"France had the guillotine and public executions. Public executions enshroud even the most dangerous criminal in a halo of heroism. Public executions incite the people; they give the enemy moral strength. The convict doesn't really die -- public executions leave the body to the relatives, they leave the last words, last will, and the exact date of death. Secret executions, in the basement, without the show, without official conviction, have an overwhelming effect on the enemy. The vast, merciless, omniscient machine grabs its victims and grinds them like a meat grinder. After the execution, there is no exact date of death, no last words, not corpses, not even the grave. Emptiness. The enemy is destroyed absolutely." Vladimir Zazubrin, in The Chip.
Showing posts with label Death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Death. Show all posts
23/07/2010
On the superiority of secret executions
"France had the guillotine and public executions. Public executions enshroud even the most dangerous criminal in a halo of heroism. Public executions incite the people; they give the enemy moral strength. The convict doesn't really die -- public executions leave the body to the relatives, they leave the last words, last will, and the exact date of death. Secret executions, in the basement, without the show, without official conviction, have an overwhelming effect on the enemy. The vast, merciless, omniscient machine grabs its victims and grinds them like a meat grinder. After the execution, there is no exact date of death, no last words, not corpses, not even the grave. Emptiness. The enemy is destroyed absolutely." Vladimir Zazubrin, in The Chip.
29/10/2007
Agent from Hell
Something really spooky happened to me today - I received a message from the dead.
First a little background. Two years ago my European agent sold translation rights to my first novel to a Polish publishing house. The advance she received from the house she was supposed to wire to me, but instead for well over a year she kept insisting that the publisher did not pay. As this dragged on, I got frustrated (how could one of- if not the- biggest publishing houses of Eastern Europe have such a mess in their accounting practices?), so I got a hold of the main accounted and... was presented with proof of money paid to the agent well over a year earlier. So, I confronted the agent, and received... no, not an apology, but a promise that the advance will be paid to me. The agent said: The cheque is in the mail (yeah! she actually used the line). Well, some two months later, and no cheque, I was contacted by somebody claiming to be the business liquidator, saying that the agent died... along with all the claims against her.
What can I say? I wished the poor woman to rest in peace and I described my experience in my blog.
Well, image my hair raising surprise, when today a nasty anonymous comment appeared under that very post where I describe what happened with my big entry onto the Polish market: the comment came from the very IP account that all of my "dead" agent's correspondence originated from.
Risen from the grave? Sending message from the great beyond?
This may sound humorous until you take into account that this happens two days before Halloween and one of Catholic Europe's holiest holidays - the day of the dead...
First a little background. Two years ago my European agent sold translation rights to my first novel to a Polish publishing house. The advance she received from the house she was supposed to wire to me, but instead for well over a year she kept insisting that the publisher did not pay. As this dragged on, I got frustrated (how could one of- if not the- biggest publishing houses of Eastern Europe have such a mess in their accounting practices?), so I got a hold of the main accounted and... was presented with proof of money paid to the agent well over a year earlier. So, I confronted the agent, and received... no, not an apology, but a promise that the advance will be paid to me. The agent said: The cheque is in the mail (yeah! she actually used the line). Well, some two months later, and no cheque, I was contacted by somebody claiming to be the business liquidator, saying that the agent died... along with all the claims against her.
What can I say? I wished the poor woman to rest in peace and I described my experience in my blog.
Well, image my hair raising surprise, when today a nasty anonymous comment appeared under that very post where I describe what happened with my big entry onto the Polish market: the comment came from the very IP account that all of my "dead" agent's correspondence originated from.
Risen from the grave? Sending message from the great beyond?
This may sound humorous until you take into account that this happens two days before Halloween and one of Catholic Europe's holiest holidays - the day of the dead...
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