Postapocalyptic Fiction is now posted.
Part 01 of 02.
A short story from my earlier libertarian phase. Enjoy.
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Fancies Archive
Postapocalyptic Fiction 01: A Dying of the Light
Posted February 8, 2023 By John C WrightDownfall of the High House of Nechtan 03: The Crown of the Free
Posted February 1, 2023 By John C WrightDownfall of the High House of Nechtan is now posted.
Part 03 of 03.
What can overcome the hero’s strength and magic charms? Not cunning of wit nor strength of arms. First set your house in order, next set your churls free. The Sons of Nechtan failed; prevail the Sons of Liberty.
Downfall of the High House of Nechtan 02: Rede of the Third Sister
Posted January 25, 2023 By John C WrightDownfall of the High House of Nechtan is now posted.
Part 02 of 03.
Six sons fought, some badly, some well. Nor druid lore nor arts of war prevailed. All perished where they fell. Can Ardan win, where all have failed?
Of sisters three, he asks the rede; deaf to elders, but youngest he will heed. He must do what was not done of old.
With hammer he shatters a circle of iron, then one of gold.
Downfall of the High House of Nechtan 01: The Enemy of Nechtan
Posted January 18, 2023 By John C WrightDownfall of the High House of Nechtan is now posted.
Part 01 of 03.
Hear a tale of woe and mystery, grand as any tale of old; attend now to my history, for you shall hear wonders told. Six sons are fallen. What hope is there in seven? Men cannot prevail unpleasing to heaven.
On the day of its downfall, in the season of spring, in the season of wrens sweetly singing in the bushes of thorn below the great outer wall, the gate of the house lay riven asunder.
Seedcorn 4: Starving in Abundance
Posted January 11, 2023 By John C WrightSeedcorn is now posted.
Three of Four.
THIS episode contains the only scene I really thought was well done, at least, given the youthful greenness of my quill, which was the fight scene with a paintbrush.
Again, copying another writer’s style, I also attempted to adopt her worldview: and consequently the soldiers are somewhat less masculine and soldierly in their approach than would have been had I written in my own voice.
The ending is on an ambiguous but perhaps hopeful note, as mimicking the ending of LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS or THE DISPOSSESSED.
And so we say farewell to the Ekumen of Ursula K LeGuin. I will never offer this story for publication for money, and she has gone to discover the truth about the Dry Lands beyond the farthest shore.
I hold her to be a fine writer, one of the best in the field. She came from a time before 2015 when the Sci Fi field was not poisoned with politics and political correctness, and one could love a writer’s work without agreeing with the writer’s opinions as a civilian.
Seedcorn 3: The End of the Envoy
Posted January 4, 2023 By John C WrightSeedcorn is now posted.
Three of Four.
IN this episode is my conceit of how political conflict is resolved, as seen from the moral foundation of a philosophy one might call Occidentalized Taoism.
Real Taoism is quietist, a philosophy of renunciation and submission to fate. Occidentals, informed by Christian thought even when we do not realize it, cannot accept true fatalism or true renunciation. The furthest we of the West tend to go in that direction is toward stoicism, or pragmatism, or the idea that ideals are worth pursuing even if they cannot be enacted.
The Best Christmas Present
Posted December 27, 2022 By John C WrightAs 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.
Seedcorn 2: A Second First Beginning
Posted December 21, 2022 By John C WrightSeedcorn 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.
Seedcorn 1: A Planet Called Patience
Posted November 30, 2022 By John C WrightSeedcorn is now posted.
One of Four.
I have written more than one story in the background of favorite authors, such as Jack Vance and A.E. van Vogt, and, with the permission of their estates, had them published. As ever, my aim is to mimic the voice and vocabulary, capture the mood and message of the original author as best I may, intruding nothing of myself.
Some authors are more difficult to mimic that others. This was my attempt to pay homage to Ursula K LeGuin, by setting a story in the background of her Hainish Cycle, which includes such works as Rocannon’s World (1966) The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), The Word for World Is Forest (1972), The Dispossessed (1974), as well as Four Ways to Forgiveness (1994).
Draconian Outlaw 6: Beneficial Lethality
Posted November 23, 2022 By John C WrightDraconian Outlaw is now posted.
Six of Six.
Here we say farewell to LeClerc, as he says farewell to the human race. Had your humble author written this tale later in life, he may have made provision for a wife or children to accompany him in his journey, or at least made clear whether the voyage was round trip or one-way.
Watch this space for a new tale of phantasy and wonder next week!
Mary Sue’s Journey
Posted November 20, 2022 By John C WrightPoets serve the truth.
What someone graced by the muse (or driven near to insanity by her, as the case may be) is use the awkward net of human speech to capture the slippery and elusive sea-fairy of truth. Now, as with all sea-fairies, once she is baptized, she sheds her fish tail and becomes mortal, and fertile, and can wed and bear children like other women: so truth begets truths. But to catch her is impossible, for the truths sought by poets are ineffable. Poets put into words what cannot be put into words, so a host stage-magic tricks are used, misdirection, metaphor, allusion, illusion, and so on, to try to capture the uncapturable.
The archenemy of the poet is the propagandist.
He hates and shuns the truth, because his mission is to spred the Big Lie, that is, the false worldview or stream of boring excuses necessary to justify whatever crimes against humanity or sins against heaven, large or small, his particular heresy encourages. In the modern day, the major heresy is cultural Marxism, a type of mutant gnostic death-cult called Wokeness, the crimes are sexual exploitation and mutilation of children, and the sins are sodomy, adultery, fornication, contraception and divorce.
Draconian Outlaw 5: Alien Familiarity
Posted November 16, 2022 By John C WrightDraconian Outlaw is now posted.
Five of Six.
This is the scene which I first recall when I think on this yarn, and the one that gives the tale whatever character and amusement value it may possess.
Your humble author displays a long-distance emotion related to pride of workmanship of his outer mantle layers (Exclamation!).
Conan the Barbarian and Christian the Pilgrim
Posted November 14, 2022 By John C WrightI recently penned the last entry to a project, begun in 2014, to review all the Conan stories of Robert E. Howard in their publication order. This would seem an apt time to add an afterthought on the perennial question, the selfsame by which Alcuin admonished the monks of Lindisfarne, “What has Ingeld to do with Christ?”
In the war between the pagan Germans and the civilized Romans of Christendom, Robert E. Howard, author of the far-famed Conan of Cimmeria, was clearly on the side of the German barbarians, our enemies.
So why do we read him and love him?
The question is how can a Christian admire Robert E Howard’s Conan stories, which are tales of lurid violence and buccaneering most unchristian in tone and content?
My answer is that the Catholic Church is truly catholic.
Draconian Outlaw 4: Tarnished Golden Age
Posted November 11, 2022 By John C WrightDraconian Outlaw is now posted in a tardy fashion.
Four of Six.
Your humble author’s extrapolation of the folly of mankind when driven mad by politics seems, in hindsight, to be extraordinarily conservative and muted. In reality, the human reaction to such a golden age would be much more insane. For example, the text offers no example of feminists or activists objecting to the use by the alien translation machines of the first person singular pronoun in English; and rather comically assumes that, once antimatter warheads were available for mutually assured destruction, nuclear weapons would be retired and reused as starship propellent.
Draconian Outlaw 3: Something for Nothing
Posted November 2, 2022 By John C WrightDraconian Outlaw is now posted.
Three of Six.
Your humble author’s attempt to imitate Ayn Rand in the chapter is muted a bit in favor of his attempt to mimic Keith Laumer.
