Fancies Archive

The Fate of Fortune 03: Final Wish

Posted March 8, 2023 By John C Wright

The Fate of Fortune is now posted.

Part 03 of 03.

Sometimes writers are simple in our motives. The unfortunate scholar here is named “Fortune” for a simple reason: he is Faust which is Latin for “fortunate.” Fortunatus of the Ever-full Purse from the Grey Fairy book of Andrew Lang has a name of similar meaning, though he comes to no bad end.

I wrote this story when I was an atheist, but, looking back, it seems to me to be nonetheless theologically sound.

As when the White Witch offers to make Edmund a king of Narnia — without telling him that, as a Son of Adam, he is already rightfully a king of Narnia — or the Green Witch offers the same to Prince Rilian, or when the Devil offers Christ the kingdoms of a world he already owns, or to be fed of bread when he is already himself the bread of life, it amuses me how the creature grants, and grants easily, the fateful, final wish, asking only a single drop of blood in return.

Devils in literature have been portrayed a pagan heroes or statesmen, as in Milton’s PARADISE LOST, or a petty and vicious bureaucrats, as in CS Lewis’ THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS. As best I can tell from real reports from real exorcists, the portrayal is more accurate of the Devil in Dante’s INFERNO, where is a creature of pure misery, weeping and gnawing on the damned, trapped in ice at the core of the world, awaiting judgement — in this tale, the creatures of hell are likened to prisoners behind bars, hoping to lure the innocent into reach.

AND WITH THIS
I reach the last page of my unpublished stories. Whether and how I shall continue to post a Wednesday sample of my wares is get to be decided.
But I certainly enjoy posting yarns I have written. I may continue, merely with snippets of some previous work, such as excerpts from MOTH AND COBWEB.

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Images of Ev by John R. Neill

Posted March 6, 2023 By John C Wright

As a public service, allow me to post a few more images by John R. Neill. These come from the book OZMA OF OZ, which tells of Dorothy’s return to the land of Oz by way of the land of Ev, whose royal family needs rescuing from the Nome King.

This first illustration should be explained. Allow me to quote from the surrounding text. Tiktok the Clockwork Man is talking, and, of course, he talks in a clicking, ticking monotone as clockworks naturally would. He describes the unfortunately loss of his maker, a Mr. Tinker:

“Mis-ter Tin-ker,” continued Tiktok, “made a lad-der so tall that he could rest the end of it a-gainst the moon, while he stood on the high-est rung and picked the lit-tle stars to set in the points of the king’s crown. But when he got to the moon Mis-ter Tin-ker found it such a love-ly place that he de-cid-ed to live there, so he pulled up the lad-der af-ter him and we have nev-er seen him since.”

“He must have been a great loss to this country,” said Dorothy.

“He was,” acknowledged Tiktok. “Also he is a great loss to me. For if I should get out of or-der I do not know of an-y one a-ble to re-pair me, be-cause I am so com-pli-cat-ed. You have no i-de-a how full of ma-chin-er-y I am.”

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Fairies and Mermaids by John R Neill

Posted March 2, 2023 By John C Wright

One of my readers expressed unfamiliarity with the illustrations of John R Neill, the illustrator of Oz. As a public service, allow me to repost here several pen and ink drawings by this master of the elusive and ethereal style popular before the Great War.

Below are fairies and princesses, mermaids, rainbow daughters, gnome kings, a farmgirl and her mule, a copper clockwork man, ambitious conqueror girls, and a queer cubical creature called the Woozy, who can shoot sparks from his eyes when angered.


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From CHAPTER 17 of TIK-TOK OF OZ by L. Frank Baum.

For those of you unfamiliar with Polychrome, she of one of my two favorite fairy girls to appear in the pages of the Oz books of L Frank Baum, the other being Queen Anne Soforth. Allow me to introduce you to both, dear reader.

Queen Anne Soforth of the land of  Oogaboo, who is described as “old enough to make jelly”, rules over the smallest and poorest  kingdom in one corner of the Land of Oz.

Deciding one day she no longer wishes to do housework, she gathers her army, consisting of sixteen officers and one private soldier (which, as it happens, is all the men in her kingdom save one), and sets out to conquer the Land of Oz.

Afterward she planned to go out into the world and conquer other lands, and then perhaps she could find a way to the moon, and conquer that. The text explains: “She had a warlike spirit that preferred trouble to idleness.”

In my opinion, the effort is less absurd than the author seems to think, since her soldier is immortal and invulnerable: for the people of Oz are under the blessing of the first fairy queen, and cannot age nor die. Asura from Hindu Myths have conquered worlds armed with blessing no less potent.

Queen Anne soon encounters Polychrome, the rainbow’s daughter, once again accidently stranded on Earth when she ventured too far from the foot of the rainbow after a shadow; and the Shaggy Man, a wandering bum beloved of everyone, for he owns the Love Magnet; and the copper clockwork man, Tik-Tok, literature’s first depiction of a robot.

Betsy Bobbin and her talking Mule comprise the balance of the party. Through misadventure and untoward pride, they companions soon find themselves prisoners of the underground Nome King, who is offended that surface dwellers mine his metals out of his ground, instead of being content with the surface, which is their own. He is, of course, a temperamental tyrant, cruel to his underlings, and a powerful sorcerer with a magic belt of jewels.

We join the scene as Polychrome makes her appearance in the vast bejeweled cavern throneroom of the monarch.

***   ***   ***

The Nome King, thinking himself wholly master of the situation, was laughing and jeering at his prisoners when Polychrome, exquisitely beautiful and dancing like a ray of light, entered the cavern.

“Oho!” cried the King; “a Rainbow under ground, eh?” and then he stared hard at Polychrome, and still harder, and then he sat up and pulled the wrinkles out of his robe and arranged his whiskers. “On my word,” said he, “you are a very captivating creature; moreover, I perceive you are a fairy.”

“I am Polychrome, the Rainbow’s Daughter,” she said proudly.

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The Fate of Fortune 02: First Wishes

Posted March 1, 2023 By John C Wright

The Fate of Fortune is now posted.

Part 02 of 03.

It is customary in Deal with the Devil stories that the wishes asked of the devil actually be granted. That is part of the allure.

By odd coincidence, I read the following tale to my children as part of Sunday reading just this week, from the Legenda Aurea of Jacob de Voragine. This is from the tale of the Life of Saint Basil. I repeat the tale here as a Lenten gift for my readers, since it is a story of repentance.

I make a comment below, after the conclusion of the tale.

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The Fate of Fortune 01: Futile Wishes

Posted February 22, 2023 By John C Wright

The Fate of Fortune is now posted.

Part 01 of 03.

The motif of a pact with the Devil is an ancient one, dating back to the tale of Saint Theophilus the Penitent. This yarn was penned when I was a first year in law school, in my atheist days.

I attempt no novel variation on the theme: Even an unbeliever sees such tales can end only one way.

The tale portrays the motive and method of Mephistopheles as blatant and blunt. Since the victim here is an intellectual, he does not see he is being sold what he already owns.

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Postapocalyptic Fiction 02: A Birth of Fire

Posted February 16, 2023 By John C Wright

Postapocalyptic Fiction is now posted.

Part 02 of 02.

This tale dates from very early in my career, and perhaps displays some of the expected awkwardness of youth: nonetheless, I am still amused by the irony of the atomic apocalypse depicted here.

With this, I have only one story left in my hopper of unpublished fiction. What is to be done to fill this space in weeks to come remains to be seen.

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Postapocalyptic Fiction 01: A Dying of the Light

Posted February 8, 2023 By John C Wright

Postapocalyptic Fiction is now posted.

Part 01 of 02.

A short story from my earlier libertarian phase. Enjoy.

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Downfall of the High House of Nechtan is now posted.

Part 03 of 03.

What can overcome the hero’s strength and magic charms? Not cunning of wit nor strength of arms. First set your house in order, next set your churls free. The Sons of Nechtan failed; prevail the Sons of Liberty.

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Downfall of the High House of Nechtan is now posted.

Part 02 of 03.

Six sons fought, some badly, some well. Nor druid lore nor arts of war prevailed. All perished where they fell. Can Ardan win, where all have failed?

Of sisters three, he asks the rede; deaf to elders, but youngest he will heed. He must do what was not done of old.

With hammer he shatters a circle of iron, then one of gold.

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Downfall of the High House of Nechtan is now posted.

Part 01 of 03.

Hear a tale of woe and mystery, grand as any tale of old; attend now to my history, for you shall hear wonders told. Six sons are fallen. What hope is there in seven? Men cannot prevail unpleasing to heaven.

On the day of its downfall, in the season of spring, in the season of wrens sweetly singing in the bushes of thorn below the great outer wall, the gate of the house lay riven asunder.

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Seedcorn 4: Starving in Abundance

Posted January 11, 2023 By John C Wright

Seedcorn is now posted.

Three of Four.

THIS episode contains the only scene I really thought was well done, at least, given the youthful greenness of my quill, which was the fight scene with a paintbrush.

Again, copying another writer’s style, I also attempted to adopt her worldview: and consequently the soldiers are somewhat less masculine and soldierly in their approach than would have been had I written in my own voice.

The ending is on an ambiguous but perhaps hopeful note, as mimicking the ending of LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS or THE DISPOSSESSED.

And so we say farewell to the Ekumen of Ursula K LeGuin. I will never offer this story for publication for money, and she has gone to discover the truth about the Dry Lands beyond the farthest shore.

I hold her to be a fine writer, one of the best in the field. She came from a time before 2015 when the Sci Fi field was not poisoned with politics and political correctness, and one could love a writer’s work without agreeing with the writer’s opinions as a civilian.

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Seedcorn 3: The End of the Envoy

Posted January 4, 2023 By John C Wright

Seedcorn is now posted.

Three of Four.

IN this episode is my conceit of how political conflict is resolved, as seen from the moral foundation of a philosophy one might call Occidentalized Taoism.

Real Taoism is quietist, a philosophy of renunciation and submission to fate. Occidentals, informed by Christian thought even when we do not realize it, cannot accept true fatalism or true renunciation. The furthest we of the West tend to go in that direction is toward stoicism, or pragmatism, or the idea that ideals are worth pursuing even if they cannot be enacted.

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The Best Christmas Present

Posted December 27, 2022 By John C Wright

As a present for my readers, a story of the season from the pen of my lovely and talented wife, taking place in same world as her CHILDREN OF PROSPERO novels.

The Best Christmas Present

By L. Jagi Lamplighter

It was Christmas Eve. Logistilla Prospero, younger daughter of the Dread Magician Prospero, was about to give her sons the best Christmas present she could possibly give them.

She would leave their lives forever.

Her two boys, about ten and twelve, sat in the large library of her Southern mansion. Teleron, the older one, was reading a book. His large round glasses gave his thin face an owlish appearance. The younger one, Typhon, was athletic with boyish good looks, however, his slumped shoulders betrayed his boredom as he waited for Christmas to come. He bounced a ball against the wooden floor. Neither showed any concern, or even awareness, of Logistilla’s existence.

They would not notice if she left. They would not notice if she never came back.

She would be doing them a favor.

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Seedcorn 2: A Second First Beginning

Posted December 21, 2022 By John C Wright

Seedcorn is now posted.

Two of Four.

The art of mimicking another author’s voice, always a doubtful proposition if not done out of pure admiration, consists of three elements: first, copying the lyricism, vocabulary, and word-choice (a particularly entertaining challenge when mimicking Jack Vance, for example); second, copying the plot-rhythm, stylistic patterns, or structures favored by the author (a thrilling challenge when mimicking A.E. van Vogt whose rapidfire sense of pacing and plot-twisting is legendary); but finally and most of all copying the theme and worldview of the author, making the kind of point with the story he himself would have made, not expressing your own opinion.

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