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Mostly protest research this month, with an H2G2 chaser.
City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong by Antony Dapiran
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Several books have already been written about the 2019 Hong Kong protests, covering different angles. This one from longtime HK resident Antony Dapiran – a journalist and lawyer who spent a lot of time covering the front lines – is an eyewitness chronicle of the protests, from the introduction of the extradition bill that started it to the Battle of PolyU and the District Council elections.
If you’re looking for in-depth interviews and analysis of what happened and why, this is not that book – and in fairness, it’s too soon for that. But Dapiran did speak to some protesters and experts, and he does offer a critical eye to both the protests and the government/police response, as well as the sociopolitical impact on Hong Kong society. He also connects the dots between the 2019 protests and the 2014 Umbrella Movement. His particular strength is in the legal analysis of the extradition issue and the government’s legal justifications for its actions under the Basic Law. Some his speculation on ‘what happens next’ has not aged well, but some of it has, and no one saw COVID-19 or the National Security Law coming (at least not in the way it actually happened), so it’s unfair to be too critical.
It’s kind of a strange feeling to read a book covering events that you’ve lived through just six months ago, and are still dealing with the repercussions. But it’s a different experience to live it in real time, where daily events flash by and you have no idea what’s coming next vs reading about it with all the information in one place. That alone made it a worthwhile read for me – that and Dapiran tells the story well. Whether it works for others, it’s hard to say – Dapiran tends to make references to incidents that happened earlier chronologically that he didn’t mention previously, which I can follow easily because I remember both the incident and the context, but I’m not sure if people hearing this for the first time might find it confusing. But no matter. If you want to know what happened in HK in 2019, this is an essential starting point.
Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest by Zeynep Tufekci
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’ve been an avid follower of Zeynep Tufekci for awhile now via her articles about social media, digital technologies, protest movements and COVID-19. This book is an in-depth exploration at how digital technologies have reshaped protest movements (as well as government responses to them) by creating a “digital public sphere” that is not simply an online version of traditional protest activity, but a new social dynamic with different metrics and rules of engagement.
At first glance the book seems mainly about the Arab Spring protests – in which Twitter famously played a role, and which Tufekci witnessed first-hand – but the scope is much wider. She takes a sociological approach to explain why people attend protests, compares digitally-enabled activism to pre-digital protest actions like the Civil Rights movement, and explains how the success of a movement isn’t about how many people show up to a protest march, but the ability of the movement to signal to the Powers That Be that they have the capacity to disrupt their narrative and affect change. She also looks at how authoritarian regimes can use social media for their own ends to counter that capacity, and how 21st-century govt censorship isn’t about blocking information but distracting your attention.
Although it was published three years ago, it’s still a highly relevant book, given that certain protest movements covered here (#BLM, Hong Kong and to an extent the Tea Party) have entered new phases since 2017. For me personally, as a long-time HK resident, it provides invaluable insight into the HK protests in terms of evaluating the results and understanding the limitations of “leaderless” movements, as well as China’s approach to censorship (which is now in the process of being imposed on HK). If you want a how-to handbook on digital activism or a breezy current-events read, this ain’t it. But with protests springing up around the world as more governments embrace authoritarian rule, this is required reading to understand what’s happening.
Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m usually not big on biographies, “Making Of …” books or official companion books to a given franchise. I am, however, big on Douglas Adams, his books, and Neil Gaiman, who happened to write this H2G2 companion guide in 1987, so when I finally had a chance to get a Kindle copy of this, I went ahead. This is the 2009 edition, which means everything from 1988 to 1993 was written by David K. Dickson and everything from 1993 to 2002 by MJ Simpson. Or most everything – Gaiman may have been involved in some of the new additions as well. I'm not sure.
Anyway, this book covers Adams’ start as a writer (Footlights, Monty Python, Doctor Who), his eventual development of the H2G2 radio series and the various adaptations (records, books, TV show, film, computer game, etc), with detailed explanations as to how they got made and why the storyline differs from one format to another. It also covers his Dirk Gently phase, Last Chance To See, the Starship Titanic game, his untimely death in 2001 and his posthumous output, ending with the (written but not yet available at press time) sixth H2G2 novel by Eoin Colfer. There are script excerpts from H2G2 and Doctor Who, and plenty of extended interviews with Adams and other key players involved in the radio series and TV shows.
It’s a fan’s book written by a fan for the fans, but again, when the fan is Neil Gaiman, and you’re also a fan of Gaiman’s, well, you just kind of have to read it, don't you? And so I did, and as a fan of … well just about everything in here (Adams, Gaimain, H2G2, Dirk Gently, Doctor Who, radio production, etc), I enjoyed it. Also, respect to Gaiman for not writing a hagiography – he fully acknowledges Adams’ faults as a writer (i.e. his notorious deadline problem), explores why some books were better than others, and why some adaptations were better than others. For fans only, sure, but … oh, you know.
View all my reviews
Mostly harmless,
This is dF
City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong by Antony DapiranMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Several books have already been written about the 2019 Hong Kong protests, covering different angles. This one from longtime HK resident Antony Dapiran – a journalist and lawyer who spent a lot of time covering the front lines – is an eyewitness chronicle of the protests, from the introduction of the extradition bill that started it to the Battle of PolyU and the District Council elections.
If you’re looking for in-depth interviews and analysis of what happened and why, this is not that book – and in fairness, it’s too soon for that. But Dapiran did speak to some protesters and experts, and he does offer a critical eye to both the protests and the government/police response, as well as the sociopolitical impact on Hong Kong society. He also connects the dots between the 2019 protests and the 2014 Umbrella Movement. His particular strength is in the legal analysis of the extradition issue and the government’s legal justifications for its actions under the Basic Law. Some his speculation on ‘what happens next’ has not aged well, but some of it has, and no one saw COVID-19 or the National Security Law coming (at least not in the way it actually happened), so it’s unfair to be too critical.
It’s kind of a strange feeling to read a book covering events that you’ve lived through just six months ago, and are still dealing with the repercussions. But it’s a different experience to live it in real time, where daily events flash by and you have no idea what’s coming next vs reading about it with all the information in one place. That alone made it a worthwhile read for me – that and Dapiran tells the story well. Whether it works for others, it’s hard to say – Dapiran tends to make references to incidents that happened earlier chronologically that he didn’t mention previously, which I can follow easily because I remember both the incident and the context, but I’m not sure if people hearing this for the first time might find it confusing. But no matter. If you want to know what happened in HK in 2019, this is an essential starting point.
Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest by Zeynep TufekciMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’ve been an avid follower of Zeynep Tufekci for awhile now via her articles about social media, digital technologies, protest movements and COVID-19. This book is an in-depth exploration at how digital technologies have reshaped protest movements (as well as government responses to them) by creating a “digital public sphere” that is not simply an online version of traditional protest activity, but a new social dynamic with different metrics and rules of engagement.
At first glance the book seems mainly about the Arab Spring protests – in which Twitter famously played a role, and which Tufekci witnessed first-hand – but the scope is much wider. She takes a sociological approach to explain why people attend protests, compares digitally-enabled activism to pre-digital protest actions like the Civil Rights movement, and explains how the success of a movement isn’t about how many people show up to a protest march, but the ability of the movement to signal to the Powers That Be that they have the capacity to disrupt their narrative and affect change. She also looks at how authoritarian regimes can use social media for their own ends to counter that capacity, and how 21st-century govt censorship isn’t about blocking information but distracting your attention.
Although it was published three years ago, it’s still a highly relevant book, given that certain protest movements covered here (#BLM, Hong Kong and to an extent the Tea Party) have entered new phases since 2017. For me personally, as a long-time HK resident, it provides invaluable insight into the HK protests in terms of evaluating the results and understanding the limitations of “leaderless” movements, as well as China’s approach to censorship (which is now in the process of being imposed on HK). If you want a how-to handbook on digital activism or a breezy current-events read, this ain’t it. But with protests springing up around the world as more governments embrace authoritarian rule, this is required reading to understand what’s happening.
Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Neil GaimanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m usually not big on biographies, “Making Of …” books or official companion books to a given franchise. I am, however, big on Douglas Adams, his books, and Neil Gaiman, who happened to write this H2G2 companion guide in 1987, so when I finally had a chance to get a Kindle copy of this, I went ahead. This is the 2009 edition, which means everything from 1988 to 1993 was written by David K. Dickson and everything from 1993 to 2002 by MJ Simpson. Or most everything – Gaiman may have been involved in some of the new additions as well. I'm not sure.
Anyway, this book covers Adams’ start as a writer (Footlights, Monty Python, Doctor Who), his eventual development of the H2G2 radio series and the various adaptations (records, books, TV show, film, computer game, etc), with detailed explanations as to how they got made and why the storyline differs from one format to another. It also covers his Dirk Gently phase, Last Chance To See, the Starship Titanic game, his untimely death in 2001 and his posthumous output, ending with the (written but not yet available at press time) sixth H2G2 novel by Eoin Colfer. There are script excerpts from H2G2 and Doctor Who, and plenty of extended interviews with Adams and other key players involved in the radio series and TV shows.
It’s a fan’s book written by a fan for the fans, but again, when the fan is Neil Gaiman, and you’re also a fan of Gaiman’s, well, you just kind of have to read it, don't you? And so I did, and as a fan of … well just about everything in here (Adams, Gaimain, H2G2, Dirk Gently, Doctor Who, radio production, etc), I enjoyed it. Also, respect to Gaiman for not writing a hagiography – he fully acknowledges Adams’ faults as a writer (i.e. his notorious deadline problem), explores why some books were better than others, and why some adaptations were better than others. For fans only, sure, but … oh, you know.
View all my reviews
Mostly harmless,
This is dF
