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1LibraryPerilous
I saw this on John Scalzi's blog and thought the story sounded interesting. Google searches were unsuccessful. Does anyone have any ideas?:
"Some years back, there was an SF short story in which a stand-up comic drove a group of terrorists into apoplexy by lampooning their actions — without slandering the majority who superficially shared some of the historical characteristics of the terrorists. (If memory serves, it didn’t end well for the comic.) Can’t remember the title or author, but seems eerily prophetic in hindsight."
ETA: Ah, someone replied on the blog with the suggestion it's Dean Ing's "A Very Proper Charlie." Can anyone confirm this?
"Some years back, there was an SF short story in which a stand-up comic drove a group of terrorists into apoplexy by lampooning their actions — without slandering the majority who superficially shared some of the historical characteristics of the terrorists. (If memory serves, it didn’t end well for the comic.) Can’t remember the title or author, but seems eerily prophetic in hindsight."
ETA: Ah, someone replied on the blog with the suggestion it's Dean Ing's "A Very Proper Charlie." Can anyone confirm this?
2lesmel
Found online: Very Proper Charlies - Dean Ing
Major media agrees to not cover terrorist activity at all except to turn it into comedy routines.
Major media agrees to not cover terrorist activity at all except to turn it into comedy routines.
3LibraryPerilous
>2 lesmel: Further digging on Scalzi's blog—should have read, not skimmed!—has yielded this:
"\It might be\ an allusion to Bug Jack Barron, the 1969 novel (and Hugo nominee) by Norman Spinrad. Though, in the Spinrad novel it is a coalition/conspiracy of news announces (IIRC) that chose to refer to terrorists as “Very proper Charlies."
I'm a bit cringey about something from the 1960s/70s that uses the word 'Charlie' to describe terrorists. I'll see if I can track down a copy of the novel and give it a skim, at least. The concept sounds interesting.
"\It might be\ an allusion to Bug Jack Barron, the 1969 novel (and Hugo nominee) by Norman Spinrad. Though, in the Spinrad novel it is a coalition/conspiracy of news announces (IIRC) that chose to refer to terrorists as “Very proper Charlies."
I'm a bit cringey about something from the 1960s/70s that uses the word 'Charlie' to describe terrorists. I'll see if I can track down a copy of the novel and give it a skim, at least. The concept sounds interesting.
4Cecrow
Was thinking on this idea further, and seems like a reverse Brave New World. It's been a long while since I read it, but I faintly recall the majority in that novel resorted to making fun of the rational minority, when they couldn't make any other sense of the minority's position. Proved (depressingly, in that case) effective.
5LibraryPerilous
>4 Cecrow: You know, I really need to read both Brave New World and 1984. Thanks for pointing out this parallel; it adds an incentive.
6dukedom_enough
The ISFDB reference to "Very Proper Charlies". I remember reading a story like this: acts of terror ridiculed by the media, robbing the terrorists of the shock they seek. My memory put it earlier than the 1978 publication date, but I do have this issue of Destinies, so I probably am remembering the Dean Ing story.
