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Conan the Barbarian and Christian the Pilgrim

Posted November 14, 2022 By John C Wright

I 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.

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Draconian Outlaw 4: Tarnished Golden Age

Posted November 11, 2022 By John C Wright

Draconian 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.

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Draconian Outlaw 3: Something for Nothing

Posted November 2, 2022 By John C Wright

Draconian 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.

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Postscript: Klavan on Potter

Posted November 2, 2022 By John C Wright

Regarding a recent discussion in this space on the proper use of fictional witches and warlocks by Christian authors of fantasy stories:

By cosmic coincidence, if it is coincidence, Andrew Klavan, a well regarded author of thrillers and mysteries, but who has one rather well done fantasy book to his credit, holds forth briefly his opinion.

I note his answer briefly overlaps both mine and Mr. Graydanus, in that if the witch or wizard is both fictional and used in a fictional way, that is, as symbolic, it offends no Christian sensibility.

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On Christian Magic

Posted October 30, 2022 By John C Wright

A reader posed an earnest question to me, and one of great interest to a man of my profession of faith in my profession as a fantasy author. The question is one wiser heads than mine have pondered, so my answer was to direct him thither, towards Tom Simon, the greatest living essayist of our day, and Stephen Graydanus, a reviewer who critiques films from a Christian perspective.

Nothing said below is likely to surprise a longtime reader of this space, but the thoughts, I hope, are worth repeating.

Modern fantasy stories often refer to “white magic” or “good witches” as opposed to “black magic” or “evil witches”, and often portray the magic done by wizards  or wise men as benevolent and lawful.

Given that an unbroken tradition of Biblical teaching since the Bronze Age unambiguously condemns the practice of magic as unlawful and damnable, the question my reader asked was this:

Is there any justification for a Christian to write, read, or watch stories portraying or referring to magic in a positive sense? This includes not only secular fiction such as “The Wizard of Oz” and “Disney” but also the works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.”

Yes, there is not only a justification, but a compelling one. However, the danger is also real, and we must be careful when answering the question, for it a serious one.

Let us attempt to be judicious in answering.

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Draconian Outlaw 2: Distant Approach

Posted October 26, 2022 By John C Wright

Draconian Outlaw is now posted.

Two of Six.

This story was not written so very long ago, but I already notice the anachronism of age, akin to seeing a mention, for a example, of a steel-nib pen rather than a ballpoint in a story set forty years in the future. In a montage passage of newspaper editorials, the author makes no mention of blogs, podcasts, wall-screen, or brain-radio.

As for the quotes from editorialists, they have a certain tone and point: I am only surprised the author did not specify the newspaper was called The Banner, and give the editor’s name as Gail Wynand.

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Draconian Outlaw 1: Unwelcome Embassy

Posted October 19, 2022 By John C Wright

Draconian Outlaw is now posted.

One of Six.

This is a previously unpublished story, once rejected by the great Gardner Dozois (may he rest in peace) of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine fame. In those long-ago days, I was pleased to receive rejections where the editor wrote a personal letter to explain the reasoning of his harsh but just condemnation.

My revenge was to sell my first two professional sales thereafter to Asimov’s, to appearing in four anthologies edited by Mr. Dozois, including his “Year’s Best” anthology for 2004 and 2010.

I have rewritten certain passages in hope of improving the story to pass muster with Mr. Dozois, or what I imagine his standards would demand. My readers are the final judge, as ever.

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Indistinguishable from Magic, 2 Rash and Final Action

Posted October 12, 2022 By John C Wright

Indistinguishable from Magic is now posted.

Two of Two.

This story is odd because it is a case where the humble author disagrees with his own muse, at least in regards to the title and theme. The story attempts to capture some of the eerie wonder of a magician’s lab in a museum of extraterrestrial artifacts.

The reader must judge whether the tale succeeds or fails, and such a judgment is final.

But I myself do not think technology is indistinguishable from magic, no matter how advanced it is. The two are based on different principles, have a different nature, and a different point when used in storytelling.

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Indistinguishable from Magic, 1 Midnight at the Museum

Posted October 5, 2022 By John C Wright

Indistinguishable from Magic is now posted.

One of Two.

This is a previously unpublished short story of mine, offered here as a lagniappe to my beloved patrons. The title and theme is based on an famous, albeit comically incorrect, quip from Arthur C. Clarke that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Certainly the feeling of awe and wonder fairytale magic, can often be provoked whenever technology discovers arts thought impossible: as when the Wright Brothers taught man to fly, or Marconi to send messages winging unseen through the air, or when advanced medicine teaches physicians to cure cases previously incurable, or when Americans put a footprint on the Moon.

One way to distinguish technology, no matter how advanced, from magic, is to study it as if it were technology, and not merely to bow the knee and call it magic. Magic is from realms unknowable; whereas technology, even if unknown, is knowable.

Aha! But, even so, can your humble storyteller tell a story where the unquiet artifacts of ancient and unknown superhuman civilizations provoke the awe and wonder of fairyland, and mortals are wise to tread cautiously within their perilous shadow? That remains to be seen.

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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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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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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 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 Book of Dreams was Utterly Forbidden, Fragment I: Visions of Fire and Ice

Posted September 15, 2022 By John C Wright

The Book of Dreams was Utterly Forbidden is now posted.

One of Three.

The source of this tale cannot be identified. The Lords of the Eschaton deny it is one of theirs, despite evidence of time anomaly. Voices of Deep Heaven return ambiguous answers, despite the hints in a second fragment that the immortal being addressed is Sulvus himself. The Primordials deny any chains of causation lead from the codex back to their nameless Unity.

Intercessors speaking for the Great Race dismiss the text as fraud, despite the unusual circumstances of its discovery. The Watchers decree the manuscript to be anathema, and charge that only those devout and grave, firm in conviction and surpassing the sixth order of mental discipline, be granted access.

Envoys sent to the Dark Tower with questions did not return.

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The Intangible Design, Sixth: The Unconquerable

Posted September 7, 2022 By John C Wright

The Intangible Design is now posted.

Six of Six.

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.

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