John Twelve Hawks
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John Twelve Hawks is the
pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
of an author of four novels and one short non-fiction book. His legal name and identity are unknown. His first published novel was the dystopian '' The Traveler'' and its sequels, '' The Dark River'' and '' The Golden City'', collectively comprising the Fourth Realm Trilogy. The trilogy has been translated into 25 languages and has sold more than 1.5 million books. The trilogy was followed five years later by a fourth book, ''Spark'', and a non-fiction eBook, ''Against Authority.''


Biography

In the sources listed and in his interviews, he has stated that he was born in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. In the non-fiction ''Against Authority'', Twelve Hawks wrote that he grew up in the 1950s. He is a
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
who had meditated for most of his life. In the ''Spiegel'' interview he states he is not a Native American. In the ''Spiegel'' interview he talks about visiting
East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
before the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. In the ''USA Today'' article, his response to a question about religion began with, "When I was in my twenties..." and when an editor asked him whether the "realm of hell" could be compared to current conditions in
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
, Hawks replied "it's more like Beirut in the '70s". In the ''Spiegel'' interview and in the ''Daily Telegraph'' article, Hawks states that he drives a 15-year-old car and that he does not own a television. The ''SFF World'' interview indicates that Twelve Hawks once lived in a
commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...
and learned about literature by stealing books from a restricted university library and then returning the books the next day. In the same interview, he states he wrote ''The Traveler'' after passing through some sort of personal crisis. In the interview in ''SFF World'' Twelve Hawks claims that he has "no plans to go public" regarding his identity. According to Twelve Hawks' agent, "He lives in New York, Los Angeles and London", and ''The Traveler'' sets its story in all three of these locations. In a 2008 interview on
Joseph Mallozzi Joseph Mallozzi (born 16 October 1965) is a Canadian writer and producer. He is most noted for his contributions to the '' Stargate SG-1'', '' Stargate: Atlantis'' and '' Stargate Universe'' television series and as showrunner of ''Dark Matter ...
's weblog, he answered a series of questions about this life:
QUESTION: Is there a reason for the pen name? One you’d be willing to share, I suppose. As in, is it because you’re actually a secret CIA agent and/or Russian spy, or merely because you don’t ever want your mother knowing what you’ve written? JTH: My mother and the rest of my family don’t know that I have written the novels. Those people I know who aren’t close friends see me as a failure by the American standards of success. Being a “failure” in such a way has been a continual lesson. It’s helped me realize that we make quick judgments of others based on little real information. We assume so much – but don’t know the secrets held within the heart.


Pseudonym

In ''Against Authority'', Twelve Hawks describes writing ''The Traveler''. His decision to use a pen name was triggered by a combination of personal and political reasons:
For the first drafts of the book, I kept my birth name off the title page. The old me wasn’t writing this book. Something was different. Something had changed. I had always admired George Orwell, and had read his collected essays and letters countless times. When Eric Blair became Orwell, he was set free, liberated from his Eton education and colonial policeman past. And there was another factor about the title page that troubled me. I was telling my readers that this new system of information technology was going to destroy our privacy, and that they should resist this change. It seemed hypocritical to go on a book tour or appear on a talk show blabbing about my life when our private lives were under attack.
During an online conversation he had with his fans on the We Speak for Freedom website, he explained the origin of his name:
The real story is this …I was walking through a forest and encountered a hawk nesting area. Twelve hawks circled around my head for about ten minutes …so close that the tip of their wings brushed the side of my head. That was why I picked the name. REAL hawks. Not symbolic ones.


Published works


Fourth Realm Trilogy

See Fourth Realm Trilogy


''Spark''

''Spark'' was published in October 2014 in the United States and Great Britain. The book is narrated by Jacob Underwood, a man who suffers from
Cotard delusion Cotard's syndrome, also known as Cotard's delusion or walking corpse syndrome, is a rare mental disorder in which the affected person holds the delusional belief that they are dead, do not exist, are putrefying, or have lost their blood or inter ...
, a real-life neurological condition in which the afflicted person thinks that he or she is dead. Underwood is hired by a New York investment bank to work as an assassin, eliminating threats to the bank's clients. "Underwood’s strength as a hired killer is the emotionless, robotic nature that allows him to operate with logical, ruthless precision." But, when the bank asks him to track down Emily Buchanan, a low-level employee who has absconded with financial secrets, Underwood gradually becomes more human and feels moments of empathy. Hawks describes a dystopia where people are beginning to be replaced by robots. Underwood's journey is an exploration into what human values will survive in a world of machines. Reviews of ''Spark'' were generally positive. The ''
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' review mentioned JTH's writing style: "Twelve Hawks’s prose, cold and clinical at times, yet punctuated with moments of great sensitivity, matches the tone and mood of his setting perfectly." In a starred review in ''
Booklist ''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is av ...
'', reviewer David Pitt wrote: "It’s been several years since the Fourth Realm trilogy ended, and some readers might have wondered if the author had only one story to tell. But guess what? As good as the Fourth Realm books were, this one may be even more appealing: less fantastic, more grounded in a contemporary real world, with a narrator who is deeply scarred and endlessly fascinating." In October, 2013 ''
Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. The site is updated several times a day, wit ...
'' reported that the film rights to ''Spark'' were sold to
DreamWorks DreamWorks may refer to: * DreamWorks Pictures, an American film production company of Amblin ** DreamWorks Television, an American television production company and division of the film studio ** DreamWorks Records, an American record label and f ...
.


''Against Authority''

On August 20, 2014, John Twelve Hawks released a free non-fiction book called ''Against Authority: Freedom and the Rise of the Surveillance States''. The book is dedicated to novelist
Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, scie ...
. An excerpt from ''Against Authority'' was published on '' Salon''. ''Against Authority'' begins with a personal description of the neurological experiments performed on Hawks when he was a child and states that all of us have the ability to reject the “right” of those in power to control our lives. Hawks describes how the reaction of governments to the
September 11 attack The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
s led to the
Patriot Act The USA PATRIOT Act (commonly known as the Patriot Act) was a landmark Act of the United States Congress, signed into law by President George W. Bush. The formal name of the statute is the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appro ...
in the United States and the proliferation of Closed-circuit television cameras in London. He references his 2006 essay "How We Live Now" that was his first published reaction to these systematic attacks on privacy. The book explains how the Total Information Awareness program developed by
John Poindexter John Marlan Poindexter (born August 12, 1936) is a retired United States naval officer and Department of Defense official. He was Deputy National Security Advisor and National Security Advisor during the Reagan administration. He was convict ...
at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (
DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Ad ...
) led to the expansion of the
National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collect ...
and the revelations of Edward Snowden. Hawks criticizes the assumption of “mass surveillance” strategies against terrorism and shows how “trickle down surveillance” has spread to small towns and developing countries. Hawks believes that surveillance technology has given those in power a crucial tool for social control. He describes how the culture of surveillance is used to track citizens for commercial reasons and gives examples of how people are now routinely watched at work. In the conclusion, he advocates a strategy of “parallel lives” that allows people to exist in the digital world while protecting their private actions and thoughts.


Bibliography

* ''The Traveler'' (2005) * ''The Dark River'' (2007) * ''The Golden City'' (2009) * ''Spark'' (2014) * ''Against Authority'' (2014)


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Twelve Hawks, John Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Unidentified people 21st-century pseudonymous writers