At the risk of disappointing the countless U.S. citizens who rely on fantasy to help them choose a president, I’ve decided to keep my political opinions mostly to myself. This blog is a place of pure aesthetics. Facts should be spare and spunky. Did you know that rats (I have grown very fond of rats) can squeeze through any opening large enough for their skulls?
As everyone who has never read a fantasy novel knows, fantasy readers are afraid to think about the “real” world (you know, the one where Americans borrow billions from China to spend in Iraq trying to kill Saudis hiding in Pakistan) and its grubby, grown-up particulars. That’s why they’re so clumsy in it. That’s why they prefer asking questions to declaring answers, and lurk more often in bookstores than in bleachers, roaring for the team. And of course, that’s why they read books as comforting as John Gardner’s Grendel or as simplistic as Ian McDonald’s River of Gods. Why Brazil and Blade Runner impress them more than Rambo or Robocop.
So no, I won’t be distracted by politics. Besides, my world of Alifros is in trouble enough, with its own wars of predation and regimes built on fear, lies and hubris (don’t read anything into that last comment, pray).
And yet, as a major figure in the intellectual life of this nation, I feel a duty to speak out. Here, then, is my moderate, focus-group approved statement on the prospect of a John McCain/Sarah Palin administration.
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