“The Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface”, by Masamune Shirow

312 pages, Dark Horse Manga, ISBN-13: 978-1593072049

We all know what they say about sequels, right? But fear not, gentle reader, for The Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface is as imaginative and as well-written as the preceding volume…perhaps more so, in some ways. I don't think it has much of what was charming about The Ghost in the Shell: the Major has become almost entirely a virtual being as opposed to a physical one, which gives the story a very different flavor; moreover, whatever is happening happens much more quickly and much more obscurely than in 1 and 1.5 (more on that in the next review). I say “whatever is happening” purposefully, for if your attention strays for but a moment than you very quickly realize that you no longer actually know what’s going on and there’s no way to pick up the thread without rereading a significant amount of material (this was especially tedious for me, impatient reader that I am); for example, there’s so much mind-diving and interchanging of bodies that it’s often easy to become confused and forget that you’re watching the Major at all…AND the various techniques she uses while doing all of this are largely inexplicable (probably they’re all completely thought out by Shirow, but as far as the reader is concerned the Major may just as well be shouting out “MacGuffin Attack!” and it would be just as meaningful).

There are other little points too, such as the fact that the new surrogates for the fuchikomas are simply not as cute or charming as the last fuchikomas were, and are a million miles short of tachikomas (not that that’s the Shirow’s fault, I suppose, since the tachikomas are from S.A.C. anyway, rather than Ghost in the Shell proper, but it does leave you wishing for more – what’s that? Don’t know what-in-the-bloomin’-‘ell I’m talking ‘bout? Read the book, sport). Shunned by some people as a confusing and strange combination of cyberworld theory and endless panty shots, GitS2 is a strange beast, indeed…BUT if you’re into hypernetworked technology you’ll just love it. I found myself staring at network images and user interface elements and thinking “THAT will actually be real in 2035” (which is when the book is based), so if you think in terms of networks and systems and all the different ways we will be using and seeing them, you will like this book a lot.

What I wish for now is a full book on Shirow’s ideas of the future. He is thinking on a level beyond most scientists, philosophers, criminologists, and technologists of a world that is a natural extension of our world. These thoughts are riddled throughout the story and in notes on the bottom and sides of numerous pages as he casually mentions very profound things in passing, like about networked electrical systems for homes and how digital communication is “seen”. One of his more popular concepts is about how cybernetic implants have benefits but complications, such as bugs, virus attacks, false memories, and hacks of everything from mental control to body motion. Most of these things are found in the Ghost in the Shell anime movies, television anime, and other comics but are really given the full treatment in GitS2. Making up for all of this are a TON of panty shots; I’m not kidding; there must be two or three per page for 200 pages or so. Now if you’re into THAT (plus all the stuff I just ranted about above) then you are REALLY going to like The Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface.

“The Ghost in the Shell”, by Masamune Shirow

117 pages, Dark Horse Manga, ISBN-13: 978-1569710814

WAIT! DON’T GO ANYWHERE! This is NOT a review of the piece ‘o’ shit movie from 2017, but rather of the original seinen manga (impressed, no?) from back in 1989. Still with me? Good. Right, let’s get this review rollin’…

What makes people human? What is a soul? Are machines capable of authentic emotion? Masamune Shirow’s masterful The Ghost in the Shell addresses these questions and more, often in profound ways, especially the concept of “programming” in that word’s broadest possible meaning: not only the conflict between outside control versus autonomy in computers, networks, robots and other cyber-entities, but also in groups and nations (it’s subtly suggested that laws are a form of programming) and, of course, in individuals in that we’re subject to the “instructions” written into us by culture, psychology and language (deep, right?). Standing apart from this mechanistic view is Shirow’s construct of the “ghost”, a term that roughly translates to “psyche” or even “soul”. That’s not to say that ghosts can’t be infiltrated or manipulated by criminal elements like any other part of an apparatus, but rather that this distinction between soul and mecha is central to nearly everything that takes place. But don’t worry: the action in The Ghost in the Shell isn’t abstract or presented as a token nod at genre conventions; it is vigorous, unapologetic and often thrilling. As Kusanagi leads her small squad of government commandoes against terrorists, hackers and corporate criminals, the dynamic page layouts and effortlessly fluid storytelling draw us into the battles and chase sequences like few other manga works.

However, on a scale that may be unparalleled in graphic fiction, there’s also a tremendous density of ideas. Sometimes, as if realizing the challenge of delivering on both tracks, Shirow includes footnote-like clarifications in the margins so as not to slow things down with expository dialogue or caption boxes. Then, as a bonus treat, there’s a 14-page section of author’s notes that’s keyed to specific pages with the creator providing annotations on his work that make for fascinating reading in their own right. It’s this combination of brain and brawn that makes The Ghost in the Shell so appealing to both the head and the heart…but wait! There’s more: as the work concludes, Shirow takes things in a wholly different direction, for while the story has been rubbing up against the metaphysical throughout, in the final chapter it breaks all the way through and goes for the out-and-out mystical (there’s not much I can say that won’t ruin things for newcomers to the book, so I’ll leave it at that). In short, The Ghost in the Shell is hard sci-fi of the best possible sort: the type that’s so full of both undiluted artfulness and philosophy that it’s arguably a must-read even for those who don’t usually take to the genre.

“The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945”, by Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann

404 pages, Cambridge University Press, ISBN-13: 978-0521398022

Yeah, so if you go to school long enough you accumulate a whole mess of books from all of those classes you took…provided, of course, that you don’t sell them back for pennies of what they’re worth. Would I have bought The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 if I hadn’t needed it for a class? I dunno…maybe if it were on the publisher’s remnants pile at Barnes & Noble? Anyway, this textbook by Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann – the former a British author and historian whose primary focus is on Nazi Germany and related subjects, the latter the same only, y’know, German – is a history of Germany ‘tween the years 1933 and 1945, and describes how the Nazis transformed a society that had been structured on differing classes into one structured on differing races. This book deals with the ideas and institutions that underpinned this mission and shows how Nazi policy affected various groups of people, both victims and beneficiaries. Burleigh and Wippermann begin with a serious discussion of the origins of Nazi racial ideology and then proceed to demonstrate the way in which this was translated into official policy, such as the systematic persecution not only of the Jews, but also with the fate of lesser-known groups such as Sinti and Roma, the mentally handicapped, the asocial and homosexuals.

One of the questions raised by Burleigh and Wippermann is whether or not the Nazis were modern or anti-modern (in their phraseology), but I don’t think they address it properly in this book. I think it’s common that many historians automatically revert to the aftermath of World War I to explain the rise of Nazism – which of course set the economic, political and social atmosphere in which the Nazis emerged – but I think its foundations go back further. Burleigh and Wippermann mention the Nazi’s ideological forbears, such as Nietzsche, Chamberlain, Goubineau and even of Wagner. These were all mid to late 19^th Century men, and three of them were dead before WWI even began. Even so, these men are among the few who are directly named by Hitler and other leading Nazis, such as Goebbels, as sources of inspiration. I don’t think that enough attention was paid to their contributions to Nazi ideology by Burleigh and Wippermann, and so it is rather pointless to debate whether-or-not the Nazis were modern or anti-modern without examining what anti-modern was or is (also, the term “anti-modern” itself is a rather awkward expression, anyway; perhaps “nostalgic” seems too positive a term to be associated with Nazis, but I think it is a more accurate term).

I think that objectivity is rare when studying the Third Reich, and for good reason: nobody wants to be accused of being a sympathizer – especially in this day and age where anyone to the right of Nelson Rockefeller is subjected to the most heinous abuse – but objectivity was something I felt was far lacking in Burleigh and Wippermann’s work. The harm in this is that it fails to present the Nazis’ ideology and the policies and programs that were shaped by it as the German people viewed it – and make no mistake, many accepted Nazi policies fanatically – but only from the victim’s point of view. I don’t believe in any nonsense brainwashing theories, especially in such a short span of time; besides, media mechanisms were not under full Nazi control until after 1933. Even so, Germany was a highly sophisticated, educated and politically active place with a chaotic democracy in the years before the Nazi rise, and that says something. I think that Burleigh and Wippermann do not pursue these concepts to their proper ends, which leads the interpretation of the Nazis’ rise to something of a highjacking by extremists who manipulated and lied their way into power. In fact, the Nazis were very articulate about what they believed often and in the open, from the Party Program which was written in 1920 (and made no mention of in Burleigh and Wippermann) to the extermination of the Jews and the conquest of Lebensraum to be found in the Soviet Union, as stated in Mein Kampf.