Terror-Dot-Gov [Paperback]

Harold Jaffe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 14, 2005

As in Harold Jaffe’s two previous “docufiction” collections, False Positive and 15 Serial Killers, the author of Terror-Dot-Gov selects then “treats” his texts such that the reader is incapable of distinguishing between fact and fiction. That ambiguity permits Jaffe to cunningly tease out the contradictions and subtexts of official “news” or “information” and torque it into what it so often is fundamentally: jingoism, xenophobia and propaganda. Jaffe’s subject in Terror-Dot-Gov is not the everywhere-represented “illicit” terrorism so much as “licit,” institutionalized terrorism, and he assaults his subject from multiple angles: razor-sharp satire, precisely cadenced rhetoric, faux-reportage, and “unsituated” dialogues (Jaffe’s term, referring to his trademark talking heads with perfect pitch). The result is virtuosic and paradoxical: a prodigious display of firepower—in the cause of peace. Blurbs As Terror-Dot-Gov vividly demonstrates: We are spiritually imperiled by illusions masked as ‘news.’ Omissions, slants, pallid editorials all testifying to servitude to a slavish, enslaving text. Harold Jaffe knows this by heart and has it right. He isolates the self-justifying words that demonize the enemy while cleansing the ongoing crime, the ‘preventive strike.’ He encourages organized terror (our very own) to emerge white as new-fallen snow. White as leprosy. Everywhere in Terror-Dot-Gov is exemplary skill, faultless tonality. And courage, don’t forget courage. In order to be healed, our illness must worsen. Thank you, Harold Jaffe.” —Daniel Berrigan, SJ “Kill your TV. Terror-Dot-Gov will give you all the news that’s unfit to print—reportage gone fictive (or is it vice versa?) Jaffe’s brilliantly constructed docufictions blast holes through the mediadrome to unmask the terrifying institutionalized rhetoric that passes itself off as business as usual.” —Jan Ramjerdi “Terror-Dot-Gov is a full frontal assault on our duct-taped minds. High velocity words fired with unerring precision, dancing feverishly on the page before zapping their target, which is nothing less than “First World” war-mongering and the terror it invokes to validate itself.” —Faruk Ulay

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Everywhere in Terror-Dot-Gov is exemplary skill, faultless tonality. And courage, don’t forget courage." -- Daniel Berrigan, SJ

"High velocity words fired with unerring precision, dancing feverishly on the page before zapping their target." -- Faruk Ulay

"Jaffe’s brilliantly constructed docufictions blast holes through the mediadrome to unmask the terrifying institutionalized rhetoric." -- Jan Ramjerdi

From the Publisher

Terror-Dot-Gov is the third in Jaffe's series of "Docufiction" books.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 156 pages
• Publisher: Raw Dog Screaming Press; 1st Pbk. Ed edition (June 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933293098
• ISBN-13: 978-1933293097
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,527,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Harold Jaffe is the author of 15 volumes of fiction, docufiction, and non-fiction. His work has been widely anthologized and translated, most recently into French, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish, and Farsi. Jaffe is editor-in-chief of Fiction International.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Telling it like it is, August 23, 2005

By 

Roland Goity "discerningcritic" (Sunny SoCal Suburbia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Terror-Dot-Gov (Paperback)

Terror-Dot-Gov obliterates the sound bytes, photo ops, and corporate journalism that somehow serve to instruct the vast majority of Americans on life and living these days. Jaffe's work-although fiction-is rooted in fact; it explores critical themes that affect our daily lives but are often ignored by the mass media, it documents the unreported.

Curious readers, who believe patriotism isn't as simple as slapping a stars-and-stripes decal on their SUV, will come away enriched, as Terror-Dot-Gov gives a name, face and voice to real human beings who are affected by the so-called War on Terror (excuse me-Struggle against Global Extremism), whether they're human shields in Baghdad, Army recruiters in Detroit, grieving mothers in Palestine or politically inquisitive yuppies at an LA dinner party.

Jaffe's narratives don't kowtow to political correctness-they're unabridged and unapologetic. Despite being steeped in the veritable events that "shock and awe", they're often laced with biting humor, a necessary element when confronting such subject matter. Ultimately, there's a special warmth and compassion within Jaffe's excellent prose, and Terror-Dot-Gov serves as a testament to the vitality of life and the constant threat it faces.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A People's History of our times, July 21, 2005

By 

Minh Bui (Fort Washington, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Terror-Dot-Gov (Paperback)

For those looking back on our woeful era, Jaffe offers an incisive, honest portrait. A People's History of our times, to counter the official version.

And for those living and reading now, what does he offer?

As other reviewers have noted, when the Suicide Bomber of "Monk & Suicide Bomber" asks the Monk what he would do to counter oppression when nonviolent tactics have failed again and again, the Monk's answer is silence. We are the Monk, of course; our best answer, the best we can muster, is silence, the silence of impotence. Some would call it the silence of complicity.

Are there better answers? Yes, Jaffe insists. Revolution. Resistance. Writing. Compassion. Righteous anger.

These are what he offers those living and reading now, in the age of war and terror[isms].

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars artistic courage, July 17, 2005

By 

Blaze Starr (Penang, Malaysia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Terror-Dot-Gov (Paperback)

Like a too-small list of artists such as Brecht, Grosz, John Berger, Sartre and not many others, Jaffe has the courage, discerning and ethical commitment to express what is on many people's minds. And the expression is brilliantly, poignantly relevant.