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Ted
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2024 |
by Ted Rall |
Hardcover: 96 pages
NBM Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 1561632791 |
$16.95

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Amazon.com
Combining the most depressing
aspects of Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World, Ted Rall's 2024
shows us where turn-of-the-century corporate America is heading if we don't
collectively wake up. Yet, like most of Rall's work, it's not a downer.
Even when the reader sees a not-so-twisted reflection of his or her own
life in Winston and Julia's horrifying misadventures in neopostmodern "Canamexicusa,"
it's usually more of a belly laugh than a gut punch. |
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Tearing away
at the shrouds of irony that keep us from experiencing our lives more directly
for all their faults, Rall captures the essence of our reactions to soft
oppression by having his characters repeat the mantra "Yes. No. Whatever."
If the best criticism is satire, then 2024 is as good as it gets.
--Rob Lightner
From Publishers Weekly
Executed in his familiar
black and white blockish graphics, Rall's latest (Search and Destroy; My
War with Brian) takes place in a future where blind consumerism has rendered
history and human consciousness irrelevant. 2024 is meant to be a sly,
1984-inflected commentary on the shallowness of our times, but it never
quite manages to measure up to its formidable literary model. In Rall's
vision of the future, Web TV is omnipresent, and the economy is run by
megacorporations that exploit ethnic tensions in trade wars. As in 1984,
the protagonists are named Winston and Julia, and share a fickle dissatisfaction
with the corporate system that dictates and monitors their lives. They
live in a world where news and history are easily revised digitally, and
shopping and pornography substitute for social interaction and passion.
It's a "future where the past doesn't matter and no one cares" and where
the key to life, says Winston, is to "keep yourself entertained, stave
off boredom... hope for a way out before you come up for euthanasia." Rall's
view of the future's social contract is a razor-sharp, irony-saturated
parody of today's pop culture/consumerist consciousness. But his bleak
lampoon of the mindless consumer state requires a lot of exposition, and,
at times, his bold-faced text boxes threaten to visually overwhelm the
exploits of his characters. Indeed, the characters sometimes function more
as talking points than as protagonists. Even his updates of Orwellian doublespeak
("Assumptions Permit Imagination," etc.) are used to poor effect, with
frequent, text-laden shifts of events undercutting the work's narrative
logic. Undeniably smart and witty, the book can also be a bit awkward and
disjointed.
Copyright
2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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From Booklist
Rall, whose acerbic political
cartoons in alternative weeklies and such other venues as Fortune magazine
proudly exhibit the cynicism of the postboomer generation, tries something
more ambitious in this graphic novel that simultaneously updates and parodies
Orwell's 1984. Rather than imposing a totalitarian political system, Rall's
Big Brother represents the "corporate-government complex" in a society
driven by technology and consumerism and run by media moguls and software
companies. The system is called neopostmodernism. Although Rall throws
out plenty of clever ideas in the brief work, much of it is pretty strident
and heavy-handed. And unlike Orwell's protagonist, Winston Smith, Rall's
Winston is so disaffected that he doesn't particularly care when he is
tortured into betraying his Julia by being forced to watch boring nature
films of rats. Unfortunately, neither may many a reader. Still, Rall's
distinctive blocky, punkish drawing style, though more effective in shorter
doses, well conveys the story's depersonalized, dystopian environment.
Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American
Library Association. All rights reserved
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Ted
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MY
WAR WITH BRIAN |
by Ted Rall |
Paperback: 80 pages
NBM Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 1561632155 |
$8.95

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From Booklist
Known for his acerbic political
cartoons, Rall turns his caustic gaze inward in an autobiographical graphic
novel about his misery in junior high in suburban Ohio. He was an alienated
nerd, tormented by a loutish, psychotic bully who, for no apparent reason,
chose Rall as his personal victim. Teachers and other adults refused to
help Rall, leaving him to deal with Brian through violence that started
out defensive but gradually turned sadistically vengeful. The escalating
battle forced Rall into an ultimate assault that he then saw as the only
way to prevent being marked as a victim for the rest of his life. |
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Two decades
later, a more introspective Rall ponders the lasting effect of Brian's
harassment on his personality. To this day, Rall's behavior remains confrontational
and defensive; he wonders whether his superior attitude prompted the bully's
abuse. Rall's memoir is fueled by the bitterness and anger that inform
his editorial cartoons and sports their vaguely cubist figures and distinctive
scratchboard technique that makes them look like punk woodcuts.
Gordon Flagg
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Ted
Rall |
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SEARCH
AND DESTROY |
by Ted Rall |
Paperback:
160 pages
Andrews McMeel
Publishing
ISBN: 0740713965 |
$12.95

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Witty, acerbic,
razor sharp: Ted Rall has been called a spokesperson for his generation.
But the political cartoonist doesn't leave anyone untouched - even his
own Generation X - as he focuses his caustic imagination on everything
from pop culture to the environment, from underemployment to political
trends. |
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Search and Destroy
is Rall's first cartoon collection in five years. His previous books, Waking
Up In America and All The Rules Have Changed were best-sellers, especially
among young people looking for someone to voice their frustrations, their
hopes, their angst. Likewise, his groundbreaking book of essays and cartoons,
Revenge Of The Latchkey Kids, spoke loudly across generations. Ted Rall
brings an insightful understanding into the forces that are shaping our
society today. |
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