What are we reading lately

[Paul Mackin]

On Sat, 2004-05-29 at 16:21, umberto rossi wrote:
> In data 29 May 2004, verso le 14:53, Paul Mackin si trovò a scrivere 
> su What are we reading lately:
> 
> > The prevalence of Umberto's posts in the last few days prompts me to ask
> > if anyone besides myself is reading Q by a certain "Luther Blissett?" The
> > book is said to have actually been written by four semi-anonymous Italian
> > literary types (I've got the translation of course). Even wondered if our
> > Umberto might be one of the authors but guess he would have said
> > something.
> 
> I can write better than them any day of the week, though I admit I am 
> not sure I can write a novel that is as funny as theirs! Jokes apart, 
> they are a very successful bunch of writers who hide behind that 
> collective name. They have written lots of novels, either under the 
> LB denomination or as Wu Ming (sometime the members of the collective 
> publish individual works, but in order to exploit the popularity of 
> the brand name they sign the novel as Wu Ming 5 or Wu Ming 4).
> 
> > The novel, which deals with event surrounding the Reformation in Germany
> > and Holland, is even longer than Gravity's Rainbow but a very easy read. A
> > lot of fun.
> 
> One of the members of the LB collective has openly said that his 
> model is Emilio Salgari, probably our best adventure novelist. He was 
> an Edgar R. Burroughs with a political consciousness and better 
> researching abilities. His most famous character, Sandokan, is a 
> Malay pirate prince who fights against British colonial domination. 
> Salgari wrote no-global stuff well before anybody dreamed of it. He 
> worked at the end of the XIX century and committed suicide when he 
> was still quite young. LB produce well-researched adventure novel 
> with a very fast pace, which hide more or less overt allegories of 
> today's political situation. Q, whose title is obviously a hommage to 
> TRP, tells the story of the ill-fated Anabaptist revolution in 
> Muenster, led by theologian and revolutionary thinker Thomas Muntzer. 
> After the revolt has been drown in blood, Muentzer's companions 
> escape and live undercover in many parts of 16th-century Europe, 
> hunted by this Brock-Vond like secret agent whose name is Q., who 
> works for the reactionary Catholic powers (his employer, cardinal 
> Carafa, was one of the most sordid figures in Italian history, but 
> that's another story). I guess the story should hint at the sad 
> destiny of (Italian) left after the Seventies and the Reaganian 
> reaction.
> 
> Anyway, the LB/Wu Ming collective is Bologna-based and officially 
> left-wing, I guess they consider themselves as quasi-Marxist 
> intellectuals. I have never had the pleasure to meet them, but I 
> guess they are shrewd cultural operators who have found a viable 
> formula for commercial success. Sometime I find their anti-
> Americanism a bit excessive (see their SF novel Havana Glam), but I 
> have to admit their books are good reads... obviously those who think 
> Pynchon was a crypto-Reaganite might dislike their stuff.


Thanks for the information. Right from the start (I'm still only a third
of the way in) the modern overtones of the story are inescapable. Partly
it's the very current mode of expression. A stupid person is called a
shit-head for example. Of course those folks were much tougher than we
21st Century softies. The Anabaptists are the 24fps Collective? Or any
any other Left in disarray? 

Wonder if it was (like Pynchon sez) a case of the Anabaptists and the
peasants not being able to get together. But unlike the modern parallel
the peasants DID stage a revolt.

Maybe the Anabaptists could be the Environmental Movement. They tended
to believe that the end of the world was nigh.

Biggest concentrations of Anabaptists today are in the U.S. and Canada.
They are called Mennonites and are quite moderate having lost their
revolutionary zeal. I've known a few in the Northwest U.S.