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Loading... The Hunt for Red October (Special 15th Anniversary Edition) (original 1984; edition 1999)by Tom Clancy
Work InformationThe Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy (1984)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Well, if a classic author is one who survives his own death, then I guess that Tom has at least a modest claim to be the maker of classicsâten years cold in his grave, and heâs still shelved in CVS (pharmacy) next to a recent Danielle Steel novel and the latest Zig & Nola book. I suppose thatâs sorta an accomplishment. Of course, books arenât all intellectual; in a way a healthy vegan protein bar is a more intellectual thing to buy than the books they sell in a pharmacy, but thereâs more to life than looking down on oneâs neighbors, too. Sometimes they get more things right than we think. And, sure, Tom could be a bit of a Cold Warrior, Americaâs right by definition, and apparently sometimes he felt a little sorry for himself, (maybe not the healthiest person), Theyâre coming for the Irish Catholics, I tell ya, the dark night of communism is going to set over our empire, etc etc., but, what are you gonna do. Boys like guns and other boys on their side who like guns, and they donât like being told that theyâre wrong about things, because if that happens they have to cry to the Mother, because youâre not allowed to just shoot people in the real world, you know. And people can be asses, you know. Although actually thatâs one of the beliefs Iâm trying to release; me over here, you all over there. Anyway. âŚ. And I mean, Iâm not more fond of Russians than other people, or Americans. Of course, Cold War Clancy isnât necessarily the best thriller writer. Personally, or whatever, the characters are very obvious and technically the writing is very metallic, and in both areas thereâs not much of a sense of mystery, you know. Itâs all pretty apparent right away, whereas I think in a good thriller you have no idea, for sure, whoâs conspiring with who, or even whoâs a good person, you know. I donât know. I probably wonât read any of his other books, at this point. âŚ. I mean, I guess if youâre going to have a one-dimensional Mr Bad type villain, itâs nice to have him be a man named Putin, and hilarious that this was written in the 80s, a decade before he came to power, when Vladimir was nobody, right. But nothing /consciously/ hilarious, right. No, no, no, no you girlsâŚ. (Franz Ferdinand, lol, although I have No! memory left of how that song went, you knowâŚ.). âŚ. Re: âmaybe my doctor is better at politics than doctoringâ I donât know if itâs realistic for Ramius to have had this thought, but obviously weâre supposed to take it at face value that itâs true, and I donât think it is. For many years the doctors of East Germany were mostly ex-Nazisâthe Nazis had loved the doctor classâbut the commies couldnât do anything about it because they needed doctors even though they naturally Hated! Nazis, right. Itâs not like it is with lawyering: âAll the old laws are over youâre fired.â A heart doctor in the modern world is a heart doctor, even if heâs a cold-blooded freak, you know. Of course, doctors also left East Germany for better wages in the West, which is understandable and semi-good, you know. I mean, I guess somebody has to doctor every part of the world, but normatively speaking a healer should be paid well. âŚ. And just in general, I didnât get Ramiusâs character. The Soviets had a bogus system in many ways, but people universally are influenced by what theyâre taught in youth, and when they break away, there tends to be some dramatic psychological story to that, and generally a sort of lingering influence. A Russian Soviet dissatisfied with the system isnât just interchangeable with someone from New York, you know. To the extent that Ramius has a character, it seems like heâs been beamed from America into the heart of the Soviet Navy by the starship Enterprise, you know. âŚ. And I know itâs just bad fiction, but in a way itâs scary, because some of Clancyâs people probably think everyone whoâs a dissent in any way, or even not a Republican or not a âChristianâ or a âcapitalistâ to their satisfaction, (although: is capitalism still a thing for Republicans after DeSantis using government authority to harass cartoonists he doesnât like?), is like, I donât know, a Klingon infiltrator beamed into America by the starship Gook Power, right; and totally, totally alienated without any backstory, just instantly cleanly and totally separate from America or âthe real Americaâ or whatever and a dangerous enemy that would as soon steal nukes and give them to terrorists as publish cartoons mildly subversive of 1950s stereotypes, right. ItâsâŚ. Weird, the way people think sometimes. âŚ. I really do think that Ramius was always kinda a Little American inside in the story; he just knew that Pope John Paul II was the Real, Captain!âbut I think if he had really been raised up in a militarist tyranny, he would have believed the system when he was young, and he would have converted to being a dissent when he ruined somebodyâs life for the Partyâs sake or beat somebody to a bloody pulp (figuratively or literally) for no reason, because it was âpatrioticâ or âsocialistâ or whatever, and then after that he would have recoiled in fear and disgust from what he had become, and secretly begun to loath the system for corrupting him until eventually he was willing to risk his life to defy it. But in American propaganda fiction itâs like, âEven as a young boy, when all the other little children were sacrificing sheep and goats to Zombie Lenin, I was reading books about Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics, because, even at that early age, I just Knew, what Any Little American would have knownâŚ. Mel Gibson is a great actor!!!!â You know, itâs justâ itâs just not. Thatâs the meanest thing you can say about anything, any story, and Iâm saying that about this. This story never happened. âA story written in a book is as true as if it had really happened.â Given quality control, Ernest, yes. It doesnât have to be like âThe Old Man And The Seaâ and famous and shit, but then it canât just be like, Little America (cf Little Englander) electioneering, either. In a world of infinite possibilitiesâŚ. Some things, are bullshit. âŚ. The whole military angle makes it kinda weird, too. âI want freedom! Freedom to be an artist! Freedom to be who Eye want to be! Freedom to wear blue jeans and read censored literature and listen to sexy music! Guys: letâs join the US Navy! We wonât be âcollectivistâ like baseball and basketball players, weâll be Individualists, individualists in the true, follow-orders-or-go-to-military-prison, tradition!â A lot of East-to-West dissident stories probably make sense, but this one does not; it really doesnât. âŚ. Even the advantages the West had over the Soviets are twisted by the bogus nature of the writing, you know. âYou said you hate communism because itâs antagonistic to faith. Yet even people of faith sometimes have doubt, sometimes even in formally religious environments. In your case, everyone was telling you that you were wrong, and that God didnât exist. Did you ever doubt? âNo! As soon as I saw the Mona Lisa; Iâknew! Iâknew! âTheâŚ. Mona Lisa? âYeah, one of those damn paintings. The pompous ones, you know. The ones everyone tells you are good. âRiiight, even in atheist dictatorshipsâŚ. You found an art book or something? âI snuck out of Soviet Union and visited Italy. It was the first great adventure of my life. âRiiight; Very Plausible; okayâŚ. âŚ. But I canât help but get the feel that if you tried to explore these inconsistencies with a Clancy Bot, it would be like: âHey listen. My father (grandfather/buddy from workâs relative/whatever) Fought Hitler! In Battle! He was a good man. Men are good menâWHEN, theyâre good men! âWhat am I supposed to do with this information. âStand down. Surrender. Obey. âAnd be an individual! Golly! âBe an individual in your obedience to the True Faith. âWho wouldnât want that? âHeretics, theyâre called, son. âŚ. It is kinda like being an âun-personâ, hating things. Youâre an American man! Youâre an un-Soviet un-woman! You negate, children; you negate!âŚ. I am me, and everything else is part of the vast universal not-me energy in the heart of Hitler, you know. âŚ. But hopefully Iâll get used to it (even though this will be the only one by this author for me, it is 600+ pages), and even enjoy it, despite it being not the âgenuine literatureâ (brag-y stuff) that he contrasts with bad-bad propaganda, you know. God knows we donât have any propaganda in Republican Party Americaâjust truth and guts and freedom! Although we do like to watch wrastlinâ on Saturday night; Jesus knows thatâs better than any heady-yet-not-genuine-literature agitprop! 𤪠âŚ. Shit, it is kinda funny though. âNo hazing at Vilnius Academyâ. (Good training, ethnic slur, no harassment, âterrorismâ.) Itâs like this Russian guy is the Sunday Best of America instead of the real thing. In the Marines, God knows, or even the Navy, they probably would call you a Polack or whatever you were, or whatever the term is for âblackâ, right; and training, like poetry, is for sissiesâthe real training is when they haze you, God knows they would; theyâd haze you for being a college student, join the Army or the Marines or even the NavyâŚ. Kiss your ass goodbye. âŚ. Wow, courtesy of boring people: shop talk. Iâll say one thing and hopefully I donât have to bother too much more: itâs a terrible title. The âRed Octoberââie 1917âwas a good thing in Soviet mythology, therefore the title would work better as a Soviet agitprop piece than an American one. I mean, itâs like if Comrade Leningrad wrote a book about an American sub going over to the Russian side, and the sub is called the âFourth of Julyâ, so itâs called âThe Hunt for the Fourth of Julyâ. It sounds like a Simon & Garfunkel song though, not a âredâ song. Tomâs just a terrible writer; heâs not good with people, or ideas, orâŚ. Words. Sometimes classics disappoint. I can only imagine what future generations think of âHarry Potterâ, buoyed up by the sales and the continued popularity and whatnot. âAll he does is cut classâŚ. And preside over a popularity club. Whatâs the point? Is this supposed to be adventure fiction, or sit-com-y?â And with this itâs likeâŚ. Well, if he wrote it at Clancyâs Pub when he was supposed to be cooking hamburgers, I guess thatâs something. Itâs a shop talk novel. Itâs about being normal. âŚ. (maybe the end) Because the one thing about books that guys write is that, half the time, no matter how popular and basic and would-be-humble it is, there tends to be that burden of pseudo-intellectualism, you know. I guess itâs a burden for us, this way of being male we create for ourselves: youâve got to shoot the shit with the other boys, and remind them that you know more than them. Remind the other boys, that they are NOT your friends! đ¸ Or, you know, theyâre your friends alright, but in an ambivalent way. If, when you crush them, they refuse to show vulnerability, theyâre your friend, and when you have an emotional crisisâŚ. You refuse to talk about it with them, anyway. đ¸ âŚ. Anyway, itâs a patriotic thriller. Iâm not saying my life would be better if I were living in England or some other place, but I find it difficult not to make fun of patriotic music. Itâs likeâŚ. (If all your friends decide youâre square, just start singing patriotic songsâremind people youâre an American! ~ Grand Old Flag, is it called?). I donât know. It is what it is, I guess. âŚ. (song) If tomorrow all the things were gone, that I paid money for Iâd be so glad, poor white soldier man, I never liked capitalism I was always afraid itâd make me soft and gay; Iâm afraid to like my wife!âŚ.. (chorus) But I like to pound her in the bed; I like to pound her hard I cry out theorems of math, I do not understand She cries out, America! AmericaâŚ. In, bed!âŚ. Iâll try to stop now. đšđ âŚ. I just feel like the book should be about a Marine who shot fifty people in battle. Thatâs what I feel like Iâm dealing with, if only he would come at me straight. I guess I just donât âgetâ conservativesâwe donât like technocrats who are out of touch; we like tough men, you know. If only people talked like Tom Clancy! âHave you read Tom Clancy? âI played the video game. âŚ. (Marines of different races are playing cards) Man, those technocrats are out of touch. Itâs the Air Force! Iâm telling you, manâthose people think theyâre better than we are! âI couldnât agree more. (Tom Clancy) Heyâpipe down! âŚ. That being said, I believe in capitalism, but conservatives I think in general do not; they believe in man-ism, you know. A man loves his raceâtribesmen and children and laysâand his military and possibly the government if it doesnât try to take away Being a Man from him; a man stigmatizes the poor as useless but also the rich as foreign and feminine; (Breaking Bad guy) And he does it because heâs a man ~ a man has many faces, different shades of pale, but in general contradictions need not be contended with, only the enemies of out-of-touch military technocrats. âŚ. One time my dad pointed to his chest and said, If EYE have 90% of the market, EYE control the market! ~On the one hand, the logic is broken, you know. (mafia stance) You gonna buy that potato, lady? Thatâs a quality Idaho potato you got in your hand!!! ~ And also, itâs counterfactual in that my father never has serviced 90% of, any, market. Incidentally a man-ism believer need not be a soldier, although he can be, obviously, although it works the other way, too, some ex-soldiers do okay, but many are man-ism people and some end up homeless and so on, not just because of war trauma and general citizen neglect, but also because many guys leave the military without many useful skills, which is probably not a big military-technocrat-disaster-scenario-workshop-topic, you know, at least not according to the grunts who report feeling like disposable garbage, rightâŚ. But a man-ism person can also be a guy who doesnât know how to soldier or fight, but is impressed with the fact that heâs bigger and taller than his girlfriend, the way a monkey is bigger and heavier than a rabbit, probably, right. But itâs all for capitalism. Free choice, dammit! Thatâs right, nothing to see here: men at work, thatâs all! đ¸ âŚ. And I mean, I donât see myself as an atavist (past-worshipper), but in the past in most countries warriors were often like samurai or something, rather than machine-like HK-47 characters (an assassin droid from Star Wars). Pleased: Good, master. I enjoy hurting those too squishy to be as callous as I am, ahâŚ. Except for you, master. âŚ. One has to smile when the person who gropes for characterization or any sort of moral content like a blind man in the dark, and who does not desire compassion, informs you that the God of Obedience is on his side in the Great Struggle Against Collectivism, you know. Can you imagine the government or whoever saying, People in the USSR have no rights. They donât need to have the people bludgeoning them bludgeoned to death in the name of peace; they need a civil rights struggle! After all, MLK was an American! No, you canât imagine the government /actually/ liking MLK. (Buddy Holly) âCause thatâll be the day-aye-aye, that I die!âŚ. And anyway, the result of the economic/spy bludgeoning way is that in Russia itself it was very temporary, really. The people didnât take it for themselves, so they couldnât hold it; they couldnât psychically grasp it. Many people either saw it as something that had been taken from them, or else saw the whole thing as a general-pessimism explicable defeat, so they were ready to see old wolves come back in new clothing. âOh good,â said the spook. âThereâs someone else left to bludgeon; good, good. HK-47 will be pleased. And I know we can trust that male machine!â đ¸ And of course, once the Ukraine war starts, you have to send the guns to Kyiv, but the existence of that war implies that guns and bludgeoning didnât really plant âcapitalism and freedomâ very firmly, if at all, really. âŚ. War/Battle: The Great Patriotic Struggle Against Collectivism Commanders/Armies: (blah blah blah) Result: Major Strategic Military Victory for international forces of decentralization, peace, NATO, etcâŚ. âŚ. But he is somewhat better at writing Americans than somewhat implausible foreigners, you know: I mean, he doesnât like foreigners, so theyâre like un-American Americans or something; itâs a little weird. And of course, itâs fun-with-stilted-Dick-and-John, you knowâŚ. I guess the end of the Cold War was a sort of negative victory, you know; Lord knows the USSR was a little weird and the Cold War was a little not okay, rightâŚ. Though of course the classic Clancy fan doesnât want the end of the Cold War to be this inspiring victory for Life, you know; even Star Trek can be very life-denying; there just canât be a girl whoâs important or worthy of respect, and this is obviously the same sort of thing, you know. Though at times, the Americans chatting like a computer network crunching numbers can be a sort of stilted-Dick-and-John fun, almost enough to make you believe in the Star Trek sort of storyâŚ. But, as Iâve probably implied, sometimes the classics are for chumps. âŚ. Itâs middle amusing; its main flaw is a confusion of genres. If itâs going to be a mass market paperback that the pharmacy carries, a book for every grunt and wanna-be grunt, it should be about some sailor on a submarine or some other sort of Navy ship, you knowâbecause if being at sea on a warship miles away from any woman, doing secret loose-lips-sink-ships stuff, if THAT isnât masculine enoughâŚ. I mean, I guess you have to personally talk to the President to be a real man? And if itâs trying to be literary and âgoodââOh, sir, I have many many MANY Bach CDs, and this isnât the best one, even; Iâm happy to sacrifice it for the American Causeâthen they should try dropping the technobabble and writing real characters, unless they donât want to write a novel at all but some sort of speculative military science book, in which case they should drop the pretense of dialogue and write that, rightâŚ. You know, it just doesnât add up to what a sailor would really be like, whether common or elite; it just gets by by muddling through and confusing genres. âŚ. You know, I realize that Clancy-like books are common, I guess, so in one sense itâs its own genre and not a confusion of genres, but I wonder. In some Third World countries written literature has only just begun in recent decades, for the longest time it was just stories about kings and gods told orally, you know. In America/the West we think of ourselves as having more because weâve had a mass literature for 200 years give or take a few decades, and aristocratic books for several thousand, not, nothing until the beginning of the post-colonial period or something, right. But I wonder. It seems to me like there is still a lot of shame about being the ordinary man, even without all the rest of it; stories about the military for us are about the military technobabble and those few who understood it, for most people, at least, the story of the ordinary real man, even, isnât something thatâs dawned for him, yet. Is it just too low and common, or about too brutal and ordinary a life? Only kings and gods, right? I donât know. Maybe weâll look back and say that in the 20th/21st century, they had only just begun, and that existent forms left a lot to be desired, you know. âŚ. Or maybe popular male culture is just inherently hierarchical and elitist; the ordinary real man dreams that he is the god-king, and has no desire to know what his own life is likeâŚ. âŚ. Which isnât to say that any sort of writing, any genre, is necessarily realistic, really; itâs just that that in and of itself is not an attraction, I think. âWow! Nothing like thatâs ever happened to me! How cool!â And if you can separate out ârealismâ from being true-to-life, the lack of the latter is indeed a flaw. People often think that lots of technobabble is the same as dealing out some truth, you know, butâŚ. I dunno! 𼸠âŚ. It is true that the cop/soldier type isnât always that get-on-the-news-for-being awful type, and that there are problems with the system Does explain Some personal faults, you know; itâs just that I donât think that Tom is a good example of the âgood sailorâ or whatever. Thereâs so much plot, but it doesnât require much of anybody as a person. The brief âfillerâ about family and football, almost requires more, sometimes; perhaps, sometimes, it certainly does, you know. But I donât see it all getting tied in together like a really good storyteller would do. The gunâs above the fireplace in Act One just because he has a realism-speculation that somebody hunts deer, you know. (Stupid custom, really, since the deer arenât out to hurt anybody, you know, and itâs hardly a fair fight, or a necessary one. Butâokay okayâIâll stop.) âŚ. (womanâs voice) (irritated) He just writes so, ugly! (Homer) (laughs) Donât talk ugly, my friendâitâs boring! It makes it harder to keep the women down! (woman) (makes irritated sound) âŚ. Just lots of strange, complicated hierarchies, men and women, different nationalities, (even allies), even ~ surface ships and submarines; and itâs always like, youâve got everything, but you trip one thing, youâre dead, basically. Just very strange thought processes. Itâs strange that they would put this out there, look at me, if Iâm not normal, nobody can! Normal! Normal! goâŚ. Crazy, I mean, normal!âŚ. Because even better than the fighting, is the suspicion. Itâs like they train them to be suspicious. You canât fight well unless youâre a little off most of the time! âŚ. I mean, wow, Iâm trying not to belabor this: but being in the military must be boring as Fuck, you knowâŚ. âŚ. Anyway, because this is so boring let me cut away and say this: Americans love to talk about military people in semi-sacred terms, but I think if we really felt that way about them we would ~ pay them more, you know. But really if you looked at it, most of the money in most instances goes to the equipment, because itâs a machine, not a church. Even in WWI there probably werenât really That many war-poets, and thatâs certainly not what the system sweats about, you know. I donât know. I donât think we really try to develop them that much. We just tell them that people arenât allowed to disagree with them, which is the sort of skill set/attitude that we generally do Not pay them that well for. And basically, at the end of the day, itâs a borrowed power they have at best, because itâs not the people you canât disagree with, itâs the machine. Now donât get me wrong, weâre nowhere near the sort of energy as a society or as a planet where we can just not have a militaryâbut I donât see why we have to get so dewy-eyed about the machine, you know. Do machines get dewy-eyed over us? Do aircraft techs wax rhapsodic about the American corn field, or slap businessmen on the back for paying the taxes of 100 normal people, paying for, you knowâŚ. Machines, basically. (shrugs) âŚ. And donât forget: ALL lives matter; FUCK Joe Biden!! ~ And itâs like, Oh Jesus; heâs not being ironic is he; help me Jesusâitâs too funnyâŚ. Canât breathe, canât breathe with the laffs, mommy; too many laffsâŚ. đš âŚ. It makes me laff how itâs kinda anti-socialist realism, you know. Anything to be different from socialist realism, except, I donât know, just, being the man of flesh, right. ~ Donât feel/guts of steel/being in the (service) is realâŚ. I mean, when you basically call Mr Psychiatrist MD a weak-willed little girl or whatever he implied; itâs like, oh my godâŚ. đ¸âŚ. Earth to Real-man Agitprop central, come in Real-man agitprop centralâŚ. đš âŚ. The thing is, just like romance is an adventure, the heroâs home and marriage Do count for something, you know, and itâs kinda a slight to have a book, and a long book, and a book without any shooting or violence or ârushâ even, just daddy dicking around in the office with the other daddies counting subs and practicing his excellent skills of a computer (vaguely described, so you donât actually have to know anything to follow it), and his home and marriage count for literally zero, counting against Day #8,122 of the Cold War, Washington Post story Page 3B, move on, nothing to see here; I meanâŚ. Itâs a slight. It really is. âŚ. Itâs kinda funny how all this CIA spy crap is like tyranny-lite, you know. (Mad-Men-ad actor) (holding it up) Tyranny lite: itâll keep you away from the hard stuffâŚ. âŚ. Thereâs just no character work at all. I mean, ensemble casts can be greatâI love âGossip Girlââbut itâs so exaggerated, itâs like a parody; there are like 4,000 characters, like a novel that thinks itâs an encyclopedia, so there Are no characters, just namesânames heaped on namesâI mean, thereâs like, This is so fun; there are so many characters; itâs about a little world, a community, and then thereâsâ â(quietly, resentfully) Itâs not âGossip Girlâ. âŚ. I know Iâm repeating myself, but I think itâs weird how in a âcapitalist economyâ military jobs are filled, it seems, based on stoking up prideâbragging rightsârather than finding a good fit for your skill sets and ambitions. I guess thatâs why we donât pay them wellâwe figure theyâre not in it for dollars. And of course, heâs like the self-sacrificing mother, albeit one who hates the other mothers more than would be usual for a womanâŚ. I wonder why people assume that not liking girls is a necessary part of havingâor âdefendingâ, if not exactly practicingâthe money systemâŚ. âŚ. And I know that the 80s were a different times, geopolitically, but thereâs probably a reason why our counter-insurgency wars with a poorly-paid army havenât gone all that well. Encourage pride and coarseness, pay people to be, I donât know, the unlettered grunts, and treat them that way, and figure you can make up for it with high-tech bombs and expensive computersâŚ. Youâre just not going to have the human skills to get people to choose not to bomb you on and off for forever, until eventually they win, you know. âŚ. So there was a little shooting, but it was kinda like ~ Dallek In Danger/Doctor in Dangerâyou know, like: maybe not âexterminate!â but, something equally subtle: something about plot points in a novel without characterizationâŚ. Most âgood soldiersâ are alike. Generally speaking, there only appear to be two of them, you know. âŚ. Hopefully Iâll be out of the woods soon; this book would have been twice as good if it had been half as longâthereâs not a lot of emotion or character, or even plot; maybe half of it is plot, but the other half is semi-sci-fi, just learning how to emote like the car mechanic that tempts people to write off all car mechanics, if they canââthat car mechanicâ, you knowâalthough not all car mechanics are like that, you know. And I would like to learn about practical stuff, even technical and mechanical stuff, itâs just thatâŚ. I mean, this isnât going to make you like car mechanics, (maybe itâll make you hate their enemies theâŚ. the Other car mechanics!), thatâs more like âA Man Called Oveâ, you knowâand what a crusty old motorhead Ove is, though I assume he survives, and want him to, you know. Not like that, Ove; you donât die like thatâŚ. And on the other side, semi-sci-fi posturing doesnât bring you closer to actually being the classic mechanically able male, you know: it just brings you closer to trying to slice and dice away the gratitude if you succeed, and double the trouble if you donât know as much as your sister or your nephew, you know. So. Thereâs that. đ¸ âŚ. So, hopefully weâre wrapping things up here, except for the reprise of âOn The Townâ (1949)âa VERY Tom Clancy kind of movie, you know đšâit is possible that Tom Clancy will survive, and be one of those poorer-written classics, like the Count of Monte Christo guy, or the mom who bore the weird kid with the lightning-shaped tattoo, who can be distressingly normal, rightâŚ. I mean, Clancy wasnât a blockbuster-maker, IMO, but he is in CVS pharmacies, you knowâŚ. And, you know, Dickens isnât really that âgoodâ of a literature, although heâs middling, and fashionable, and I like him better than Clancyâs Cold War Burger joint, you knowâŚ. (âI like the âRed Octoberâ. But it needs more garlic. Will you tell the chef that for me?â LolâŚ.) But he certainly doesnât write characters well. Each character is a vague national stereotype, or perhaps a gender stereotypeâŚ. And I mean, how could the submarine captain guy have gotten a Perfect Record for being loyal, for being the Patriot of the Month for 100 times in a row or whatever, if he NEVER believed? How do you NEVER believe what people tell you? How exactly did he pull off the whole Epic Duplicity thing? People in this book are always either piddling over screwdrivers, or maybe pontificating aboutâŚ. What? Nationality? Politics? What do they pontificate about anyway, except the need for pontification itselfâŚ. I mean, I live in America and I know that the American system has its smiling face, you know, its meritsâbut what does an intelligent person who lives somewhere else, or who is struck with some unhappy itineration of the American story, who reads this, think of those of us who dare to be a little optimistic about our lives and the systemâs ability to respond to growth, of various kinds, you knowâŚ. I mean, they must think weâre deep into our third cup of Kool-Aid, you know. âŚ. âGee wilickers, Ivan, didnât you know that Everything In America Is Swell? (TM) (fifties ad smile). And isnât that exactly what creates dissidents, you know. Before the 60s people were very naive and trusting, and then one day they learned about the Native Americans and they lost their fucking minds. They had no program to process problems, because theyâd been told, and accepted, that America was like a pop song, only more rational and masculine, rightâŚ. They didnât have the tools to process anything else, so they just broke down, so to speak. Had to start from scratch. And itâs very tyrannical, but also very naive, to assume that you can just flick your wrists and order people back to âgee wilickersâ. Itâs not even how people react in Navy, you know. Sailors swear and curse and grumble and gamble and plan for the day when itâll be over, you know. Having them flock around Ivan and do an unpaid commercialâŚ. I mean, it is unfortunate that ads are almost the only places where people promote cheery-faced solutions to problems, but be that as it may, people do NOT say, you know, âGee wilickers, Ivan, do you wanna watch Leave It To Beaver with Bosun Jimbob and me?â You know, itâs likeâŚ. Why do you have to lie? Is your argument, you know, not good? Whatâs going on hereâŚ. âŚ. And I mean, I think that âThe Hobbitâ is probably a pretty good novel, and maybe even âThe Lord of the Ringsâ, and a lot of other decent boy books are also narrated from the top of Mount Olympus, but as for âRed Octoberââsuch a bad title for a rah-rah America book, you knowâI really donât think Iâve ever seen a poorer use made of the third person omniscient narrator, you knowâŚ. (shrugs) But I never have to go back to Clancyâs Cold War Tap & Burger, you knowâand going there that one time, well, that was something I hadnât done before. This book was a real struggle. I wanted to finish it because I like submarine stories, but the narrative was dominated by high-tech submariner background information that got in the way of the story itself. The first two-thirds of the book were dire, and even though it picked up in pace after that it was still a flimsy throwaway. no reviews | add a review
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HTML:Don't Miss the Original Series Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Starring John Krasinski! The #1 New York Times bestseller that launched the phenomenal career of Tom Clancyâ??a gripping military thriller that introduced the world to his unforgettable hero, Jack Ryanâ??nominated as one of Americaâ??s best-loved novels by PBSâ??s The Great American Read. Somewhere under the freezing Atlantic, a Soviet sub commander has just made a fateful decision. The Red October is heading west. The Americans want her. The Russians want her back. The chase for the highly advanced nuclear submarine is onâ??and thereâ??s only one man who can find her... Brilliant CIA analyst Jack Ryan has little interest in fieldwork, but when covert photographs of Red October land on his desk, Ryan soon finds himself in the middle of a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek played by two world powersâ??a game that coul No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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