Jack of Harts

Music is important to my writing. I pretty much always write with music turned on and playing. Fast music. Driving music. Music that makes me want to think and imagine and create. And makes me move forward while doing it. Not always bright and happy, but never depressing. I don’t write characters that mope around and wonder why they do what they do. I write competent heroes who see what needs doing and go do it. So I want music that brings that attitude with it. And sometimes in fight scenes I’ll have one song on repeat as I write with it in mind. The beats of the song often become part of the staccato rhythm of the conflict. The back and forth. The ebb and flow as the foes move and the heroes respond. The story isn’t interesting if its all about what the hero does after all. There must be a foe that does things, and that foe must have agency or the story won’t be believed. I try to play music that helps me get into the mood to give all sides I write that agency and drive.

Absolutely NOTHING important happened in 1952. Nothing at all.

Well… there were some disagreements going on in Korea. And there was a nuclear test in the Marshal Islands. And there was a tsunami that hit Soviet Kamchatka after an earthquake that had nothing at all to do with the nuclear test over a thousand miles a way.

But nothing about any of that was important… right?

Well… here’s the thing. When I write Captain William Carter stories, I like to bring real life stuff that doesn’t connect and try to connect it. And I found the connection for another story. And this one has the full story already in place. I know what is going to happen. All I have to do is write it.

I’ve had this idea for a while that the American military did NOT sink the I-400 boats after they captured them from the Japanese at the end of World War II. That they were in fact taken over by the monster hunting organization Captain William Carter works for and were repurposed to fight America’s supernatural threats. An open call gives me the perfect opportunity to play with her in a way that complements both the open call and the story I’ve wanted to tell for a while.

I-401 charging west out of Alaska in 1952, making for Soviet Kamchatka with storm warning flags flying from her conning tower. Flags that warn everyone to stop and stay away because she is sailing into danger. A flag combination that Old Sailors recognize as a warning against the kind of dire supernatural threats that even international enmities must bow to. All flying off a Japanese boat crewed by Americans sailing into the Soviet Far East in the middle of the Cold War.

I recently learned that self defense is not a valid reason to do a thing in Great Britain. If in fact you do anything for the reason of self defense, you are considered to be an aggressor in any conflict that occurs. Legally. The legal recourse for a subject of the British crown is to, as the old parody goes, “Run away!” from any conflict. I used to think that was supreme comedy. A real life parody. That appears to be actual law in Britain if I have been told correctly.

The recent boy who was murdered did exactly what he was supposed to do under British law. He ran away from the man stabbing him. And in an ideal world, that would have been an end to the conflict. But the man who wished to kill him chased him down and kept stabbing him. And then his family came and did not seek to save the boy’s life. The stabber’s father picked the boy up by this throat and held him against the fence. His mother took the murder weapon home and cleaned it. His brother told him to say it was self defense.

And when the British police came, they listened to the murderer’s claims that the boy had attacked him with racist language. And when the boy asked for help, saying he had been stabbed, the police said “we don’t think you have, mate” and arrested and handcuffed the boy and dragged the boy around until he lost consciousness and later died. An ambulance was not called in to save his life. He was stabbed, chased down and stabbed again, and he was assaulted by the stabber’s family, and he was handcuffed and dragged around by the police when he asked for help from the police.

Every single person who came into contact with that boy in the last minutes of his life did contributed with their material actions to his murder and they all should be charged accordingly.

But back to the law. British law requires that people “run away!” from conflict. This presupposes the idea that if everyone runs away from conflict, there will be no conflict. And in a civilized world filled with civilized people, this law could actually work. Britain tells its subjects that they must do this. It tells them that preparing for their own self defense is in fact an aggressive action that will send them to prison if they do it.

As an American, I find this idea to be somewhere between ridiculously naive and reprehensible. We recognized centuries ago that there are monsters. There are people who wish to kill us. That it is our duty to provide for own self defense. And our own rights to self defense are enshrined in our laws. In any court in the land, a man who kills another can be declared innocent of manslaughter or murder if the jury agrees that it was self defense. There are some exceptions obviously. And if you live in an area controlled by Communists and happen to kill one of their favorite criminals who was trying to kill you, they will try to put you in prison for it. But even there, a good and costly lawyer and a jury that recognizes the facts will set you free. In areas controlled by rational adults, they won’t even detain you. The officers will come over, see that you defended yourself, say “have a nice day,” and take the body away. Now if later evidence suggests that it wasn’t self defense, there will be a change in your circumstances rather quickly.

This is a difference between the American and British cultures that I find very hard to understand. I KNOW in my soul that any right thinking adult would prepare to defend themselves from attack. In a world of monsters, the only way to keep the monsters from attacking you is to be ready to defend yourself from them. In my 50 years of life, I’ve never had to defend myself against a monster. Not physically at least. I have seen monsters. I have talked with them. I have watched them try to start a fight with me. But one is not required to join every fight you are invited to. I have so far been able to avoid every fight a monster has tried to start with me.

I have not avoided those fights by running away. That invites them to attack me while my back is turned. Most monsters are inherently cowardly after all. They attack when they see weakness. I have avoided every fight with a monster in my life because I faced them. Because I have had a weapon within easy reach. Sometimes I’ve been holding a weapon. I have been ready to defend myself against their actions should they choose to attack me. I have never once in my life held a weapon in a threatening manner against a monster. I have never raised a weapon against another human being outside of a sparring or training session. There is a legal term for that called “brandishing” a weapon that is one of the exceptions that can get one in trouble with the law. I don’t do that. But every monsters who has sought to start a conflict with me has recognized that I will not go quietly into the night without a fight. And so they have walked away from me as they go in search of easier victims. Like the 60 year old man or woman they can stab in the back or throw down the stairs or toss in front of a moving train. Or stab as they are running away like the most recent monster in Britain did to that boy. I have called the police on such monsters when I can, but as the old saying goes, when seconds matter, the police are minutes away. Still, in my town, the police actually do something about monsters.

I fear for the people who live in places like Britain or large Communist-controlled cities where the right of the people to defend themselves is not recognized when they are hunted by the kind of monsters the politicians import and make certain are free to walk in the streets to terrorize their populations. I hope the people can find a way to change their politicians. To defend their civilization. But I’m very much afraid we live in a prequel to “Escape From New York” and it will soon become a reflection of the reality we all live in. And I’m very much afraid that Britain is a preview of things to come.