Comments on: Review: Special Forces

By: calvin frank

calvin frank — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:03:23 +0000

You should consider starting an subscribers list. It would take your site to its potential.

By: Dan Coyle

Dan Coyle — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:01:09 +0000

Special Forces makes the same mistake Starship Troopers made; it’s meant to be a scathing satire of wartime mentalities but like Verhoven Baker’s getting off on it too much so the message is muddled.

By: Michael C Lorah

Michael C Lorah — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:55:15 +0000

elvee, the back matter was not in the trade. It might’ve made a difference, I suppose.

matches, I think the book is unsuccessful at provoking any feeling other than confusion. I am the audience you describe, yet I don’t see this book in anything like the light you do. Some pages are intelligent, some pages are funny, but Baker’s attempting too many things at once. It fails to coalesce into a satisfying whole. For my money, anyway.

By: Kat Kan

Kat Kan — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:45:28 +0000

I’m with elvee about liking Special Forces. I grew up watching such movies as The Dirty Dozen, Kelly’s Heroes, and the more traditional war movies (A Bridge Too Far, D-Day) and TV series (Combat, Garrison’s Gorillas, Rat Patrol, Twelve O’Clock High), etc.

By: matches_malone

matches_malone — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:39:19 +0000

I’m pretty sure that Mr. Baker’s audience for this book was anyone who was dumbfounded, resentful, aghast, etc., at what the Bush administration did, and tolerated, in Iraq and anywhere else for that matter. It is not a book to be enjoyed, but it is a brave work of art of tremendous merit. It provokes strong feelings and with any luck will keep this type of thing from happening in the future. Er, make that a lot of luck.

It also shows that Mr. Baker is multifaceted and willing to take tremendous creative risks. He could very easily be doing nothing but “The Bakers” – and even watering that down to a more commodifiable product. But he is willing to make something willfully ugly, suitable for an era of willful ugliness.

By: elvee

elvee — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:26:08 +0000

I liked it for the elements you list right in your first paragraph. Just my kind of weird, I guess. Did the trade include the back matter from the single issues? Baker clarified a lot by explaining what he was lampooning at the end of each chapter.