WEBVTT - CZM Book Club: Cool Zone 2055: The Dreadnaught Funeral 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:03.240 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:12.639 Dinah Wars, Dinah Wars, Dinah Wars, Dinah Wars. Hello and 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:14.640 welcome to Cool Zone Media book Club, the only book 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:16.440 club where you don't have to do the reading because 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:18.680 I do it for you. I'm your host, Margaret Hildoy, 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:22.600 and I'm on a kick right now. I'm really enjoying 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:24.960 doing Dinah Wars. If you're enjoying it too, you should 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:29.720 tell people about it. And so it's still Dinah Wars. 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:31.560 I mean, I don't know what you're talking about. We 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:34.360 have a missive from the future from the Cool Zone 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:39.200 Media team of twenty fifty five. We were sent audio 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:42.400 from our very own show I'm thirty years from now 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:50.519 and we're just gonna jump into it. You know what 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.440 this is, It's the Dinah Wars. Either your triceratopsy, it's 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:58.640 Nazis or Nazi zombies are gonna EU. This here is 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:01.600 part three of our EXCLUSI report from the Front from 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:05.559 Behind the Iron Curtain with mixed bunnyface murder our top 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:09.600 correspondent and yes top And that sentence has more than 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.479 one meaning, though I suppose anyone listening to the uncensored 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:14.720 version of this report over on under the pants and 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.399 under the ground knows that it might be more accurate 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:23.120 to call mixed bunnyface murder our switch correspondent. 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The sun rose the next morning, 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.080 as is its relentless habit, and it lit a field 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:20.200 littered with detritus of flesh. I don't think you can 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:22.519 be alive in twenty fifty five without having seen a 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:25.280 dead body or two. But this was at a scale 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:29.720 I'd never quite imagined. The high of combat had receded, 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.440 and I looked out, and I wept. What has become 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:39.440 of humanity? Of course, to kill the liminal, it's a mercy. 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:44.320 The biospawn literally beg for death with their ripped vocal cords, 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:48.480 and the zombies have already died once, but it's still 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:52.000 brutal and raw. A stare at the horrors of war 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:55.560 to see what teeth and bullet and pike can do. 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:01.200 In order to stop crying, I went to work. I 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:04.840 think most listeners are familiar with that particular trick. The 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:08.239 busy bee has no time for sorrow. With the first 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:10.600 light of dawn, a pair of rangers rode in on 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.239 day it ends. For those who aren't familiar, these are 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:18.480 basically megafauna pigs. They went extinct about sixteen million years ago. 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:22.160 The rangers rode in with a whole herd of giant 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:26.600 half wild pigs, and those pigs set to work cleaning 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:31.919 the field. About six herding dogs regular old canine MutS 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:35.480 kept all the giant beasts in line, and for hours 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:40.480 there was this omnipresent sound of munching bones. It was 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:44.960 faster than burial and more ecologically sound than fire. Are 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.080 dead and they're dead. Both went into the gullets of 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:53.200 giant pigs with no other task. Immediately before me, I 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:55.400 went to the pair of rangers who were overseeing the 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.960 whole thing. I was prepared to talk in Spanish, but 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:01.080 I was in luck in. One of the rangers, a 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:04.440 black man in his early sixties named Aiden, was born 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:06.480 and raised in Brooklyn, and we got to talk in 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:10.800 English and talk about the New York giants. I kept 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:13.120 calling him a zoomer, and he kept correcting me that 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:17.640 he was a millennial. Thank you very much. I started 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.120 off the interview a bit more properly. I asked who 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.839 he was, what his role was. The herd of Diodens 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:27.760 was one of only three such herds in the world, 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.840 at least in the semi wild. The other two were 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:37.240 in North America. Introducing extinct species was a delicate mamble. 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.440 If we weren't in the middle of a climate apocalypse already, 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.440 it would be unconsciousable. But the past fifty years have 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:49.440 seen unprecedented die off of species after species. Entire genuses 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:52.880 go extinct more or less every day, and generally, when 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:57.039 a newly extinct species is de extincted, it can't compete 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:02.120 and it just disappears again. So the megafauna and other 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:06.080 ancient animals are sort of a hail. Mary Aiden is 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:07.960 a New York Giants fan. In his speech is peppered 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:12.279 with sports references, some of which I understood. Some of 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:16.440 the reintroductions have been wildly successful. Think the giant sloths 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:18.680 that have become almost a mascot of what's left of 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:25.560 the Amazon charismatic megafauna. The pigs are a particularly dangerous gamble. 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:29.240 According to Aiden, wild pigs are, of course already one 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:32.560 of the most prolific invasive species across the world, and 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.640 they're in no more danger of extinction than cockroaches are. 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:40.599 But during lab experiments with the datin, scientists discovered something 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:46.960 they hadn't expected. Datin can eat plastic. Of course, so 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:49.760 can a bunch of worms and microbes and such. But 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.000 a single datin that are about the size of a 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:56.120 largish bowl can eat around twenty pounds of plastic a day, 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.360 so long as it is interspersed with plant matter and protein. 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:03.240 So the potential risks of wild daadin may yet be 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:09.240 outweighed by their ecological facility. Most datin are kept in captivity, 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.520 but before the outbreak of war in the Iberian Peninsula, 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:16.520 Aidan was working with a team experimenting with allowing deadon 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.880 to graze. They must be closely monitored at all times, 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:26.640 but initial results were promising. These days, dadon mostly eat 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:29.960 the war dead. Their ability to chew through fabric and 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.800 plastic and flesh and bone is simply unmatched when it 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:38.560 comes to cleaning battlefields. Aidan's affinity for these animals is clear, 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:42.320 though so is his worry if we're not careful. He 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:45.400 told me these things could wind up turning half the 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:49.640 biomass of the planet into more of themselves. He thought 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.640 about that for a moment and then laughed, kind of 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:56.480 like what humans have done, turning half the planet's biomass 0:06:56.480 --> 0:07:01.240 into humans and cows, Much like, if you think of it, 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.080 how humans have turned a solid half of the planet's 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:10.680 entertainment content into advertisements. This podcast is brought to you 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:13.920 by the Committee for the Curtailment of Sexually Transmitted Diseases 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:19.480 among Internationalist Forces the CCSTDAIF would like to remind you 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.560 that while sex is good and healthy, and there is 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:27.400 no particular ethical imperative for or against monogamy, sexually transmitted 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:32.360 diseases reduce the fighting strength of our forces. The CCSTDAF 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.800 works with medics and based hospitals to provide std testing, 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.160 and we ask any sexually active soldier or anyone who 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:42.240 is sexually active with soldiers to get tested on a 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:47.200 regular basis and treated when necessary. Because remember, you can fuck, 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:52.600 just don't fuck up. This podcast is brought to you 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:58.080 by dogs. Are you lonely, sad, overworked, stressed about the 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:01.160 impending death of all life on earth to climate change? 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:06.600 Do you want unconditional love? Try petting a dog. Studies 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:10.280 indicate that most people report a ten percent overall baseline 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.560 happiness when they are around friendly dogs on a regular basis, 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:17.280 and a thirty percent higher overall baseline happiness when they 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.240 are the principal caretaker for a dog. Don't forget the 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:26.760 charismatic medium fauna just because there's charismatic megafauna around. Reminder, 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:28.920 not all dogs would like to be pett Every dog 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:30.640 has a unique personality and may or may not be 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:33.280 compatible with different living situations. If you choose to adopt 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:35.680 a dog, please do so from a responsible rescue shelter. 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:37.960 If you choose to adopt a dog, you must accept 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:39.920 that you are responsible for that dog for the foreseeable 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.720 future and cannot abandon the dog without finding another safe 0:08:42.720 --> 0:09:07.839 home first, and we're back. Aiden and I talked for hours. 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:10.120 Here was a man who had lived through the whole 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:13.760 of the long twenty first century thus far and God willing. 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.200 He told me he was going to live to see 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:19.199 it end. I told him I didn't think any human 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:21.640 was going to live to see the century end. And 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.840 he looked me dead in the eyes and said, you 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.880 can't think like that. I asked him, why not, he said, 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:33.560 and I quote here, you can't think like that because look, 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:37.439 have I buried two of my three daughters already? Yeah? 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:40.800 Have three of my grandkids died in the fighting? Sure have. 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.280 That leaves me with a non binary kid and a daughter, 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.120 and that leaves me with three grandkids who are still alive. 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.199 I know it's hip and cool to live like you're 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:53.040 going to die, and you should live that way because 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.960 you are going to die. But not everyone is. There 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:00.440 was this old fiction writer check guy and anarch from 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:04.720 before my time, before your time, Franz Kafka. He lived 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:07.720 through the First World War in Europe. One day he 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:09.800 was talking to his friend and he said something that 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.439 keeps me going. They were talking about how God has 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:17.040 forsaken everyone, how everyone was killing themselves and killing each 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:20.760 other and dying, and how everything was just raw and bleak. 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.920 His friend brought up hope, and Franz he looks at 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:28.559 his friend and he goes, hope. There's an infinite amount 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:34.120 of hope in this universe, just not for us. And so, yeah, 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:38.080 you and me, we're probably fucked. I hate to tell 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:41.400 you that, but like iron curtain is down, maybe you 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:44.680 boys here, sorry, force a habit, you all will break 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:47.560 that curtain, or maybe that curtain will break itself against you. 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:52.400 Might happen, probably won't. But every fascist government that's ever 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:55.520 risen has fallen. And right now we've got more than 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:59.160 the usual amount of hope. All over the world, people 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:03.120 are fighting. Fascism requires people to give up, and for 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:06.280 once in history, with our backs up against the collective 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:11.480 wall of climate change, we're fighting. We're gonna win. You 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:16.520 and me we're gonna die, But everyone else we're gonna win. 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:19.400 He said all that to me. I said to him, 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:21.440 but you said you were going to live to see 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:26.720 the whole century come and go. He responded, sure, sure, 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:29.240 you never held onto two opposite thoughts in your head 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:32.200 at the same time, I'm gonna die in bed in 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:35.760 a Brooklyn brownstone. It's gonna be cooperatively owned, and the 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:38.240 whole of Brooklyn, maybe the whole Turtle Island is gonna 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:41.440 be under traditional stewardship, because we'll have fought like hell 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.400 to make it that way. There's gonna be three cats, 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:48.040 two dogs, and at least two previously extinct animals lying 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:51.640 in my bed, and my great great grandkids are gonna 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:54.360 ask me about the war, and I'm gonna smile and say, 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.080 what war? And then I'm gonna see the light that 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.440 I don't know if I believe in. And my first husband, Gary, 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.120 who died in the war in the forties, he's going 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:05.000 to be waiting for me, smiling, and he's going to 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:08.560 lead me up that light. That might happen. I hope 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:12.160 that'll happen. There I go talking about hope. That's one 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:15.000 thought in my head, and it's a pleasant one. Then 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:18.560 there's this other thought, and the thing is this thought 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:22.679 is pleasant too. Me and Gary we moved to Portugal 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:24.480 during one of those times when we thought the US 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:26.559 was going to go fascist instead of just split up. 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:29.160 And Gary had a good remote job and I'm good 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:31.640 with languages, so I started driving for a ride share. 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:35.560 Then you know, he goes and dies during that war, 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:37.800 and I go back to school and I get a 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:41.080 PhD in wildlife restoration, but just start working for the 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.040 park Service because being outside is the only thing that 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.079 keeps me away from my thoughts. All of a sudden, 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.560 MegaFon are back, and that's what I studied an undergrad 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.440 a million years ago. And I wind up a ranger 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:56.720 in Catalonia. New war breaks out, and I think about 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:59.040 signing up, but mostly people tell me I'm too old, 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.000 But animals they never tell you that you're too old, 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.200 and so I stay on as a ranger. Iron curtain 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.280 goes down. All my family they're on the other side 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.600 of that curtain. Are they still alive? I don't know. 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:17.200 I might never know. So probably one night while I'm sleeping, 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:19.640 the phalax is going to come over the hills and 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.440 they're going to kill me and eat my pigs. And 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:25.040 maybe I'll get a round off and maybe I won't, 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:28.200 But the end result is the same. I'm walking towards 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:30.080 the light, whether or not I believe in that light, 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.920 and Gary is there, and it don't matter in the 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:35.240 end if I die in Brooklyn sixty years from now 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.960 or Catalonia today, because because I've lived my life as 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:42.440 well as I could. What's it matter that I die 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:47.200 in the Pan Africanist, decolonial, anti authoritarian, socialist utopia or 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:51.120 that I die fighting for it? Either way? So you 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:53.640 can tell me that me and you that we're going 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:57.320 to die because we are now. We might die today, 0:13:57.320 --> 0:13:59.840 they might try to double tap our ass, but people 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:02.400 the earth, we're going to fight to make sure that 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:06.720 those keep going. There is hope, bunny face, but not 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:11.080 for us. And uh, you know what else, there's hope 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:15.160 for our advertisers. They're hoping that you'll drop your critical 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:17.440 thinking skills and just do whatever they tell you to do. 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:23.160 This podcast is brought to you by Bobby Blues Bastard Blades. 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:25.960 Are you tired of wielding a sword that's designed for 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:30.040 either one hand or two hands, feeling a little non 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.280 binary when it comes to sword and hilt length, then 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:37.480 Bobby Blues Bastard Blades is for you. We are the 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.840 world's finest purveyor of Bastard swords, and don't worry, we 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:49.320 are definitely not affiliated with Robert Evans. This podcast is 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.400 brought to you by Marty's Mattress Mall. It sure is 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:55.680 hard to sleep lately, what with all the evocative hand 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:57.600 gesture goes here. If this had is recorded in a 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:02.080 video format, I know that it's been ages since I 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:06.000 had a good night's rest, or it had been until 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.640 Marty's Mattress Mall sent me their latest and greatest, The 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:12.920 Matte Rest, the only mattress that makes you coffee in 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:18.080 the morning. This podcast is brought to you by Food 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:22.120 and Usually Not Bombs, the ideological successor of food not bombs. 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:26.400 All the food and occasionally some bombs. Don't know how 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:28.960 else to make the world a better place. Feed people 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:32.920 food and usually not bombs is a horizontal, decentralized collection 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.080 of autonomous collectives to provide food to all comers and 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:40.240 occasionally bombs to people who just you know, really need 0:15:40.280 --> 0:16:06.080 to go blow something up back. For most of the 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:09.680 morning I talked to Ranger Aiden as coworker I know 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:12.360 h came over and joined us for lunch, though she 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:16.040 asked me not to report on anything. She said I 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:18.640 was glad to have civilian company because the soldiers in 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:21.680 camp were rather busy. In the morning, there was an 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:24.760 open forum, well open to all enlisted soldiers, not to 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:30.000 civilians like me, discussing the tactical situation and brainstorming ideas. 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:33.000 Those ideas then went with the elected officers into the 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:35.600 command tent. I don't know what they talked about, and 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:39.400 I wouldn't tell you even if I did. In the afternoon, 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:42.200 I thought we'd be packing up to move camp. The enemy, 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:45.120 after all, knew where we were. They knew our numbers, 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:48.640 our defenses, everything. We'd taken out an entire battalion the 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:53.840 night before, but somewhere nearby was an entire brigade, which is, 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.840 in case you're not up on such things, bigger than 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:59.960 a battalion. If we were attacked by an entire brigade, 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:04.080 there is no way our defenses would hold. One of 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:06.320 the fag hags caught up with me in the afternoon 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.359 to tell me that we were staying put. Don't worry. 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.760 They told me they won't attack us directly again, not tonight. 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:18.280 Then they got contemplative, Well, they might shell us, but 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:22.639 there's no point lingering on that thought. They spent the 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:26.880 afternoon alongside two Katalan teenagers repairing a machine gun nest. 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.280 There was blood and gore everywhere, and the scent snuck 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.960 its way past my bandana mask. Soon enough, there weren't 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:36.880 enough respirators to go around, though, so I choked back 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:39.159 bile and cleaned out some meat that used to have 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:42.119 memories and friends and threw it into the field to 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:46.840 be eaten by ancient pigs. We finished just around the 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:49.960 time the sun started going down. The two teenagers sat 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.199 down in that nest to staff the machine gun. I 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:55.960 can only imagine what must have been going through their minds, 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.960 because they didn't want to answer my questions. They said, 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:01.720 ed and I have run across this a lot with 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:05.720 the youngest soldiers that they were immediatists, that they didn't 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:09.959 believe in mediating their experiences through photos and videos. The 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:12.240 only mark they wanted to leave on the world would 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:14.639 be their actions, which, if they were lucky, would go 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:20.120 unrecorded and unrecognized. That they said was the only way 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.000 to truly be free was to be free from the 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:28.160 yoke of posterity. So I don't know how they felt 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:30.640 to sit down into a machine gun nest that had 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.159 just the night before been the death of two people 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:37.800 they knew. As we were finishing up, a dreadnought walked 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:41.520 up to me, it's really easy to recognize a dreadnought. 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:44.439 No one else in camp had chainmail woven through her 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:47.520 plate carrier. No one else in camp had a labris, 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:50.640 a two headed axe, a lesbian symbol now used more 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:54.359 literally than it had been in previous generations, hanging from 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:56.600 a loop on her belt, next to a glock seventeen 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:59.800 and a medkit. No one else but a Dreadnought would 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:03.640 walk up to me, salute and say hail, and well met, 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:07.640 weary word smith in a Catalan accent so thick. I 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:11.000 wasn't sure I heard her right. So a Dreadnought walked 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:13.800 up to me and look, I swear to you, I 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:16.639 fell in love a little. I fall in love a 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:18.800 little about once a week, so this wasn't a world 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:22.840 changing moment for me or anything, but still I fell 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.960 in love a little. Her name was Octavia, after the 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:30.160 prophet Octavia Butler. She was born and raised in Barcelona. 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.520 A third generation syndicalist and a second generation trans woman, 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.200 she was in her thirties. You would assume that the 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:40.199 Dreadnoughts would skew younger than the rest of the anti fascists, 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:44.080 but they don't. Fanato nihilism attracts people of all ages. 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:48.639 We are saying farewell to the blessed ones tonight. She said, 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:52.520 you should come, You should see before all of us 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.080 are so blessed. I knew enough about the Dreadnoughts to 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:58.679 parse out what she was saying. The dead were the 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:01.879 blessed they or the lucky ones, and all of the 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:05.959 Dreadnoughts would soon follow. I can't say no to a party, 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:08.520 I can't say no to a trans woman with a labyris, 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:10.720 and I can't say no to getting to see a 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:15.439 new funeral write. So I went with her. It was 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:20.320 like nothing I'd seen before. All six hundred Dreadnoughts plus 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:24.000 a couple hundred regular soldiers paying their respects, stood in 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:26.280 a line at the edge of the camp, facing towards 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:29.920 the field of battle. Thirty of the Dreadnoughts came over 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:33.679 the hill, carrying the six fallen Knights, a torch bearer, 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:37.639 a company in each body. For a moment, everything was 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.480 silent but for the rustle of chainmail and the scraping 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:45.480 of metal armor. Then the horns began. I'd never seen 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:49.680 or imagined these things before. Celtic War horns with dragonheads 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:53.280 that rose five feet above the crowd. I don't know 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:58.119 how to describe their music haunting. This didn't feel like 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:02.160 a like a ren fare with happy minutess. This felt 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:08.159 something ancient. An extinct giant boar wandered close to the 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:12.480 edge of camp, and curiosity sat on its haunches and listened. 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:19.879 Ten singers began keening, a wordless, toneless morning singing. The 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:24.679 ancient hills were around us. Dear listener, I am not 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:29.480 a religious person, yet there is another world beneath this world, 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:33.240 an invisible world, and I believe that now. I felt it. 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:37.720 That night, the bodies were laid on a makeshift altar 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:40.760 of lashed logs, and I assumed they would be burned. 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:44.720 It just seems like what should have happened, or maybe 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:49.560 fed to the dinosaurs, I don't know. Instead, while the 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.560 horns played, while the boar watched, while the keeners sang. 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:56.840 One by one, the friends of the dead came up 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:01.280 and stripped their bodies. The first people took bits of armor, 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:06.840 the next took clothes. After that, knives came out. Tattoos 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:09.640 were flayed from flesh to be turned into leather patches. 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:15.000 Then people took teeth took bones as emblems. Once there 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:18.639 was almost nothing left, a single man, heavy set and 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:23.080 half naked, came out with a gigantic hammer. He walked 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:26.480 up to a body. The crowd breathed in. As he 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:30.000 breathed in, he let out his voice with a hun, 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:34.200 and the crowd joined him. He brought the hammer down 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:37.240 on the skull of the dead, crushing it and the 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:42.159 platform beneath it into the ground. He did this for 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:47.720 each body in turn. Then the thirty pallbearers took the 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:51.000 ruined bodies back out to the field, the whole order 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:55.520 of operations in reverse. The strong man disappeared into the crowd. 0:22:56.240 --> 0:23:01.120 The singing stopped, the horns stopped. We stood silent as 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:06.040 the torches disappeared over the hill. One figure, a small, 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:09.400 olive skinned woman wearing Middle Eastern armor, stood in front 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:12.520 of the crowd. She held a human femur in each hand. 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:16.720 Aloft above her head. She held something in Arabic, then caughtalum, 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:23.520 then in English, hail the victorious dead, which is for 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:25.840 anyone who isn't caught up on such things a lord 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:28.320 of the rings quote. I had to have it explained 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:33.000 to me later. The ceremony ended, and the party began. 0:23:34.080 --> 0:23:36.440 The young and the young at heart danced and drank 0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:39.880 and sang all night, challenging each other to build fires 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:45.359 higher and higher. But even drunk, they were cautious. A 0:23:45.440 --> 0:23:50.240 dreadnought aims to die in battle, not drunk at a party. 0:23:51.680 --> 0:23:54.879 The older Dreadnoughts formed circles to talk, to drink or 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:58.760 to not drink, to sing songs to reflect. I joined 0:23:58.800 --> 0:24:02.240 Octavia one of these, and we talked late into the night. 0:24:02.359 --> 0:24:05.400 And I'm not going to become an immediatist anytime soon, 0:24:05.920 --> 0:24:07.600 but I'm still not going to tell you everything that 0:24:07.640 --> 0:24:11.280 we talked about, not the details. We talked about our 0:24:11.320 --> 0:24:15.119 hopes and fears and dreams and what we liked in 0:24:15.160 --> 0:24:18.919 bed and what we liked about each other. As for 0:24:18.960 --> 0:24:21.040 how the rest of the night went, you'll have to 0:24:21.040 --> 0:24:24.280 pop on over to our sister podcast, Under the Pants 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:29.679 and Under the Ground. Thanks so much for listening. That 0:24:29.880 --> 0:24:33.960 ends Part three of Mixed Bunny Face Murders Reports from 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:36.680 the front line. But don't worry, that's not the end 0:24:36.680 --> 0:24:41.080 of it. There is more of that to come. And 0:24:41.119 --> 0:24:46.320 if you liked this podcast, you, for whatever reason, might 0:24:46.520 --> 0:24:49.359 like the fact that I wrote a book thirty years ago. 0:24:50.240 --> 0:24:52.440 It came out in twenty twenty five. It was called 0:24:52.440 --> 0:24:55.040 The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice and it was published 0:24:55.040 --> 0:24:58.000 by Strangers in Tangled Wilderness, and it was kickstarted in 0:24:58.040 --> 0:25:02.600 March twenty twenty five, and early twenty twenty five was 0:25:02.640 --> 0:25:05.560 a weird time to be pitching fantasy books instead of 0:25:05.640 --> 0:25:08.200 just getting ready for the rise of fascism in the 0:25:08.280 --> 0:25:11.679 United States. I'll tell you what, but you know I 0:25:11.760 --> 0:25:14.840 was grateful thirty years ago. In twenty twenty five, were 0:25:14.840 --> 0:25:17.040 all the people who signed up for alerts on the 0:25:17.119 --> 0:25:21.280