John C. Wright's Journal

The Intangible Design is now posted.

Six of Six.

• Sixth: The Unconquerable

In which these events culminate.

I suspect the main character was meant to be a strong female character, following the fashion of someone like Red Sonja or Jirel of Joiry (albeit without their distinctive personality or charm), but I suspect Elenore Hellmaiden would not pass muster for a modern feminist, despite being written in my virginal days before marriage, when women were as unknown and strange as to the writer as dragoncats.

Interesting to reread an unsold short story from so early in my career. Whether or not I have a distinctive voice or style, as my heroes and exemplars, GK Chesterton and Jack Vance so clearly do, is a question I am not in any vantagepoint to answer; but I suspect this tale is too early to see any distinctive mannerisms or habits peculiar to me. It seems workmanlike and generic enough.

The Intangible Design is now posted.

Fifth of Six.

• Fifth: The Unholy

The Archbishop reveals his true loyalty, and puts his blindfold aside. His eyes beneath are not human eyes.

A touch or two of rewriting was called for here, since the scene written in my journeyman days lacked emotional impact. The one thing I remembered from this short story, which I thought my best effect, was the archbishop’s description of the true nature of the dome of heaven, and what was beyond.

The Intangible Design is now posted.

Fourth of Six.

• Fourth: The Inapprehensible

The Darkborn besiege the church, and various desecrations and treasons are confessed.

Read the remainder of this entry »

With apologies for being tardy (I am away on an island for my yearly vacation), here is the next installment.

The Intangible Design is now posted.

Third of Six.

• Third: The World Unknowable

The Dark Born strike. We see they have the classical powers one might expect of a Clark Ashton Smithesque world. The powers of the Stone of Ysbrandon are likewise displayed to good effect, but it is noticeably science fictional rather than fairy tale sort of thing: more like what Kitty Pryde or the Vision could do, than anything a Fairy Godmother would. This admixture of necromancy and density control is typical of Weird Tales style pulps, where genre boundaries were not allowed to hinder good, clean, fun.

I note to my own surprise — for I had honestly forgotten her –that I here used a character trait seen again in SWAN KNIGHT’S SUN, namely, a protagonist unable to tell a lie.

Poietopsychoanalysts (who specialize in the psychology of the muse-inspired) may speculate as to why this is a recurring theme in my writing. Note that my careers include lawyer, newspaperman, and novelist, all fields where protagonists unable to tell a lie are few and far between.

The Intangible Design is now posted.

Second of Six.

• Second: The World Intangible

We are introduced to our heroine, and to intimations of the background world.

The influence of Jack Vance and Clarke Ashton Smith may perhaps be detected in the writing style. Certainly the disdain for organized religion, endemic to both, can be scented, if only as a whiff.

The genre is established neither as fantasy, for the underworld needs ventilation, nor as science fiction, as there is an abundance of eldritch magic, but as whatever genre Weird Tales and Dungeons and Dragons happens to be.

The Intangible Design is now posted.

First of Six.

• First: The World Invisible

This is a previously unpublished story from my amateur days, during a productive period when, as a matter of discipline, I wrote a short story a week.

It was written in the 1980s, back when the idea of a swordswoman adventuress with rapier in hand seemed less preposterous. She also may have other armaments and aids as well.

The influence of stories from Dungeon and Dragons ‘Appendix N’ should be obvious.