Archive for December, 2013

« Older Entries

Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus

Posted December 25, 2013 By John C Wright

Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus

By John C Wright

Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long;
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow’d and so gracious is the time.

— Wm. Shakespeare

*** *** ***

Her name was Ginny. She was six years old, and it was Christmas Eve.

Her eyelids trembled and slowly her eyes closed. With a painful effort, she tried to stay awake. For a moment, her face was utterly at peace. Then with a little sigh of effort, her eyelids fluttered open.

“Mommy…? Is it all right…?”

“Hush, now,” Her mother replied. “Everything is all right.”

“Mommy, is it all right if I stay up until Saint Nicholas comes? Just this once? I won’t ask again.”

Her mother’s name was also Virginia. She was bent over the bed, passing her hand over her daughter’s face, comforting, soothing.

“Yes … just this once … Stay awake. Stay awake for Santa Claus, baby…”

Virginia passed her hand over her daughter’s head as if to smooth to curly blonde hair; but Ginny had no hair any longer.

“… I hear the sleigh bells ….” Ginny said. “He’s coming … How will he fit…?”

“What was that?” Virginia bent close to her daughter’s barely-moving lips.

“No chimney. There is no chimney here. How will Saint Nicholas get in?”

There was no chimney in the terminal ward of the children’s hospital.

“He’ll think of something, baby. He’s Santa. Just have faith. Just hold on.”

One of the many blinking boxes connected to the little girl gave off an alarm which sounded like a bright, sharp ringing as if from small bells. Ginny smiled weakly at the noise, no doubt thinking it was sleigh bells, and said, “Will I see Saint Nicholas?”

“Yes, darling, O, yes my darling.” Virginia’s eyes were bright with unshed tears. “Santa Claus is coming. You will see him.”

The medical technicians and the nurses, voices tense but low, uttering precise commands as quickly and crisply as a priest conducting a well-known and long-beloved ritual, continued their desperate work as one alarm and then the next rang out. There was no room around the bed for Virginia to stand and hold her daughter’s hand.

The doctor told her not to worry. He gave Virginia some vague reassurance, as false but well-meant as telling a child to believe in Santa Claus.

The little girl’s eyelids trembled and slowly her eyes closed. She tried to stay awake.

After two hours and a half, as one alarm after another fell silent, and one monitor after another showed a flat line, they stopped their attempt to revive her. The doctor signed the certificate, showing the time of death as 11: 53. Seven minutes before Christmas Day.

She had lived to be six years old, and it was Christmas Eve. Her name had been Ginny.

Read the remainder of this entry »

58 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Fancies, Free Fic

Christmastide

Posted December 24, 2013 By John C Wright

Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, no witch has power to charm,
So hallow’d and gracious is the time. –Hamlet

I thought today, Dec 27, the Feast of St John (and my own name day), would be an apt time to reflect on it, and to urge my fellow traditionalists to continue the Christly and Christian work of Keeping the Feast and Partyin’ On! Let us pause for unsolemn reflection on these solemnities.

We all know the Twelve Days of Christmas from a famous nonsense song about a lady whose true love gives her 184 birds of various types, not to mention 12 fruit trees, 40 golden rings, 106 persons of the various professions either musical or milkmaidenly, and 32 members of the aristocracy variously cavorting.

No doubt you have ever wondered how the lady in the song feeds all the leaping lords and dancing ladies, pipers, drummers, and milkmaids now living in her parlor, the answer is that she feeds them the 22 turtledoves, 30 French hens, 36 colly birds, and 42 swans, not to mention the nice supply of eggs from the geese, milk from the cows and pears from the pear trees.

You may have heard that the lyrics contain a secret meaning, referring to Catholic doctrines or rites forbidden by Oliver Cromwell. This is true. The secret meaning is that the Walrus is St. Paul, and if you listen to a record of the carol backward, it says “Cromwell under his wig is bald.” All this is well known.

What is not as well known is that traditionally, these are twelve days of feasts which start on Christmas Day and run through to Epiphany on January 6th, which is the festival variously of the Adoration of the Magi and the Presentation in the Temple. (Really hard core Christmasteers extend Christmastide 40 days, ending on Candlemas February 2).

Before Christmas, during the season of Advent, while everyone else is shopping and partying, we who keep the traditions fast, pray, do penance, and make ourselves miserable. It makes the holiday much brighter by contrast.

Read the remainder of this entry »

15 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Drollery

In Memory

Posted December 23, 2013 By John C Wright

Rosemary, the beloved wife of Gene Wolfe, has passed away. I met her only once at a science fiction convention, and was deeply impressed with her kindness and fortitude.

Here is her obituary:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyherald/obituary.aspx?pid=168614070

6 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Announcement

Chik-Fil-A Day for Duck Dynasty — Call Your Cable Company

Posted December 19, 2013 By John C Wright

Keep in mind that Duck Dynasty is not the highest rated show on A&E. It is not the highest rated cable reality TV show.It is not the highest rated unscripted cable show for this year.

It is the highest rated non-fiction cable show of all cable shows of all time.

But men will not chase lucre when their idols command them, even when they are false idols. The next time someone claims the media glorifies filth and denigrates decency because it merely gives the public what it wants and has no ulterior Leftwing ideology behind, ask him about this example.

You may have heard this story. This is the way the news media reported it:

“Duck Dynasty” dad Phil Robertson has been suspended indefinitely by the A&E Network following his recent comments on homosexuality, the network announced Wednesday night.

“We are extremely disappointed to have read Phil Robertson’s comments in GQ, which are based on his own personal beliefs and are not reflected in the series ‘Duck Dynasty’,” the network said in a statement.

“His personal views in no way reflect those of A&E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community. The network has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.”

When is the last time, dear reader, you heard any major media outlet proclaim themselves to be strong supporters and champions of Christ and His Church?

You may have also heard that Mr Robertson likened Homosexuality to Bestiality or Homosexuals to Terrorists. This is a slander and one that is familiar to me, because the orcs leveled the same slander at me. It is a lie without a particle of truth, uttered by those who cannot read the English language, or who do not care to, and who are confident no one will show the judgment and sense needed to look up the actual remarks.

Below the cut are the actual remarks of Mr Robertson.

(He uses the medical terms for the organs of generation when making his comment, so be warned if you find plain talk too salty.)

Read the remainder of this entry »

107 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Musings

Wright’s Writing Corner: On adding Sense Impressions

Posted December 18, 2013 By John C Wright

Latest from the beautiful and charming wife.

Excerpt:

Next in our reboot of my Writing Tips article is: Senses: Add two to five senses to every description.

polar3

Hot and tasty! Two senses at once!

When I started writing, I used to swap the pages I finished that week with two writer friends. We would read each other’s work and send back comments. My friend’s comments were almost universally the same. They constantly complained that I had not included any sense impressions except for sight.

”What does it sound like?” They would ask. “What does it smell like?”

At first, I added additional sense impressions at their urging. Then, with time, I began to remember to do it myself—but it was an artificial process. I had to go back after my first draft and deliberately add them in.

Now, the majority of the time, I remember as I am writing the scene the first time.

Why? You might ask. What’s the big deal about sound and smell, and maybe taste or feel?

arhyalon.livejournal.com/323786.html

 

 

 

 

1 Comment. Join the Conversation
Filed in Other

Political Correctness is a Mental Disease

Posted December 17, 2013 By John C Wright

As a science fiction writer, I am abashed and appalled when real life things happening on Earth sound more, starkly, blitheringly, Lovecraftianesquely insane than anything I can imagine happening on Mars or Mongo, or on Earth after the release of the Brain-Eater bacillus.

You cannot make this stuff up.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/17/high-school-teacher-suspended-for-santa-claus-is-white-comment-to-black-student-in-christmas-costume/

A high school teacher has been disciplined after a parent says the man told his black son that Santa Claus is white.

Officials at the school in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, about 24 kilometres north of Albuquerque, announced that the teacher recently was disciplined for his comments to the student, but they declined to say how, KOB-TV reported.

The move came after students at Cleveland High School were told they could come to class dressed as Santa, an elf or a reindeer.

Michael Rougier said his son, Christopher, arrived wearing a Santa hat and beard, and the teacher asked the boy: “Don’t you know Santa Clause is white? Why are you wearing that?”

Michael Rougier said the teacher’s comments enraged him. Read the remainder of this entry »

27 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Musings, Only Posting a Link

All the News That’s Fit to Print

Posted December 16, 2013 By John C Wright

I have met people who believe that we are visited by UFO’s. And I have met people who deny that there is a Leftwing media bias.

The difference between the two is that life could possibly exist on other planets, sufficiently advanced to be able to cross the interstellar void, so that the UFO believers have some basis, no matter how tenuous, to give their belief system some partial and tenuous relation to reality.

The other belief system has none. Did you read about the shooting in Colorado in the news today?

….take a look at the Denver Post’s extraordinary behavior this week after the shooting at Colorado’s Arapahoe High School. In the original story on the event, a student at the school describes his disgraced classmate as “a very opinionated Socialist”; in an updated version of the Post’s story, the shooter was not a socialist, but merely “very opinionated.” Why?

This is not the first time, nor the second, nor the third.

Nice, concise list compiled by http://ace.mu.nu/archives/345725.php I reprint it here as a teaching aid to those who cannot see the pro-Left bias in the media.

Read the remainder of this entry »

37 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Only Posting a Link

Strong Female Characters of Oz

Posted December 14, 2013 By John C Wright

I have a question for any reader who cares to answer. In recent days, we’ve had a discussion about strong female characters. We did not discuss little girl characters.

With little girls, the question of sex (outside of perversion) drops out of the equation. But little girls can still be feminine or masculine, a tom-boy or not. My question for readers is this: can a little girl be a strong character?

I am thinking specifically of Dorothy Gale as she is portrayed in the books by L. Frank Baum. I noticed that when reading the first twelve Oz books to my sons that the great charm and the drama from Oz is not so much exciting battles or murders or suchlike. The adventures are usually travelogues or simple quests where the girl (Dorothy, Trot and the oft-forgotten Betsy Bobbin) travel from point A to point B meeting odd characters or quaint villages of talking animals or animate objects along the way.

The Friendship between Dorothy, Trot, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, the Hungry Tiger, the Sawhorse, the Glass Cat, Cap’n Bill, and Scraps the Patchwork Girl and so on and so forth is the main appeal of the series. There is not the slightest hint of romance in Oz (all the little girls are too little) and so the menfolk do not appear as father figures nor as romantic leads, but as friends.

It is rare to see men portrayed in a book starring a female main character simply as friends.

Read the remainder of this entry »

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

Wright’s Writing Corner–Musings on Writing From the Beautiful And Talented Wife

Posted December 11, 2013 By John C Wright

My wife writes:

On Angels:

Some things are intrinsically hard to write about. Angels may be one of
those things. I have almost never seen them done well in fiction. I
have, however, read really stirring accounts of people who believe that
they have seen real angels. While I have no way to judge the veracity of
their stories, I can feel the power of the narrative. It come with a
sense of awe and wonder.

Somehow, that sense almost never appears in depictions of angels in
fantasy and science fiction. Depictions of angels in genre literature
and media is almost universally negative. They are the real bad guys,
while demons are misunderstood, emo, moody hunks. Or they are weak.
Angels are rigid. Angels are hand-wringers. Angels are boring.

Only the ones who fall in love…emphasis there on the word fall…are
even the slightest bit interesting. When they fall, then they get to be
the cute scruffy hunks.

Read more: http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/321862.html

18 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Other

I Can’t Believe They Let You Do That

Posted December 10, 2013 By John C Wright

Please savor the following words of scathing wisdom from Bill Whittle.
Read the remainder of this entry »

6 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Only Posting a Link

Welcome to the Wrightverse and the Lampverse

Posted December 10, 2013 By John C Wright

My friend Mr Oka  has been inspired by a doses of tea and pocky sticks to produce some illustrations.

http://dogmaanddragons.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/after-a-night-of-tea-and-pocky-fueled-scribbling/

I am so flattered that anyone would read my humble books, much less draw a picture of the characters, I would prefer to hear no negative comments about the youthful enthusiasm of the draftsmanship. Beside, my illustrations appearing inside my wife’s UNEXPECTED ENLIGHTENMENT OF RACHEL GRIFFIN are not exactly Rembrandt either (although I like them).

16 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Crowing

Saving Science Fiction from Strong Female Characters – Part 6

Posted December 8, 2013 By John C Wright

I have written five essays under the provocative topic of saving science fiction from strong female characters, and proposed a rather unprovocative idea: namely, that woman can be both strong and feminine, and that one does not need to make them overtly masculine to make them admirable and edifying characters.

Indeed, I proposed the idea that confusing strength with masculinity is in truth not a feminist ideal, but a misogynistic idea. He is no friend of woman who says women must act masculine to be equal to men, because that merely makes the word ‘feminine’ equal ‘inferior’. Masculine and feminine are a complementary relationship, not a master-slave relationship. Is Ginger Rogers inferior to Fred Astair when they waltz, even if he leads? She does all the same steps he does, and she does them backward, and, most impressive of all, Ginger can make goofy Fred look like a dashing figure of elegant romance.

I proposed further that a brief, utterly unscientific survey of pre-1950 science fiction showed a healthy number of perfectly strong female characters even in the most boyish of boy’s literature, for example Jirel of Joiry or the Red Lensman Clarissa MacDougal or Dejah Thoris (who, in the text, is both a scientist and a maiden who talks and acts like a Spartan “were his wounds in his back?” -style matron).

The same unscientific survey showed a rise of weaker female characters in the form of Playboy-bunny-styled bits of fluff in the 1960’s and 1970’s. I believe I was the only respondent to this survey, so the answers showed one hundred percent of respondents quizzed being in agreement.

Read the remainder of this entry »

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

The Unreality Principle in Action

Posted December 5, 2013 By John C Wright

A reader who goes by the fruitful name of Watermelonyo takes me to task for daring to say that the modern Left supports the Jihad. He expresses astonishment, and doubts my sincerity and even my sanity for saying such a thing.

Time does not permit me to post a complete list of the outrageous statements and actions by the Left who have defended the Jihadist enemy. I assume we all remember the human shields who volunteered, with their bodies and their lives, to defend Saddam against the West.

However, time does allow me to post a partial list, compiled by another man, of supporters and support for various aspects of Jihadist terror. I have not clicked through all the links, for there are too many. I have not reproduced his whole list, for it is too long.

The list below is from one Mark Humphrys, an Irish Atheist who ‘self-identifies’ as a Liberal-Right, because the Left support for Islamic Fascism drives him away from the Left.

I reprint his list in part, and his comments, without his permission, in the hope that he would approve that his work in lighting his torch will shine a light on this dark issue.

My point in posting this list is not to convince my honorable opposition that the Left does indeed support Jihad. My point is that it is not insane, nor even unreasonable, for an honest man to see what Leftwing figures have said and done and come to the conclusion that a collusion of sentiment exists.

I am proposing that I am that one figure whom Leftists steadfastly say does not and cannot exist: a reasonable man whose conclusions do not match Leftwing conclusions.

The part of the list I find saddest is the one placed at the top. These were Mr Humpheys’ heroes, the thinkers he trusted and admired,who betrayed their trust in him. If you click through no other links, click that one. It makes for interesting reading.

The words below are Mr Humphrys’.

Read the remainder of this entry »

41 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Musings, Only Posting a Link

The Fenwick-Sugden Plan

Posted December 4, 2013 By John C Wright

President Obama today made a speech in which he mocked those of us who are not illiterate of economics for not having any alternatives to Obamacare.

Well, it took me about one second of searching around for a conservative alternative to his pseudo-socialist compulsory medical insurance Ponzi Scheme that is so broken and so sad even before it starts that he has to break the law to prop it up.

I will let the virtual president explain the plan:
Read the remainder of this entry »

9 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Musings, Only Posting a Link

The Three Rules of Modern Politics

Posted December 4, 2013 By John C Wright

Mark Steyn provides the following links and a few dry words:

News from Santa’s Grotto:

Global warming hysterics at the BBC warned us in 2007 that by summer 2013, the Arctic would be ice-free. As with so many other doomsday predictions by warmists, the results turn out to be quite the opposite.

Meanwhile, down the other end at Santa’s summer vacation condo:

Antarctic sea ice has grown to a record large extent for a second straight year, baffling scientists seeking to understand why this ice is expanding rather than shrinking in a warming world.

Antarctic ice is now at a 35-year high. But scientists are “baffled” by the planet’s stubborn refusal to submit to their climate models. Maybe the problem with Nobel fantasist Michael Mann’s increasingly discredited hockey stick is that he’s holding it upside down.

Nonetheless, the famously settled science seems to be re-settling:

Scientists Increasingly Moving To Global Cooling Consensus

Global warming will kill us. Global cooling will kill us. And if it’s 54 and partly cloudy, you should probably flee for your life right now. Maybe scientists might usefully consider moving to being less hung up on “consensus” – a most unscientific and, in this context, profoundly corrupting concept.

Read ’em and laugh. And recall Wright’s Three Rules of modern politics: (1) The Left never apologizes (2) The Left never wakes up (3) The Left never blushes.

14 Comments so far. Join the Conversation
Filed in Only Posting a Link
« Older Entries