Golden Hill. That novel, set in 18
th century New York, was plot-driven and twisty.
Light Perpetual is cyclical and symphonic. It follows the fates of five characters, all from the fictional London neighborhood of Bexford, by sampling one day from their lives at 15-year intervals, beginning with their wartime childhoods and stretching to the end of the first decade of this century. But before the novel can do any of that, they must die.
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Light Perpetual opens with the vaporization of a Woolworths store by a German V2 rocket in 1944, a scene rendered in exhaustive detail and based on a real bombing that killed 168 people, 15 of whom were age 11 or under. As Spufford explains in the novel’s acknowledgments, he walks past a plaque commemorating the tragedy on his way to his teaching job, so he’s had plenty of time to think about what that bomb did to that building and to all the human beings inside. For
putting them together to write model legislation but also to form an ideology, a vision of what could be done in the states. yeah. and alec is around now almost 40 years and what s important is the 2010 election gave republicans more legislative seats than at any time since 1928. and they have leapt, alec leapt on that opening to begin to flood legislation into the states. lisa, tell us about the template. how similar are the bills? how easy is it for a lawmaker on a state level to take alec material and put it in front of a legislative committee and in front of a body? well, we published over 800 bills from alec through a whistle-blower and those bills look a lot like many of the bills that we have seen popping out around the country. the fact is that all of these bills and resolutions virtually have been published in your state houses, in state houses across the country but what
open and public. it is not a secretive group like alec. the reality is there s no parallel grouping on the left but there is a need for progressives to do something. yeah. not to do so secretly and behind closed doors but to openly go out and challenge the right-wing agenda in the states. the letter said membership to alec. how do you get membership to alec? pledge agee jans and say i ll do what you want me to do if you line my pockets for re-election? is that how it works? legislators pay $50 a bill, sometimes taxpayers foot the bill. corporations pay between $7,000 and $25,000 a year for one stop shopping at alec conventions to hob knob with the politicians and basically push the wish list through the legislators. meanwhile the legislators have a chance of one-stop shopping for out of state funding for re-election campaigns. great work by both of you. john, lisa, good to have you
in all of alec s documents and the national legislature by john boehner and eric cantor. alec is tremendously influential. yeah. john, what influence if any did alec have when it came to changing health care reform legislation in the heat of the battle? i think that s a terrific question, ed. alec was in the forefront of the fight against health care reform and particularly the fight against the public option. alec organized letters that were signed by hundreds and hundreds of legislators this across the country including key leaders. it was the backbone of the effort to pressure republicans to hold firm against any kind of realistic reform. john, is there anything on the left to compare to this or parallel it in the way? there s the progressive states network which is very open and public. it is not a secretive group like alec. the reality is there s no
profits, opposing increasing revenue. these measures are really echoed in all of alec s documents and the national legislature by john boehner and eric cantor. alec is tremendously influential. yeah. john, what influence if any did alec have when it cams to changing health care reform legislation in the heat of the battle? i think that s a terrific question, ed. alec was in the forefront of the fight against health care reform and particularly the fight against the public option. alec organized letters that were signed by hundreds and hundreds of legislation lay or thes across the country including key leaders. it was the backbone of the effort to pressure republicans to hold firm against any kind of realistic reform. john, is there anything on the left to compare to this or parallel it in the way? there s the progressive states network which is very