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Archive for May, 2010
Iron Baby!
Posted May 28, 2010 By John C WrightOne Answer to a Question About Chastity
Posted May 28, 2010 By John C WrightPart of an ongoing discussion. A reader with the impressively Vikingish name of Rolf Andreassen who blogs at the even more impressively Vikingishly named ynglingasaga.wordpress.com provides an answer to some comments and questions of mine concerning the new standards (I use the word advisedly, if not ironically) concerning love, romance, and chastity. The conversation also reaches to topics of loyalty and chivalry.
I have some questions I hope to ask Mr. Andraessen about his curious answer when time permits. But for now, I submit it without further comment here for your edification and reflection:
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Filed in Reasonings
Wright’s Writing Corner: Romantic Tension Two: Catching the Lightning—Part One
Posted May 26, 2010 By John C WrightThis article is on the pains and cares writers without a natural knack for the craft must suffer to learn it, with particulars on capturing the levinbolt sensation of romance.
Slowly, painstakingly, I have taught myself one area of storytelling after another. Description was so hard for me. I spent years trying to learn to write even simple descriptions. I would copy by hand passages in books by authors I liked. I would sit and describe the same thing over and over. Sometimes, I wonder if none of the descriptions I write for the rest of my life will be quite as nice as the ones in Prospero Lost…because I polished them over and over and over again. I’ll never have that kind of time again for that.
[…]
One of my favorite things about reading romances—either the genre called romance or the romantic plot in any other kind of story—is the moments that zing. By zing, I mean the moments when that jolt me like I have received a shock, or in a really good book, a lightning bolt. The moments that leap off the page.
First kiss is often a zing moment. But more recently, I began to study these moments more careful, to realize that there were quite a number of potential zing moments and that many authors do not make as good use of them as they could.
Read the whole thing here:
Filed in Wisdom
A Sad Tale
Posted May 26, 2010 By John C WrightWell, I just got a royalty check, and, after paying off my bookie Sky Masterson, my bar tab at Guido’s Family Fun Drinkatorium, the drug pushers and whoremasters from the Purple Gang, and paying some money toward the principle of that unwise loan I took from the Sharquino Family, and buying my second child back from the Gypsy band run by ‘One-eye’, not to mention my ‘donation’ to the crooked cops, Officer Gruntch and Officer McScrewel, who would otherwise tattle to my parole officer Crusher Mongolo, I found I had forty dollars to spend on whatever I wanted.
Ah! It was a fine day! Over at Madame McVermine, they have a new girl who is pretty enough, even when heavily sedated, and the Drinkatorium has fine industrial-strength rotgut, and Mr. Sleem and Mr. Deethe say they have a shipment in from Bolivia, and the ponies were running at Belmont, and I had an inside tip that the fix was in to let Crazy Legs win in the eighth.
No, I did not spend my hard earned dough at any of these fine and upstanding establishments, almost all of which would be legal in a libertarian commonwealth. Instead, ashamed, I drew up my collar and pulled my hat down over my features and slunk into the bookstore. No, I was not buying anything respectable like Playboy or John Norman books or Obama biographies. I passed by the racks of cheap pulp and children’s adventure fiction. I did buy something. The clerk, unwilling to meet my eyes, wrapped my purchase in a plain brown wrapper and slid it over the counter to me. When I tried to pay, the clerk drew back and asked me to drop the money on the counter. I understood. She did not want to touch my hand. My stomach boiling, not daring to ask for my change, I picked up my purchase and slunk away, ashamed.
You see, the bookstore has a back room where they keep ‘literati’ books, including fiction that can be described as modern, experimental, or even postmodern. I bought the complete fictions of Jorge Luis Borges.
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Unkempt Personal Appearance! Time is 6.30, not 6.00
Posted May 25, 2010 By John C WrightI wanted to remind the eleven people and two trolls who read my blog (thanks, Mom!) that I will be making a personal spectacle of myself, I mean a personal appearance on May 25th — THAT IS TODAY — I will be giving a Lecture at the Catholic Information Center. The title of the talk is ‘TOTAL CONVERSION — A Science Fiction Writer’s Personal Close Encounter with God’
Mr. Wright will discuss the events, both natural and supernatural, including
both philosophical conundrums and ecstatic visions, which led him from being a
fierce and uncompromising advocate of atheism to his conversion to Christianity,
and will discuss the relation of the Christian religion and Science Fiction.
Mr. Wright will also perform unseemly acts of snake-handling, quaffing poison, and speaking in unknown tongues as the Spirit gives him utterance! Woe unto the unbelievers! To be followed with Balloon Animals!
both philosophical conundrums and ecstatic visions, which led him from being a
fierce and uncompromising advocate of atheism to his conversion to Christianity,
and will discuss the relation of the Christian religion and Science Fiction.
Mr. Wright will also perform unseemly acts of snake-handling, quaffing poison, and speaking in unknown tongues as the Spirit gives him utterance! Woe unto the unbelievers! To be followed with Balloon Animals!
This is Tuesday evening, tonight, at The Catholic Information Center 1501 K Street NW, Washington, DC. 20005. My previous announcement was in error: the festivities start at 6.30, not at 6.00 as previously said.
This is very short notice, so those of my readers who live in Alaska are out of luck. Even if you live in North Carolina, you might not make it unless you sell all your worldly goods to buy a dangerous and experimental rocket-car, and start driving now.
(Just kidding about the Balloon Animals. )
Dangerous and Experimental Rocket-Car (Shown for Comparison Purposes Only!)
Filed in Announcement
Abortion Survivor Escapes Being Cremated as Medical Waste, Killed by Doctors
Posted May 25, 2010 By John C WrightThis piece comes from the Thoughts of a Regular Guy journal. I reprint it here in full without comment. It speaks for itself. I leave the examination of the cause and effect relation between the Sexual Revolution, the Marxist Revolution, and what we might call the ‘Subhumanist’ Revolution, which treats human life as animal life, as an instrumentality to serve the pleasure of the sovereign state or the sovereign individual, for another day.
“Aborted” Baby Almost Cremated Alive!
We see it time and time again. A baby survives an abortion attempt, and then is left for dead.
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Filed in Musings
Engineering Infinity
Posted May 21, 2010 By John C WrightToday I saw the cover art for Mr. Jonathan Strahan’ s latest anthology, ENGINEERING INFINITY (which is available for pre-order on Amazon.com). In addition to Stephen Baxter, Greg Bear, and Charles Stross, yours truly also makes an appearance in these pages. Please be impressed with this handsome cover.
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Filed in Announcement
A Question about Chastity
Posted May 20, 2010 By John C WrightIn this space, in recent days, there has been a discussion of male chastity and chivalry, and the proper respect due to the fairer sex. Some readers, perhaps those of a feminist bent, objected that to expect chastity from males was an insult to women, or a type of oppression. Other readers, perhaps of an opposite opinion which we might call masculinist, objected that the sins of the daughters of Eve were overwhelming, and that I should not restrict my hard words to the men alone. Some readers said I was a racist.
Being a creature crippled by philosophy, who must crawl from one logical and well-established statement to the next, I have not wings of fancy to leap from conclusion to airy conclusion, and in none of these cases can my slow and groping mind see the connection between my argument and the counter-argument presented by my worthy opponents. I simply do not see what the one has to do with the other: the comments do not seem in these cases to be on the same topic as the topic under discussion.
Such convulsions of mutual incomprehension are to be expected in discussions where the axioms of the two sides are so far apart. There is some basic, unspoken assumption I am making that is invisible to my honorable opposition; there is likewise some basic, unspoken assumption my opponents, both feminist and masculinist, make which is invisible to me.
In an earnest effort to unearth this assumption, let me ask a single question. It is my hope that ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
artimaeus will read and answer, but I open the question to the general public, and invite any who wish to weigh in to answer.
Given the nature of the male of the homo sapiens, and the nature of reality, it is likely for him to copulate with a woman to whom he is not married without a feeling of contempt, disesteem, or at least blithe indifference?
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Filed in Reasonings
The Poet Versus the Prophet
Posted May 19, 2010 By John C WrightI fully expect all of my Progressive friends who began to whine and complain that I was threatening them with Theocracy by converting to Christianity to join the worldwide effort to send a message of courageous disrespect to those religious zealots who are in reality supporting theocracy and the spread of theocracy in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and threatening Europe with dhimmitude.
I quote here in full an article by Mark Goldblatt of Reason Magazine. Much saucy and disrespectful language beneath the cut, which normally would get you banned from this sight.
This falls under the ‘marines can say crap” exception, on the grounds that Mr. Goldblatt was almost killed by the enemy, and is therefore a combatant.
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Wright’s Writing Corner — Romance!
Posted May 19, 2010 By John C WrightThis week’s post is thoughts on Romantic Tension with a question for the reader.
http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/119991.html
Filed in Wisdom
Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Posted May 19, 2010 By John C WrightFinally, this favorite book in the Chronicles of Narnia was made into a film.
I always wonder what the star did wrong to get himself exiled to earth…
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Filed in Other
Anyone out there speak Latin?
Posted May 18, 2010 By John C WrightSo I am writing the following scene, which takes place in a Confessional booth, and the Priest lets slip that he heard the dying words of the main character’s brother:
“I cannot reveal what was said to me under the seal of confession, which I heard as his dying words. But it is a matter of public record that he was present when you met Mr. Michael Nails in a contest of honor, and you were severely wounded.”
“He cannot blame himself for that! What—did he think he did?”
“I cannot say.”
“How about a hint?”
“Dropping hints about matter shared in confession is strictly forbidden. I believe it was covered in the Papal Encyclical Letter [Nulla Dropping Hints Est]
The father confessor is making a joke, not giving a reference to a real encyclical. I want to insert a Latin phrase that sounds like it might be the first two words of the sentence, “Don’t spill secrets” or “No dropping hints!” or “No letting clues out!” or something like that, but my minimal Law Latin is not up to the task. Rather than going and getting a Latin textbook, I thought I would just beg one of the resident scholars out there for aid and succor. I can mention your name in the acknowledgments if you help me out.
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Personal Appearance!
Posted May 18, 2010 By John C WrightI wanted to tell the ten people who read my blog (thanks, Mom!) that I will be making a personal spectacle of myself, I mean a personal appearance on May 25th — I will be giving a Lecture at the Catholic Information Center. I have been asked to tell my conversion story and speak about the Science Fiction and Christianity.
This is a Tuesday evening, one week from today, at The Catholic Information Center 1501 K Street NW, Washington, DC. 20005. I think it starts at 6.00.
This is pretty short notice, so those of my readers who live in Alaska should sell your homes, pack your ten children and the family mule into your truck, and start driving now.
Filed in Announcement
Cads and Dads
Posted May 17, 2010 By John C WrightPart of an ongoing conversation. I regret I have not time to answer in more detail: I can only give a summary of my conclusions without laying out the steps.
artimaeus writes:
“In a nutshell, the traditional sexual mores glorify chastity, abstinence, and virginity because it is in the interests of both a woman and her neighbors that the man who gets her pregnant doesn’t leave her to raise her children alone. Marriage is a device to keep the father close by, increasing the odds that the children will grow up healthy and well-adjusted. People recognized that childbirth was the inevitable result of sex, and so sexual acts were discouraged, often demonized, until the man was committed to the woman and her children.”
.
My comment: Agreed, albeit there are other reasons, aside from this, to support monogamy, such as, for example, to prevent the exploitation of women by ruthless sexual predators.
.
“Today, you’ll find the game has changed. Modern technology has undone the truth that once made enforcing chastity so important….”
.
If paternity-identification were the only argument in favor of chastity and monogamy, yes, modern technology has made sterility (including the temporary sterility prophylactics provide) and infanticide easier and cheaper.
.
“And this is not a bad thing…The blame lies squarely with the person too dumb to wear a condom….a woman can now gauge a man’s character in the bedroom…”
.
This is a gratuitous assertion. In logic, a gratuitous assertion can be gratuitously denied. I would say it is a very bad thing indeed.
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Filed in Reasonings
Nebula Awards!
Posted May 17, 2010 By John C WrightThe Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of SFWA. The selection process is relatively simple: the survivors of a Deathball tournament are examined by the Colossus-Skynet system for irregulationary defects, and if found acceptable, are sent to the haunted planet Arisia for mind-to-mind examination by the alien superbeing known as Mentor, and those who return sane are conducted to Wallach IV where the Bene Gesserit Witches test the candidate with a “gom jabbar” and the Box of Pain to distinguish the true humans from the mere human animals. Survivors are taught the Martian Language in order to achieve fourth level consciousness and exposed to the mind-altering rays of the Evolutionary Granolith, and expected to make at least one “drop” in full kit onto a planet controlled by the Klendathu. Then any remaining candidates are sent to Trantor, or maybe some other world covered entirely with buildings, and examined by the Jedi Council and the Psychohistorians to see whether passing the candidate will cause a disturbance in the force or throw off the predictive plan of history. The remaining candidates then cover themselves with walrus grease and wrestle nude with Harlan Ellison, or his evil twin Zebulon Ellison, in the Arena of Death, on a tightrope above a field of radio-active radium-knives. The winner is granted by the Padishah Emperor any space-kingdom on any of the garden-planets accidentally created by the Genesis Machine in the Multiple Green Sun system at the core of the galaxy, and any space princess for his bride, with the one exception (obviously) of the voluptuous yet deadly Princess Venomia, the Black Widow of Outer Space. The year Leigh Brackett won, instead of a space princess, she demanded her beloved World-Wrecker Hamilton be released from his disembodied confinement within the death-asteroid of the limbo dimension. The Padishah Emperor was loathe to set free so dangerous a planet-killer, but he had no choice.
Then the votes of the regular SWFA members are counted, and the winner of that vote is given the Nebula award for that category for that year. Also are granted certain ‘Grandmaster’ honors related to lifetime accomplishments independent of year.
That whole rigmarole about the Padishah Emperor and winning your own space kingdom really has nothing to do with the actual literary award, and if you are the kind of guy who can outsmart psychohistorians and wrestle maddened curmudgeons on a field of radium knives, you are obviously not spending enough time at the typewriter. Get back to work.
2008 Nebula Award Winners
Novel
The Windup Girl – Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade Books, Sept. 2009)
Novella
The Women of Nell Gwynne’s – Kage Baker (Subterranean Press, June 2009)
Novelette
“Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast,”
Eugie Foster (Interzone, Feb. 2009)
Short Story
“Spar,” Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld, Oct. 2009)
Ray Bradbury Award
District 9, Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell (Tri-Star, Aug. 2009)
Andre Norton Award
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making,
Catherynne M. Valente (Catherynne M. Valente, June 2009)
Additional Honors
During the ceremonies, Joe Haldeman was honored as the next Damon Knight Grand Master, while Neal Barrett, Jr., was honored as Author Emeritus. Vonda N. McIntyre and Keith Stokes were honored with SFWA Service Awards while the SFWA Solstice Award, bestowed upon individuals who have made a significant impact on the science fiction or fantasy landscape, was presented to Tom Doherty, Terri Windling and the late Donald A. Wollheim.
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About SFWA
Founded in 1965 by the late Damon Knight, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America brings together the most successful and daring writers of speculative fiction throughout the world.
Funny, but I was not asked about the ‘daring’ qualification before I joined up. I just got a package at my normal drop when I joined SWFA, containing a light-repeater suit, a ceramic pistol, a pair of night-vision goggles, a wirepoon grapnel, suction-disk gloves and boots, a mind amplifying lens, a laser sword, jetpack with two hours fuel, a familiar named ‘Dickon’, a packet of glass throwing-blades, a flying guillotine with launcher, and a list of the names and habitual travel routes of the enemies of the Secret Masters. At first I wondered if I had gotten in over my head, but then I realized that since the stealth suit was pink and covered with a rose floral pattern, that the package was from the Romance Writers of America (RWA), and had been sent to me by mistake. A whiff of the memory-eraser perfume, and they let me live.
Congratulations to all Nebula Winners!
Filed in Drollery, SFWA Mansion
