LONDON BOMBINGS
I don't usually post about current events, but thoughts and prayers go out to the survivors and the families of the wounded and dead as a result of the bombings in London today. It is a barbaric, cowardly act.
I did check in with friends in London and am happy to report that, among others, Mark Roberts, Claire Weaver, Jay Caselberg, Peter Lavery (and the rest of the Pan Macmillan staff) are all fine.
Some further details on Claire's blog.
Mark writes, "It’s horrible. Although, has to be said...the main response from London appears to be: fuck ‘em, let’s get on with it."
London's one of my favorite cities in the world--perhaps my favorite--and, along with New York, represents the Western hub of the publishing universe to me. A lot of fond memories of London, and I hate to think of it under siege like this--the bombings and then the fear that comes after.
Jeff
posted by JeffV @ 6:25 AM
16 comments
16 Comments:
"It’s horrible. Although, has to be said...the main response from London appears to be: fuck ‘em, let’s get on with it."
You know, from a country that held off Germany by sheer force of will for years, that reaction doesn't surprise me.
Good on them.
Yeah--I agree.
Jay Caselberg, Richard Calder, and Iain Rowan's family reported safe. I mean, it's a huge city. Chances are everybody I know is safe, but it's good to know for sure.
JeffV
Farah M. is okay.
Haven't heard from Cheryl Morgan, but I don't know if she was in London or not.
JeffV
That's because I'm in San Francisco and have not been awake long. Just starting to assimilate the news now.
Nice to see the newspapers being sensible about it. Having worked in London at the height of the IRA bombing campaign, I have every confidence that the city will indeed shrug it off and get on with life.
Oh, good, Cheryl--glad to hear it.
Pat Cadigan is fine, btw.
JeffV
Ellen Datlow posts on the NS boards that:
The following Londoners I know are ok:
Kim Newman
Paul McAuley and Georgina, his girlfriend
M. John Harrison
Pat Cadigan and family
Roz Kaveney
Jo Fletcher
Mic Cheetham
Judith Clute
John Clute is in the US
Farrah M is in the US
JV
Glad to hear that all these people are OK! Keep the reports coming in.
Ann V.
Well, this is hardly anyone's first choice for news reports, but...Jim Minz says add
"Simon Spanton
Simon Taylor
Stef Bierwerth
Tim Holman to the "safe" list.
Also, Peter Olson released a statement that mentions that all of Random House UK folks are safely accounted for."
JV
Cory Doctorow's in Michigan. China Mieville's fine. Basically, it seems like everybody genre-related is ok.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/nihilistic_kid/617245.html
Nick makes a good point re the bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan that are killing innocent people. The point of these bombings in London was to kill civilians. The bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan are supposedly not meant to, but the military has to know that will be the end result. It's definitely worth making the point that there should be no difference in value in people's minds in the West between *any* civilian lives lost to state- or group-initiated violence. I'm not sure I said that quite right, but I hope you get the meaning anyway.
JV
It was a little frustrating at work this morning when not a soul mentioned the London bombings. In fact, midway through the day, someone said "did you know there was a terrorist attack in London?" I couldn't believe it; for the majority of Americans, sadly to say, human life outside this country is insignificant, and the loss of it just a distant blip on the radar.
Unless you know people who live and work in the UK.
I got an e-mail early, early morning from my roommate telling me that a mutual friend of ours was OK.
Depends on your connection to the UK.
Yeah, I agree, Kameron, which is why I said I wasn't sure if I was putting it the right way. I wasn't.
JeffV
Jeff, actually I was responding to Kellys comment - I was doing edits this morning instead of my usual breakfast blog break, so I wouldn't have known about the London bombings if I relied only on the news.
But when I got to work, an e-mail was waiting for me from my roommate saying our buddy Gillian was OK, and a bit later I got another e-mail from my aunt that said my cousin Lisa had hopped off the tube about a half hour before the first bombs went off.
In this case, my initial news source was a personal one, and I think that those more personally invested in this kind of news would know about it before those not invested - social networks guarantee it (I'm also on the Cory Doctorow listserv, and got the "actually, I'm in Michigan" mass update as well)
I would agree that bombings in London and Baghdad should be given equal time and weights, but hey, give it another year or two of regular London bombings and they'll be covered with about as much interest as the regular Baghdad bombings.
I think it's an issue of relative novelty and geography. The media's bored with Baghdad. Absolutely, all human life should be weighed equally, but we're talking American media, and that means ratings, and the last twenty years, that's meant fewer and fewer foreign news stories.
Rwanda, anyone?
At least it got the latest Missing Rich White Girl off the front page.
Anyway, I'm pissed at terrorism in general right now, and Al-Q in particular, and everybody who said they were going to take care of Al-Q instead of, you know, bombing people in Iraq.
Bah. I'm ranting.
"Basically, it seems like everybody genre-related is ok."
You're kidding, right?
Are fans not genre-related? You think there are no fans affected?
Anonymous dipshit: Of course I don't mean that. To my knowledge, no genre editors writers, fans active in the field, et al were hurt. Did anyone who ever read a genre book get hurt? Probably. The point was just toreport in n the tiny little corner of the universe covered by this blog. Also, I can't report on the status of people I don't know. Shame on you.
JeffV,
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