also don’t care about format. I read a combination of print, e-book, graphic novel and audio book. I’m concerned with content, not medium. The list includes fiction, non-fiction, how to and humor because I try to be well rounded...
10. The Curriculum by Stanley Bing (audio book): This humorous crash course in business combines concepts in his earlier books (How to Throw an Elephant and What Would Machiavelli Do?) It’s not a funny as the first two books, but it offers more practical advice with it’s laughs.
9. Elektra: Relentless by Rob Rodi and Sean Chen (graphic novel): This book has all the elements of a great Marvel Knights book. It’s a self -contained, character driven story that focuses as more on the humanity of the supporting cast than the “hero” who is almost a force of nature.
8. Words for Pictures by Brian Michael Bendis: Most people see comics as a hobby for nerds and children. A few people see the potential for money with all the movies and TV shows. Word for Pictures focuses on the business and the craft of creating comics in a way I haven’t seen for more than twenty five years.
7. Call for the Dead by John Le Carre (audio book): This turned out to be my least favorite book from one of my favorite authors. Le Carre retains all his skill in creating setting, characters and an intricate spy plot, but the ending he chose seemed forced and unsatisfying.
6. Handbook of Practical Spying by Jack Barth: This light hearted book from the International Spy Museum in Washington manages to offer a lot of real world advice, some historical context and without being dry or convoluted. It’s a painless introduction to modern tradecraft.
5. Being Wrong by Kathryn Shulz (audio book): This exploration of the physical, mental, social, and historical sources of mistakes is disturbing and enlightening at the same time. It doesn’t cover every aspect of error, but it covers enough ground to make you wonder how we haven’t managed to destroy the entire planet by now.
4. Graveyard of Memories by Barry Eisler (audio book): This is the origin story for the iconic assassin John Rain (soon to be played by Keannu Reves). It contains all the elements of a great Eisler story (meticulous tradecraft, psychological insight and lush settings) but the formula for the story will be familiar to anyone who has read a Rain story before. It’s like listening to your favorite band play live. You know what they’re going to play, but you’re still amazed when they play it.
3. Sexual Intelligence by Marty Klein: Most sex help books focus on technique or trying to get you back to some golden age of performance in your past. This book focuses on your present and future sexual expression by helping you get past technique and into physical and emotional connection. It rejects performance for pleasure and covers a wide range of sexual situations and examples. The main problem with this book is the people who read it probably don’t need it and the people who need it probably won’t read it.
2. Write, Publish, Repeat by Johnny B. Truant: It’s hard for me to listen to the podcast this book came from (The Self-Publishing Podcast) because the three hosts are friends who work together and spend two thirds of their time on the air self-promoting or meandering off topic. But these three writers have a deep understanding of the business and craft of independent publishing and what it takes to be successful. A lot of my ideas and inspiration to write came from this book when I read it the first time and it is even better the second time around. If you ever thought about writing a book, read this book first.
1. Talk Dirty to Me by Sallie Tisdale: In a lifetime of reading books, only a handful will be transcendent. Talk Dirty to Me is one of those books for me. This intimate philosophy of sex explores the subject from fundamental questions of attraction, desire and expression and unpacks issues like pornography, prostitution, sexual identity and sexual repression in a thoughtful voice free of shame or blame. Talk Dirty to Me is a book that I’d like to read several more times. It’s not only my favorite books of 2014. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in ten years.
So what was your favorite book of 2014? Comment below and let me know.
Have fun and Happy New Year.
G
The NYPD may or may not be refusing to make arrests as a part of their spat with the mayor. According to the New York Post (whose credibility is always in question, arrests for petty crime have dropped more than ninety percent.
See NYPD Punishes City by Not Making Arrests
How do we interpret this response? Is it a collective temper tantrum from out of control, over privileged civil servants?
Not at all.
Is it a defensive tactic to protect the safety and welfare of officers afraid of being ambushed by a cop killer?
Not really.
It is a direct attack on the city's finances. It is a message from the NYPD to City Hall that hits the city where it hurts the most, in the budget.
Fines and tickets make up a big part of the city's income. If the mayor won't support the police by letting them kill minorities at will, then the police won't support the mayor with cash.
This fight isn't about laws, justice, freedom or even lives. It is about money and power. Everything else, including us, is collateral damage.
It is easy to lament the state of modern romance (See This Is How We Date Now). We can look at dating apps and claim romance is dead. We can point to the abundance of our digital connections as the reason behind our collective personal disconnection. We can point to the illusion of social media and blame it for the one sided portrayal of the relationships we manage to have. But these protests are short sighted because they ignore a basic reality of sexual expression.
It’s true many of us in the twenty first century can find a potential partner in the same way we can order pizza. Couples on dates do spend a disturbing amount of time staring at their phones instead of each other. Most online relationship narratives only show the happy moments. Life and love were so much better before social networks, smartphones and apps, right?
Society has created multiple methods to bring people together throughout history. Arranged marriages, matchmakers, church groups, social mixers and random encounters in bars and clubs pre-dated Tinder and Match. Did they produce better results?
People who did get together spent a lot of time apart. They might be separated physically because of work and travel, or they might be mentally separated staring at the TV all night. Were those romantic droughts preferable to smartphone staring?
The interpersonal problems we had were covered up in public with banal conversation and elaborate lies. Emotional release was satisfied by professional courtesans and concubines for the rich or amateur infidelity for the poor. Some people just suffered in silence, drowning their sorrow in liquor or lashing out at the people around them. Why is that life better than the one we have now.
Technology has changed the details of our romantic encounters, but it has not changed the fundamental process. It has made it easier for us to connect and disconnect, but has not altered the art of seduction. We now have the ability to find people to love, but most of us still don’t know how. Technology isn’t the problem. It’s the people who use it.
We have no collective skill in romance or love because most of us never get a seductive education. At a certain age, we’re pushed to be attractive, date, marry, procreate and repeat the process with the next generation with most people stumbling through every stage like a drunken monkey. It’s as if we were each given a gun and bullets and then told to protect ourselves without any instruction on the physical, mental, emotional and social impact of owning a deadly weapon. We are burdened with the expectation and responsibility to love with nothing more than the ignorant mantra of “it will work out if it’s meant to.”
It’s not as if the lessons of love don’t exist. Ovid’s Art of Love, the Kama Sutra, the Technique of the Love Affair and the Art of Seduction are only a small sample of the books devoted to romance. There are historical icons from Casanova and Ninon de l’Enclos and modern examples like Prince and Monica Bellucci today. But the education is hidden or rejected. The experts are either shunned or marginalized as unique or different from the rest of us. But romantic fulfillment isn’t a product of apathy, apps or astrology. It comes from intelligent effort, focused attention and constant communication.
I left the open dating world before apps went main stream, so I only have an observer’s perspective on the current state of affairs. I’ve been in love for five years now with a woman I idolize and adore. We share affection, communication and understanding I appreciate but never take for granted. I still try to attract and impress her because I’ve made the personal decision to continue and enhance our romantic relationship. In spite of the dire predictions, romance isn’t dead. It can’t be killed by society or technology. Romance is simply rare and it only lives and thrives with inspiration and effort.
Have fun.
Gamal
Each person in our society falls into multiple categories defined by class, race, ability, gender, orientation, education and others. As we move through different environments, our multiple forms of "membership" are perceived as positive or negative. This class gets attacked for X but has an easy time doing Y. This race is accepted here but not there. Navigating the different currents can be treacherous, especially when several factors come into play at once.
A piece in the Huffington Post called Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person looks at the defensiveness certain people have when confronting the concept of white privilege. The author, who has the benefits of race but the challenges of gender and race, points out that white privilege (or male privilege or American privilege or cisgender privilege) isn't a magic wand anyone can use to erase all the other obstacles in their lives. It suggests most of us are dealing with a complex tapestry of issues which are only becoming more intricate as our subgroups grow.
I read the piece thinking about both my own complex relationship to the world around me as well as the multiple layers I want to build into my characters. I'm sharing it because if more of us saw each other beyond a singular two dimensional image we can turn our privilege into something positive.
Have fun.
G
The editorial board of the New York Times has called for the masterminds behind the US torture program to be prosecuted for their crimes against humanity. They claim the country cannot move forward until it comes to grips with years of systemic disregard for humanity. They call for Chaney and several members of his inner circle to stand trial.
This wouldn't be the first time a trial was used to try and restore dignity to a country. The Nuremberg Trials after World War II and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after Apartheid in South Africa attempted to achieve restorative justice not just for the specific victims of these regimes, but to help the respective countries regain international respect.
We will not have the same process here. There is a lack of political will to go after anyone except the people who exposed the torture program. There is too much financial and social power in the hands of the people who directed the program. We don't have the collective strength to face our demons or admit to our mistakes. If we can't indict police officers caught on tape killing unarmed men, we will never even consider going after the power brokers of Washington. We believe less in the rule of law or the dignity of human rights and more in the cliche concepts of "an eye for an eye" and "might makes right".
It might be a generation or more before America ever comes to terms with the crimes committed in retaliation for 9/11. In fact, we may never achieve reconciliation for this dark portion of our past, since our historical crimes against native Americans, Africans and women have not only never been resolved, but continue into the present day.
Gamal
Protesters and critics in the United States might view the deaths of Garner and Brown as symptoms of a problem unique to our country. But a recent op ed piece by Usayd Youis points out Britain's long history of police who were not punished for violence against minorities.
Does this suggest parallels between U.S. and U.K. law enforcement in terms of tactics, or does it flow from a more basic concept of power corrupting the very people who are supposed to protect us.
The Art of War is a classic book on military strategy from China’s Warring States period. The advice in the book has been used by generals, business leaders and martial artists for several centuries. Characters in my stories quote it often when trying to make a point or explain an idea. Sadly, terrorists, mass killers and psychopaths have learned its lessons too.
Sun Tzu teaches his students to “defend from a place of strength and attack the enemy at his weakest point”. Children are the most defenseless and weakest members of any society and attacks on schools have captured headlines for years. Al Jazeera has collected a list of the most infamous attacks worldwide from Columbine to Beslan by attackers from Boko Haram to the Taliban. The pain and dismay these attacks cause never goes away. That’s why Sun Tzu advocated the tactic and asymmetrical warfare uses schools as slaughter houses.
If this list of attacks teaches us anything, it is the ugly brutality of war, the dehumanization one group can place on another and the vulnerability of those who mean the most to us. No parent expects their child’s school to become a war zone. But the weak have always been targets of the ruthless. Race, nationality and social class provide no guarantees of safety. Every child in the world who comes home safe tonight is a gift for their parents and the people who love them.
A poll conducted in the wake of last week's CIA Torture report suggests that up to fifty percent of Americans believe the CIA program was justified. Responses were split along party lines, race and gender, with Republicans standing behind the legacy of Cheney and Democrats split on the issue. Minorities, women and younger people were more likely to reject the program while older white males accepted it.
The results aren’t earth shattering, considering the history of American society. Our treatment of indigenous Americans, African slaves, Chinese migrants and women in general has included systemic violence since before we were a country. Modern examples also support this premise. From what I understand, entertainment popular in the wake of the 9/11 attacks from 24 to Zero Dark Thirty, depicted torture as a viable means to extract critical information in a short period of time. The poll results only clarify what we already knew.
I’m not innocent when it comes to using torture in my work. Both Smooth Operator and A Taste of Honey include torture scenes. The difference between my stories and other situations is the goal of the torturer. In my books, the torturer wants to punish the torture victim or use images of the torture victim to force action from a third party. The collection of information is secondary or not an issue at all. Based on my understanding of the subject, torture is not an effective way to gather information, but it’s a great way to display aggression, generate fear or act out repressed anger.
I think those of us who support CIA torture are less interested in intelligence and more interested in venting the feelings of rage and insecurity in the aftermath of 9/11. They accept torture because they imagine it acted out on someone who does not look like them or follow their beliefs. One of the few Republicans to speak out against torture was Senator John McCain. His position is influenced by his own experience as a POW tortured by the North Vietnamese. I’m sure if more Americans found themselves or their loved ones in the horrible position of being tortured, they’d be less likely to throw their support behind this program.
Amanda Taub of Vox has just published a piece entitled "Rape Culture Isn't a Myth". The post explores the definition and history of rape culture as well as it's impact on the every day lives of women and men.
The overall result of rape culture goes beyond the damage done to individual victims. It becomes a method of control to limit the freedom and progress of all women by forcing them to trade security for opportunity.
Rape culture, like racism, is difficult to extract from society because it is a tool of power and power is a fundamental goal of human interaction. As Robert Greene details in his book The 48 Laws of Power, those who have power in a particular setting won't give it up without a compelling incentive. Self-interest trumps morality on both the individual and group level.
The problem with this collective logic lies in its misguided goal. The control of women through threats of violence hinders rather than promotes human progress. We are acting against our own self-interest when our social, legal and political institutions punish women for the destructive sexual greed of men. When women have to live in fear, we limit their potential and our own progress. So until we find a social tool more powerful than rape culture, our society will continue to suffer.
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