Weekly Reading Roundup 12 April 2018
As usual, politics and writing have been on my mind all week. Luckily, I found these great articles headed down both of those roads. Hopefully you enjoy them as much as I did. Did any articles strike you as important this week? If so, please, let me know in the comments.
‘Why Did You Wait?’: Moral Emptiness and Drone Strikes
TL;DR: The president of the United States is morally bankrupt and displays zero attributes of an effective leader.
Trump presents somewhat of a different problem. He is not a person overly burdened by moral seriousness. […] At a minimum, he seems on his first few days in office genuinely not to understand why anyone would “wait” to minimize civilian casualties. Similarly, Obama wanted the public to understand that he was personally accountable for each act of violence. Trump absolved himself of guilt after the death of Navy SEAL Ryan Owens in a covert mission in Yemen, passing the blame onto military leadership…
This article also highlights why the continued investment of power in the executive branch of the government is so bad. Under our constitution, giving power to people you like is also giving power to people you don’t like. Failure to curb Obama’s power to conduct drone strikes left open the same power structure to be used by morally bankrupt politicians like T-rump.
For the moment, it’s impossible to say whether Trump’s lack of moral seriousness has had practical effects on American use of force abroad. What should be clear is that Trump’s inability to convey moral seriousness is a hole at the heart of his presidency.
The Cycles of Panicked Reactions To Trump
But maybe the history of Trump panic cycles should give us pause. Maybe the president is playing us.
This article rightly points out the panic that accompanies almost any news article about Trump. Some panic seems to be warranted; some enters tin-foil hat region. Personally, I think that in some cases, Trump is testing the outrage, and that when people are worn down enough not to respond with panic, he will then feel safe enough to actually follow through on his threats.
One of the things that surprised me in looking at the examples above was how consistently Republican leaders in Congress have pushed back against Trump when the nation falls into panic mode. Not every leader, and not consistently. But in every cycle, an important cadre of senior Republicans push back and warn the president not to follow through on his ostensible inclinations to fire Justice Department officials related to the Russia investigation.
This is interesting and worth pointing out. While I distrust the current Republican leadership’s willingness to act as a power balance to the current administration, they are making noise as if they will. It’s important to show that they are acting like they take their responsibilities seriously. Until they abdicate, we cannot say we know what will happen however probable our guesses are.
Just to be clear, I read more than just politics, but I’m fascinated with the trainwreck that is our current federal government. So, here are some non-political articles.
How to Suppress Women’s Writing by Joanna Russ
by Brit Mandelo
This article from 2010 found me this week, and I’m so glad it did. As I read, it reminded me of another article that I read earlier in the week doing those exact same tactics that were on the cover of the book!!!! The entire article made me request a copy from my local library, and if I like it/when I get some extra spending $$$, I will buy myself a lovely copy.
Scholarly work has a tendency to be unnecessarily long and dense for no virtue other than a page count, but that’s no problem here. Russ cuts through the bullshit to use each word as effectively as it can be used and never lets herself stray from the outline of her analysis—in short, she brings the skills of a fiction writer to her academic work, and the result is an excellent text.
The Most Important Writing Advice You Need Right Now
By Chuck Wendig
If you’re a writer and not reading Chuck’s writing tips, well, I…you know what, just go read his writing tips. Also, read my review of his writing advice in Damn Fine Story. His blog is one that I visit for many things writing related. Not only is he generous with guest posts for author’s with work to sell, he gives free and useful advice for getting shit done. This is a shit-get-doner post.
Like, one rule is: you gotta finish your shit. You just do. No, I don’t mean that every story you begin must be a story you finish — sometimes you gotta cut bait and run, but in the overarching journey of your writing adventure, you need to finish your shit.
This applies to me. I’m very bad about finishing. Duly noted, Chuck, and thank you for the reminder.
you gotta carve time away from the fuckery because fuckery always exists at some level and yes right now it’s at truly epic levels but it’s always there, like air, like anxiety, and you still need to make things, you still need the silence you deserve to create things, because the world keeps on turning until it doesn’t
Even if you’re not making things, even if you’re not a writer, make time to find silence. In today’s hyper-connected world, a few moment’s of silence refreshes you in a surprising way. Make time for silence; make time for yourself.
The Death of the Hand
How GRRM Writes and Reveals Mysteries
Part 1: Threefold Reveals and Red Herrings
by BryndenBFish
I’m a Reddit lurker. There’s a lot of good stuff on there, but I don’t remember to visit and post as often as I should. However, this spoiler-filled breakdown of how George R.R. Martin writes mysteries is excellent. I loved both parts, and it made me think about my writing in a new light. So, thank you Brynden B Fish if that’s your real name. I know it’s not the person’s real name. It was…it was a joke. You know what, forget it.
But while George has a threefold revelation in mind for how he does actual reveals, something I’ve noticed is that GRRM has a similar motif at work in how he does false reveals.