Book Review

Snitch Jacket (2005)
(Len Bracken, iUniverse)

Review by Jason Rodgers

A snitch jacket is a term for a technique used by the intelligence community to discredit a person (or at times groups) by portraying them as an informant. Len Bracken's novel Snitch Jacket tells the story of Alex, a young radical potentially unfairly portrayed as a snitch. Throughout this piece paradox is played with in order to explore crucial areas and questions within a radical struggle and theory. A pataphysical orientation is adopted, a method of attempting to understand reality through the exploration of paradox. Through the use of seemingly contradictory and paradoxical ideas binary opposition is exploded, assisting in an escape from the two sides of the same coin.

The novel begins in a most paradoxical way, with an assault upon the printed word. Just before Alex commits arson in the Library of Congress, we are told that "the library around him and the library in his mind gave him a suffocating sensation. He felt imprisoned by the books" (p. 9). In this way Bracken continues a tradition of using language to fight the constraints and grids created by language. Yes, this is seemingly contradictory, but attempts to use "chaos linguistics" to regain our autonomy may be our best option.

History, as a constructed narrative, creates a perspective for our worldview by forming a model. Our vision goes through this lens. The imagined contradiction between class war and conspiracy models of history is assaulted. These two positions are often portrayed as mutually exclusive. In their simplified versions, one model is based upon the idea that larger social and economic factors control the behavior of individuals, while the other holds that covert cabals secretly manipulate the masses. The novel presents these two forces as interacting with each other, forming a complex dynamic. The emotional plague presented in Wilhelm Reich's SexPol theories interplays with HAARP mind control. Social factors form the world in which conspirators function. Conspirators are not portrayed as evil, but as more complex, trapped within their own oppression games. Agent Hamilton is portrayed as struggling to maintain himself, preserve himself and the social order that he exists within against the outsiders who threaten it. Authoritarian personalities are a defense mechanism, a psychic armor, created to respond to the individual's own insecurities. Still, they are not excused, radical struggle is still presented as necessary. Radicals are given the same complexity, never fully good.

The dynamics of sexual liberation are one way in which this is presented. The radical is complex, not an idealized hero. Alex is portrayed as potentially both sexual liberator and sexual conqueror, follower of both "sexual imperialism and self-professed feminism" (p. 19). This is particularly relevant due to the use of Reich's Sexpol theories throughout the novel. This sexual revolution has always been threatened by the possibility that those who struggle against patriarchy will have their efforts funneled into mere playboyism. As Alex attempts to break from established roles, we are made to question in which ways he is still grounded in the old. The struggle is not merely against external forces, but against aspects of one's self.

A conspiracy of radical sex workers involving "more than a sex strike, this was a quiet castration riot that made eunuchs of rich men by thwarting their ability to buy sex" (p. 147) encourages the radicalization of an unrespected segment of the oppressed, as well as functions as a metaphor for sex as a commodity in capitalism. Bracken, speaking through the mouthpiece of Alex, may be revealing how his anarchist sex novels work when we are told that "what I wanted to show, among other things, is how sex is as alienated, reified and commercially exploitative as banking- a pay-as-you-earn striptease" (p. 114).

Methods of resistance are examined in binary distinction, between reform and revolution. This distinction is then blurred. There seems to be a necessity to both work within and without the system. Alex is both lobbyist and rioter. If we do not attempt to work within the current system, we risk utopian otherworldliness, in which change can only occur after a mythical revolution. If we refuse to ever assault the system, then we risk acceptance of its flawed assumptions and half measures when full ones are possible. At one point Alex states that "the arms of art... will never replace the art of arms" (p. 146). As important as paradigm shift is as a goal, when divorced from the harsh reality of our political system it becomes a merely escapist concept, an excuse.  Possibly a bit more hidden is the opposition between the covert action and the frontal assault of the vanguard. 

The concept of the snitch jacket becomes particularly relevant at this point. When radicals have gone deep enough into parapolitical terrain they are sometimes forced to deal with hidden machinations of power. At times some collaboration with the dominant power structure may be justified. At this point the radical runs the risk of being perceived as a state asset, a snitch, or even worse, a COINTELPRO agent. Alex is drawn into this parapolitical game. He tells a coconspirator that "The important thing is that I was paid to entrap you, only I won't do it. Do you understand?" (p. 109). He attempts to save face by being upfront, but this does not solve the problems. He is seen as a snitch nonetheless. He argues "What did they tell you? Did they tell you I told them right up front? That I didn't snitch on anybody. I only said I would" (p. 221). By being portrayed as a snitch there is leverage to discredit his ideas and goals. This is what happened to Timothy Leary when facing the threat of spending the rest of his life in a federal penitentiary.  At this point he collaborated in some ways with the state, a fact which is periodically brought up to discredit his legacy. In desperate times ethics become less distinct. These actions can then be turned around, as in the case of Leary, being used to place the victim within a snitch jacket. This jacket is still being used on occasion to discredit his work and activism. This is a much easier tactic than confronting his actual ideas.

This is an important theme right now, as COINTELPRO has seemingly become active again. It has been reported that the state has currently infiltrated to some extent both the Earth Liberation Front and CrimethInc (This has been reported in a number of publications. For an example see Green Anarchy, issue 22). This has forced radicals to reevaluate the security measures they take. It has also placed everyone in the role of potential infiltrator. There is a contradiction between the needs of covert security and open fluid organization. These themes are played with in the novel, such as in the case of a "high-tech urban commune with separate living quarters [that] was a CIA-funded operation that recruited fools looking for adventure and provided emergency services to world-class intellectuals" (p. 53).

Bracken's efforts explode these contradictions, attempting to explore new areas for resistance. In the spectacular world of late capitalism, old modes have been co-opted and new forms of coercion and control developed. No singular answer is presented, instead a multifaceted examination of potential techniques and dangers. In this way Bracken works within the tradition of predecessors such as Burroughs, Acker, and Pynchon, refusing the singular message or answer. This is not an either/or work, with a distinct moral statement. Instead it remains ambiguous. This point of distinction can be contrasted to Ayn Rand. Unlike Rand, the inclusion of heavy theory does not interfere with the narrative, nor transform the novel into a morality play. Instead, it is used to extend the depth and relevance. Theory is used paradoxically to not provide answers, but a framework in which to explore questions.

Jason Rodgers is a cultural engineer, artist, and the publisher of Psionic Plastic Joy zine. He can be contacted at PO Box 138, Wilton, NH 03086 USA