#877 Kafka’s Last Stand- Vagabond

#877 Kafka’s Last Stand- Vagabond

This opens up in New York during a protest on Wall Street. The writer does a great job painting a picture of the intensity and emotions of a real-life street protest. Being at more than my fair share of NYC protests, I immediately recalled all the sounds and smells of such an event.

                     

“The protestors stood their ground, shouting their demands. Some of them shouted because their lack of voice had been building in them, some because their patience had finally run out, some simply because they found that the sound from their throats converted fear into courage.”

Our protagonist was beaten within inches of her life and woken up inside a hospital after three days, only to find she was arrested and facing three years in jail. In the story’s reality, the seventh version of the Patriot ACT she was:

“…charged with 680 counts of seditious conspiracy to overthrow legitimate business interests.”

Without her consent or input, the court appointed lawyer took a plea deal and she is sent to prison and a life of prison-sponsored slave labor. There is a lot in this that is outright hilarious, like calling the prison: Sunny Day Prison, or the punishment program Corrective Retail Operation Confinement (CROC). The latter is a program where those that protest against capitalism are required to work retail jobs to rehabilitate their wayward minds.

Like I said there is a lot of hilarity in this, but then there is a lot of outright terror in them as well. As much satire that is in here, there is an equal amount of truth. These programs and laws, and punishments aren’t all that far off from what happens now in our criminal justice system. Protecting commerce over human rights is nothing new of course. When the world equates capitalism with democracy, being against harmful commerce becomes treason.

Notable Passage: “As long as you could find a way to laugh at the madness, they couldn’t reach you. And if they couldn’t reach you, then they couldn’t beat you.”

Rating: 7-8-8-8 Total= 31

#534 Torching the Dusties- Margaret Atwood

#534 Torching the Dusties- Margaret Atwood

This is kind of a morbid story. Inside an assisted living home, Ambrosia Manner, Wilma suffers with Charles Bonnet’s Syndrome, a condition with very lively hallucinations. Her manifestations are benign however, and all she sees are little people climbing around her things.

One day there appears outside her window a protest of people wearing baby masks and signs saying “Our Turn.”

“Our Turn is a movement, it’s international, it appears aimed at clearing away what one of the demonstrators refers to as ‘the parasitic dead wood at the top’ and another one terms ‘the dustballs under the bed.”

Old age homes across the world are being attacked and burned to the ground, alleviating the world of an aging population that is selfishly draining resources when they should acknowledge that their time has come. At Ambrosia Manner, they have surrounded the compound, removed the staff and plan on starving them out. When it seems like they plan on escalating the action to arson, Wilma and Tobias head for an adjoining structure hoping to avoid the attack. The Manner burns with them looking on.

Whether this happens for real or whether it’s a manifestation of her Syndrome, it's still pretty morbid. This is the last of this collection. I enjoyed some of it. There being a majority of stories about woman in the advanced stages of their lives, I didn’t find much to connect with personally. I’m not sure I see why the subtitle of this collection calls them “nine wicked tales.”

Rating: 8-7-7-7 Total= 29

#359 Deer- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

#359 Deer- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

Conchita and Susy work at McDonalds. Today, when they showed up for work, the place was surrounded by a police line and a crowd of people. Conchita tells Susy that there is a bear inside, and they can’t get it out.

While they are waiting, and the police are preparing, and the protestors try to save the bear, we learn a little about these two woman, Susy only in this country a year, and Conchita here a bit longer just lost her son. There is a little theme about not having control over your life, things just being the way they are. But, other than that, this is juts about a bear stuck in a McDonalds.

Rating: 6-6-5-5 Total= 22

#313 The Marchers- Henry Dumas

#313 The Marchers- Henry Dumas

As always, Dumas delivers a powerful piece, this one a parable about power, protest, and freedom. As marchers gather, and speakers speak, a prisoner is roused from servitude, and darkness and despair.

“In the dome the silence was stirred by the sound of legions of feet marching. The rumble sifted through the years. The prisoner heard…and waited.”

“Outside, the cheers grew louder. The dome trembled. Specks of dust leaped up from centuries of rest and wandered like souls in limbo. Suddenly a passion seized the prisoner.”

“From the ground he came up slowly, as if he were a lost seed in a sunless cave, a seed that had sprouted into a pale limp stalk trying to suck a bit of precious sunlight into its impoverished leaves.”

“Today was a great day. Freedom had come to them…at least for a while…the marching of their feet was the song of their freedom.”

But the story comes with a warning, that all freedom doesn’t last as long as its only in a march. Shackles aren’t actually broken and centuries of oppression aren’t wiped away because of one day of exuberance. As hope fades, the prisoner falls back into darkness.

Rating: 9-9-10-8 Total= 36

#271 Strike and Fade- Henry Dumas

#271 Strike and Fade- Henry Dumas

It’s Vietnam era, and you can feel the tension in the street. But, the tension isn’t about the war, it’s about racial injustice; civil unrest that the police call a riot, but the locals call a revolution. Police swarm the neighborhood, and it feels like a siege. Tyro, a neighborhood hero has come back from the war missing limbs, now he teaches the angry youth about rebellion.

“All I can figure is that one day the chips are all comin down…learn to strike hard, but don’t be around in the explosion. If you don’t organize, you ain’t nothing but a rioter, a looter…Don’t riot. Rebel.”

It’s confusion, blood-red anger, and hope for change. Comparing the war in Viet Nam to the conflict in black urban neighborhoods is an important comparison. Dumas creates an emotional, frenetic mood, and the prose is rhythmic and musical.

Rating: 8-8-9-8 Total= 33

#234 Lives of the Artists- Jabari Asim

#234 Lives of the Artists- Jabari Asim

It is after hours at Reuben’s sign painting shop. The fellas are “Talking John Brown Jive” or slinging B.S., playing checkers and unwinding from the day. It’s a scene that could be in a small shop anywhere. Nothing important is being discussed but that doesn’t mean nothing meaningful isn’t taking place.

Among the tall tales and bad jokes, is this gem that any New Yorker who’s ever come face-to-face with a subway rat would appreciate:

“I’ve seen better [fighters]…the best I ever saw used to skirmish in the back of my uncle’s Laundromat. They were rats, understand. Big, rowdy looking rodents. They’d actually stand on their hind legs and trade punches.”

While the night winds down, a young man bursts in. He, and many others, are being hunted down for sport by the cops. Handing out protest leaflets is their only transgression. When the cops follow uninvited into the shop, the men know better than to interfere, but that doesn’t mean they’re not wanting to fight back:

“Reuben balled his hands into fists, stuffed them into his pockets to avoid thinking about them.”

Rating: 8-7-8-8 Total=31