I first read The Stand when I was 13, oddly enough in a crazed survivalist house in the Marin hills, and the book had a profound impact on me. I’ve read it a few times since then, but it’s been some years, so it was nice to return to it. This book is every bit as awesome as I remember it being, and if you’re going to read The Stand, I highly recommend the uncut edition; you’ll feel deprived if you don’t.

For those of you who haven’t heard of this book, it’s a post-apocalyptic novel about the United States in the wake of a deadly virus. We follow an assortment of people who are pulled together by prophetic dreams, settling in Denver, and their battle with the Dark Man, who has colonized (of course) Las Vegas. Ultimately, good triumphs, but there’s a lot of material in this book which makes it worth reading again and again.

People in this book are complex, and they deal with complex issues and events. As they learn to cope with their shifting world, distinct characters and personalities emerge. It’s an epic novel, but somehow it’s not hard to keep track of the characters and their life histories. I like that; usually when I read a book of this scope, people start blurring together, and I have a tough time keeping them straight, but that’s not the case here.

I think it’s a great glimpse into what would happen if society totally collapsed, and I love that it ends with a vision of utopia which involves a disorganized society. The Stand really illustrates a lot of the potential evils of human society, not in a moral preachy kind of way, but in a quiet way, sort of like the checker at the supermarket reading off your total.

King gets written off as “just a horror novelist” a lot, and yeah, he does write a lot of horror, but he’s about more than that. Don’t let him fool you.

Demographics:

The Stand, by Stephen King. Published 1989, 1153 pages (uncut edition). Fiction.

Get ready for a blockbuster Photo Friday, kids!

I should apologize in advance to my foreign readers: there’s going to be a lot of stuff about politics in the next few months, and some of it is probably going to be really boring for you, unless you are really interested in American politics. That said, I really hope you engage in the discussion, because I would love to hear your perspective on the issues in American politics, and how politics here is being covered overseas. And I promise that things will die down after 4 November. Well, unless we have a repeat of the 2000 election.

So let’s talk about Palin. As my friend Sem said when McCain announced his pick, “raise your hand if you’ve heard of Palin before today.” I wish I could say that the Palin pick is historic, but, really, it’s just sexist and insulting, historic or not.

First of all, I want to talk about the timing of the announcement, because it was wicked sneaky. McCain wanted to steal Obama’s thunder on Friday morning, and he sure did it; the Obama speech slipped to the bottom of the news cycle pretty fast. Also, notably, so did McCain’s 72nd birthday, which just happened to fall on the same day. It was some brilliant timing, and the pick was a political move which might be shrewd, or might be terrible.

From the shrewdness point of view, putting a woman on the GOP ticket tells Americans that the Republicans are ready for change, and they’re going to shake some shit up, or it may attract disaffected Hillary voters who really are foolish enough to vote for the ticket with the vagina, as my top-secret convention contact put it. (I really hope that this isn’t the case.) Palin also has a reputation as a bit of a maverick, reinforcing the whole McCain “ideal.” But really, it’s just that they are smart enough to realize the value of a token.

It’s a problematic decision, though. Her minimal political experience makes her an easy target for the Obama campaign, which is probably tired of being battered on the experience issue. Palin “hasn’t spent a day in Washington,” whereas Obama has at least served in the Senate. And if people are smart enough to realize that she’s basically been picked as a political tool, they might just get a tad riled up. I certainly hope so. This could backfire in a major way, and she’s already being shredded on The Daily Show and objectified on VPILF. I may not like Biden, but I kind of can’t wait to see him tear her apart in the veep debates.

Palin herself is certainly not a candidate I can get behind, and most of the feminist community seems to be with me on this one. Let’s just give a few highlights of why Palin, in my opinion, is not a good choice for veep:

• Staunchly pro-life, and I mean staunchly.
• She advocates for the teaching of creationism in schools.
• Very pro-drilling in Alaska (husband is in oil), and has a generally weak environmental record.
• She may have “gay friends,” but she is against marriage equality.
• She doesn’t support equal pay for women!
• Involved in a whiff of a corruption scandal involving her attempt to get her brother in law fired, which could become a major political problem.
• Pop quiz: when was Palin’s first passport issued? If you answered “2007,” you are correct! (Just for comparison, my first passport was issued when I was two weeks old.) But it’s ok, she knows about foreign policy because Alaska is “close to Russia.” (And Canada!)
• Babygate! I mean, hot damn, first there’s the kerfuffle over the parentage of the youngest kid, and then she announces that her oldest is preggers, but it’s ok, because she’s marrying the father. So we have, in one blow, clear evidence that abstinence-only education totally sucks, a “lack of Christian values,” and evidence that Palin is just, uhm, not a very good parent. Her daughter will “grow up really fast” all right…
• Her political experience: council member, then mayor of a town the size of Fort Bragg, partial term as governor of Alaska.
• Also, you’re “sexist” if you question the Palin pick!

Finally:

“As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.”

-Sarah Palin, July 2008

In August, I read 31 books, and 9,899 pages. That works out to one book and 319 pages/day, which puts August roughly in the middle of my numbers for the year. I think this may be because I was introducing Baxt to Buffy, so I spent a lot of time watching Buffy last month, and a lot less time reading. August was about on par with May, in terms of time spent reading.

I have a tough time singling out any particular book as my favourite. I may have to go with Sacred Hunger, even though it’s a re-read of one of my favourite books. I also enjoyed What the Nose Knows, and I liked being reintroduced to Dickens in Great Expectations. Another Vicki recommendation, Different Seasons, was also pretty fun. Interesting to note that three of my faves were fiction, although I guess a read a fair amount of fiction in August, so that’s not too surprising.

I really disliked The Last Samurai, although I have been told to give it another chance. Apparently the noxious literary device which caused me to drop it like a hot potato doesn’t persist, so, we’ll see, maybe I will pick it up again later this year.

With only four months left in the Book Project, I still welcome recommendations of books to read; I’ll do my best to get ahold of them through the library. As always, if someone really wants me to read something, it should be mailed to me:

s.e. smith

po box 2764

fort bragg, ca 95437

It’s kind of hard to believe the year is winding down so fast; it feels like it was January just yesterday.

The Republicans are gearing up for their convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul, which means more awesome convention coverage, all week long, baby. If I were you, I wouldn’t miss any episodes of the Daily Show, because, given how fantastic their coverage was last week, I am expecting comedy gold in a pretty major way here.

I also think that if we’re really going to recreate ‘68, the RNC is where it’s going to happen.

IndyMedia is keeping up on events at the RNC; if you want on the ground reporting from citizen journalists, this is a great place to start.

The Times is tracking cancellations and changes in the convention schedule over on the Caucus Blog.

The police are stepping up early with raids on potential protest sites/headquarters (via SLOG).

Theuptake is also providing some great on the ground coverage w/video.

Even billboards aren’t safe from the long arm of the GOP (also via SLOG).

The Stranger also has reporters on the ground.

Most vicious campaign ever?

Soap. Opera. Seriously. More here.

Also, NOLA has some excellent coverage on the little rainstorm approaching the Gulf Coast, for those who are interested. But I certainly understand if you want to skip this link; obviously the convention is far more important.