no blade of grass

NO BLADE OF GRASS

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A minion or two reminded me more than once that the book “No Blade Of Grass” should be included in the best of survival fiction top ten or twenty lists. Usually I just ignore such nonsense, assuming that they are trying to distract me from the business of inflating my own ego. But because I’m not such the callus and uncaring automaton that you all think, I graciously included that book in the Wish List at Amazon. I put off buying it for quite some time since it was about $20 used. Very pricey for a 55 year old paperback. That originally cost sixty cents. But I finally got around to ordering it and I would say, in my humble opinion, not only was it worth the extra money, it belongs not in the top twenty, but the top ten of best survivalist fiction of all time. Damn, this book would have come in handy a long time ago when I could have used an example to point out a perfect illustration of how people will act towards others outside their own tribe in times of collapse ( hint: badly ). This is THE best fiction treatment I’ve seen to date on group dynamics and individual response to catastrophe. I can’t recommend the book if you are perpetually broke. But if you have a spare $20 laying around for you to buy a Christmas present for yourself, I don’t think you will be disappointed. Note- this was written by a very talented author that never went through politically correct sensitivity training. I’m sure he was influenced by several world wars and a Depression and long time food rationing. He doesn’t depict women as inferior, not like that uber-idiotic Gor series from the 70’s ( Oh, mercy, I’m a buxomly broad that secretly lusts after being dominated by a manly man- a bit much chapter after chapter, book after book ). But it doesn’t shy away from the reality of a male dominated and violent world. And the group survives in no small part because of one individual who won’t allow any action that isn’t totally pragmatic for the group’s needs.

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In the beginning of the journey in NBOG, the group includes a government worker with a talent for putting his ear to the grapevine and getting timely warning about future plans. An original idea of the new leader that takes over under less than savory circumstances as the Asian plant virus spreads to the West was to nuke many different cities to immediately cut in half the number of people needing to eat. In a way, it was more merciful than allowing almost everyone to starve, but you just know all the city folk are going to object to sacrificing themselves. Well, the group has sufficient warning to escape London, but here is the kicker. Even with insider knowledge, the group still didn’t know about a military cordon thrown up to contain the urbanites from fleeing. Now, here YOU are, with absolutely no insider information, and you think you can bolt from the city to your retreat in plenty of time to avoid a general panic? Take a smaller city of a million. If one percent panic, and they all divide evenly into the ten exits, you will have to contend with a thousand other people fleeing. And that is if there is no official decision to put up roadblocks. And I wonder, do you think more than one percent of the city is smart enough to flee ( by the way, this is a point also made by “Survival Retreats” by Black, a putrid vile piece of crap book worthy of nothing more than being a coffee table book- thick slick illustrated pages are its one strong suite )? It is better to not flee, but of course that means you must be smart enough to not live in the city in the first place. I would worry a lot more about government roadblocks than seems to be the current fashion. It wasn’t too long ago that the tinfoil hatters were warning about TSA random searches everywhere, and here they are. It is a very small step towards a Soviet style prohibition on internal travel.

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Moving on to other things to pad the article, my Thanksgiving was splendidly relaxing. I wrote for a bit, dug for a bit, then read the above two books. The weather was actually sunny, and I got my first shower in seventy degrees in weeks ( if not months- I’ve been averaging under 60 almost every day ). Lunch was quesadillas, the cheese being a holiday treat. Dinner was an easy but pleasing cubed potatoes, cubed ham skillet fried with gravy over them, with a bag of cookies for desert. Easy to cook, easy to clean, but a traditional dinner all the same. Of course, my work was a duplicate Monday on Friday, as I must be punished for taking any days off. But life is good.

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I see Rawles is going to route his site through Sweden in anticipation of upcoming blatant censorship of the Internet ( if I’m not mistaken, the recent trend of shutting down anyone who linked to an officially disapproved site ). So, here again is my solution. If my blog becomes unavailable, first go check my web site ( the Bison Press site ). If that isn’t up, you can always check under my full name ( James M Dakin ) at Lulu.com. If that is the only avenue for publishing I’ll use that, probably a weekly booklet. I’ll title it Bison Weekly or something similar so you know. Baring that, I’ll go to CD through the mail ( copy my 181 West Bullion address ). Other than that, I guess I’ll have been effectively silenced, and it was nice knowing you. Sure, one of these days all communication will be impossible, but I’ll continue to rant as long as possible. I like the blog since it is free for both of us. All other solutions will be sub-optimal, but I’ll use them as long as I have to, unless the cost exceeds income as my readers drop off. This could all be for nothing, but just in case here it is.

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My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
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