The Sink: The Last Days of Driving - Softcover

Messer, Wendel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0973009403 ISBN 13: 9780973009408

Publisher: Breller Books, 2002

Synopsis

The Sink is a satire on driving and behavior. It mocks today’s drivers, who have made bad driving a universal norm. It provides a satirical perspective on a car culture gone badly wrong.

The book’s premise is that almost no drivers are competent, and that most of them practice daily for a collision. Recounted in the first person by a driving instructor, this book is 70% dialogue, all meat and bone, no flab. As in the Icelandic sagas, characters reveal themselves by what they say and do.

The story, set in 2010, pits a small element of the roadway righteous against the reckless, antisocial and inept majority. Drawing from his own experience as a driving instructor, the author makes it plain that bad driving (antisocial driving) is the norm, and that anyone attempting to set standards is mercilessly punished. So the righteous aim to topple the car culture. In the process, they throw society into a full-scale revolution. As in all revolutions, principle is carried to ruthless extremes.

The author takes pains to place the driving culture in the context of the wider culture that spawned it, and also to relate it to human nature and popular culture, while hinting that the gods may bear the ultimate responsibility. This book is a dark commentary on human failure and the conditions of existence.

But the Sink is also a book with a mission. It probes the minds of drivers to show how empty they are, at least as far as driving is concerned. This is an outsider’s view of our driving. Without being either science fiction or fantasy, the book has elements of both. Through its insights into typical driver mindsets, the book convincingly portrays drivers as being in the behavioral sink, and light-years away from their own self-images. This is a thought-provoking literary novel, a recognized road-safety tool, and world-class entertainment all in one.

The book points the way to a new driver education. One that focuses not on superior skill in handling a vehicle, but on preparing drivers for their obligations as participants in the social space of the road. Drivers would need to have insights into rights, obligations, and ethics.

Alternatively, as the road manners of the world spiral down into the behavioral drain, mindless driving and the terrible carnage it brings will continue to plague us.

About this title

From the Author

We grossly underemploy the brain while driving, treating the driving task as a mechanical, rather than a cerebral, activity. This is a huge danger in today’s high speed and sensory-overloaded environment, in which high levels of alertness are required. We are insufficiently cognizant of our own and our vehicles’ limitations, and of the dangers our lax driving attitudes present to ourselves and to others.

At the same time, there is a new social compact on the road: We consent to be rude, to stick it to the next guy. We are used to criticizing and railing at others, who may be no better and no worse than ourselves, but who are perceived to be trouble-makers. We are so poorly equipped to recognize or appreciate good driving, that we are likely to single out the good driver for abuse and punishment.

There’s a pressure out there to conform. But it’s conformity to a rotten ethos, and just about everyone is smitten.

In a way it’s like a plague. Everyone knows it’s out there and it’s doing terrible damage. But people aren’t sure who has caught the disease and just what the signs are. Most of them think they’re immune from catching anything, and yet most of them have it. As a driving instructor I would sometimes hear colleagues say, "They’re brain dead," and I knew that, in some sense, that had to be true.

About the Author

W. Messer was born in Newfoundland, Canada, and also has roots in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. After earning a B.A. in Europe, and a B.Ed. at the University of Toronto, he taught English as a Second Language and Driver Education. Messer is firmly committed to a revolution in driving. In car, on a one-to-one basis with students, he has taught 1000 people of all ages to drive "with their brains turned on." At present he lives in a mobile home near Gravenhurst, Ontario.

Edition details

• Publisher: Breller Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0973009403
• ISBN 13: 9780973009408
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224