Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The Silence is Deafening

Four hours ago, it was announced that the red shirts would reveal their invasion plan "within the hour."  Their plan has now been revealed and it is in fact to do nothing.

Like Pavlov's dogs, salivating at the sound of a bell, the Thai army has been running around getting prepared for nothing.  One can only hope that when the real feeding time comes, they won't have been lulled into non-reaction.

Today I'm very depressed because George Scithers died.  This is the guy who found my short stories in the slush pile at Isaac Asimov's Magazine in 1977 or so, encouraged me to keep trying, and finally started publishing me in 1979 with such regularity that I was nominated for the Campbell Award twice (and finally won) without even having a novel out.  When I lived on the east coast I visited him frequently and it was through him that I became friends with many important figures from Isaac Asimov himself all the way down to ... :)  He was a really, really weird guy.  Whenever he bought a story, he would telephone and just say "Yes."  No "Hello, who is this, this is me...."  He once gave me four cover stories in a row.  And I will never forget his phone number: FUCK-415.

I'm also depressed wondering when Trisdee will get home.  I am sure he's burning up with frustration and indeed (to quote Lorenzo da Ponte) "nel petto un Vesuvio."  When I think of all the delicious food that is going uneaten as he languishes in the land of broodjes, I am very disturbed.  Today is the first rehearsal of the Youth Orchestra as well ... and our first flute is stranded somewhere in Europe.

Meanwhile, stickers proclaiming "Thaksin for President" have appeared around Silom.  The redshirts deny putting them up although they certainly resemble other redshirt stickers.  These could be the work of the mysterious "third party", the work of some extreme faction within the red community, or indeed, they could even have been put up by the government to discredit the opposition.  Whoever did it, it merely brings an underlying issue to the surface.  After all, the ostensible issue, the establishment or reestablishment of democracy, was one of the first casualties of this struggle, as evinced by every poll taken by every kind of pollster which puts the support for the redshirt's ostensible demand, the immediate dissolution of parliament, at around 25%.  Whoever put up the stickers is implying that the redshirts' real agenda is far more sweeping than just having another election — to which the government has already agreed, the disagreements being in the details, not the substance. Speculation and rumor are all we feed on.

No matter who did it, this raises the kneejerk index up several notches and may have ineluctably nailed up the coffin of peaceful resolution.  As John Cage knew, silence can be the loudest thing of all.

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