Kip Manley's Blog, page 52
August 4, 2014
Three hours widdershins
So! Readercon. —There was gonna be a whole long con report thing like I haven’t done in a long long time but; but.
June 10, 2014
Things to keep in mind (The secret of stuff)
The role of “stuff” in fantasy fiction remains vitally important to fantastical stories and potentially serves to discipline fantasy readers into valuing certain cultural artifacts over others. Wikipedia has a page dedicated to a sizable—and incomplete—list of fictional swords with names. Certain artifacts are imbued with symbolic qualities (eg. King Arthur’s Excalibur and Holy Grail) and some magic systems are reliant upon material things (eg. wands in Harry Potter). Though economic systems within fantasy literature are usually underdeveloped or neglected by authors, artifacts remain fetishized, used both as a way of adding authenticity to the secondary world (the presence of swords signals to readers that they are situated within a particular genre and provides a pathway for authors to play with certain tropes), and developing the protagonist’s identity. But from where does this economic model originate and how, if at all, does this conceptualization of stuff impact present-day nerd consumerism? Because while the role of economic exchange is left ambiguous in much fantasy literature, the centrality of stuff like wands, crystal balls, amulets, and named swords is not.
June 5, 2014
Things to keep in mind (The secret of the out-of-doors)
This principle, it seems to me, is the ceaseless action of secluding oneself. Imagination about travel corresponds in Verne to an exploration of closure, and the compatibility between Verne and childhood does not stem from a banal mystique of adventure, but on the contrary from a common delight in the finite, which one also finds in children’s passion for huts and tents: to enclose oneself and to settle, such is the existential dream of childhood and of Verne. The archetype of this dream is this almost perfect novel: L’Ile mystérieuse, in which the manchild re-invents the world, fills it, closes it, shuts himself up in it, and crowns this encyclopædic effort with the bourgeois posture of appropriation: slippers, pipe and fireside, while outside the storm, that is, the infinite, rages in vain.
May 30, 2014
No. 22: Maiestie (Closing)
“My people!”
May 28, 2014
No. 22: Maiestie (Act IV)
Jo, crumpled – God buy you – Kissing, and Kissing again – no Promise broken – Blood; Sweat; Tears –
May 26, 2014
No. 22: Maiestie (Act III)
“I will,” says Ysabel – the Last he has – How, and Why –
May 23, 2014
No. 22: Maiestie (Act II)
The stuff in the Bucket – a Surprise – the Men about the City – how Things are Done –
May 21, 2014
No. 22: Maiestie (Act I)
Water, crashing – Wednesday morning – Jo, unexpected –
May 19, 2014
No. 22: Maiestie (Opening)
When the Phone sings – up, and Always up –
May 6, 2014
Portland, divided into four fifths
If you, Dear Reader, are not yourself intimately acquainted with and find yourself occasionally wondering which went where when, yr. correspondent might direct you to a map of sorts, that easily fits most hands.
