Archive for April, 2013

What fools these mortals be

Posted April 27, 2013 By John C Wright

Aliens are unique to science fiction.

In no story about detectives solving a murder or heiresses wondering what baron to wed will you find anything told from the point of view of a nonhuman intelligent creature. All other genres, from Westerns to War Stories to Historical drama to mainstream tales about college professors cheating on their wives, are told from within the human realm of human nature and can never leave it. In science fiction and in science fiction alone is there an opportunity to step outside the human realm, and turn, and look, and to see the mask of man from the outside.  Only in science fiction can we speculate on what humans look like to intelligent nonhumans.

Science fiction has this unique property because it is the only genre where the readers will accept the introduction of props, settings and characters which do not exist now on Earth or at any time in the historical past. All other genres are restricted by their readers to the confines of the real; and, as a matter of fact, extraterrestrial intelligences do not exist now on Earth or at any time in the historical past. By definition, a story with a nonhuman extraterrestrial character is science fiction.

A broader question is how well (if at all) we humble human authors can invent and readers can imagine anything from a point of view other than a human one.

If the task is absurd or impossible, then this unique aspect of science fiction is trivial.

If the task is feasible, and can be done and done well, then this unique aspect of science fiction grants the genre a profound purpose—a purpose far deeper than the mere telling of tall tales about earthmen fencing four-armed green Martian savages to rescue a kidnapped space princess.

If the task is feasible then science fiction is the only place to go, the only vantage where to stand, to look at mankind, because it and it alone steps away and turns and looks at humanity from the outside.

Read the remainder of this entry »

36 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Fancies

Personal Appearance!

Posted April 22, 2013 By John C Wright


Mrs Wright, the authoress Virginia Johnson and I will be signing books at Prospero Books in historic downtown Manassas, Virginia on Saturday, May the Fourth, between 11am and 3pm.

The Address:

Prospero Books
9129 Center St.
Manassas, VA 20110
(703) 257-7895

May the Fourth be with you!

19 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Announcement

It is Nice to Read a Review

Posted April 18, 2013 By John C Wright

.. from a Vast, Cool and Unsympathetic reviewer who understand the book better that I do. I am not being sarcastic: the reviewer here points out an interesting (to me) and unintended (by me – what the muse intended I do not know) contrast between the human and alien civilizations in HERMETIC MILLENNIA . I hope, as the author, I can be forgiven for quoting at length, since the reviewer is discussing a work I’ve spent years pondering and planning, writing and rewriting.

Read the remainder of this entry »

29 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Crowing

Wright’s Writing Corner: Watch Out, or You’ll End Up in My Novel

Posted April 18, 2013 By John C Wright

The lovely and talented Mrs Wright says this:

Today’s post is in reponse to a reader’s request. Come by and comment on
your experiences with writing from real life.

http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/285281.html

Excerpt:

First, I will start by saying that if there is a legal aspect to this, I  don’t know what it is. There is this disclaimer the publishers put in  books that says that any resemblance of characters in the story to real people is coincidental. I don’t know what they do when the resemblance  is not coincidental. It’s not like my publisher asked me: is anyone here based on a real person?

I have written many characters based on real people…or on real people’s roleplaying characters. Jacob and Nicky in the Lost Boys books are based on my sons. Miranda’s family in the /Prospero Daughter /trilogy were based on NPC (Non-Player Characters) John invented. While that is not the same as basing them on a real person, the process of copying the character and adapting it to your story.

Adapting them to the story is the key. I have found that I cannot actually put the real person into the story. I have to make them my own. Or rather, make them their own character that fits the specific background and let them come alive in their own right. If I spend time worrying about whether the real person would do that, I freeze up.

The characters can be inspired by so-and-so, but they can’t be so-and-so. They have to be themselves.

Be the first to comment
Filed in Wisdom

Nothung! Nothung! Neidliches Schwert!

Posted April 17, 2013 By John C Wright

I confess I have having a rather glum day today, and then I saw something that cheered me immensely. Somewhere in the world are kindred souls to mine, who remember the old, fine, strong stories and seek to see them told again in new ways.

Read the remainder of this entry »

7 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Fancies, Only Posting a Link

When they came for the Auto Industry, I did nothing, because I was not an Industrialist

Posted April 11, 2013 By John C Wright

This is from MSNBC Host Melissa Harris-Perry, who is also a professor at Tulane University.

Read the remainder of this entry »

41 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Musings

Tell the Federal Government to Respect Religious Freedom

Posted April 6, 2013 By John C Wright

Monday, April 8 is the deadline for submitting comments to the Obama Administration on the latest version of its HHS contraceptive/abortifacient/sterilization mandate.

Please take a moment to submit a short online comment in support of religious freedom.

Religious freedom is not just the right to go to church.  It is the freedom to live one’s faith, including the freedom to run a business or charity in accordance with one’s religious beliefs.

hat tip to Mark Shea

49 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Announcement, Blogbegging

Whistle While You Work

Posted April 5, 2013 By John C Wright

If, like me, you have too much free time on your hands, you have probably wondered why Snow White, at least as Walt Disney portrays her tale, has small woodland animals to help her with her household chores, with bunnies and chipmunks scrubbing dishes, songbirds helping to sew and fawns dusting the furniture with their white tails.

If, like me, you have too much education on your hands, you probably have used Aristotelian categories to analyze the question.

If, as a child, you ever asked the question “But WHY must I go to bed?—I am not sleepy!” and heard the answer, “Because Daddy says so!” and you found the answer unsatisfying, you experienced the frustration of hearing the wrong kind of answer to the right kind of question.

The sleepy child is asking for a justification, asking what fair purpose light’s out for unsleepy children serves, and the impatient parent is explaining a formality, that a command from a lawful authority must be obeyed independent of its fairness. It answers a different “why” than the “why” that was asked.

Aristotle answers that there are four kinds of answer to the question “why.”

  1. Final cause is motive, or, in other words, it is the answer in terms of that for the sake of which the thing is done to explain the thing.
  2. Formal cause is structure, or, in other words, it is the answer in terms of how the thing is put together, the relation of parts one to another, to explain the thing.
  3. Material cause is substance, or, in other words, it is the answer in terms of the content, what stuff the thing is, to explain the thing.
  4. Efficient cause is the past, or in other words, it is the answer in terms of the mechanics of cause and effect leading up to the thing being asked.

In this case, we can discard the answer that “Snow White has maidservant bunnies because Uncle Walt put them in the story” – this tells us the efficient cause, and we don’t care about that.

Likewise, we can dismiss the answer that “Snow White has maidservant bunnies because it is a fairytale and therefore made of make-believe: in real life, when I tried to get my bunny to clean the rug, he left poop pellets over everything, and ate the leather slip covers on my couch” — this tells us that you never want to ask me for advice on housekeeping or animal-training.

Likewise again, to answer that “Snow White has maidservant bunnies because they are a convenient labor-saving pets for her” gives the story-world final cause, that is, it tells us Snow White’s motive inside the story; but it does not tell us the real-world final cause, that is, it does not tell us Walt Disney’s motive outside the story.

Presumably the motive of Uncle Walt is to tell a good and memorable and charming story to entertain both young and young-at-heart. That we can presume, but it does not answer the question asked.

In this case, the answer we are asking is one of formal cause, that is, what makes this particular conceit entertaining, that is, charming and memorable and good?

Read the remainder of this entry »

46 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Fancies, Musings

Walking Through the Valley of Mist

Posted April 2, 2013 By John C Wright

A reader with the avian yet leonine name of Griffin ask this question:

I guess I’m curious about how you get from inspiration to actual words on the page… Do you start with an interesting idea and see where it takes you as you write? Your short stories tend to have a very strong structure, and both the internal and external references are very well woven. Do you find this difficult to achieve, or does it come easily, perhaps due to lots of practice? How much work is it to get from an idea like “the redemption of the animals” to the finished work posted above?

The short answer is that writing is like walking through a valley of mist. Before setting out, you see the peak on the far side of the valley where you want to end up, you pick out, as best you can from your coign of vantage on the ridge before entering the valley the likely landmarks you need to hit to make your way from the one to the other, and then you place your faith in the elusive native guides called muses, you check your napsack of writer’s tricks and sleights of hand, and you set out.

The long answer is that Writing is like a magic trick. You trick the reader into imagining a world that does not exist. If the reader is imaginative, or if your story just so happens to remind him of some memory to which in him a rich vein of symbolism and deep emotion is attached, he thinks the story is deep and wondrous, full of insights, which then he ascribes to you.

If you are unwise, you believe his flattering assessment of your talent, and take credit for an act of imagination where the reader did most of the work, and your ego gets inflated. This is why many writers are jerks. Or if you have an ulterior motive, you ascribe the power of the story to the preaching of the particular philosophical or political point you were trying to make, and your sense of being a visionary gets inflated. This is why many writers are sanctimonious jerks.

If you are wise, you ascribe the lucky accident of the intersection of your seed and his soil, and the fruit thereof to the inspiration of the muses, or other higher powers. This is why some writers are actually humble men deeply grateful for the chance to be a writer. Those men are real writers and true artists.

(Myself, I am a sanctimonious jerk who would like to be a deeply grateful true artist. The Blue Fairy told me that one day I would be a real writer. I asked her how, and she told me some confused nonsense about the Seven Lucky Gods of Shu Mountain. Gar! Never ask elves for counsel.)

Read the remainder of this entry »

17 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Drollery, Fancies