John C. Wright's Blog, page 7
October 27, 2015
If I have my own Meme, Am I famous?
Someone brought this to my wife’s attention on Facebook.
It is embarrassing that I was reading this quote, and was struck by how august and wise it was, until I looked down and saw who wrote it.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
October 26, 2015
Quote of the Day
This is the quote of the day, if not of the decade. It is something I have thought for years, if not decades, but I never found the words to bring my misgivings into focus.
“Pragmatism in politics is like cocaine. A little bit goes a long ways. You not only win, but you feel like an all-conquering tiger. But gradually, you start needing more and more to achieve the same affect, until finally, you overdose and your heart stops.”
This gem is from the Dark Lord of the Evil Legion of Evil Authors, our own Vox Day.
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-impracticality-of-pragmatism.html
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
October 23, 2015
Impersonal Appearance
I have been asked to answer questions about SOMEWHITHER on the Catholic Geek podcast this Sunday, October 25th, which is the feast day of Sts. Crispin & Crispinian, patrons of shoemaker and cobblers.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
My Elves are Different; Or, Erlkoenig and Appendix N
My Elves are Different.
When calculating how to portray the elves in my current writing project (tentatively titled Moths and Cobwebs) I was thinking about Erlkoenig and Appendix N, and (of course!) about GK Chesterton. There is a connected train of thought here, but it meanders through some ox-bows and digressions, so I hope the patient reader enjoys the scenic route of thought.
First, Erlkoenig. I had noticed for some time that there was many a younger reader whose mental picture of the elves (those inhabitants of the Perilous Realm, the Otherworld, whose ways are not our ways) was formed entirely by JRR Tolkien and his imitators. They are basically prelapsarian men: like us in stature and passions, but nobler, older, and not suffering our post-Edenic divorce from the natural world. This is not alien to the older themes and material on which Tolkien drew, but there is alongside this an older and darker version.
This darker version is one which Tolkien did not draw upon, except, perhaps, in the scene in THE HOBBIT when the starving dwarves come upon the elves of Mirkwood feasting. When the step forward, the campfirelight vanishes, the elves disappear, and the dwarves are throw into an enchanted sleep. That is the kind of trick Puck might play on mortal fools. But there is mischief worse than these, kidnapping and killings, cradle-robbing the older tales retell. Again, Boromir and Eomer mention tales of the Lady of the Golden Wood which captures that sense of elves as something fair and perilous, but their misgivings, in Tolkein’s world, are merely wrong.
Here, for example, is a song about Erlkoenig, the elfinking, who is attracted to a boy child much as Oberon in Shakespeare wishes Corum the Indian child to be his. There are several recordings of this on YouTube, but in this one the master singer captures an expression that I hope not to see in my nightmares.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
October 21, 2015
My Invasions Plans
This column originally appeared at Meme Therapy, a site long since defunct. I re-post it here in case some reader had not seen it and wanted to. The question in bold was asked of several authors: my answer (with illustrations!) is below:
We apologize for the inconvenience, but the planet Earth is scheduled for alien invasion. Your species’ custom is important to us. Please leave a message at the tone indicating your preferred choice of alien invader and why.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
October 20, 2015
The Sole Purpose of Turning the Hearts of Young People Against Books
This is a reply to a fan letter written by Forrest J Ackerman to Edgar Rice Burroughs. I reprint to emphasize the point that reading the corrosive, dreary, and hellish books assigned to my highschoolers to help them in their homework has driven me to the same conclusion.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
October 19, 2015
Anniversary of Superversive
We celebrate the first year of the superversive literary movement with an essay by that brilliant essayist, Tom Simon. It was he who first coined the term and in effect started the movement, by inspiring me and Mrs Wright with his essays on everything from the art of reading Tolkien to the art of writing.
Here is a collection of his essays:
A collection of Mr. Simons excellent essays on Tolkien and our craft.
And here is his essay
http://www.ljagilamplighter.com/2015/10/15/superversive-literary-movement-anniversary-essay/
I quote the beginning to give you a taste:
Life, Carbon, and the Tao
by
Tom Simon
A year has gone by since the Superversive blog officially kicked off, and during that time, as they say, life has happened. As writers, we always need to go back to that. Part of the deep malaise that afflicts our art form (and many others) is that it is too easy to be influenced. It becomes fatally easy to reuse tropes and characters and ideas from other stories, or other art forms; it takes an effort of will to go back to reality and look at it with fresh eyes. There is, I suspect, no such thing as strict realism in fiction – reality is too complex, too big, too un-story-like – but every story needs to be rooted in reality at some point. Not reality as we would like it to be – that is part of the flight of fancy on which the story takes us – but just as it is.
Today, as I look at reality, I find myself thinking of two questions, which, if answered badly, can lead our field up a blind alley. The first one arose in Golden Age science fiction, and led a lot of writers astray on a technical point. The second one arises in every form of fiction, and leads whole cultures astray. But there is a curious resemblance between them, and the answer to the first question, I find, sheds light on the second.
The first question:
What’s so special about carbon?
Read the rest here: http://www.ljagilamplighter.com/2015/10/15/superversive-literary-movement-anniversary-essay/
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Reply from the Chinese Sage
Guest Post from Nostreculsus. Alas, I lost the answers for question 6 through 10. The words below are his:
My apologies if this post is a bit long, but after reading the comments of the patrician Roman and of the Christian, I ventured to ask a Chinese sage about Mr Lombardi’s code of life.
How does he compare with the ancient man?
vs
PAJAMA BOY
CHINESE SAGE
1. When the modern man buys shoes for his spouse, he doesn’t have to ask her sister for the size. And he knows which brands run big or small.
1. When you are laboring for others let it be with the same zeal as if it were for yourself.
2. The modern man never lets other people know when his confidence has sunk. He acts as if everything is going swimmingly until it is.
2. The superior man makes the difficulty to be overcome his first interest; success only comes later.
3. The modern man is considerate. At the movie theater, he won’t munch down a mouthful of popcorn during a quiet moment. He waits for some ruckus.
3. Make no movement which is contrary to propriety.
4. The modern man doesn’t cut the fatty or charred bits off his fillet. Every bite of steak is a privilege, and it all goes down the hatch.
4. Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
5. The modern man won’t blow 10 minutes of his life looking for the best parking spot. He finds a reasonable one and puts his car between the lines.
5. Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
6. Before the modern man heads off to bed, he makes sure his spouse’s phone and his kids’ electronic devices are charging for the night.
7. The modern man buys only regular colas, like Coke or Dr Pepper. If you walk into his house looking for a Mountain Dew, he’ll show you the door.
8. The modern man uses the proper names for things. For example, he’ll say “helicopter,” not “chopper” like some gauche simpleton.
9. Having a daughter makes the modern man more of a complete person. He learns new stuff every day.
10. The modern man makes sure the dishes on the rack have dried completely before putting them away.
11. The modern man has never “pinned” a tweet, and he never will.
11. Look not at what is contrary to propriety.
12. The modern man checks the status of his Irish Spring bar before jumping in for a wash. Too small, it gets swapped out.
12. A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.
13. The modern man listens to Wu-Tang at least once a week.
13. Listen not to what is contrary to propriety.
14. The modern man still jots down his grocery list on a piece of scratch paper. The market is no place for his face to be buried in the phone.
14. The cautious seldom err.
15. The modern man has hardwood flooring. His children can detect his mood from the stamp of his Kenneth Cole oxfords.
15. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.
16. The modern man lies on the side of the bed closer to the door. If an intruder gets in, he will try to fight him off, so that his wife has a chance to get away.
16. From caring comes courage.
17. Does the modern man have a melon baller? What do you think? How else would the cantaloupe, watermelon and honeydew he serves be so uniformly shaped?
17. The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.
18. The modern man has thought seriously about buying a shoehorn.
18. He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.
19. The modern man buys fresh flowers more to surprise his wife than to say he is sorry.
19. Great acts are made up of small deeds.
20. On occasion, the modern man is the little spoon. Some nights, when he is feeling down or vulnerable, he needs an emotional and physical shield.
20. He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.
21. The modern man doesn’t scold his daughter when she sneezes while eating an apple doughnut, even if the pieces fly everywhere.
21. When anger rises, think of the consequences
22. The modern man still ambles half-naked down his driveway each morning to scoop up a crisp newspaper.
22. Make no movement which is contrary to propriety.
23. The modern man has all of Michael Mann’s films on Blu-ray (or whatever the highest quality thing is at the time).
23. The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.
24. The modern man doesn’t get hung up on his phone’s battery percentage. If it needs to run flat, so be it.
24. Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy.
25. The modern man has no use for a gun. He doesn’t own one, and he never will.
25. He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious.
26. The modern man cries. He cries often.
26.Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.
27. People aren’t sure if the modern man is a good dancer or not. That is, until the D.J. plays his jam and he goes out there and puts on a clinic.
27. Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
October 17, 2015
The Essential Chesterton Essay
If one had to recommend to a muggle, that is, to someone who lives outside the secret wizardly universe of GK Chesterton, which is the first and best and most essential essay of Chesterton’s to read, I would select the following, which appeared in the book HERETICS.
The reader will perhaps be disoriented to realize that this work was written over one hundred years ago, but answers certain nonsense agitating and perhaps condemning the current generation this year, this month, this hour. The mark of a great writer is that his wit and wisdom are timeless and ever green.
On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family
by G.K. Chesterton
The family may fairly be considered, one would think, an ultimate human institution. Every one would admit that it has been the main cell and central unit of almost all societies hitherto, except, indeed, such societies as that of Lacedaemon, which went in for “efficiency,” and has, therefore, perished, and left not a trace behind.
Christianity, even enormous as was its revolution, did not alter this ancient and savage sanctity; it merely reversed it. It did not deny the trinity of father, mother, and child. It merely read it backwards, making it run child, mother, father. This it called, not the family, but the Holy Family, for many things are made holy by being turned upside down. But some sages of our own decadence have made a serious attack on the family. They have impugned it, as I think wrongly; and its defenders have defended it, and defended it wrongly. The common defence of the family is that, amid the stress and fickleness of life, it is peaceful, pleasant, and at one. But there is another defence of the family which is possible, and to me evident; this defence is that the family is not peaceful and not pleasant and not at one.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
October 15, 2015
Wright Alien Megastructure Hypothesis
Another discovery, equally astonishing as the discovery of the God-destroying magnetic brain wave mentioned in an earlier column in his space:
KIC 8462852 is a distant star 1,481 light-years away from Earth with
… a very unusual flickering habit. Something was making the star dim drastically every few years, and she [Yale University astronomer Tabetha Boyajian] wasn’t sure what.
Boyajian wrote up a paper on possible explanations for the star’s bizarre behavior, which was published recently in the Monthly Notes of the Royals Astronomical Society. But she also sent her data to fellow astronomer Jason Wright, a Penn State University researcher who helped developed a protocol for seeking signs of unearthly civilization, wondering what he would make of it.
To Wright, it looked like the kind of star he and his colleagues had been waiting for. If none of the ordinary reasons for the star’s flux quite seemed to fit, perhaps an extraordinary one was in order.
Aliens.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
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