Even though this book was published stateside in 2017 it is important to
keep in mind that Spinrad devised this book in the years that followed
9/11. While the Trump years and the insanity of it may have dulled some
memories of the political climate of the Bush years and the War on
terror it is important to remember to view the meaning of this book in
the context of the pre-May 2nd 2011 world it was written in. In fact,
this book was written in 2007 just six years after 9/11 is important.
Osama
Bin Laden is dead in the future events of this novel, but it is the
idea of Osama as symbols more so than the actual human being that is the
issue at the heart of this novel. A character points to the Zapatistas
who wisely had a masked leader who thus represented more the ideals than
a face or personality. Osama The Gun becomes a hero and a rallying call
to radical Islam but unlike Bid Laden, no one is sure who he is.
“I
can be killed, I almost was, it was this close,” I told him, holding up
my right hand with the thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart,
“but had I been killed Osama the Gun would have lived on.”
Indeed
we have seen in the wake of Bin Laden’s death the lengths the American
government has gone to portray the lack of honor they say the terrorist
lived within his final days. They buried him at sea in an attempt to
make his death with as little glory as possible. So a science fiction
novel light on the sci-fi elements but heavy on an unpopular and radical
political position is not exactly the type of book the big science
fiction publishers have on their manuscript wish lists.
If you
followed the author online a decade ago as I did then the battles to
find a home for this novel were quite public. Spinrad was not surprised
to have trouble finding a home for this novel that might be because he
against odds released The Iron Dream as a paperback. I mean this is a
tough sell but so is a spoof of Lord of The Rings being written as a
novel as by Hitler. Indeed that was a different time.
The post
9/11 United States had turned Bin Laden into a bogeyman and a Science
Fiction novel about a leader in his mold leading a new Caliphate was not
an easy sell. In an interview by Cat Rambo on the SFWA website, Spinrad
said "Osama the Gun is currently politically, socially, psychologically
and spiritually important, for the same reasons that it has been
rejected by so many American publishers, which The Iron Dream never was,
why one rejection letter, foaming at the mouth, declared that no
American publisher would touch it."
The Patriot Act and the quick
jump by some on the left to call revenge was strange to watch for those
of us political radicals who watched 9/11. America in the wake of the
attacks is off-Camera for this novel but the push and pull between these
two cultures that are worlds apart is represented in this story.
This
is expressed well on page 37 of the Wildside edition "The famous
victory of 9/11. A few Jihadis transformed the most admired nation in
the world into the most hated, most dangerous model of democracy,
arch-enemy of Koranic Islam rule, into what is considered by the world a
paranoiac police state, the face of the so-called City on the Hill into
that of the Great Satan. Not bad for a single Thunderbolt from the holy
warriors of Allah, Osama"
It is clear that this novel is a
reaction to the hysteria of the media Bogeyman the War on Terror had
turned Bin Laden into. Spinrad imagines a more successful Al- Qaeda that
manages to use Pakistan's nuclear weapons to create a caliphate that
stretches across a large swath of the middle east and Asia. Our point of
view character is Osama one of many young boys in the new Caliphate
named for the infamous terrorist. This Osama is sent to France as an
agent of his government and becomes famous for a series of attacks
around Paris.
His government disavows him but he sneaks back into
the country and learns that he has become a folk hero. He goes on to
lead a revolution in Nigeria against American forces protecting oil in
that country. It is hard to talk about the political nature of the novel
without spoilers for the final act. It is not a huge spoiler to say the
Caliphate and America end up in another war. Osama the Gun’s response
to that war presents an interesting alternative to opposing America’s
mighty war machine.
When I interviewed Norman Spinrad for
the Dickheads Podcast he said described this book as Sympathy for the
Devil. I think it was clear that Spinrad saw that there was a narrative
missing. That people were not thinking about the motivations of
jihadists. It is impossible to understand that global conflict
otherwise. While the speculative elements are light in the way of
robotic armies something that has come true in a real sense with drones.
We are not to the robot tank level of the novel but none the less. This
is light Sci-fi that gets it speculative elements mostly from creating a
fictional Caliphate.
Osama the Gun is an important novel, and
in that sense underrated. I would go to the level of a masterpiece as
there were plenty of points and messages I think were left just beyond
the text. While I think the intended message is clear this novel is
dated in the sense that it was written before the rise of Isis. I feel
there is another story there.
It has been compared a few times
to the Iron Dream but I think is just in the jaw-dropping audacity of
the subject. Osama The Gun is written to present an unpopular point of
view but unlike Iron Dream, it was not conceived to be terrible. When
writing as Hitler Spinrad was mocking the sword and sorcery novel thus
that book is almost unreadable.
Interestingly enough Spinrad just
appeared to early, mainstream publishers have done the War on Terror in
Science Fiction since from hardcover releases of Matt Ruff’s The Mirage
and Omar El-Akkad’s American War. Israeli author Lave Tidhir also went
on to release Osama to wide acclaim. I am working my way through the
last two so how this novel fits in the overall Science fiction reaction
to the War on Terror remains to be seen.
As a stand-alone, I
think it should be read but it is far from my favorite Spinrad. The man
has a shelf of masterpieces and unique works of speculative fiction so
being down on my list of Spinrad books is far from an insult. Bottomline
Spinrad is important, this book is important.
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