Zone/911 - 25 October 2001

Thu Oct 25 12:54:25 CDT 2001

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Zone/911 - Pynchonian Echoes in the Current Situation - 25 October 2001
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TV seeks soothing touch
Postive atmosphere: After Sept. 11, networks
vigilant about violence, anti-war messages.
By MATT KEMPNER
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
"[...] Platoon got yanked because it is "a very strong antiwar film," says
Bill Cox, TBS senior vice president of programming.  With Americans
seething over the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and
with the nation's armed forces mobilizing, executives at Atlanta-based TBS
didn't want to air anything that might leave the impression the network
wasn't supporting America. [...] Sometimes networks go too far in an effort
not to offend, said Robert Thompson, who directs the Center for the Study
of Popular TV at Syracuse University. He said TBS' decision to pull
"Platoon" was "creepy."  "It is doing it because it expresses a political
idea that has evidently become very unpopular in a new environment,"
Thompson said. [...] Comedy Central pulled reruns of "That's My Bush!" that
depict an addled, if well-intentioned, U.S. president. "We felt making fun
of the commander in chief at this moment was not a good thing," network
spokesman Tony Fox said. The network has begun airing a few carefully
chosen "Saturday Night Live" reruns making fun of Bush in the context of
last year's presidential elections. [...] "
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/living/1024tv.html

"[...] Americans are showing their patriotism in record stores. "God Bless
America," an album featuring Celine Dion's much-praised rendition of the
song, is the nation's best-selling album, according to figures released
Wednesday. The disc, which Columbia Records touts as "a collection of songs
of hope, freedom and inspiration," also includes Frank Sinatra's "America
the Beautiful," Mariah Carey's "Hero," Tramaine Hawkins' "Amazing Grace"
and Pete Seeger's "This Land Is Your Land." The album sold 180,984 copies
in its first week to debut at No. 1 on Billboard's top 200 album charts.
And it's not the only patriotic hit on the charts. The re-release of
Whitney Houston's "The Star-Spangled Banner" is a best-selling single, and
Lee Greenwood's "American Patriot" album sales have surged based on the
popularity of his 17-year-old hit, "God Bless the U.S.A." [...] "
http://www.salon.com/ent/wire/2001/10/25/god_bless_america/index.html

ABC set to salute West Point
Oct. 24, 2001
NEW YORK -- The Walt Disney Co. is calling on almost all of its television
and Internet divisions to air, produce or promote a multifaceted project
that will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the United States Military
Academy at West Point through summer 2002. [...]  "It struck a chord with
us," he [Mike Shaw, president of sales and marketing at the ABC Television
Network] said, referring to its patriotic and business aspects because the
special and much of the other related programming is geared toward young
people, a favorite advertising target. "
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hollywoodreporter/television/brief_display.jsp?
vnu_content_id=1086977

* * *

"Two British charities have urged the United States and British governments
to halt the use of cluster bombs in Afghanistan, fearing further civilian
casualties. The chief executive of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial
Fund Andrew Purkis, in a letter to the British Times newspaper warned that
the weapons, designed to spread shrapnel across a wide area of targets,
posed a serious threat to civilians. Mr Purkis' call was echoed by director
of aid agency Landmine Action Richard Lloyd, who said that the Afghan
people already faced the overwhelming threat of starvation.  "The presence
of highly sensitive unexploded cluster munitions will increase the number
of casualties caused by the severe landmine problem in Afghanistan for
years to come, and will deny people facing starvation the use of their
land," he said.  Cluster bombs each contain about 200 smaller bomblets
weighing 1.5 kilograms, which are designed to spray out shrapnel and set
fire to any combustible material nearby. Officials from the United Nations
Mine Clearance Programme also appealed to the United States for information
about the cluster bombs dropped on Monday night around the northwestern
city of Herat in Afghanistan. [..]"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1619000/1619159.stm

* * *

"[...] During the course of the bombing of Afghanistan, how many of you
have thought about Angola and the incredibly bloody war still being waged
there? It is one of the lesser-publicized legacies of President Ronald
Reagan's Administration. His support for "low-intensity" conflicts left
hundreds of thousands dead and wounded in Central America and Africa. He
turned the term "freedom fighters," on its head by applying it to the
Contras in Nicaragua. America's conservative movement later extended it to
include Angola's murderous Jonas Savimbi. [...] By November 1985, the Wall
Street Journal reported that "President Reagan endorsed covert aid for the
insurgents [UNITA], a move welcomed by right-wing groups." Among the
stalwart supporters of UNITA were the anti-Castro Cuban American National
Foundation, the American Republic Foundation, a group established by the
College Republican National Committee, the American Angolan Public Affairs
Council, an offshoot of Free the Eagle, a group also supporting Afghan
"freedom fighters," and the Conservative Caucus. Savimbi worked the
lobbyist front, hiring the well-connected Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly,
Inc., a firm focusing on polishing Savimbi's image. [...] Revisiting Angola
is a solemn reminder of one of this country's major foreign policy failures
-- resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths, a devastated countryside
and too many still being maimed and killed. It is also sobering to think
that many of the same government officials responsible for the ongoing
tragedy in Angola are leading the Bush Administration's response to the
September 11 terrorist attacks. Finally, it would be foolish to forget that
a major source of the terrorism leveling Angola was nurtured by the Reagan
administration."
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11798

* * *

"[...] Après le 11 septembre, vous avez fait une conférence sur Beowulf à
l'université de Syracuse.

J'ai parlé de Beowulf, un poème épique du IXe siècle, à cause de sa
description du monstre, Grendel. Le monstre est incompréhensible, il n'a
pas de père, c'est une aberration. Il ne veut ni votre richesse, ni votre
pays. Juste vous tuer et vous manger. J'avais aussi lu ce livre de John
Gardner, Grendel, écrit du point de vue du monstre. Le monstre est séduit
par le poète et, pour la première fois il se sent honteux, humain. J'avais
travaillé sur ce thème pendant l'été puis laissé tomber. Mais quand le
World Trade Center s'est écroulé et que j'ai entendu les mots employés
-«qui sont ces gens, que veulent-ils, le Bien et le Mal...»- j'ai décidé de
faire cette conférence pour que les étudiants comprennent qu'il pouvait y
avoir quelque chose entre le complètement monstrueux, qui existait
simplement, dénué de sens, et le point de vue du monstre. "

Toni Morrison, in an interview published today in Liberation, on a topic
worth considering when MDMD reaches the story of the Lambton Worm, if not
sooner:
http://www.liberation.com/livres/2001oct/2510morrison.html

* * *

"[...] Postal union officials say that Capitol police dogs were tested for
anthrax before postal workers, whose test only began yesterday" ("World
News," ABC, 10/23).[...]"
http://www.theatlantic.com/hotline/

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Zone/911 is an occasional enewsletter published by
www.Online-Journalist.com. It seeks shards of  the shattered geopolitical
crystal palace loosely linked by tangential threads that lead, eventually
and sometimes in very roundabout ways, to the works of Thomas Ruggles
Pynchon. Article excerpts appear without prior authorization of their
originating publications under established "fair use" principles. The
Editor encourages readers to click on the enclosed urls and read excerpted
articles in their entirety, monitor a broad spectrum of information
sources, and use their brains to integrate their own understanding of the
post-911 Situation. Feedback:  bozo at online-journalist.com.
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