Tuesday Sep 25, 2007

Clowns & Harlots: The Further Adventures of Tom Swift

Nearly a century ago, Tom Swift was an adventure-loving American boy/hero/inventor whose escapades in a long-running series of popular pulp novels enchanted generations of readers.

Like 19th century dime novels, the Tom Swift stories – they were written by several authors under a pseudonym -- were entertainments for young readers (mostly adolescent boys) that stressed initiative, hard work, imagination, clean living, and values often associated with organizations like the Boy Scouts. Tom was a great inventor, among other things.

We remember wholesome young Tom today because of one of the early novels about his adventures and one of his inventions. Published in 1911, it was called Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle; or, Daring Adventures on Elephant Island. That story gave birth to the name TASER -- short for Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle. Keep that in mind.

News accounts that go into any detail in mentioning the proliferation of Tasering incidents in this country in the last few weeks often recall young Tom and his electric rifle.

Golly gee whiskers, as Tom Swift might have put it, and they say irony is dead?

Tom’s electric rifle was much in the news in the last week or so.

Take your pick.

In Warren, Ohio, a member of the constabulary repeatedly Tasered, if that is the verb, a 38-year-old drunken woman who was misbehaving outside a roadhouse. The video of that truly weird, cruel incident will become an Internet classic.

On the campus of the University of Florida, a young scholar got a first-hand look at where freedom of speech can lead when the campus cops Tasered him for asking obnoxious questions at a speech by former Presidential candidate John Kerry.

And my favorite -- in Tustin, California, sheriff's officials defended their use of a Taser stun gun to subdue an autistic teenager who left a social services center where he was being treated. The cops said if they had not blasted this kid he might have hurt himself! Lucky boy.

None of those folks expired but news reports note that more than 200 have died as a result of a good Tasering in recent years.

The prominence of the Taser in the news got me to thinking about the Tom Swift industry. It continued for much of the 20th century producing countless volumes about Tom’s adventures. But it seems that, based on the recent use of Tasers, that publishing ought to take another look at Tom and his pals and take the whole Tom Swift experience out for another spin.

Back in the early days, the books had titles like:

Tom Swift and His Airship; or, The Stirring Cruise of the Red Cloud

Tom Swift and His Submarine Boat; or, Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure

Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout; or, The Speediest Car on the Road

Tom Swift and His Wireless Message; or, The Castaways of Earthquake Island 1911

Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice; or, The Wreck of the Airship

A modern, more sophisticated reader will not be so naïve, methinks. He or she will need titles like:

Tom Swift and Mission to Guantanamo

Tom Swift and the Devils of Abu Ghraib

Tom Swift, Police Cadet (Warren, Ohio Police Department)

Tom Swift Goes To College (preferably the University of Florida)

Tom Swift On the Trail of Osama bin Laden

Tom Swift On the Road to Basra

In our times, Tom Swift, the popular hero, would have to be a fascist.

I think there is a substantial readership out there for that sort of “entertainment” based on the bizarre but enthusiastic reaction to the Taser incidents of late. I find the response to these incidents of cruelty a puzzlement. Many Americans appear to be enthusiastic about the idea of blasting someone with a stun gun for asking impertinent questions at a public speaking event by a former presidential candidate. Many Americans seem to actually enjoy the sight of an overweight robo-cop in Ohio torturing a drunken woman with a stun gun. I saw a Web site posting that indicated that millions had seen it.

The lusty enthusiasm the nation shows for the Taser (11,000 police agencies have those bad boys) and for brute force reminds too of the famous social psychology experiments undertaken by Stanley Milgram, a Yale University psychologist.

Milgram’s experiments in the 1960s -- the so-called “perils of obedience” -- demonstrated just how easy it was for a majority of those participating in an experiment to inflict what they believed was pain upon another human being. Subjects participating in the experiments -- unwittingly -- were the actual point of Milgram’s research. They thought they were administering pain. They were not. But they thought they were and a lot of them did not mind doing that. They often cheerfully and willingly administered what they believed were electrical shocks to another human being. They were only too willing to follow orders. A majority of those who participated were fine with blind obedience. Some of them really liked it.

Very interesting.

It is interesting, too, that wholesome Tom Swift of long ago was an independent thinker and curious fellow whose goal was to inspire the best in his young readers. Alas, we remember him now only for the TASER -- the tool of those who do not think independently but only follow orders blindly.