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Miles Island Trilogy

1 Bizarre Central

Bizarre Central features Miles, a hapless but endearing, naive young man, as he gets pulled into politics when he'd rather indulge his passions. Miles discovers that if he doesn't take some interest in politics then the people with power who freely translate the words 'ethical' and 'moral' take control and the world he shares with other people is used for greed, profit and power by the few.

Plato put it nicely: 'Those of us clever enough to go into politics (and don't) are governed by those of us who are not (and do).' - as true today as then.

Outline

Miles, sacked from his job in education by a centralized, remote authority, flies away to think things through. He lands on an island (itself flying away from some horror) and after getting to know the inhabitants he finds he left his situation behind but brought his problems and conditioning with him.

He is befriended by Gudrinag and reluctantly gets involved with the community which is fighting attempts, supposedly by the Central Remote Authority, to develop the town and so destroy the culture.

Miles' first attempts to block the Central Remote Authority appears successful but at the last minute the CRA destroy the heart of the town.

Miles leaves and visits the Central Remote Authority, finding them overwhelmed by trivia, completely out of touch with contemporary needs of society, unbalanced - mad even - and totally incompetent. Some other group is corrupting the government of the island.

Miles' suspicions are aroused by a large building housing Cryogenics Inc. After an exploratory, underground visit, where he and his companions are nearly captured, his suspicions are confirmed. There is a bunker beneath Cryogenics where an army of clones are billeted and who do the dirty work but Miles cannot find the people in control.

During a skirmish, the people from Cryogenics capture Miles's ally, Gudrinag. Miles, with some others, leads an attack to get him back and discover the people in control. In the process the bunker is destroyed and the true power behind the corruption is exposed - much to Miles' surprise. All is not black and white.

Selection of quotes

Dodo 'Where were you going?' Brain asked.
'No where in particular.' said Miles.
'There's a lot want to go there.' Brain said. It's very popular.'

'Ah make ze pis all ze time for zees reech aristos. EXCRESENCES!' The artiste said. 'Zees picteurs argh full erv fernications.'
'That's very nice.' said Miles. 'Fabrications' was a hard word.' he thought, morphing 'fabrications' into 'fornifications' with a speed that would have impressed a cross-word compiler.

'At last! Where have you been luvvy?' asked the breathless footman. 'I've been looking everywhere for you. What do you think would happen if I lost a person?'
'I'm not sure.' said Miles. 'Would you have to replace me out of your own pocket?'

'Cottages in the harbour? Sounds really nice,' said the woman on her horse. 'Leave them on the side-board will you? I'll have them unwrapped later.'

'Simon de Montfort he is. What do you think?' said the bishop lighting his flame-thrower. 'Ah, the good old days when men were men. None of this politically correct rubbish and united notions.'

'It's to mankind's everlasting shame that they chose 'reason' instead of 'good' as the measure of all things. Reason allows people to be bad but it is still reasonable, like waging war on people for their own good.'

'Countries are like fish,' said Gudrinag, 'when a fish rots it rots from the head.'

'You frightened little baby?' the abbot said. 'Most people frightened shitless, live like walking dead. Pretend not to see mountain but mountain there all time. Mountain don't move away. People want dark glasses all life. Make a fortune out of dark glasses you would. Is that what you want? You want to be salesman all your life, little baby?'

'Of course, as soon as someone was about to ask, 'Why here, why not in your own country?' he was suddenly attacked by a great pile of money and suffered terminal amnesia from which he's never recovered.'
'Money's afraid of the light, that's why it's kept in dark vaults.'

'Your proposed clients won't want real, smelly fishing boats in their Disney harbour will they? They'll want sanitized fishing boats and sanitized fishermen who don't smell like cod and smoke old shag and swear like real fishermen do.'

Dodo again 'He's three sandwiches short of a picnic he is.' whispered Gudrinag.
'Please don't mention food.' said Miles. 'He's got his uses.'
'So has the plague, it makes it easier to find somewhere to park.'

'Reasoning often makes wrong right. We can make killing thousands of people reasonable if we think about it long enough.'

'Ah Utopia. It's a very popular place in Cloud Cuckoo Land, full of idiots.'

'They'll be dead that lot. That's what armies are for.'

2 Anarchy Damarchy

(Work in progress)

Outline

The new group, formed to govern the affairs of state, is failing to look after the needs of the people and is starting to look after the wants of itself. (This might seem familiar?) The group becomes more and more powerful until the only way to stop it is to stage a revolution and remove it and Miles and his friends achieve this.

They try a type of anarchy but soon come to realize that anarchy alone will not work, being too theoretical and relying on everybody being anarchic in the true sense of the word. It soon becomes apparent that any powerful outside state could come in and take over the anarchic society on the Island. The only thing that would stop them is the barrier, known as the sizzling zone, which surrounds and protects the Island.

Unfortunately and typically, the sizzling zone, which requires a lot of power from the Island to maintain, starts to disintegrate. A plan is required.

Miles learns that what is really needed to govern the affairs on the Island is a complex combination of methods, even to using the least objectionable, least destructive form of democracy with a well-defined and clearly limited state.

They set this up and try it and it very nearly works. However, political threats are perceived from another much larger island.

At the same time Miles discovers: how brains developed; how god got invented; how this was organized to control the people and the size of the fortune that this enterprise made for the powerful group that devised it all.

Topical Issues Explored

This book explores corruption in large groups and looks deeper into why groups of people with authority will eventually become corrupt - even well-meaning groups which begin well and end badly. It also pokes around in old-established, major belief systems and explores why they are no longer useful today. Alternative methods of governing society are played around with - none of which are ideal but some of which are 'least objectionable'.

A Selection of Quotes

'Belief systems are like that. They stop you thinking.'

'It's the butterfly thing. A butterfly farts in Outer Mongolia and there's a tycoon in America.'

'How can you find the truth, rushing around like that? Truth is slow. Sit down and let it find you.'

'The Queen of Chaos never changes her mind. She can't make it up in the first place.'

'It's beyond me, fortunately, and this means I get involved less and less and that's the way I like it.'

'The bureaucracy of this new political system is living down to my expectations.'

'May you live forever.' shouted the man. Miles wasn't quite sure if this was a benediction or a curse.

3 End Frames

(Work in progress)

Outline

The uneasy peace between the Island and the power from outside slides into a cold war of negotiations, threat, counter-threat and finally war. The war is devastating, but out of the destruction comes hope for a better future but certainly not a future most thought it might be.

Two quotes

'Paranoid? Me!' screamed Miles over the noise. 'Two miles below my feet is molten rock; two miles above my head is a freezing vacuum and those bellicose Neanderthals over there are lobbing smart bombs at me. Why isn't everyone paranoid?'

'I don't think I can cope with this.' Miles said.
Gudrinag floated by. 'You'll have to - this is true reality.'
Miles struggled to hold something with substance and failed. 'It isn't what I expected at all. Where's my body gone?'

Main characters

Miles intelligent, 20 something, enthusiastic, wet but not a wallflower (he hang-glides for relaxation), has a strong sense of right and wrong, supports the oppressed and voiceless but always gets himself into trouble because of it. Naive in the ways of the world he sets off to find the answers, without considering that he might be taking on more than he can handle.

Gudrinag is the wise old man who quietly guides Miles but is totally impractical - or so it seems.

Brain in his early thirties, 'sartorially challenged ' with his wellies, his baler-twine belt and his sheep and might be rustic in appearance but certainly not inside. He has a down-to-earth, folk approach to the challenges of life and takes things as they come. Brain has an earthing influence on Miles' initial high-minded impracticality.

Quintin is a cravat-wearing, been-let-go-several-times ex-executive trying too hard to find a suitable position in the sky-line of society. Seemingly sophisticated and knowledgeable he is not over-worried about ethics when it comes to getting where he wants to be - at the top of the heap.

Robin wears a lot of green, spends too much time alone (writing his memoirs) and has a set attitude to life's challenges. He is an 'old man' - not in age but aspect. Robin would rather charge in and sort life's challenges out the old way - physically - and he tempts Miles to follow suit but Miles prefers to try the way of the new man - involving sensible communication - and then ...

Morgaine is the mystery by the lake. Enigmatic, symbolic, wise. Rumoured to be connected with Gudrinag. Initially a fighting tiger with Miles she later becomes his soul-mate and inspiration and loosens him up somewhat - but only after he has faced the biggest, most dangerous challenge of his life (so far).

Marjory is 'the wife' of Quintin. Attractive, quiet, hard-working and the more sensible partner and the one who really runs things. Has a calming influence in Quintin. Outwardly servile, inwardly sensible, capable and strong.

Poly is active, energetic, outwardly eccentric, prone to malapropism when excited (often), impetuous, outspoken but one of the strongest characters. Close friend of Brain, helps Marjorie and runs the local LETS scheme - in her head.

Rat & Dodo are symbols come back to haunt man - especially Miles.

Genre: Bizarre satire.
Readers: Anyone wanting an interesting, humorous perspective on some of the reasons why we are, and probably always will be, deep in the mire.
Length: 95,000 words.
Topicality: High and will never go away while we have unaccountable groups running our world, our lives, our minds for us.
Please note that the cover shown was for a single, hand-made book and the covers of ebook formats might be different.

Format (Bizarre Central)

Ebook, epub.

Publishing window (Bizarre Central)

Autumn 2013.

Some Reasons

Book 1 and part of book 2 were written during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq organized by the american and british governments and the military machine that supports or controls them.

'Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.' -- Andre Gide.

'There is an old Jewish saying, 'If you have only two alternatives, then choose the third'. It offers a way of getting the subject to search for a new perspective on the problem. We can give the lie to both sides of a false conflict by taking our 'third choice' -- to view the situation from the perspective of radical subjectivity.' - from an essay by Larry Law.

'You're either for us or against us.' - G. Bush (America).

'Weapons of mass destruction. Weapons of MASS DESTRUCTION. WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.' - T. Blair (retired but not forgotten. America, primarily, but lives in Britain. Recently joined a large organization with a long and bloody history of aggressive inquisitiveness) - and others who should have known better.

'It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale. The orchestration of press, radio and television to create a continuous, lasting and total environment renders the influence of propaganda virtually unnoticed precisely because it creates a constant environment. Mass media provides the essential link between the individual and the demands of the technological society.' - Jacques Ellul.

'Well, OK. I might have told a few lies. I'm sorry.' - still waiting to be said by: Tony Blair; George Bush; et al ... (see Plato above)

'By making war abroad revolution at home is avoided.' - Machiavelli, who probably said it first (and others).