John C. Wright's Journal

Dear readers, it is my habit, if a hitherto unknown reader leaves a comment that consists of an insult devoid of content, to return insult for insult in the hopes of amusing my readers and deterring the empty-headed incivility of the barbarians. Nonetheless, I suffer a qualm of conscience when I do so, since ad hominem is illogical, and beneath the dignity of the Houyhnhnm race to which aspire. And it makes Baby Jesus cry.

So, help me decide. One the one hand, I am tired of Conservatives, for reasons of misplaced chivalry, being harassed and libeled by villains and standing mute or answering politely in return. I believe this is the prime cause for the present degeneration of society: using Marquis of Queensbury rules in a knife-fight.

On the other hand, such antics are undignified and crass, and redound no glory to my household. Any fool can call a stranger a fool, after all, and looks a fool when he does it.

Which would amuse and please my readers more? If you humble host takes the lofty high road, or the brawl and broil in the gutter?

ConCarolinas invited John Ringo to be guest at their Science Fiction convention. Politically Correct Morlock agitators pretending to be afraid of Ringo threw an unsightly temper tantrum, staged a Two Minute Hate, and browbeat the Con leaders into retracting the invitation.

Later, the ConCarolinas leadership grew a spine, realized the injustice done, not to mention the public relations disaster. Jada Hope and Luis Diza  apologized to John Ringo and to the fans for the affront, and vowed never again to bow to Politically Correct bullies, whiners and killjoys again.

Immediately the Politically Correct bullies and killjoys put on another act of false outrage,pretending to be outraged at this defiance of their false outrage: The Morlocks put out a petition to remove the leadership of the Con who penned the apology, and have Jada Hope and Luis Diza declared ritually unclean, or something. As of the time of this writing, the Thought Police petition has less than 120 signatures.

Dave Weber expressed willingness to be Guest of Honor at the ConCarolinas if they stood with the apology they had given never again to exclude writers based on after the fact political complaints. As of the time of this writing, this petition has two thousand signatures, including my own.

Please add your name. If you can afford it, buy a supporting membership.

https://www.change.org/p/concarolinas-ensure-freedom-of-speech-assembly-at-concarolinas

I need help with my Latin. A reader wrote and said he was guiding the composition of a military patch.

He wants the motto to read “From the Stars To the Stars” and is looking to translate it correctly to Latin.

I know I have some scholars among my readers. Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

I would like to keep writing weekly ‘Last Crusade’ columns, and also my Conan review column over at the Castalia House blog, but I am deep within the throes of creative labor trying to write 2000 words of publishable text per day for NOWHITHER, the sequel to SOMEWHITHER.

Do my readers have a preference? As friends, advise me. Should I slow the work on NOWHITHER and let these other tasks take away one day a week of available writing time?

My vaunted education fails me. I need to translate the phrase “Great Secret of the Worlds” (note the plural) into Latin. The sense is that the secret is that there is more than one world. It is not referring to a secret kept by the worlds, in case this different sense would be declined differently.

Would it be magnum mysterium mundorum ? Or do I have a pesky declension wrong?

I ask my wise and well educated readers for help.

I am conducting an unscientific and informal poll. Any Christians or Jews in the audience, or anyone who knows a Christian or a Jews, is invited to answer.

Some Christians or Jews think that the passage in Genesis where God gives Noah permission to eat meat implies that those who lived before the flood were or should have been vegetarians.

Others think that those who lived before the flood were not forbidden to eat meat, and also not forbidden to eat animal living or drank their blood, but that the practice of eating live animals or of drinking blood was explicitly forbidden after Noah, and the eating of meat explicitly allowed.

For the purposes of this poll, I am lumping those who think antediluvians could not eat meat (were biologically incapable of it) and those who think antediluvians could eat meat but were forbidden by God to do so, as one and the same.

My question is this: how many Christians do you know who believe that the antediluvians were or should have been vegetarians? All? Most? Few? None?

Is this a majority, mainstream, widespread Christian belief, or is it an minority, rare, not-widespread Christian belief?

Let me emphasize that I am not asking you to argue for or against either proposition. This is a poll, not a theology quiz. Please, please do not tell me your opinion on which interpretation of Genesis you think is correct. I do not care about that.

I am trying to find out whether either interpretation is widespread or not widespread among Christians and Jews. I am NOT trying to find out whether the belief that antediluvian men were or were not vegetarians is or is not the correct interpretation of Genesis.

Read the remainder of this entry »

A reader writes and asks for help finding reviews:

I must make this small request of you. A writer whose works I very much enjoy, one Mark Samuels, recently self-published a novel with a Traditionalist Catholic theme. This is its blurb:

Set in 1981 and 2015 against a backdrop of societal upheaval A PILGRIM STRANGER is an ebullient satire of contemporary values.”

Problem is that Mr. Samuels published only works of weird and horror fiction before, and unfortunately neither some of his peers in that field nor a good chunk of his readership are exactly enamored with his religious and political stances. In fact, he received a fair share of bile in the past.

In order to try and promote his novel, he made the following offer on his blog:

https://marksamuels.wordpress.com/2017/01/23/offer-to-reviewers/

So, I must ask of you, if you know any of your fans or online acquaintances with some time to spare on reading and reviewing the man’s novel, please send this link to them.

It is not any sort of minor or novice writer that I try to promote here. Mr. Samuels’s work is highly praised in his field and his stories are oft reprinted.

His novel deserves at least this smallest of chances to find some sort of audience. as it shan’t find any among nihilist, anti-Christian readers of horror fiction who make the bulk of his existing readership.

I hope that I don’t presume overmuch by making this request of you.

Any takers?

Of old, it was thought that poets were closer than other mortals to the gods, and heard the whispered echo of their revels on Olympos or Fensalir, or their clash of ethereal arms at Phlegra or Vidblain.

Myself, I think it is because men in my profession approach their beloved patrons in the same suppliant posture as pilgrims to a shrine. Poets know that no man lives without the charity of some superior power, because we have nothing else on which to rest but the good pleasure of our patrons.

This month, we at the Wright Household does not have enough to cover both groceries and mortgage, and so I thought I would beg my readers for tips.

I also thought, to add more incentive to my Patreon patronage, of offering something additional to those who pledged more, or to all, when certain goals were met.

I am a fair hand at cartooning, and can draw pictures of my characters, or could take an afternoon to write a personalized short story, or something else my readers might like. I’d like to throw the comments section open to suggestions of what that something else might be?

It is not unusual for Patreon artists to give out some token of thanks. Do you have a preference?