Can literature fight a war? Maybe. I’ve been reading the much-lionized McSweeney’s Quarterly for a while now. The quality of writing, coupled with their dedication to innovative publishing and humanist idealism, simply cannot be matched. And despite past antics, like publishing what seems to be junk mail or a cigar box, this is among the strangest issues to date.
Arriving in three parts, the two small booklets of short fiction – one foreign, one American – and one larger book of reports on invading seven countries, are loosely themed “war-time reading.” The two booklets contain the same sorts of exotic, absurd, thrilling and frequently funny stories that continue to make the rest of the publishing world look like a bunch of amateurs wholly out of touch with contemporary literature and the pulse of intellectualism.
Each story accompanies art produced by real military personnel, and the latter book, Where to Invade Next, is a recreation of the types of reports which the Pentagon uses to justify and advocate sanctions, assassination and, ultimately, war; detailing the situations of the seven countries we are most likely to invade according to Gen. Wesley Clark: Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Syria, Sudan and North Korea. It is equally frightening, enlightening and informative, and the best part is, it permits the reader to confront the style of information-giving directly.
Thank you Dave Eggers, for the timely reminder that we remain engaged in a war which appears to have no end; while, at the same time, engaging our imaginations to no end.
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