Author / Edward Champion
1.2 Million Dead — You Are Responsible for This
Intellience Daily: “When those responsible for the American war in Iraq face a public reckoning for their colossal crimes, the weekend of September 15-16, 2007 will be an important piece of evidence against them. On Friday, September 14 there were brief press reports of a scientific survey by the British polling organization ORB, which resulted in an estimate of 1.2 million violent deaths in Iraq since the US invasion.”
1.2 million.
Think about that. That’s the entire population of Dallas. Or San Diego. Or San Antonio. Imagine. All wiped out.
If this isn’t genocide, I don’t know what is.
The only newspapers to report this figure were the Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe. Nothing whatsoever from The New York Times or the Washington Post.
I am sickened to be part of a country that doesn’t act to stop this carnage. That looks the other way. That doesn’t move to stop these barbarians. That doesn’t contemplate its own actions.
Report this figure. Tell others about this figure. Be reminded every day of this figure.
History will not judge Bush well. But I suspect it will judge us more harshly. 1.2 million? If this is even half-true, then we deserve everything we get because of our representative apathy. So what are we going to do? What are you going to do?
Coming to Bat Segundo
Correspondent: I have to ask you about the fact that every character in this book is sleeping with somebody else.
Adichie: [laughs]
Correspondent: And there is no monogamous marriage exemplar in any of the characters, in any of the major characters. This struck me as kind of interesting. It’s a very sensual book, certainly. But it’s not just that. It seemed to sort of suggest to me that one could not be loyal in one’s relationship; therefore, one could not be loyal to any of these causes that were actually occurring in Nigeria at the time. I was wondering if you could, sort of, describe how the relationship and the loyalty in the relationship, or the presumed loyalty, depending upon what sort of arrangement you have…
Adichie: [laughs]
Correspondent: And how you got permission. But that’s a whole ‘nother side track. Sorry! I’ll shut up. Go for it.
Adichie: Okay, now, that’s really interesting. I’ll have to think about that. The parallel between the relationship and the cause, I don’t know. I think what I wanted to do with that was simply to say human beings are flawed, were hopelessly flawed, and also in some ways to — so my parents were telling me these stories about the war and often I would be thinking, wondering how much it changed their relationship. And when I would ask people questions or read things about the war, and there’s a lot of people sleeping with each other, as there is everywhere I think, it made me wonder about how relationships changed. When you have a relationship and everyone’s happy and your life is comfortably middle-class, and you’re sort of having cucumber sandwiches. And then suddenly, you’re reduced to this place where you are thinking about eating lizards. It has to do something to the way you have sex! You know? That’s what I’m thinking.
Correspondent: Yeah.
Adichie: And I guess also just to show the ability to forgive. How in war, horrible things are happening, but then you’re finding yourself forgiving the person you love, who’s hurt you, who’s betrayed you. You know? And I sort of saw them as — it’s difficult for them to be loyal to one another, because the struggle to be be loyal to this big thing, this cause, this faith in something bigger than they are, and I think there’s a part of me that’s hopelessly romantic. And I just love the idea of believing in something. You know, standing up for something. And we don’t have that in Nigeria anymore. And it depresses me.
The whole of this interview with Chimamanda Adichie will appear very soon on The Bat Segundo Show.
Roundup
- Robert Jordan has passed on.
- In this week’s LATBR, Douglas Hofstadter offers a fairly solid summation of Steven Pinker’s latest book, The Stuff of Thought. Because this engaging volume is indeed very airtight in its logic (it includes a pretty devastating takedown of Jerry Fodor’s “modularity of the mind” theory), I’m a bit curious about why Hofstadter “can’t completely accept its arguments.” Surely, Hofstadter could have put himself a bit more on the line here instead of simply imputing, without explanation, why he can’t buy into a “a language of thought.” These is cheap contrarian parlance. Thankfully, Hofstadter’s slight deficiencies are offset by Carolyn Kellogg’s delightful review of The Last Chicken in America. (Incidentally, more Pinker here.)
- Touré in the NYTBR? It’s not so much a review as it is a first-person essay, but I will commend this slightly quirky matchup for now, even if it runs the risk of endorsing this preposterous lede by parallel association. And I’ll agree with my colleague Levi Asher that this David Plotz review is remarkably awful.
- Let me offer a warm and hearty welcome to my newly minted, fellow podcasters at Book World. The WaPo has now entered the podcasting racket. I’m happy to report that, two shows in, the podcast is better than Tanenhaus’s version — in large part because the participants are actually having a bit of fun, as opposed to sounding like they are trapped in a soulless boardroom. (Did Ron Charles have a previous career as a college radio deejay? Because his FM radio intonations are certainly a lot more fun than Dwight Garner’s droll desperation.) But Marie Arana needs to lighten up a bit. To paraphrase Buck Owens, all you gotta do is act naturally. Plus, the WaPo site really needs direct streaming links instead of simply offering an RSS feed. But this is a promising start.
- Yo, Junka, youze ain’t down wizzit! Globa warming be sumpin’ to stop! Younoze, like globazation and corprite gree! My rightchus brothaz and I put up zat sign and we gonna punk ya! Meetz me behind za Safeway at Church & Market. Throwdown and YouTube vidyo, mothafuckaz! Let za peoplez decides!
- Why does Hollywood get the writer wrong? Probably because sitting on one’s ass in front of a computer might make for a protracted Andy Warhol film, but is rather dull to depict in narrative.
- “Alex Trebeck Never Eats Fried Chicken.” (Congrats, Mr. Bell.)
- Well, it’s good to know thatsome folks are dedicated to sifting through the theatrical dust heap.
- The photos that Joe O’Donnell did not take.
- Top ten kickass heroines. (via Bookshelves of Doom)
- American Broadband: Pathetic and Disgraceful.
- Comics and cell phones. (via ComicMix)
- Authors buried in Concord, MA. I’ve seen some of these graves.
- James Bond has topped a culture chart.
- An in-depth look at Ryszard Kapuscinski.
- One word: No!
- Top 10 Bizarre Music Videos.
- Top 50 UK designers.
- Brak: the forerunner to New Urbanism?
- The 1970s Joy of Sex beard guy writes his online dating profile.
- It looks like anyone who owns The Prisoner on DVD will have to purchase it again.
- San Francisco, 1938.
- Laura Miller on Tree of Smoke.
Inflation and the “Miracles” of Unregulated Commerce to Come?
Sunday Times: “The world’s investment banks are to reveal a $30 billion (£14.9 billion) hit from bad debts as they unveil results that give the first real insight into the impact of the debt crisis….Attention in the markets will switch this week to the Federal Reserve and its decision on interest rates on Tuesday. While the Fed is widely expected to announce a cut in the key Fed funds rate, and possibly an accompanying reduction in the discount rate, analysts are split on whether it will be a quarter or half-point reduction.”