Authors Speak Volumes at Festival

To author and columnist Christopher Hitchens, now is the time for a “positive wind of change” to blow through Iraq.

But to author and journalism professor Mark Danner, the United States is beginning an occupation that could turn ugly and disastrous.

Such divergent viewpoints about war, power and democracy were debated at several author sessions at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which attracted thousands of people Saturday.

The festival, which ends today on the UCLA campus, featured panel discussions about Enron, Hollywood, West Coast crime, children’s books and storytelling.

On Saturday, there was also much talk about war and nation-building.

Hitchens, a columnist for Vanity Fair and author whose most recent book is “Why Orwell Matters,” defended the U.S. invasion of Iraq and called the war an important victory because “Iraq was already melting down and causing misery to itself and others.”

During the same session, titled “American Power and War in Iraq,” Danner, a Berkeley journalism professor and author of “The Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of the Cold War,” said, “We’re still arguing about inspections obviously, and we’re still wondering when [weapons of mass destruction] will be found.”

He added that if there are problems with the occupation, political problems in the region increase and weapons of mass destruction are not found, the results “will hurt the administration.”

Samantha Power, who won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction this year for her book, “A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,” said at the same session that she remains skeptical of the war for several reasons, including the fact that thousands of Iraqi lives have been lost, including soldiers who may have been pressured to fight. She added that there was no immediate danger to the Kurds or the people of Iraq, and therefore there was no immediate need for the U.S. invasion.

The Bush administration now walks a delicate balance, she said, between staying too long in Iraq and appearing to be a dominating presence, or leaving too early and leaving the citizens to pick up the broken pieces of the country. “Now that the deed has been done, and we have inherited this mess, how do we achieve this balance?” she said.

But Hitchens countered that every American should “be pleased” about the outcome in Iraq, in a war that is almost over. “Those who have spent their free time in mass antiwar protests may now be wondering what to do with their free time,” he said, suggesting that they support the rebuilding of Iraq.

In a session entitled, “How We Fight Now: The American Way of War,” author Jonathan Schell told the audience of nearly 1,000 that “we’ve arrived at a moment in American history, which I think is an imperial moment.”

The author of “The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence and the Will of the People,” said that America must now decide how to run everything in Iraq, from the schools to the press and government. It is a crucial moment, he said, because the U.S. seems to be “casting our gaze about the world, deciding which country to attack next,” such as Syria, Iran or North Korea.

As America is expanding its military presence across the globe, terrorism may become an even bigger threat, he said.

“Terrorism is one of the very horrible responses, but in a sense, a logical response,” he said, because there is no way for other nations or groups to compete with the technological and political superiority of the United States. “So people look for another way, and a part of that is terrorism.”

Many who attended the festival said such discussions helped open their minds to different perspectives.

Waltona Manion, a public relations representative from Van Nuys, was moved by a politics-centered presentation featuring David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and Tom Hayden, a politician, activist and author.

She said she was impressed by the speakers’ informed ability to compare the decision to invade Iraq with events such as the Korean War and Vietnam, while also talking about economics and class issues.

“Halberstam has an intellectual grace that many writers aspire to,” she said. “Tell me in what other venue can you listen to a world-class historian, a politician who has had an active career and a sportswriter, all talking about things that profoundly affect us? It’s so great.”

Gretchen Hays, 60, of Malibu, said she enjoyed the war discussions, and said they were examples of “freedom of thought and how critical that is to a great democracy.”

Besides the discussion of war, the event offered entertainment and panels for other tastes.

In an afternoon conversation with radio show host Warren Olney, author and essayist Richard Rodriguez elaborated on the central theme of his new book, “Brown,” by suggesting that U.S. race relations are much more complex than black and white.

Rodriguez noted that the most diverse state in the U.S. is Hawaii, and the richer, “browner” concept of race is slowly moving west to east, where, the author said, “brown” is still a novel idea.

“One day, there will be a huge headline in the New York Times that says, ‘Brown is here,’ ” he told a laughing and applauding audience.

Novelist Maxine Hong Kingston, author of “The Woman Warrior,” told fans in another session that she intends to become a poet. “Poets are happy,” the writer said, adding that she wants to walk around with “a sense of receptivity” and allow “the muses to give me presence.”

She said she has “re-imagined” a manuscript lost in the 1991 Oakland fires, and that “The Fifth Book of Peace” will be released this fall.

Fans of many authors stood in long lines waiting to get their books signed.

Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos signed copies of his many books and posed for pictures with fans in a line snaking around a white tent.

Late in the afternoon, hundreds of festival attendees made their way to a stage where the Rock Bottom Remainders, a band made up of best-selling authors, jammed energetically while wearing pink boas and oddly shaped sunglasses. Stephen King plunked a guitar, while Amy Tan shook a tambourine.

Tim and Lorelee Greek drove from San Bernardino to Pasadena to catch a bus from Vroman’s Bookstore to the event and avoid parking hassles. They stocked up on children’s and Tai Chi books.

“We are bibliophiles. We are nuts about books,” Tim said. “If you love books, you’re in a wonderful ocean here.”