Tim Worstall

Tebaf Rides Again!

My, my, Margot will be proud. Tom Kratman has a new novel out. The name of one character might strike a chord (chapter 6):

"Interlude
31 December, 2049, Brussels, Belgium, European Union

Margot Tebaf’s chauffeured limousine passed row upon row of empty,
boarded-up shops and unmaintained apartment buildings. It seems like
only yesterday, she thought, when those shops were open and vibrant,
when there were flower boxes at the windows of the apartments, when
the streets were clear. Has it been thirty years?"

Now, I wonder where that character’s name could have come from? Tom’s page:

Things Tom Kratman reads:

Tim Worstall

EU Referendum

So, not only has that little coinage been quoted by Margot herself in a speech, it’s now even made it into literature.

Hurrah!
 

In

14 responses

  1. Tom Kratman Avatar
    Tom Kratman

    See? Ah tol’ ya.
    Actually, the hard cover isn’t out until 4 September with the sequel (really part II) on 6 November. That’s just an electronic advance reader copy, which will have, I assure you, more than its share of typos.
    Wait til you meet the Marchioness of Amnesty Interplanetary, who happens to be a domme with a really mean streak. 😉

    Reply
  2. Anoneumouse Avatar
    Anoneumouse

    Tom, you mean Margot isn’t a domme with a mean streak. (Heartbroken)

    Reply
  3. Tom Kratman Avatar
    Tom Kratman

    Nonono. The Marchioness of Amnesty, Interplanetary is Lucretia Arbeit. Margot Tebaf is the Tauran Union Commissioner for Something or Other.

    Reply
  4. Cleanthes Avatar
    Cleanthes

    Lucretia Arbeit?
    that would be Margot again: didn’t she get into a bit of Arbeit Macht Frei trouble a few years ago?

    Reply
  5. Tom Kratman Avatar
    Tom Kratman

    Cleanthes:
    Nope. There’s a much better candidate for Arbeit.

    Reply
  6. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    Seeing as he has someone thinking about the times when the streets were “clear” (as in open to traffic) whilst riding through them in a limousine (as opposed to a tank or helicopter, say), I’m not sure if this counts as “literature”.

    Reply
  7. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    …and as for pulled-out-of-your-arse Nazi smears, perhaps you should consider how that gels with writing rightwing war porn novels entitled “The Watch on the Rhine”..

    Reply
  8. Tom Kratman Avatar
    Tom Kratman

    Jeez, Alex, I’m just _devastated_ by your witty and insightful critique.
    Have a nice day.

    Reply
  9. Tom Kratman Avatar
    Tom Kratman

    Alex:
    I’m sure you don’t feel it’s necessary to actually read a book before criticizing it, but, given what you’ve said, I feel I must warn you, especially, not to read A Desert Called Peace. Here’s what one fan, who did read it, had to say:
    “Tom Kratman’s A Desert Called Peace is practically the platonic ideal of epic Jacksonian war-porn. The printing process involves soaking the books in testosterone. It is so beautifully, terribly and gloriously Jacksonian, in fact, that merely reading the book carries the risk of pregnancy for unprotected women and metrosexuals.”
    So, lest you end up with a round belly, don’t read it. Please.

    Reply
  10. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    I really, really hope that Jacksonian here refers to some Jackson other than President Andrew Jackson, who was known for not getting into stupid wars.
    Don’t drive your limo down any blocked streets.

    Reply
  11. Tom Kratman Avatar
    Tom Kratman

    You will just have to risk pregnancy to find out, Alex.
    By the way, where have you read that Andrew Jackson was or is known for not getting into stupid wars? I mean, he is known for a lot of things, but that’s a new one.
    Ah…but you haven’t read it anywhere, have you? Like critiquing books you’ve never read? Tsk, Alex. Even double tsk.
    Have a nice day.

    Reply
  12. Tom Kratman Avatar
    Tom Kratman

    Just in case anyone is curious about what Jacksonianism means in the context of waging war:
    http://denbeste.nu/external/Mead01.html

    Reply
  13. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    Ah, I forgot the one he started that ended up with us *burning the White House down ‘cos there weren’t any more US merchant ships we hadn’t already burned*.

    Reply
  14. Tom Kratman Avatar
    Tom Kratman

    Well, of course _he_ didn’t start that. But your problem, Alex, tends to be semantic and not noticeably small. And, then too, you’re a socialist so your grasp of history and semantics must be, at best, perverse. For example, you assume that the opposite of “clear” is “totally blocked.” You are assuming, wrongly, that clear is necessarily an absolute rather than likely a relative. It isn’t. Somewhat similarly, you claim that Jackson is “known” for not starting stupid wars. Outside of killing indians, and that hardly counts, really, he is not known for starting _any_ wars, stupid or otherwise. He is known for being willing to fight to the death at the drop of a hat, of course, whether for stupid reasons or not.
    By the way, the three regiments in which I served of which I am most proud mostly killed indians. There were a couple of notable exceptions, however: “In Eighteen Fourteen we took a little trip…along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip…” Cottonbalers….ah.),
    As you pound sand, go google:
    Her decks once red with heroes’ blood
    Where knelt the vanquished foe
    The vanquished foe? That was…you.
    By the way, Alex, just so you know:
    I wake up in the morning and the first thing I think of is, “How am I going to piss off the left today?” When I go to sleep at night, I congratulate myself, if such congratulations are due me, for how well I’ve succeeded in answering the morning’s question. In addition to being ‘epic Jacksonian war-porn,’ A Desert Called Peace and its second part, Carnifex, constitute a nearly one half million word continuous sneer at Tranzis, Cosmopolitans, Progressives, the EU, the UN, bleeding heart humanitarian activists (who _invariably_ do harm in inverse proportion to the good they claim for themselves), Socialists, Communists, the left wing dominated media, and the whole gamut of the mass psychosis we call “the Left.” Add in a spirited defense of genuine torture (not the namby pamby limp wristed things the left insists are torture) and mass reprisal for crimes committed on the battlefield and…well…don’t you just _know_ I will sleep happily for months on that?
    When I get a little message from you, or people more or less like you, indicating that I have succeeded in pissing off the left, I sleep well that night, Alex. And so, I thank you. Really.
    Have a nice day.

    Reply

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