The Cunning Man, Chapter 02: Cellar of the Shire Reeve is now posted.
We and Hazelthorne meet young Father Ignatius Farthingale, who is convinced the world to be in her dotage. As often happens when priest and witch-man meet, the conversation veers toward theology.
I have both an odd and silly fascination with the question of why officers of Political Correctness can never tell a good tale?
It is a question I have pondered before, perhaps beyond a healthy point. Let me explain, if I may, the source of obsession.
I have a personal and a professional interest in the question, but this explains only part of my interest.
The personal interest is because, to be quite frank, the main reason why my success as a science fiction author is less than it otherwise would be is my public refusal to bow the knee to Political Correctness.
Voice of Reason posts the next installment of the Last Crusade oration:
Last Crusade 06 The Majesty of Truth.
The Last Crusade takes up arms against a fallen world.
The Enemy says truth is subjective, that is, truth is not truth, and no lie is forbidden. We hold that truth is true.
Political Correctness is factual incorrectness, or, in other words, falseness. Falseness is fatal to fiction. Even though fiction is fictional, in order to be dramatic, it must capture the real drama of the real human condition, including the central dramas of birth, growth, love, loss, death, and hope beyond death.
Even as basic a task as telling a fairy tale love story fails if an element of political correctness enters: as when, for example, critical gender theory demands the heroine can never be shown cooperating with the hero, and never be shown losing to him in any contest. This prevents the two from finding each other to be complements, each fulfilling what the other lacks.
In political correctness, the sexes are genderless. There can be no element of sweet, coy, gentle surrender of the feminine to the audacious and bold conquest of the masculine. There is no romance in the New World Order, and the only love is to love Big Brother.
Examples of how to use political correctness to ruin a fairy tale, science fiction story, or superhero franchise are myriad.
This is from the animated film SWAN PRINCESS (1994), loosely based on the ballet Swan Lake. It is a curt and clear example of how Political Correctness destroys drama, even though, here, the Political Correctness is very mild.
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Over Christmas, by mischance, I happened to watch Disney’s NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS a visually splendid but thematically atrocious movie, with a plot by turns senseless, pointless, dull, predictable, puerile and mildly insulting; which seems to be the hallmark of modern Disney.
However, the film serves as a perfect example of how to ruin a story via political correctification.
This tale is previously unpublished, somewhat different from my normal fare, and is here offered as a courtesy for the enjoyment of my dear readers.
The Cunning Man, Chapter 01: High Road in the Autumn is now posted.
We are introduced to Hazelthorne, the Cunning Man, a finder of lost things, who greets the chill of autumn with a summery disposition; and to the boy, Will, whose disposition and situation is somewhat worse.
For the record, since I opened my “Voice of Reason” account and started posting my Last Crusade oration to Rumble, the Rumble views being monetized, I have had 46 views all told, and earned my first penny.
Voice of Reason posts the next installment of the Last Crusade oration:
Last Crusade 05: Nine First Principles.
The Last Crusade takes up arms against a fallen world.
Political conservativism is only one ninth of our world. We are more. We are all men of good will who hold faith with truth, reason, reality, virtue, beauty, dignity, liberty, patriotism, and, most of all, faith in Christ.
