tone deaf

TONE DEAF

Ah, Rawles, you silly sod. Now, I usually spare no sarcasm over Rawlsian Survivalism, which is basically Yuppie Scum Survivalism. Everything middle class, so as to suffer no inconvenience or suffer from the lack of any luxuries. These are the people that cannot bug out to New Zealand, but do insist on freeze dried caviar and $8k sniper rifles in fifty caliber. They spend so much on each piece of equipment that they cannot afford back-ups. But they Bought Once And Cried Once, by gum! But Rawles is not without his charm and his uses.

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Before he jumped the shark on his blog and hired an editor to post other peoples writing ( so, pimping out his name for hookers and blow money ), he was an adequate daily read. Often enough, there was unique useful information. But now the desperate fame seekers aren't offering up many articles in hopes of carnival prizes, and there isn't much to pick from. Even months after Beer Virus. And his books? You could chart them and get a straight southern direction as far as usefulness. His first book was rightfully a survival classic. I put it in my Top 20 PA fiction list ( granted, near the bottom-but still an honor! )

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His last novel was simply unreadable. Even with Kindle Unlimited. It was nothing more than a shopping list to build not a prepper compound but a prepper country. On a list of feasible events, monkey's would fly out of my ass before the events of this story transpired. Not that unbelievable stories aren't good stories. I used to enjoy D&D fantasy and Libertarian science fiction. I STILL enjoy talking ape detectives and sentient dolphins in The Probability Broach. And that after abandoning Libertarianism and most sci-fi except apocalyptic.

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But the book was just a terrible novel. It was crap. Like someone else wrote the thing, or Rawles simply didn't care. He phoned it in, after snorting that blow and experiencing bouts of syphilis induced insanity from the hooker ( not that I'm knocking syphilis-I mean, Nietzsche was actually a god, despite his premature proclamation of his own passing. But, dag, that is one heck of a price to pay for mental enlightenment. Just ask Joe Biden. Insanity is a nice vacation destination, but nowhere you'd want to live ). But Jim, you sarcastic bunghole, you shouldn't make fun of those taking their religion seriously!

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Shouldn't I? You know God has a sense of humor. Look how he made us. We are a hot mess, on a good day. Endless comic potential, times billions. But I'm not making fun of Rawles, or whatever God he chooses to sacrifice livestock to. I'm making fun of him as an author. He is a sad little man, trying to remake the magic of, say, Star Wars, by making each installment twice as bad as the one before. I bought his books! All but the last one. But even his last non-fiction book is so useless I haven't cracked it years after buying it ( after the initial two minute scan ). I was just running out of books to buy, back when all Bison Prepper fundraising went to research material. Before I hitched my paycheck wagon to writing.

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Listen, if you want to let semi-auto guns have your babies, or believe fracking is forever and Peak Oil is just a fever dream I had on a bad batch of LSD ( yes, I had more than my share. Usually so diluted it was nothing more than a drug to stay awake and largely immune to the negative effects of alcohol. Hallucinations were rare, and clearly dream-like rather than perceived as real, posing no danger. But feel free to blame that on my delusions, if you must ), fine. Discount my theories. But surely, you admit you are entertained reading me?

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Well, one imagines that general trend from a few years back of prepper sites dropping like turds weighted with lead, losing revenue as advertising dried up ( falsely blamed on the Trump Effect, in my opinion. Unless everyone is silly enough to believe The Stock Market IS The Economy ), that has negatively impacted Rawles and he is no longer being kept in the lifestyle he is accustomed to. He is trying to churn out another book. He claims the delay is in printing the book in Hong Kong and Dubai , although I'm wondering if he searched his “books too crappy to publish, even for me” file and dusted off the least smelly turd and is polishing it up as we speak.

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And here's the thing, what got me riled up enough to write this article. It is a spiral binding. “To lay flat”. What, I'm welding a rocket here, and need a constant reference on dimensions? Who cannot find a printer that does spiral binding? They are in every town. Aren't printers open? Or are they are swamped with orders from the government for “Six Feet Apart” stickers? Why are you shipping books from an overseas printer? What message does this send? “Hi, I'm writing about the collapse of civilization, and to help that along I'm making sure local workers stay unemployed!”

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The thing about spiral binding ( recall I did Xerox paper newsletters back in the 90's. Good enough for a reprint in Loompanics, thank you very much. I did a LOT of research on printing and alternatives. Granted, slightly dated with the advent of Print On Demand, but still some foundation ) is that mostly it is used because it is more economical for small batches. But it LOOKS like a garage start up book, NOT a professional New York City book.

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So, not only are you saying, screw local workers, let them eat soy cake, if they can find soy, but you are also trying to pass off cheap printing as a desirable added bonus feature. If there are pictures galore for a coffee table book, for the YouTube crowd unable to read without moving their lips, that is going to look awfully ugly with spiral binding. But I'm sure it would be perfect for a bathroom book. Perhaps it has a section on alternate toilet paper.

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Okay, sorry about that. The last series of articles fried my brain a bit, and I needed to recover and do a fluff piece, a rant. Not every day is guaranteed to be earth shattering, anyway. And it would have been much longer, as I was planning on hating on that bald prick over at “Shark Tank” ( a guilty pleasure, but not viewed in years after I was liberated from advertiser TV ), who insisted everything be manufactured in China, even when an inventor wanted Made In USA as part of their ad pitch. I think it is criminal making even books an imported item. Import the paper, Jesus Himself On A Trike. The machines do all the rest.

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And most books I've read lately except for the top tier authors look like they were edited by a computer anyway ( and these were from the big book companies ). Why are you farming out the printing? But lucky for you, I won't go on about that. But I DID need to rant. And no publicity is bad publicity. If some of you STILL want to buy the book:

https://amzn.to/2M6cfcF

Rawles does request a “bookbomb day” where everyone buys it on the official release day, to boost sales ranking. That is all.

( .Y. )

( today's related Amazon link click HERE )

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note: if you have Amazon Prime, here's a free movie.  "Red Days", the really low budget zombie movie, the one that has an appearance by Terrance Popp ( YouTuber, with his sarcastic "winning!" thumbs up ).  For what it was, a pretty darn good film.  It kept my interest, and the gaffs were minor.  The ending truly blew, and confused me, but that was my biggest complaint.  And more an observation than complaint.  The thing just had a subdued sarcasm and wicked sense of humor I love ( example: guy is bringing out zombie pieces to bury.  "Was she Protestant?  Because she's White Trash now" )
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