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Terror-Dot-Gov

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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.

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].

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.

Once again Harold Jaffe has raised the bar for his fellow writers world-wide. Terror-Dot-Gov demonstrates conclusively that it is possible to writre about unjust war and merciless colonization without sacrificing
linguistic nuance and formal refinement.

Using as his text the official discourse of government and especially media, Jaffe turns the discourse against itself thereby exposing its subtexts of ideology and propaganda.

That Jaffe accomplishes his self-appointed task with an intense passion and formal dexterity is no surprise for those familiar with his writing. The fact that he manages to impose a kind of hilarious Swiftian satire on his solemn subject recalls the great Chaplain's dissection of Hitler.

First of all, Terror-Dot-Gov is a brave book. It courts controversy and charges of apostasy, and it dares us to look at the other side, to see a perspective that may not instinctively be our own.

In a series of "docufictions," Jaffe cuts and pastes the news, reconfigures our domestic habits and quotidian private lives, and, most importantly, begisn to redefine the nature of terrorism -- making us see the different ways in which the term can be applied to the acts of both the powerful and the powerless.

Many people read the newspaper. Harold Jaffe dissects it, deconstructs it, retools it, and transforms it. Jaffe "treats" his news stories -- and his delineation of daily events -- until the mundane seems odd, the east truths seem truly false, until we begin to question what we have previously routinely assumed.

America has a tradiion of great public writers -- Crane, Dreiser, Algren, Steinbeck, Wright, Selby. Recently, our literature has retreated into the twin extremes of phantasmagoria and miniaturization. By doing so, we court danger. When you look at only one thing, you see only one thing. Harold Jaffe looks at the whole world. if we see it with him, we'll all be better off. If we ignore the full picture, we run a big risk.

Terror-Dot-Gov is an important book. it can help us not forget to remember. In these times, we should herald the rejuvenated return of public fiction. Hats off to Harold Jaffe's bold stride.

Excerpted from FLAUNT Magazine, Issue # 65

TERROR-DOT-GOV is the brilliant, intense, and probing culmination of Harold Jaffe's series of "docufictions." From the title to the final page, Jaffe addresses the omnidirectional governmental and institutional use/exploitation of terror, via the internet and other means, to commodify "war" as a tool for social control, commercialism, and even thought control. Jaffe positions "war" as an entrenched archetype, escapable only through deep vision and insight into the human condition. Ultimately, the text is a plea for peace through revelation of the nexus of absurdities, programmatic forces, animalistic urges, and ethnic enmities which distance modern society from true humanity and humanism.

While in many cases, TERROR-DOT-GOV addresses the war in Iraq directly, the book is much more complex than a simple anti-war text. It posits the conflicting suppositions concerning the Iraq war, and all racial/ethnic strife, as they are connected to primeval aspects of the human condition. Jaffe addresses these suppositions from revolving viewpoints, including the range of responses of the Iraqi citizens themselves. The result is a multi-leveled text providing important societal and psychological revelations. Jaffe pulls no punches, but fearlessly demonstrates connections among institutions and philosophies which often seek to disguise themselves. The text constitutes a call to action, not merely concerning clarity of viewpoints about the war, but concerning specificity and lucidity in our function/activity as human beings.

Despite many depictions and analyses of current political events, TERROR-DOT-GOV has a great breadth of focus, a subject matter which crosses cultural and temporal boundaries. This historiographical scope is evident in the dedication: "for the actual victims of terror," with its implication that such victims have suffered under many different governmental regimes, at many different points in time. This dedication, and the entire book, constitutes a cry for awareness, a warning of the distance from humanity and humanism which develops when arcane differentiation and enmity based on racial/ethnic/religious attributes suffice as causes for the most inhuman interactions and perverse religious zealotry. Jaffe explicates the manner in which humanity/individuality is lost in such a nexus of basal generalizations, and diagnoses the condition as "the human disease," whose only possible cure is insight, reflection, and transcendence.

While TERROR-DOT-GOV posits war as a gestalt question, the text further elaborates the dynamics of institutional control utilized by the government, the media, and assorted secular and religious institutions. The fundamental technique used by such entities is a multifaceted campaign of disinformation, on all sides of the governmental, political, and religious spectrum, to facilitate particular agendas. Moreover, the presence of such a campaign calls into question any "reality" asserted by a government or media concerning the war in Iraq--and, indeed, questions the validity of any media-based reality or recorded "history," endorsed by any vested institution.

Concerning the Iraq war, Jaffe details the disinformation inherent in governmental attempts to demonize/dichotomize the "enemy" as simultaneously incomprehensibly complex, and unilaterally/simplistically evil. Towards this end, stereotypes, urban legends, and even pop culture are co-opted to support the entrenchment of a mass frontal-lobe "terrorist/anti-terrorist" mindset to facilitate commercial and political goals. However, as TERROR-DOT-GOV proves, this morass of terrorism/anti-terrorism and war/freedom dichotomies, which exists to the exclusion of subtle differentiations and individualized concerns, involves a nexus of anti-intellectual activity, akin to frenzied dogs attacking parked cars.

With surgical precision, Jaffe explores the interstices of culture-those regions hidden between the covert and overt, textual and subtextual, conscious and unconscious, informative and indoctrinary. Only with such explorations can the true depths and configurations of modern culture be evaluated. The result of this evaluation seems to be that the current state of human development itself exists as a dichotomy of enlightenment and cruelty. This profound antithesis is addressed in the final selection from the book, "Monk and Suicide Bomber," which concludes in a final question from the suicide bomber to the monk, the question of what should be done to counter brutal governmental oppression and repression, when mediation, discussion, and peace initiatives all fail repeatedly...

In answer to this question, the monk has only silence, a silence which becomes more and more chilling as it is contemplated. This is the silence which TERROR-DOT-GOV forces us to confront. It is a silence which represents the echoless domain between torment and transcendence, consciousness and indoctrination, humanity and inhumanity.

With TERROR-DOT-GOV, once again, Harold Jaffe has proven to be one of the most incisive and important writers of our day.

TERROR-DOT-GOV is the brilliant, intense, and probing culmination of Harold Jaffe's series of "docufictions." From the title to the final page, Jaffe addresses the omnidirectional governmental and institutional use/exploitation of terror, via the internet and other means, to commodify "war" as a tool for social control, commercialism, and even thought control. Jaffe positions "war" as an entrenched archetype, escapable only through deep vision and insight into the human condition. Ultimately, the text is a plea for peace through revelation of the nexus of absurdities, programmatic forces, animalistic urges, and ethnic enmities which distance modern society from true humanity and humanism.

While in many cases, TERROR-DOT-GOV addresses the war in Iraq directly, the book is much more complex than a simple anti-war text. It posits the conflicting suppositions concerning the Iraq war, and all racial/ethnic strife, as they are connected to primeval aspects of the human condition. Jaffe addresses these suppositions from revolving viewpoints, including the range of responses of the Iraqi citizens themselves. The result is a multi-leveled text providing important societal and psychological revelations. Jaffe pulls no punches, but fearlessly demonstrates connections among institutions and philosophies which often seek to disguise themselves. The text constitutes a call to action, not merely concerning clarity of viewpoints about the war, but concerning specificity and lucidity in our function/activity as human beings.

Despite many depictions and analyses of current political events, TERROR-DOT-GOV has a great breadth of focus, a subject matter which crosses cultural and temporal boundaries. This historiographical scope is evident in the dedication: "for the actual victims of terror," with its implication that such victims have suffered under many different governmental regimes, at many different points in time. This dedication, and the entire book, constitutes a cry for awareness, a warning of the distance from humanity and humanism which develops when arcane differentiation and enmity based on racial/ethnic/religious attributes suffice as causes for the most inhuman interactions and perverse religious zealotry. Jaffe explicates the manner in which humanity/individuality is lost in such a nexus of basal generalizations, and diagnoses the condition as "the human disease," whose only possible cure is insight, reflection, and transcendence.

While TERROR-DOT-GOV posits war as a gestalt question, the text further elaborates the dynamics of institutional control utilized by the government, the media, and assorted secular and religious institutions. The fundamental technique used by such entities is a multifaceted campaign of disinformation, on all sides of the governmental, political, and religious spectrum, to facilitate particular agendas. Moreover, the presence of such a campaign calls into question any "reality" asserted by a government or media concerning the war in Iraq--and, indeed, questions the validity of any media-based reality or recorded "history," endorsed by any vested institution.

Concerning the Iraq war, Jaffe details the disinformation inherent in governmental attempts to demonize/dichotomize the "enemy" as simultaneously incomprehensibly complex, and unilaterally/simplistically evil. Towards this end, stereotypes, urban legends, and even pop culture are co-opted to support the entrenchment of a mass frontal-lobe "terrorist/anti-terrorist" mindset to facilitate commercial and political goals. However, as TERROR-DOT-GOV proves, this morass of terrorism/anti-terrorism and war/freedom dichotomies, which exists to the exclusion of subtle differentiations and individualized concerns, involves a nexus of anti-intellectual activity, akin to frenzied dogs attacking parked cars.

With surgical precision, Jaffe explores the interstices of culture-those regions hidden between the covert and overt, textual and subtextual, conscious and unconscious, informative and indoctrinary. Only with such explorations can the true depths and configurations of modern culture be evaluated. The result of this evaluation seems to be that the current state of human development itself exists as a dichotomy of enlightenment and cruelty. This profound antithesis is addressed in the final selection from the book, "Monk and Suicide Bomber," which concludes in a final question from the suicide bomber to the monk, the question of what should be done to counter brutal governmental oppression and repression, when mediation, discussion, and peace initiatives all fail repeatedly...

In answer to this question, the monk has only silence, a silence which becomes more and more chilling as it is contemplated. This is the silence which TERROR-DOT-GOV forces us to confront. It is a silence which represents the echoless domain between torment and transcendence, consciousness and indoctrination, humanity and inhumanity.

With TERROR-DOT-GOV, once again, Harold Jaffe has proven to be one of the most incisive and important writers of our day.

To read Harold Jaffe's pieces as a commentary on or critique of the war on terrorism is to under-read him, as Beckett was misread as being "symbolic" or Swift as a fantasist. Just as Swift made an ostensible target of the Irish in his "Modest Proposal" while actually targeting the bigotry of the English, so too does Jaffe construct a triadic argument. The ostensible target this time may be the war on terror, but the true target hiding behind the straw man is the reader. Jaffe reveals imbedded assumptions in the language of these docufictions and in so doing betrays the lack of objectivity in news texts and reports as we receive them. He points his pen at us and shows us how complicitous we have been in committing the atrocities he describes. We may revile the media's displays of violence and feign shock, but we are always willing to stand in line to pay the price of admission. In "Behead," for example, the beheading of Brent Marshall is described as not going very smoothly "because of Marshall's exceptionally thick neck." Thus the brutality of the slaying is blamed on Marshall, a Virginia "thick-neck" of the type we have learned to feel less compassion for over the years because a thick neck represents a "dumb jock," "a red neck," "a hick." "Big as an ox" means "dumb as an ox," as we conflate clichés to get there. In "Pizza Cannibal," one character says, "I just couldn't believe this guy [Salt Brumley] could have done something to bring out the feds." Brumley is described as a "homely bachelor" with "stick-out ears, large flat feet, cleft palate, and low IQ," and the first three attributes are taken as personality issues: people with stick-out ears and large flat feet are routinely made fun of as being "stupid" in our society (see Li'l Abner), and are generally considered too "simple" to be harmful. In the same story, Jaffe challenges us liberals to look at our own smug intellectual superiority--would we who uphold that what goes on between consenting adults in the privacy of their bedrooms is perfectly acceptable include mutually agreed-upon murder and cannibalism? Or are we liberal only up to a point? What point? Why? Caveat Emptor? The dialogue in "Trader Joe's" contains pure consumer speak. Where would conversations go nowadays without consumerism? Would we have anything to say to one another if we lost our retail chains and baseball scores? Even references to Pinochet and suicide bombs are dropped into conversations because of their impact on Chilean wines and Home Depot. My favorite of these docufictions, the one that really got me involved, is "White Terror." This is presented as a game, with the key refrain being, "Who would you bomb in that one?" Scenarios are given to us, such as how one of Queen Elizabeth's corgis was bitten by a terrier belonging to the daughter. Who would you bomb? The respondent is told the dogs are named Raj and Dottie, but even after knowing which dog was which, the respondent still assumes that Raj was the terrier. He assumes the violent one has the Eastern name. Assumptions such as these are at the heart of the book. Jaffe challenges the reader with disquieting juxtapositions and multiple versions of the same story. "Which is true?" we might ask. Can we ever know, even if we are "told" by media or government that one version is true? Of course not--all we get is filtered versions whose points of view and choices of diction reveal deep-seated biases. Look, for example, at the different descriptions of a group of dogs in the six alternate versions of a canine attack in "Revolt Wives." The dogs are described as a "lumpen," a "Gestapo," a "kasbah," a "death row," a "Bentustan," a "Gaza" of frenzied dogs--each term, of course, associated with death and abuse but carrying with it so many different connotations that they alternate versions of the scenarios are immediatley colored by that word choice. This is Jaffe's brilliance: he shows us how language has been used against us as a weapon, and he challenges us to wake up to that fact.

Author Harold Jaffe out does all others in this brilliant collection of "docufictions" that exposes hypocrisy on both sides of the wall. Embedded firmly in each of these strategically architected stories is a graphic elegance that is complexly combined with a new revolutionary consciousness. The skill with which the author handles such serious subject matter resonates with his razor-sharp wit and high-beamed laser critique aimed directly at the target. Jaffe's teasing investigation of media absurdity in "15 Serial Killers" goes a step further with "Terror-Dot- Gov." Here, Jaffe's "treatment" of what could be considered "real" and what consists of media implanted fiction is mixed together in a intricate recipe of artful daring.

Also recommended: Straight Razor 15 Serial Killers False

With Terror-Dot-Gov, Harold Jaffe demonstrates he has the eye of a prognosticator. In his fictions (called "docufictions" because they're so accurate) he dramatizes how -- and why -- America is destroying itself and how -- and why -- it's taking a sizeable portion of the world with it.

The signs and portents are all presented and interpreted: heads severed for justice and sport; attack dogs sinking their teeth into the flesh of innocents; Baghdad treatment plants for processing raw (feces) and cooked (prisoners) sewage; and players in the game of "who would you bomb?"

I don't mean to imply that it's a grim book. On the contrary, it's humorous -- ironic and satirical without trivializing its subjects. And why not? As long as we're determined to act like neo-lemmings we might as well laugh as we plunge over the cliff!