November 7, 2006

  • Something strange has happened.

    I recently purchased Gore Vidal's Dreaming War: Blood For Oil And The Cheney-Bush Junta.  A delightful pamphlet, it details our country's current state of foreign and internal affairs with a historical explanation only Gore Vidal could nail down.  A collection of essays and an interview by Marc Cooper, Dreaming is one of the final, intellectual words on our energetic Empire's annihilative acquisition of remote territories and their oil for those *interested parties who concern themselves with a government that collects (and explodes) so much of their money so rightfully earned.  As usual, all the witty wisdom, sharp smarts and political punch are included.  But this time something is missing...quite literally.

    Pages 55-86 have been omitted.  There is no evidence of post published tampering.  The binding is intact, tight and new.  The gatherings are neatly bound, and the book appears to have been put out as originally assembled.  But wait, as TV hawkers say to me every day, hoping to catch that last neuron before it fitfully fires, there's more!  Not only are pages 55-86 gone, but they have been replaced by duplicate pages 103-134.  Let me explain.  From pages 1-54, no irregularities.  However, from page 54 the book jumps to 103.  It then continues to page 134, but jumps again, this time backward to page 87.  Finishing through from this point, structurally sound, the pamphlet ends on page 197 (103-134 duplicated).  So, to summarize, pages 55-86 have been replaced with 103-134.  Thirty one pages exactly.  Why though?  Thirty one pages just don't disappear (never mind the masquerade).  Either this is an enormous editorial error, not unlikely even for the Vidal endorsed folks over at Thunder's Mouth Press/Nation Books, or an intentional intermission.  The Table of Contents tells me I'm missing the Goat Song's final chorus, a soundly scathing bit on Three Lies to Rule By and the first words on what the Japanese intended to do to us during WWII.  Hmm...

    Perhaps this is a rather common problem in publishing.  I've never experienced it, but I'm no librarian.  I'm going to check with other book stores, libraries and online sources that make Vidal's work available to those interested parties.  If other copies take in the same hogwash, I will promptly contact the publisher and the author.  They may think me silly, or they may not (everything I know of Gore Vidal indicates that he would never, never find an omission of his work within his work as something to be taken lightly).  The publisher may know.  Probably wouldn't say if they did, but it would underline much of what Vidal expresses in the pages left intact (not to mention those replaced?).  If they do, I suspect I should withdraw any objection and retire, depressingly, to an undisclosed location. 

    I shall see.

    dickcarter, puzzled 

    *The American public, by and large, is never really interested in anything of interest to anyone interesting.  I know because I came from this school.  I cut my crooked teeth on the empty sweetness of our diabetic democracy's carnal consumerism: The Sugar Foot Side Step.  One, two and three...