Don’t stare into the sun.
Also, during the eclipse itself is the only moment when the Firelord will be weakened in his firebending powers to allow the young but plucky Avatar to overcome his tyranny! We must all join in the attack!
I wrote a curmudgeonly post on books I could not finish, and it is only fair I write a non-curmudgeonly post on what books are the opposite, that is, books I could not not-finish.
This is a harder question for me to answer. My reading tastes were developed in my youth, when I had an abundance of time to read: so my practice was to read certain books five or ten times over and over again.
But asking what books I could not put down is different from asking which ones I read and re-read, and which are enshrined in my memory in a fane of gold.
So let me answer the question backwards. Instead of saying which books I loved (and anyone familiar with the field can tell from whom I am stealing my ideas and themes) let me list only the books I loved despite their obvious flaws.
I am not going to mention Jack Vance or Gene Wolfe or C.S. Lewis or Ursula K LeGuin or any other author that I can read with undiminished pleasure as an adult whom I first loved as a twelve-year-old.
I am not going to talk about books I could not put down because they hypnotized me, as did VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS, or books I could not put down because I was sure I would never read anything remotely like it again, like THE WORM OROBOROS.
I am only talking about page-turners. These are books which, if I had the taste and good sense of a man of letters, I would be ashamed to like, but, like Belle being attracted to the Beast, I am still swept off my feet despite that my Beau eats venison raw.
Read the remainder of this entry »
Readers who do not want to read a curmudgeon (me) being curmudgeonly, please go away. This is not a review or a philosophical analysis. No attempt at balance or fairness has been made: the following consists of merely a description of negative reactions.
These are some books I just could not finish.
I am only going to list books that I thought I would like and that I really, really wanted to like, and that I could not finish.
Please note that these reasons are all questions of personal taste and preference, not something the author could have guessed beforehand and written to avoid. Books of this quality do not have flaws; they merely do not reach all audiences. This is a case where the book reached toward me, but my palms were sweaty, and the grip failed to hold.
Read the remainder of this entry »
Join me for a stroll down memory lane: not a long stroll, merely to AD 2019, when yours truly was interviewed by NerdHQ regarding the Sad Puppies kerfuffle touching the Hugo Awards of a year or so prior. I reprint to amuse any readers who might not have seen it at the time, and as an sober reminder of how little things have changed since.
Q: What do you think is the primary artistic/cultural difference between the pro-Sad Puppies and anti-Sad Puppies camps? What is the primary political/ideological difference between the two groups?
JCW: The two camps are divided by a very clear and deep difference, which is neither artistic nor cultural. It has some political aspects, but the difference is more fundamental than any disagreement over laws and policies. There are ideological excuses given for motives, but the true motives run deeper, to the very core of the soul, and ideology is only a surface feature.
The divide is a religious war.
The next episode is available on Substack.
AGAINST THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS
Season 02 Episode 12: The Prime Directive Dilemma
A discussion of when it is right or wrong for a civilized culture to interact and interfere with a primitive one.
From THE PHOENIX EXULTANT, vol. II of my debut trilogy.
In the far future, where men are as gods, living lives of perfect peace and prosperity, Phaethon of Rhadamanthus discovers all memory of his lifework has been hidden from him. For he is the engineer of the sole starship his civilization has ever produced: the mighty, majestic, and immense Phoenix Exultant. She is a ship to conquer the stars.
But such ambition is outlawed in utopia. Phaethon is a pariah, exiled mentally and physically, denuded of possessions, and cast down among outcasts. His life is sought by sinister agents of the Silent Oecumene: an apocalyptic menace none but he dares see. For in a world where mind or memory can be edited at will, what is truth?
Episode 03: Phaethon Zero of Nothing
Jagi, here.
I have a friend in Ghana, a young man I met because he is a fan of my writing. We e-chat often and encourage each other in our pursuit of Christianity and our walk with God.
Last fall, during a particularly torrential storm, the church he is a member of, Kpalun Church of Christ, collapsed.
Since then, their congregation has suffered constant mockery from the surrounding Muslims, who are the dominant religion in the area, for the fact that God has not yet provided them with a new church. On top of the hardship of a national recession, which means they all often go without meals, this is a great deal for the congregation to bear. He reports, heartbroken, that members are losing their faith and leaving.
This is so painful for my friend, but he and his pastor refuses to be daunted.
I convinced them to start a GiveSendGo, so that people can help in a clear and simple way.
If any of you can give even a small amount, I will be very grateful!
If not, if you could share this link on your own social media, that would be a great help, too!
Much gratitude!!
Jagi
GiveSendGo for Kpalun Church of Christ, Ghana
Here is a topic which is always timely.
We are all weary hearing the claim that opposition to the widespread normalization of sodomy, pederasty, transvestitism, castration, is bigotry akin to fascism; and we are likewise weary of the claim that tolerance toward perversion will usher in the paradise of endless worldwide orgies, like some mad vision of hordes of houri from an Arabic afterlife.
Let me set out the basic conservative argument, so that we need hear no more extraneous comments about utopia or Nazi Germany or how liberating to women divorce and sexual perversion are, or how happy it makes virgins to fornicate.
All of that, true or false, is irrelevant to the basic argument.
Read the remainder of this entry »
This is the format that, until recently, all editors wanted stories to arrive in. Nowadays, what different editors want may differ more, but this is till the default, should the specific place you are submitting to not give instructions.
- Name and address in the upper left. On the right, the number of words.
- About five spaces down, the title.
- One space, then author’s name.
- About another five spaces…putting it at the center of the page, the first page starts. (Pages after that are normal, no extra spaces needed)
- Every paragraph should be indented five spaces.
- Double space—all lines. No extra spaces between paragraphs.
- One inch margins.
What you do not want to do, ever, is send a manuscript to an editor or typesetter in Blog Format—i.e. no indent, extra space between paragraphs.
One manuscript was delivered to Superversive Press this way. The typesetter did not realize this and typeset it as is—with an extra line between every paragraph.
When the error was detected and the book reformatted (after the first dozen or so had sold), it shortened the final paper volume by well over 150 pages—which allowed the publisher to cut the price.
So this is not a small matter.
Maundy Thursday is a day of humility, to remember Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. Maundy is the name of the Christian rite of footwashing. The word “Maundy” is originated from the Latin word called “mandatum,” which means “commandment” as in Jesus’ commandment to his disciples to love one another.
It is also the last day of one’s Lenten vows.
I must say it is only my second favorite day of the season. First is Spy Wednesday, which is a reference to the treason of Judas.
The next episode of the AGAINST THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS is posted.
From THE PHOENIX EXULTANT, my debut trilogy.
In the far future, where men are as gods, living lives of perfect peace and prosperity, Phaethon of Rhadamanthus discovers all memory of his lifework has been hidden from him. For he is the engineer of the sole starship his civilization has ever produced: the mighty, majestic, and immense Phoenix Exultant. She is a ship to conquer the stars.
But such ambition is outlawed in utopia. Phaethon is a pariah, exiled mentally and physically, denuded of possessions, and cast down among outcasts. His life is sought by sinister agents of the Silent Oecumene: an apocalyptic menace none but he dares see. For in a world where mind or memory can be edited at will, what is truth?
Episode 02: Scaramouche, Columbine, Pierrot
My compliments to Fourth Age, whose insightful commentary gave the inspiration and the thread of argument I copy, in my own way, below. To hear a more careful disquisition of this argument see here: Why They/Them Can’t Write Superheroes
*** *** ***
Conquered peoples see their calendars altered, their feast days changed, their banners burned, their monuments toppled. This also holds true for those conquered by subversion rather than conquest, and for humble monuments as well as great.
Humble monuments of the popular culture have fallen to dust: Blue Clues celebrates drag queens to toddlers. Dungeons and Dragons was made wheelchair-accessible. And Superman was overtaken by the Anti-Life Equation.
The woke are bold, bald-faced, and bad. Their boldness and baldness we discuss in other columns.
The question here is why their deceptions are so bad, this is, what make their story tales so poor, their propaganda so tin-eared, their advertisements so unconvincing.
A comment by Scott Adams on Twitter, which I pass along without comment:
Next week, Trump could make over $4 billion when his media company goes public, removing all doubt about his billionaire status.
And you can stop asking if he would have been better off putting his inheritance in a savings account in the 70s.
I expect Trump to leave a 15% tip for Leticia James and the Democrats because they made his windfall possible by hunting him and censoring him for years. You can call it a bond, not a tip, if you prefer.
When the Supreme Court tosses out the unconstitutional fine, Trump gets most of his “tip” back.
The Democrats planned to cripple Trump financially so he couldn’t spend as much on the campaign. Trump turned Leticia James into his best fundraiser.
Lots of interesting developments lately on the topic of the 2020 election. The Simulation wants at least one of those fresh allegations to be a Kraken.
Trump’s legal maneuvering is likely to keep him eligible for the election.
You can fantasize about a heroic Democrat such as Newsom swooping in and replacing Biden, but it’s looking less likely every day. If it had always been the plan, it would have happened by now. Looks like Biden has to stay on the job to keep the Biden Crime Family out of jail.
The predictable Democrat Summer Hoax will add some excitement, but it will be forgotten and debunked by November.
Trump’s upcoming victory is looking like it will be, as Trump says, “too big to rig.” And by that I mean Democrats will try to rig it anyway and get caught. That will be fun.
The gears of the machine have become visible. We can all see the FBI is rotten and the DOJ is weaponized. We know the border is open intentionally. We know the cartels are working with our government. We know our elections are DESIGNED to not be auditable and there’s only one reason for it. We can see Biden is not in charge. We know the Ukraine war was always about its energy resources and who gets to own them. We know our rising debt is ruinous. We know our experts are liars. We know our pharma and food industries are poisoning us. We know our government is racist. We know the corporate media is essentially owned by Democrats who are controlled by intelligence entities and they are actively brainwashing the population. We know the 1st and 2nd amendments, and X, are under sustained government attack because they are the public’s last defense against the government.
But we are not quitters.
And the odds do not apply to us.
