Terror-Dot-Gov

by Harold Jaffe

As in Harold Jaffe’s two previous “docufiction” collections, False Positive and 15 Serial Killers , the author of Terror-Dot-Gov selects then “treats” his texts such that the reader is incapable of distinguishing between fact and fiction. That ambiguity permits Jaffe to cunningly tease out the contradictions and subtexts of official “news” or “information” and torque it into what it so often is jingoism, xenophobia and propaganda. Jaffe’s subject in Terror-Dot-Gov is not the everywhere-represented “illicit” terrorism so much as “licit,” institutionalized terrorism, and he assaults his subject from multiple razor-sharp satire, precisely cadenced rhetoric, faux-reportage, and “unsituated” dialogues (Jaffe’s term, referring to his trademark talking heads with perfect pitch). The result is virtuosic and a prodigious display of firepower—in the cause of peace. Blurbs As Terror-Dot-Gov vividly We are spiritually imperiled by illusions masked as ‘news.’ Omissions, slants, pallid editorials all testifying to servitude to a slavish, enslaving text. Harold Jaffe knows this by heart and has it right. He isolates the self-justifying words that demonize the enemy while cleansing the ongoing crime, the ‘preventive strike.’ He encourages organized terror (our very own) to emerge white as new-fallen snow. White as leprosy. Everywhere in Terror-Dot-Gov is exemplary skill, faultless tonality. And courage, don’t forget courage. In order to be healed, our illness must worsen. Thank you, Harold Jaffe.” —Daniel Berrigan, SJ “Kill your TV. Terror-Dot-Gov will give you all the news that’s unfit to print—reportage gone fictive (or is it vice versa?) Jaffe’s brilliantly constructed docufictions blast holes through the mediadrome to unmask the terrifying institutionalized rhetoric that passes itself off as business as usual.” —Jan Ramjerdi “Terror-Dot-Gov is a full frontal assault on our duct-taped minds. High velocity words fired with unerring precision, dancing feverishly on the page before zapping their target, which is nothing less than “First World” war-mongering and the terror it invokes to validate itself.” —Faruk Ulay

Genres: Fiction

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Harold Jaffe is the author of 22 books, including nine fiction collections, one nonfiction collection, and three novels.

Jaffe's fiction has appeared in such journals as The Mississippi Review, City Lights Review, The Paris Review, New Directions in Prose and Poetry, Chicago Review, Chelsea, Fiction, Central Park, Witness, Black Ice, Minnesota Review, Boundary 2, ACM, Black Warrior Review, Cream City Review, Two Girls' Review, and New Novel Review. His stories have been anthologized in Pushcart Prize, Best American Stories, Best of American Humor, Storming the Reality Studio, American Made, Avant Pop: Fiction for a Daydreaming Nation, After Yesterday's Crash: The Avant-Pop Anthology, Bateria and Am Lit (Germany), Borderlands (Mexico), Praz (Italy), Positive (Japan), and elsewhere.

His novels and stories have been translated into German, Japanese, Spanish, French, Dutch, Czech, and Serbo-Croatian.

Harold Jaffe has won two NEA grants in fiction, a New York CAPS grant, a California Arts Council fellowship in fiction, and a San Diego fellowship (COMBO) in fiction.

Jaffe teaches literature at San Diego State University and is editor of Fiction International.

Reviews

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series of essays shifts between fiction and nonfiction to illuminate 21st Century terrorism/politics. As such, it is similar to news headlines, but more honest because it doesn't pretend to be "reality."

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thought-provoking look into the modern abyss of war and terrorism.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

A total mess of a collection with very little attention to craft and no point.