Archive for September, 2022

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Tim Powers and King Arthur

Posted September 30, 2022 By John C Wright

I thought my beloved readers would be interested in a little bit of “inside baseball” from science fiction writers. 

I was given an idea for a King Arthur story I could not use, and so I sent it along to Tim Powers, in case he could: the conceit for the story would be that King Arthur not only will wake at the Last Battle in England’s hour of greatest need, but has done so previously, for example, during the Great War, but was mistaken for the Angel of Mons, or during the Spanish Armada, when Merlin summoned a storm. 

I thought Mr. Powers would do better with the idea than would I, since he is skilled at the “secret history” genre where truth and oddity from history is blended with invented events to recast old events with new meaning. 

I wrote an asked if he would do a hidden history of reincarnated King Arthur saving England through history. The words below are his:

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Prices in the 1930s

Posted September 30, 2022 By John C Wright

Prices in the 1930s are offered here by way of comparison with current prices.

For context, the average income across the decade was $1,368 (it was $1,850 per year in 1931) and the average unemployment rate in the 1930s was 18 percent, up from the average of 5 percent in the 1920s.

These changes were caused by inflation, which is caused by unlimited printing of fiat currency not based on a gold standard.

Thank you, Keynesian economics.
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Lest We Forget

Posted September 30, 2022 By John C Wright

No comment needed.

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Shoot the Devil

Posted September 29, 2022 By John C Wright

New anthology has a story of mine in it:

SHOOT THE DEVIL

https://www.amazon.com/Shoot-Devil-Humans-Defeating-Demonic-ebook/dp/B0BD97K524

Ten of superversive’s finest team up to bring you tales from a serial killer’s basement, to the weird west, to the average small town, all featuring “mostly” ordinary men and women fighting back against the forces of darkness.

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The Book of Dreams was Utterly Forbidden, Fragment III: Of Shadow and Light

Posted September 28, 2022 By John C Wright

The Book of Dreams was Utterly Forbidden is now posted.

Three of Three.

Like its contents, the history of ownership of the Unelma manuscript is contested and filled with some gaps.

The codex belonged to Emperor Rudolph II of Germany (Holy Roman Emperor, 1576-1612), who purchased it for 600 gold ducats and believed that it was the work of Roger Bacon.

It is very likely that Emperor Rudolph acquired the manuscript from the English astrologer John Dee (1527-1608). Dee apparently owned the manuscript along with a number of other Roger Bacon manuscripts. In addition, Dee stated that he had 630 ducats in October 1586, and his son noted that Dee, while in Bohemia, owned “a booke…containing nothing butt Hieroglyphicks, which booke his father bestowed much time upon: but I could not heare that hee could make it out.” 

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A Physiology Lesson from Reddit by SnapperTrx

Posted September 27, 2022 By John C Wright

Rumor has it that somewhere outside of the Empire of Lies is the Island of Sanity. There, little girls learn about the difference between girls and boys the hour they are told where babies come from. Here, where you and I live, it is not so.

The experience of young athletic ladies misled by modern lies into thinking themselves equal in strength to young men is not rare.

Not once, but twice, ladies of my acquaintance told me stories of their shock and surprise the hour they discovered the casually overpowering strength of boys.

That these ladies could be so deeply deceived on a point so obvious was my own first exposure to what is now commonly called gaslighting, that is, lies that contradict the obvious.

The first chapter of one of my novels has a scene where my heroine makes this selfsame discovery her teen years, when the physical differences first are seen. It is the first thing, not the last, a girl should learn about womanhood when she enters that estate.

This column from Snapper’s Domain (a realm of gaming, music, religion and wooden weapons) touches on a similar theme and point. Reprinted here with the author’s permission. The words below are his.

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On the Unpopularity of Pilot Wave Theory

Posted September 26, 2022 By John C Wright

Pilot Wave theory is a theory I should have been told about when I was a child, and it should have been mentioned in science fiction stories at least as often as quantum mechanics or other post-Newtonian theories of physics.

But, like the Austrian School of Economics, like Ludwig von Mises, the conversation within the field was predominated by a prejudice not inclined to judge each school of thought on its merits.

In Economics, Marx and Keynes predominate. In physics, Heisenberg and Bell.

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Voice of Reason 42: Treason of the Clerks

Posted September 25, 2022 By John C Wright

Voice of Reason posts the next installment of the Last Crusade oration: Last Crusade 42: Treason of the Clerks.

The Last Crusade takes up arms against a fallen world.
To recover the Ivory Towers of the Intellectual Class, we must recognize the enemy, must organize, must besiege hence starve them of support from allies, and replace utopianism and hate with Christianity and love.

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Interview from 2018

Posted September 24, 2022 By John C Wright

Here follows a written interview from 2018 with Gabe Mamola. Sadly, I kept no record of when, or even if, this interview was published. I present it as a courtesy to my beloved readers, in case any of you were curious about any such questions.

Gabe Mamola here asks me about my first trilogy, THE GOLDEN AGE, Hard SF, Utopian fiction, beauty, genre divisions, metaphysics, and Ursula K LeGuin.

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The Trashcan of Time

Posted September 22, 2022 By John C Wright

A thought experiment in time travel:

The lid of the time-door drops a payload atop it one second into the past. The receiver is directly beneath, such that any payload in the receiver blocks the trapdoor and it cannot open.

If the lid is not open, the box is empty, so the lids opens.

If the lid is open, the box is blocked, so the lid cannot open.

What does an observer see?

Assume the timeline splits at the moment of the experiment, so that one experimenter places the payload on the trapdoor, but two experimenters in two parallel continua see two different results. What does each one see?

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Marriage Vow Song

Posted September 22, 2022 By John C Wright

Our own beloved  Ben Zwycky, whom the Riddle-Masters call Ben of the Unpronounceable Name, asks to post his song in this space. We are happy to oblige:

The video description on YouTube reads:
This song is adapted from an upcoming collaborative project with Anthony Marchetta, and also commemorated my twenty-first wedding anniversary last week. For those of you sent this video on your own wedding anniversary, Congratulations!
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The Book of Dreams was Utterly Forbidden, Fragment II: Lord of the Fifth World

Posted September 21, 2022 By John C Wright

The Book of Dreams was Utterly Forbidden is now posted.

Two of Three.

Scholars from the Reliquary, including the Lord Mortician of the Necropolis, tentatively identify the archon confronted by the nameless narrator as Sulvus, the Progenitor of Sulva, whose globe, for reasons which need no recital here, is half sterile and half bountiful.

As reported elsewhere, the green and forested areas of that globe, year by year, grow ever smaller, as living organisms are replaced by cyborgs, then by machines, and with the loss of tree cover, first moisture then atmosphere is lost into space. Such is the result of eschewing fertility to pursue sterility, both in sexual matters and otherwise.

That the nameless narrator would be received by so august a personage, and speak to him face to face, implies he is of equal rank, that is, an archon and progenitor of his realm. This leads to theological speculations difficult to address.

Theologians agree, however, that if this is Sulvus, and the dialog faithfully represented, as Sulvus is a Nomothete, his address to the Traveller granted him that as a name, and imposed the nature and duties attendant thereupon. It is curious that the Nomothete refuses to name himself, however.

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The Devil’s Triangle by Mark Judge

Posted September 19, 2022 By John C Wright

Mark Judge wrote me personally with an ad for his new book. I have not read it, but I want to pass the ad along to my readers, in case any of you may be interested. The words below are his. 

The Devil’s Triangle: Mark Judge vs the New American Stasi

$18.00

In 2018, in the midst of a contentious Supreme Court confirmation battle, Christine Blasey Ford named Mark Judge as a witness to her alleged attempted rape over thirty years earlier at the hands of a teenaged Brett Kavanaugh.

Overnight, the unassuming writer, critic, videographer, and recovering alcoholic was unwillingly thrust into the national media spotlight. Reporters combed through Judge’s writings, pored over his high school yearbook, hounded him with emails and phone calls, and invaded the privacy of his relatives, friends, and former girlfriends. He was mauled in the press, denounced in the Senate, received threatening late-night calls, became the target of a classic honey trap, and was even called out by Matt Damon on Saturday Night Live. 

As the lunacy reached its crescendo, Judge began to fear for his sanity ⎯ and even his life.

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Coop Le Presto on Celeborn’s Glory

Posted September 19, 2022 By John C Wright

I found this comment while wandering at random amid the wilds of social media, and asked Mr. LePresto to share it with you. The words below are his:

Shout out to my man Celeborn.

According to the Rings of Power, Galadriel is THE MOST insufferable, toxic, unlikable, arrogant, conceited, self-centered, RETARDED, elf on Middle Earth and one of the most incompetent leaders you could have the misfortune of serving under.

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Voice of Reason 41: The Tree of Knowledge

Posted September 18, 2022 By John C Wright

Voice of Reason posts the next installment of the Last Crusade oration: Last Crusade  41: The Tree of Knowledge.
The Last Crusade takes up arms against a fallen world.
To recover the Academy, we need to convince those with eyes to see that the educators cannot educate, the scientists cannot discover, the scholars cannot reason, under the current regime of academic conformity.

 

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