John C. Wright's Journal

Writing as ‘Fail Burton’ Mr May leaves this comment over on the Breitbart website:

Back in the real world, Ann Leckie’s supposedly great SF novel got whipped at Goodreads by The Martian 30,000 to 3,000. That’s what happens outside their racist blogs and Twitter feeds and echo chambers. By that standard, The Martian is then the greatest SF novel of all time times 10 since Leckie’s swept almost every award for the first time in SFF history. The Martian never had to stand in front of a Central Committee and be judged as white or male.

Amen, and preach the good news, brother!

Meanwhile, in other news, the Social Justice Lunatics are frothing and hallucinating in typical fashion in the comments section of the same article. I suggest any reader with a strong stomach and time to kill heat up a bag of popcorn in the futuristic microwave-radition ovens we have here in the future, and read some of the antics. See here: http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/02/05/the-hugo-wars-how-sci-fis-most-prestigious-awards-became-a-political-battleground/

• Rainforest Giant posted on February 10, 2015
  Batman and Robin. You can be sure at some point they are going to present them as a couple involved…
• Rainforest Giant posted on February 10, 2015
  It's bad to make anything for boys now except for Ritalin and the like.
• Rainforest Giant posted on February 10, 2015
  I don't know. That's what worries me.

Some much needed publicity.

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/02/05/the-hugo-wars-how-sci-fis-most-prestigious-awards-became-a-political-battleground/

Few walks of life are today immune to the spectre of political intolerance. At universities, speaker disinvitations and censorship campaigns are at an all-time high. In technology, there are purges of chief executives with the wrong political views and executives who make the wrong sort of joke. In the world of video games, petitions are launched against “offensive” titles, and progressive journalists wage smear campaigns against conservative developers.

It may not, therefore, surprise you to learn that similar occurrences are taking place in the science-fiction and fantasy (SFF) community, too. Previously a world renowned for the breadth of its perspectives, SFF increasingly bears the familiar hallmarks of an ideological battleground.

The story begins, as ever, with a small group of social justice-minded community elites who sought to establish themselves as the arbiters of social mores. This group would decide who deserved a presence in SFF and who deserved to be ostracised.

Their victims are littered across the SFF community. In 2013, the Bulletin of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) were targeted by a shirtstorm-like cyber-mob of digital puritans after one of their cover editions was deemed to be “too sexual.” The controversy did not die down until two of its most respected writers, Mike Resnick and Barry Malzburg, were dismissed from the publication. This occurred despite a vigorous counter-campaign by liberal members of the sci-fi community, including twelve Nebula award winners and three former presidents of the SFWA. 

Unfortunately, the current crop of elite figures in the SFF community have become either apologists or out-and-out cheerleaders for intolerance and censorship. Redshirts author John Scalzi, a close friend of  anti-anonymity crusader Wil Wheaton – was head of the SFWA at the time of the controversy and quickly caved in to activist pressure. This was unsurprising, given that he shared many of their identitarian views.

But Scalzi is, if anything, merely the moderate ally of a far more radical group of community elites. He hasn’t gone nearly as far as former SFWA Vice President Mary Kowal, who handles political disagreement by telling her opponents to “shut the fuck up” and quit the SFWA. Or former Hugo nominee Nora Jemisin, who says that political tolerance “disturbs” her. Or, indeed, the prolific fantasy author Jim C. Hines, who believes that people who satirize religion and political ideologies (a very particular religion, and a very particular ideology, of course) should be thrown out of mainstream SFF magazines.

Read the whole thing. http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/02/05/the-hugo-wars-how-sci-fis-most-prestigious-awards-became-a-political-battleground/

Read the remainder of this entry »

• Gigalith posted on February 7, 2015
  I don't have the book with me, but I remember Conan's first pirate queen/love interest (Balit or something) described going…
• wlinden posted on February 7, 2015
  And in that post, you wrote "we meet VALERIA, the pirate queen". The only story where HOWARD wrote about Red…
• John C Wright posted on February 7, 2015
  Oi. There is a memory-image I wished had remained lost in my recollection. Someone fetch me the memory eraser helmet.

Brian Niemeier pens the following essay on the growth and construction of a manuscript over at the Superversive blog.

http://superversivesf.com/2015/02/05/the-life-cycle-of-a-manuscript/

The Life Cycle of a Manuscript

On a recent episode of Geek Gab, a listener asked me an excellent question: when is a manuscript ready for an editor? That questions got me thinking about my own writing and editing process, because to my knowledge no two writers follow exactly the same steps.

Honestly, my approach to preparing works for submission has varied depending on the length, market, and even genre of the piece; and my system continues to evolve as I learn more from experience and research. (NB: I highly recommend On Writing by Stephen King, especially for newcomers to the craft.)

On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the CraftNevertheless, I thought I’d give a rundown of my current favored method for writing and revising manuscripts. Who knows? Someone may find it useful.

Outline: most fiction authors create outlines of their novels before the writing actually starts. There’s no set format or length for outlines; they can range in size from scene-by-scene summaries of the book to one or two page sketches. Some authors (like King) don’t outline at all. Trial and error have shown me that I am not one of them. My novel outlines generally run 5-10 pages; for short stories it’s usually 1 or 2–enough to set the bounds of the story and chart the narrative structure.

By way of explanation, I tend to structure each of my novels as a succession of multiple three act or seven point narratives within an overarching frame. So I make sure to note every hook, complication, climax, and resolution in the outline.

First Draft: when I start writing, I more or less follow the outline, filling in the blanks while giving myself enough flexibility to draw outside the lines if it serves the story. I estimate that I stick to the outline about 60 percent of the time, and about 40 percent is improvised.

Only I ever see my first draft. It’s not for anyone else.

[…]

Editing: so far, I’ve had one novel-length manuscript professionally edited. I was so impressed with the results, provided by the brilliantly superversive L. Jagi Lamplighter, that I plan on hiring a knowledgeable, experienced freelancer to edit every novel that I intend to publish independently.

Read the whole thing: http://superversivesf.com/2015/02/05/the-life-cycle-of-a-manuscript/

• Brian Niemeier posted on February 6, 2015
  Thank you. It was a lot of work (I'm currently working on the sequel). Learning to distance myself from a…
• Legatuss posted on February 5, 2015
  You know that gal writes in her sleep? That's a little scary. How are you suppose to compete with that?
• AstroSorcorer posted on February 5, 2015
  Congrats on the novel. A very disciplined approach. The hard part I have with anything is looking at the work…

Leftists cannot be reasoned with, because Leftism is the embrace of unreason. Case in point: an article from the news, which I reprint in whole. My comments below.

Texas Fourth-Grader Suspended For Telling Classmate He Could Make Him ‘Disappear’ With Magic Ring

By Sean Kelly, Sun, February 01, 2015

A 9-year-old boy in Texas was suspended after he told a classmate he could make him “disappear” with a magic ring from the fictional Lord of the Rings films.

Aiden Steward of Kermit, Texas, had just watched a film from the Hobbit series of movies with his family, returned to school excited and imaginative. He playfully made the comment to his classmate while pretending to wield the powers of the magic ring. Aiden was subsequently suspended for making a “terroristic threat” toward the student.

“It sounded unbelievable,” Aiden’s father, Jason Steward, said. Steward said his son assured him that he “didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Kids act out movies that they see,” Steward said. “When I watched Superman as a kid, I went outside and tried to fly.”

 The Steward family, who moved to Kermit only six months ago, has already seen a fair amount of trouble with the school district. Aiden was suspended twice before the ring incident — once for referring to a fellow student as “black” and a second time for bringing his favorite book, “The Big Book of Knowledge,” with him to school.

“He loves that book. They were studying the solar system and he took it to school. He thought his teacher would be impressed,” Steward said.

The school’s principal, Roxanne Greer, declined to comment on the incident. Greer said that all student-related matters are “confidential.”

Jason Steward reportedly requested something in writing from the school confirming his son’s suspension and explaining why they suspended him. He was later told that they would put a letter in the mail.

“I assure you my son lacks the magical powers necessary to threaten his friend’s existence,” Steward wrote in an email. “If he did, I’m sure he’d bring him right back.”

Power is about the ability to do stupid and arbitrary things. Leftism is lust for power disguised in various unconvincing guises.

Did you really, honestly, truly think that the government wanted government-run, compulsory schools in order to educate them? That Caesar was doing something for your benefit, not his?

Yes, schools do actually educate the student in one thing: it is drilled into the wee little bairn’s head that his lords and his masters are absolute, arbitrary and insane, and that resistance is futile.

When government schooling functions as designed, it breaks their spirit and makes them little cynics, little weaklings, and little cowards.

From time to time exceptional teachers fight the current, and manage to teach your children other lessons, but those teachers are easily rendered mute and impotent by similar tactics.

• Mary posted on February 5, 2015
  It means that all children must be equally indoctrinated.
• Mary posted on February 5, 2015
  woman.
• Ron posted on February 5, 2015
  “‘we need to equalise that.’” What does that even mean? Are they just throwing random words around now?

Sarah Hoyt speaks at length about the disturbing nature of the short story ‘If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love‘ by Rachel Swirsky which was a story I could — and did — do a better version of in one sitting, in less than an afternoon. And I did it without ripping off IF YOU GIVE  A MOUSE A COOKIE. Now my yarn might not be to your taste, but at least it is a story, with a beginning, middle and end, characters, and all the other apparatus of a story; and it contains science fiction. That makes it a (1) science fiction (2) story. Miss Swirsky’s work is neither.

I, for one, congratulate rather than belittle Miss Swirsky for her award. She deserves heartfelt congratulations. It is the voters I belittle. They betrayed their trust. They deserve the whipping post.

Sarah Hoyt talks about what the story’s choice of theme and antagonist implies:

http://accordingtohoyt.com/2015/01/31/if-you-were-a-grown-up-my-love/

When I was very young I used to think that stories where everyone died, or stories where pointless but sad things happened were about the best thing ever. They were profound and so different from every other story I’d read till that time which were all boys-adventures or fairytales that ended well and with a moral.

If You Were A Dinosaur my Love’s win bothered me at a level I can’t begin to explain, and it still bothers me, like an aching tooth to which the tongue keeps returning.  It’s not just that could have been written by me at 12 and would have got, from my middle school teacher, exactly the sort of praise it got from science fiction professionals.

It’s the ideas packed into the story that are truly disturbing.

A story that reveals a total lack of knowledge of an entire class of people (manual laborers) and instead others them as sort of scary all purpose evil that will beat to death anyone who doesn’t look/act like them won an award voted on by – supposedly – adult professionals. Not only that, but adult professionals who keep claiming their tolerance and love of the “other.”  What’s more, adult professionals who would almost certainly embrace “Marxism” as a good or at least correct idea.  When did Marxists start loathing and fearing the working class?

And admitting it?

Read the whole thing. I found it shocking. Her remarks open up the gangrenous wound and show the maggots already swarming among the dying flesh.

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• Zaklog the Great posted on February 4, 2015
  You know what, I read the first few chapters of The City of God over a decade ago, and it…
• Tom Simon posted on February 4, 2015
  This is true; but studied ignorance is still ignorance, and in its practical effects on the intellect it makes no…
• Mary posted on February 4, 2015
  Well, actually, in Catholic teaching, affected or studied ignorance -- the particular form of vincible ignorance that is deliberately cultivated…