Andy Mcnab
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I meant, say something for the troops. Explain to me why I should consider it a noble sacrifice when they get their genitals blown off by a roadside bomb in a country that never threatened us. I'm not being sarcastic, I really want to hear a pro-war person tell me why it's not okay to mock the military but it's okay to use them for imperialist aims. I used the most stupid, hateful language I could to point out that "sticks and stones" has been reversed in our current society--it's okay to kill a soldier, just don't laugh at him.
I'll keep laughing, you keep making their unnecessary deaths seem noble. The dead won't care either way.
>>By Just Jon (Sunday, 18 Sep 2005 05:06)
Thanks for the welcome, Majorette!
One other thing wrong with that synopsis - Nick isn't working for the Americans when he goes to Georgia.
TTFN
>>By fastball (Monday, 19 Sep 2005 00:01)
Jesus Christ, Fastball, did Amazon read only the cover?
>>By Just Jon (Monday, 19 Sep 2005 07:15)
Hi Just Jon - yep, but not their fault, they didn't even get to see the cover. They don't get to see books before anyone else does - they have to go by advance info publishers send them. A November book will still be on the printing presses.
>>By fastball (Monday, 19 Sep 2005 10:10)
I hope 1 November is still the official release date--if we can get confirmation on that, I'll post relevant info at the usual places. Anybody know for sure?
>>By Just Jon (Monday, 19 Sep 2005 11:15)
fastball, eh? You should have named yourself crystal ball............
<<they didn't even get to see the cover>>
Sooooo, will the cover be the same as what's posted on Amazon or might that change too?
I'm just curious because it says "Author of Bravo Two Zero.... His New Bestseller" and I'm wondering how something can be a "bestseller" before it's sold yet. Is that a prediction based on sales of previous books by the same author?
Regardless, I'm sure many of us here will help to catapult it to the Bestsellers list and fulfill the prophecy on the cover........
>>By Majorette (Monday, 19 Sep 2005 15:21)
>>catapult it to the Bestsellers list
That is of course if McNab wrote the book. Or did that change too? ;-)
>>By Lynn (Monday, 19 Sep 2005 17:42)
Jon-
My, my, our good manners came back quick, didn't they? ;-)
To answer your earlier post, I'm not "pro-war" so I'm not sure I can give you the answer you're looking for. I don't agree with certain military campaigns, but I always "support our troops." What does that mean? It means I don't spit on them when they pass me in the street. It means I send them care packages with basic necessities that they may lack. It means I've been known to donate money to scholarship funds for children who have lost a parent while in uniform. (And not just military uniforms; I've supported my local law enforcement agencies in a similar fashion.) It ALSO means I do not make assumptions about their intelligence, their reasons for signing up, or their taste in women (what? Like you've never nailed a fat chick? yeah right.)
If you have a problem with military personnel, take it out on the politicians who deploy them. Those are the ones who have the power to change things.
>>By Majorette (Monday, 19 Sep 2005 18:41)
Maj: I will NOT allow you to accuse me of having good manners either now or at any other time. I'm glad we're getting some good info about Aggressor, but if the book sucks I'm gonna say it loud and clear, just as I make it known if I think an article Andy writes sucks. He makes loads of money and has endured torture--don't think he cares if I don't like some of what he says.
Now, as to supporting the troops--I think it's wonderful that you do the things you do. I admit that, even if I could afford to, I wouldn't--I'd rather give money to education so that youngsters fresh out of high school have better options than playing a deadly game of boy scout for our viewing pleasure. Andy McNab's always on about how the Army educated him--Andy, if your government spent less on imperialism and more on schools, you would have gotten a good education the way rich kids do--in a nice, safe classroom.
I'm choosing not to list military friends or "prove" whether or not I have contempt for our troops, as my point is that it doesn't matter. No one has more contempt for them than the people who use them as pawns, and if you're not actively saying anyone who joins the military right now is an idiot, you're just helping to make meat out of more kids.
You're right, though...about the fat chicks. There, I admitted it.
Personal note to Maj--I believe in pulling no punches when making a point. I know you respect the idea of sacrifice and all, and I know you don't just like the military because they look cute in uniform. I hope you believe me when I say that, if I wanted to insult the military just for the hell of it, I could do a much better job of it than I've done here...I'm kind of a prick, after all. Cheers.
>>By Just Jon (Monday, 19 Sep 2005 21:42)
Hi guys - don't worry, final intrusion. Aggressor's out officially on 1 Nov but will be in British bookshops on 31 Oct (in case a day makes a difference to anyone!). Should be airside at airports even earlier.
I'll check in again if I spot any more little bloopers: you guys deserve the right information. Meanwhile, TTFN
>>By fastball (Monday, 19 Sep 2005 23:28)
<<Maj: I will NOT allow you to accuse me of having good manners either now or at any other time. >>
BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Liar. You've held the door open for me on at least one occasion. I may even have a pic to prove it..............
>>By Majorette (Tuesday, 20 Sep 2005 00:12)
LOL Maj...You jackbooted thug, you.
Fastball...Gone but not forgotten. We hardly knew ye.
All of us here are really eager to spread the word about Aggressor--I'd suggest email signatures, any blogs/websites we own, and even requesting it at libraries. Remember, everyone, we still had people coming here long after Deep Black was published who hadn't heard of it.
I'm gonna ask if maybe AM will do another interview at GML, but it's doubtful. If anyone wants to mail/flork questions, I can only assume that the more we have, the better.
>>By Just Jon (Tuesday, 20 Sep 2005 01:08)
Has everyone heard about the two British commandos (identified as SAS by some sources) jailed in Iraq and the raid that rescued them?
Link to story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/
international/middleeast/20iraq.html
If they were indeed SAS, it's strange that their pictures have been allowed to circulate, but I guess it's only Arab media releasing the photos. I didn't find the pics on any western news sites.
Pretty dramatic stuff, at any rate. Worth a read.
>>By Just Jon (Tuesday, 20 Sep 2005 08:07)
Good grief, Fastball...
The only "worry" is at your words "final intrusion" -- it better NOT be! Welcome only -- no farewells accepted. :o)
Thanks for the sitreps on Aggressor and its release date(s). In bookstores by Halloween, eh? How spook-y! (yeah okay, lame, I know.)
With such an inside track, I'm wondering if you have any word on AM doing any signings, particularly stateside, or more specifically, anywhere along the Northeast Corridor, like say, oh, I dunno, Philadelphia or DC? My house is always open as a B&B for FTroopers.... ;o)
>>By am-i-binned (Tuesday, 20 Sep 2005 13:11)
Thanx Fastball.. soon as there's news about Boy Soldier 3, feel free to drop in :-)
I'm terribly lagging time to google at the mo - sigh, hope to resume business soon ;-)
>>By Lynn (Tuesday, 20 Sep 2005 22:34)
Thanks to everyone for their words of welcome - I wasn't going to post again unless needed, but I just wondered: do you guys know that the paperback edition of Deep Black also carries the first chapter of Aggressor? TTFN
>>By fastball (Tuesday, 20 Sep 2005 22:54)
Christ Fastball.. now we have to buy the English, US, Dutch AND paperback version?? Sigh.
Forgot to mention... Boy Soldier 4
Paperback (October 5, 2006)
Publisher: Doubleday
Language: English
ISBN: 0385609779
>>By Lynn (Tuesday, 20 Sep 2005 23:31)
Fastball,
Great name, curve balls were always a prick to hit!
What was the general feeling about Boy Soldier guys? Liked it, Loved it, thought it sucked?
take care, speak soon
>>By Paul R (Wednesday, 21 Sep 2005 01:48)
Lynn: Boy Soldier FOUR??? What, is Boy Soldier a magazine? McNab and Rigby are producing novels quicker than I can produce four-paragraph blog entries. I can't keep up, so if anyone wants to help promote the BS series, please email me and indicate your willingness to provide cover photos and descriptions to add to "Books" page of my unofficial Andy McNab website.
Paul R: The first one (only one I have) is good, but it's aimed at a young adult audience and therefore isn't really my cup of tea. I'd say if you're a collector of Andy McNab's stuff (or have a teenager you'd like to buy for), get it--but don't buy it for yourself if you're expecting something like the Nick Stone novels.
That's just my opinion, but it's a fact that that's my opinion, therefore my opinion is fact.
>>By Just Jon (Wednesday, 21 Sep 2005 04:33)
Paul, I enjoyed Boy Soldier (called it vintage McNab a few pages back) it has good pace and keeps you interested because the characters are well drawn, already ordered the next one due out later this year, Amazon are already taking advance orders for the one after that, provisionally designated BS3 I thought? Hmm, pity about the BS implications, just noticed that!
Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2: "the rescue of two British soldiers from jail in Basra reads more like an Andy McNab novel than real life..."
>>By camban (Wednesday, 21 Sep 2005 11:57)
Paul R ?? Are you new here?? - shame on you, thought you forgot about us ;-)
Good to see ya :-)
This one is really neat - and ...... was this link posted before?? I can't imagine NOT, but I know I've not seen the site before. Maybe I missed it. If any of you missed it too.... it's sort of kiddie stuff.. but neat!!
http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/childrens/boysoldier/
>>By Lynn (Wednesday, 21 Sep 2005 18:30)
Cam, do you really enjoy the BS stuff as much as the Nick Stone novels? I wasn't saying BS sucks, just that it is exactly what Andy himself called it--a youth-market series. You're a voracious reader--most people are not. For those who aren't, I ain't gonna recommend a kid's book.
>>By Just Jon (Wednesday, 21 Sep 2005 18:35)
Well I enjoyed it enough to get the next one too! And even read it ;-) Really - it's a good read, somewhat less complicated and shorter than the Nick Stone novels, but still entertaining enough for an adult as well.
Unless I like it because never reached adult age level ;-)
>>By Lynn (Wednesday, 21 Sep 2005 19:09)
Next up, Team Gnooks debates the literary merits of Andy McNab's grocery list.
>>By Just Jon (Wednesday, 21 Sep 2005 20:35)
*giggles* just in case anyone is interested.... ;-)
http://www.cafepress.com/specialforces/307348
>>By Lynn (Wednesday, 21 Sep 2005 21:17)
Ok Jon, as you wish.
Mikhail Bakhtin.
Poetry is meant to be an art form, to be (and to create) something beautiful; fiction, on the other hand, is a kind of rhetoric, a literary form meant to persuade or to present an argument, not to produce an aesthetic effect. These definitions come largely from historical trends: the novel does come from the prose traditions of persuasion. Poetry is not without its didactic function, certainly; as many critics from Sir Philip Sidney on have noted, the purpose of art is "to delight and to instruct." But generally poetry has been associated with the aesthetic function ("delight") and novels with the didactic function ("instruct").
Bakhtin starts with this division between poetry and prose fiction, and their social functions, in order to reconceptualize the idea of the way stylistics has privileged poetry. He says that rhetoric--the art of using language to persuade or convince people--has always been subordinated (in Western culture) to poetry, because rhetoric has a social purpose: it does something. Poetry, despite Sidney's claim to the contrary, has always functioned almost exclusively on an aesthetic level. Poetry is like a painting that hangs on the wall; prose is like a piece of kitchen machinery, in Bakhtin's view.
(..)
When I write "Two pounds ground beef, seedless grapes, loaf bread" you can read this two ways. We can do a "poetic" reading, where the words refer to abstract ideas, or to other words, or to poetry itself.
(...)
if we assume these words are a poem, we read them quite differently than if we assume these words are a grocery list. The writer or critic interested in seeing the heteroglossia (the term heteroglossia describes the coexistence of distinct varieties within a single linguistic code) in language would read these words as embedded in social relations; such a critic would probably read them as a grocery list, as writing with a distinct social purpose, rather than as abstractions.
But Bakhtin would also say that the "poetic" reading of the grocery list also has validity; the words on the page never mean only the object they signify. In poetry, the social meaning is almost entirely erased, but in fiction the social meaning and the abstract meaning (the "autotelic" meaning) are both present. Novelists might show someone writing this grocery list, and on one level that list would simply be an itemization of foods the character will buy, but there might also be a symbolic level, where these particular foods have significance or resonance beyond the merely literal.
Now.. if Nick Stone goes out to buy
Fruit
Beans
Chicken
Meat
Fish
etc etc.. what does he mean??
>>By Lynn (Wednesday, 21 Sep 2005 22:04)
And also (God, I feel I'm too present here today) ..........
LONDON - 22 Sep 2005
Digital radio station Oneword has extended its competition with the BBC in the on-demand arena thanks to sponsorship from Volkswagen Passat backing free downloads of one of its shows.
The culture-focused spoken word station has made its daily 'Between the Lines' show, in which presenter Paul Blezard interviews famous authors, including 'Bravo Two Zero' author Andy McNab, Frederick Forsyth and Minette Walters, available for download from audioville.com, iTunes, and other podcasting sites.
http://www.brandrepublic.com/bulletins/digital/
article/517842/
commercial-speech-station-joins-podcasting-crowd/
>>By Lynn (Wednesday, 21 Sep 2005 22:32)
Update on SAS freed from captivity in Basra: Turns out the local police heavily infiltrated by Shiite militia--in fact, by the time the Limeys raided the jail, the SAS men had been turned over to militiamen who were probably going to execute them. Luckily, they got 'em out of wherever they were being held, though the area is still dominated by Shiite whackos and further problems will no doubt follow.
>>By Just Jon (Thursday, 22 Sep 2005 00:58)
Lynn, were you able to find the actual download of that "Between the Lines" interview? I couldn't find it listed... :o(
>>By am-i-binned (Thursday, 22 Sep 2005 04:55)
Nope, maybe it's not on yet?
>>By Lynn (Thursday, 22 Sep 2005 09:14)
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