Pen vs. sword

There is an article in today's New York Times about the war of narratives being waged in Lebanon. 'An Israeli cabinet minister, who spoke anonymously because of the delicacy of the topic, said, "The narrative at the end is part of the problem."' Is it a bit bizarre that cabinet members are talking like postmodern lit profs about "narratives"?

'Shlomo Avineri, a former Foreign Ministry official and professor of political science at Hebrew University, said Israel could never prevail in an Arab narrative.' Which calls into question the idea that the pen is mightier than the sword. In this case, they both might be equally futile. Certainly as I've read and listened to various analyses of what's going on in Lebanon over the past couple of weeks, I have a growing sense that this war isn't going to change anything and that everybody is furiously moving their goalposts in attempt to redefine their goals.

'"Israel is trying to frame its narrative now around the most minimal achievement, which is a major setback to the fighting capacity of Hezbollah," Mr. Grinstein [a former Israeli negotiator and director of the Reut Institute, a research group] said. "But the question and the challenge is to frame a narrative of victory around more ambitious objectives."'

For some reason all this talk of framing narratives gives me vertigo. The war will be indecisive, so the battle becomes one of warring narratives. What ever happened to the victors writing the history? What ever happened to victory? Oops, sorry, I meant "narrative of victory". Never mind.

Leigh Brackett by John Clute

Is there anybody on my Flist (or who is lurking) who went to Readercon and would be willing to send me a photocopy of John Clute's article about Leigh Brackett from the program book? I'd be happy to reimburse you for the expenses. (I'm actually slightly unclear whether it was from this year's program book or last year's.)

EDIT: All praise gerisullivan! Mission accomplished.