Archive for December, 2022

To Serve Man in the War of the Worlds

Posted December 31, 2022 By John C Wright

On Twitter, Tim Pool asks:


My reply:

Leftists would sigh in happy relief and tell it is good to give our children meekly into their maws. Christians would sigh in weary recognition, unsurprised to be ruled by the principalities, powers, and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

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Each week, Jason Rennie and John C Wright explore the peaks of insanity which  dominate the modern age, and how to overcome them. We discuss philosophy, science fiction, the true, the good, the beautiful, and whatever else strikes our fancy.

Episode 04: The Revolt Against Reason

Available on Apple Podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/against-the-mountains-of-madness/id1659266918

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The Best Christmas Present

Posted December 27, 2022 By John C Wright

As a present for my readers, a story of the season from the pen of my lovely and talented wife, taking place in same world as her CHILDREN OF PROSPERO novels.

The Best Christmas Present

By L. Jagi Lamplighter

It was Christmas Eve. Logistilla Prospero, younger daughter of the Dread Magician Prospero, was about to give her sons the best Christmas present she could possibly give them.

She would leave their lives forever.

Her two boys, about ten and twelve, sat in the large library of her Southern mansion. Teleron, the older one, was reading a book. His large round glasses gave his thin face an owlish appearance. The younger one, Typhon, was athletic with boyish good looks, however, his slumped shoulders betrayed his boredom as he waited for Christmas to come. He bounced a ball against the wooden floor. Neither showed any concern, or even awareness, of Logistilla’s existence.

They would not notice if she left. They would not notice if she never came back.

She would be doing them a favor.

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Christmastide

Posted December 24, 2022 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

In keeping with the tradition here at John C. Wright’s Journal, I reprint, as I do each year, this list the feasts of the Twelve Days of Christmas, 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.

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Psychedelics, or Better Living Thru Brain Chemistry

Posted December 23, 2022 By John C Wright

A reader asks my opinion of the following claims:

  • Psychedelic substances can have a profoundly positive effect on a persons life
  • Psychedelic substances can provide a shortcut to mystical and religious experience, and can even enhance a Christian’s spiritual life

He hastens to add that these are not his opinions, but that he was curious as to my reply.

My thoughts are these:

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Seedcorn 2: A Second First Beginning

Posted December 21, 2022 By John C Wright

Seedcorn is now posted.

Two of Four.

The art of mimicking another author’s voice, always a doubtful proposition if not done out of pure admiration, consists of three elements: first, copying the lyricism, vocabulary, and word-choice (a particularly entertaining challenge when mimicking Jack Vance, for example); second, copying the plot-rhythm, stylistic patterns, or structures favored by the author (a thrilling challenge when mimicking A.E. van Vogt whose rapidfire sense of pacing and plot-twisting is legendary); but finally and most of all copying the theme and worldview of the author, making the kind of point with the story he himself would have made, not expressing your own opinion.

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Review: Disney’s Sword in the Stone

Posted December 20, 2022 By John C Wright

I have been re-watching the classic Disney animated features in order, from SNOW WHITE onward. The well-deserved immortal fame of these films hardly requires any additional comment, but, as a professionally opinionated curmudgeon, at some point, I may write up reviews of each.

For now, I wish only to pen a critique of SWORD IN THE STONE, which was bland and boilerplate, badly-drawn, badly-adapted, and badly-told.

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Each week, Jason Rennie and John C Wright explore the peaks of insanity which  dominate the modern age, and how to overcome them. We discuss philosophy, science fiction, the true, the good, the beautiful, and whatever else strikes our fancy.

Episode 03: Star Wars and Star Trek, What Went Wrong?

Also on Rumble: https://rumble.com/v216om4-star-trek-and-star-wars-what-went-wrong.html.

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Reviewer Praise for IRON CHAMBER OF MEMORY

Posted December 17, 2022 By John C Wright

Caroline Furlong of the Song of Joy website has a favorable report for IRON CHAMBER OF MEMORY, my sole attempt at writing a metaphysical thriller after the fashion of Charles Williams of Inklings fame.

If you recognize her name, dear reader, this is not coincidence. She was published in the same Planetary Anthology series as published a short story of mine.

She writes, in part:

Iron Chamber of Memory is a great story. The horror increases the further along one goes, as does the growing sense that something is wrong. Although the how and why is not clear until much later, it does not take one long to realize that nothing in and about the Isle of Sark is what it seems. What is visible to the heroes and to the readers hides an invisible truth far more terrifying than that which is seen, and to save all the worlds will mean the heroes must risk everything.

But what are worlds worth when compared to the value of a single soul?

Having read the book, I can see how it was inspired by a dream, as it has a certain visionary quality to it. This does not make it too difficult to follow, though the deeper one goes, the harder it is to keep complete track of what is second sight, what is literal, and what is visible only to the inner eye. While I would not necessarily recommend the book for youngsters, this is a novel certain to appeal to horror enthusiasts and those with old-fashioned tastes. Arthurian aficionados and fans of old fairy tales will find it engaging as well, as it takes the Arthurian Legends far more seriously than a multitude of modern writers in that it does not sacrifice what made the Legends “magical” in the first place.

Read the whole review here:
https://carolinefurlong.wordpress.com/2022/12/16/review-iron-chamber-of-memory-by-john-c-wright/

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Revisiting Saint Anselm

Posted December 16, 2022 By John C Wright

The Ontological proof of the existence of God as propounded by Saint Anselm is one that should be familiar to all serious students of philosophy, of which I endeavor to be one.

It is famous, if not notorious, for being devout and deep while being equivocal and absurd.

Schoolmen and savants, including the famed Emmanuel Kant, accuse it of containing a classical blunder of logic, which is sometimes called the Existential Fallacy, namely, that one cannot define something into existence.

What is often forgotten is that equally famed philosophers, from Descartes to Hegel, including great schoolmen like Alexander of Hales and Dun Scotus, supported it.

I confess I had forgotten, or, rather, never knew of further arguments in St. Anselm’s favor.

Hence, I was taken quite by surprise, when I was reading St. Anselm’s Proslogion to my youngest boy as a bedtime story, to find the argument far more gripping and convincing than when I read it in my callow youth, as a college sophomore.

I am now no longer convinced that we critics of St. Anselm are correct.

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Trump’s Announcement

Posted December 15, 2022 By John C Wright

Fools and liars online, including many nevertrumpers and RINOs, are spreading the silly claim that the “Big Announcement” Trump’s presidential campaign promised to announce today was to promote a line of trading cards.

Unforgivable. The announcement was this:
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Just Out of Curiousity

Posted December 13, 2022 By John C Wright

Please click through the link and look at the sky immediately above the White House. This is a live cam feed. Do you see anything there?

It is not that my eyes are tricking me and I suspect I have gone mad. I am asking for a friend.

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/united-states/district-of-columbia/washington/white-house-washington-dc.html

I would describe what I am my friend is looking at, to see if you see it also, but I do not wish to voice any suggestions that might influence the testimony.

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Who is Surprised at This?

Posted December 13, 2022 By John C Wright

The release of the Twitter Files from Twitter’s new management actually lured me into going on Twitter, which is a mistake for any opinionated person without abundant time to burn.

Nothing released was even mildly surprising to me: I had assumed, perhaps too readily, that both Left and Right knew the Left was lying when they claimed there was no shadow-banning taking place, in just the same way both sides know the 2020 election was fraudulent.

Well, no. Moderate Republicans, that is, GOP who are not in the conservative wing of the party, even if they are journalists or lawyers or people who should be in the know, apparently are surprised and shocked by the revelation.

In other words, uni-party drones, “Washington Generals”, quislings and  candidate selected by donors precisely because they have no backbone, no principle, and no independent thought, they are surprised.

I heard Hugh Hewett, a radio pundit with whom I mostly agree on most issues, express shock at the Twitter Files.

To his credit, he admitted on the air that he had been telling people for years that Twitter did not shadowban conservative voices. No one on Twitter who followed any conservative pundit, and saw him disappear from his feed, could be so naive.

Hugh Hewett also says detaining January Sixth protestors without charge and without bail in solitary confinement is lawful practice: there are no political prisoners in America.

Does he believe his own humbug? How can he? How can any man?

I fear I give those willfully deceived by transparent fibs too much credit. Some are not willful, nor stupid, nor could they be so innocent, not a fellow member of the profession of journalism. Perhaps the Empire of Lies is simply too deeply entrenched.

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Against the Mountains of Madness Ep 02: What is Truth?

Posted December 11, 2022 By John C Wright

Each week, Jason Rennie and John C Wright explore the peaks of insanity which  dominate the modern age, and how to overcome them. We discuss philosophy, science fiction, the true, the good, the beautiful, and whatever else strikes our fancy.

Episode 02: What is Truth?

Available on Rumble: https://rumble.com/v2035pa-against-the-mountains-of-madness-what-is-truth.html

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Collyridians and Antichrist

Posted December 10, 2022 By John C Wright

Of the things which make being a convert to Catholicism absorbing to the attention, two stand out. The first is that, unlike learning the lore of a dead tradition, a living tradition teaches something new nearly every day, making it as forever fresh and fascinating as springtide or first love. The second is that, unlike adherence to settled opinion, controversy never dies, for the attacks of the unfaithful never cease, nor do the trumpets calling souls to war fall silent. The battle is always beginning.

The battle is against the muddle-headed, the untrue, and the malign. As any faithful convert from atheism to Christianity most likely would testify (and, I assume, any faithless anti-convert from Christianity to atheism would say, were an honest member of that tribe ever to be found), the main difference between them is that Christians understand atheist dogmas perfectly well, and can articulate them as well as St. Thomas Aquinas, whereas atheists argue only against caricatures and strawmen.

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