John C. Wright's Blog, page 103
March 24, 2013
What is the Future of the Future?
Whither Science Fiction and Fantasy? We know how the futures of the past were portrayed and how the futures of today are told: but how shall the futures of the future look?
As you recall from last episode, in this space we asked what was the good of Science Fiction? The proposed answer was the Science Fiction was for rest and recovery, a place where the imagination could dwell, if only for an hour, in a world either better or worse than our current world, but in either case, a world where the rules of art, rather than the rules of nature, determined the pace and tenor and tone of the places and events and inhabitants of that higher, if unreal, world.
Like all fiction, Science Fiction is an oasis of rest amid the wasteland of mundane life, a time between toil to lift our eyes to distant mountains and wonder what is beyond them, or to lift our eyes further, to the stars, and wonder.
Unlike other fiction, which contains imaginary places and events, science fiction also contains an imaginary cosmos that operates by different rules, perhaps one where men can be invisible, or fly to the moon in antigravity spheres, or suffer an invasion by hunger and superior beings from Mars. The bridge between the real cosmos and the science fictional cosmos is the speculation, either rigorous or lax, of scientific plausibility that connects them. If you have invisible man in a science fiction story, he must perhaps walk unclothed, for example, because that is a realistic extrapolation from the unrealistic premise; or if you have invaders from Mars, they must have physiology evolved by Martian conditions, they perhaps will be swiftly poisoned by the diseases their more advanced civilization long ago abolished from their sterile world, because again this is a realistic extrapolation from an unreal premise.
Fantasy also postulates a different cosmos with different rules, but the bridge that reaches to the perilous realm of Elfland from our world is one of dream-logic. If the wicked witch says love’s first kiss will wake the sleeping beauty, only the prince who did not die on the enchanted thorns hedging the haunting castle may kiss and wake her, and not Doctor McCoy with a hypospray of stimulant. Because that is the way dream logic works, or fairy tales, or myths: the arbitrary rules of Elfland can be trespassed only with draconian retaliation, and the rewards achieved by the bold or the cunning performance of the twelve terrible tasks or the answer of the riddle of the sphinx. These are the dreamlike implications of the unreal premise, based on the rules of a realm no man has seen, but which we somehow always greet with a start of recognition.
Why do we need dreams to come from a cosmos other than this one?
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
March 20, 2013
Orson Scott Card Blacklisted for Christian Faith
From the pen of David Blount over at the site Moonbattery
There’s a price to be paid by countermoonbats with courage enough to stand up for decency and sanity in a culture that is swirling down the toilet. Ask Orson Scott Card.
After pro-homosexual activists promoted an online petition demanding the firing of award-winning speculative fiction writer Orson Scott Card from an upcoming Superman comic anthology, DC Comics confirmed that Card’s portion of the project has been shelved indefinitely.
An online petition collected some ungodly (I use the word advisedly) number of signatures, and DC comics caved.
Although it did not receive as much media attention, there is a petition asking DC comics not to go along with the brownshirt blacklist:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/we-support-orson-scott-cards-superman-comic/
If, gentle reader, I have ever written a story or essay or joke or even a word that pleased you, in the name of all that is kind, just, wholesome, true, bright and good in life, take the moment to go and sign the petition.
If they succeed with Orson Scott Card, who is much more mild in his views than I, they will succeed with driving stories I write out of the market as well. So I am motivated, in part by self interest.
I motivated more by indignation that Politically Correct perverts have managed to besmirch the reputation of Superman. He now stands for Truth, Justice, and Censorship.
Mr Blout of the Moonbattery site expresses my sentiments:
For the first time in human history, a society has degenerated to the point that advocating the preservation of children’s innocence and the family unit can get a famous author blacklisted.
In case you don’t know this him:
Orson Scott Card is the bestselling author best known for the classic Ender’s Game, Ender’s Shadow and other novels in the Ender universe. Most recently, he was awarded the 2008 Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in Young Adult literature, from the American Library Association. Card has written sixty-one books, assorted plays, comics, and essays and newspaper columns. His work has won multiple awards, including back-to-back wins of the Hugo and the Nebula Awards-the only author to have done so in consecutive years. His titles have also landed on ‘best of’ lists and been adopted by cities, universities and libraries for reading programs. The Ender novels have inspired a Marvel Comics series, a forthcoming video game from Chair Entertainment, and pre-production on a film version.
And if you do know him, go immediately and buy one or more of his books, and show support for this man. http://www.amazon.com/Orson-Scott-Card/e/B000AQ3SS0/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
New York Times Hates the Pope
An article from the Andrew Klavan, which I here reprint in full:
When Benedict XVI was pope, the New York Times ran a scurrilous, distortion-infested campaign intended to link the former Joseph Ratzinger with the awful abuse scandals that have so harmed the Catholic Church. These pieces were manifestly dishonest and substance-free when you read them through. But the Times editors know most people don’t read the articles — they read the headlines and the first paragraph.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
March 17, 2013
Science Fiction: What is it good for?
I was watching DAS RHEINGOLD by Wagner with my children, seeing the dark elfs and bright gods and lumbering giants and lambent nixies all conspiring to possess to posses and fearing the Ring of the Nibelungs, and lusting for the beauty of love and the glory of power; and I came to wonder what good science fiction and fantasy served.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
March 13, 2013
Wright’s Writing Corner on Writing for Boys, Writing for Girls.
The lovely and talented Mrs Wright asks all and sundry to come by and share any opinions on the similarities and differences between the literary likes of men and women.
http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/280676.html
Excerpt:
When I was in college, some male friends and I (including the one I married) used to spend time talking about books we liked-science fiction and fantasy, mainly. I discovered that Ursula LeGuin was regarded as equal to the male authors, but all other female authors in the field were regarded as sentimental and of lower quality. Their books were soft and not as admired.
I listened. I took careful note. I determined that I wanted to be like Ursula LeGuin-whose work I loved, not like those other women whose books did not qualify. Some of whose work I also loved-like Anne McCaffrey.
It never occurred to me, not once, that the qualities the men did not like in the books might be considered a virtue by some female readers. I just thought women were mainly too sentimental to write real books, so I would have to learn to write like a man.
When a guy friend told me that he could see signs of this womanish writing style in an early version of my Prospero series, I put the book aside and did not work on it again for about five years.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Voting for Reptillian Space Pope
Over at CAEI, a commenter named Claude remarks:
As a cradle Catholic who has been atheist/agnostic for most of my life, I would agree that atheism is boring.
You, a Christian, are commanded to be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect so that you may win eternal life. I, an atheist, am just trying to pay off my mortgage and not screw up too badly before I’m good and dead forever.
To be sure the Christians have a grander vision on their side.
Later, he adds:
Atheists, or at least non-Christians, have the entire breadth and sweep of Science Fiction to enliven our future. We have SETI, we have vast cosmic adventures (assuming we do not somehow annihilate ourselves first (or have it done for us)) in an unbounded future until the heat death of the Cosmos.
If you are a Christian you have Jesus returning and the judgment of the world and the final battle then God hitting the Delete button on all of creation followed by an eternity of either cloud-sitting and harp-playing or roasting in the pit. No galactic civilizations, no star sagas, no alien civilizations, the best we might manage is a moon colony or two.
I remember being a geeky Christian teen and feeling absolutely heartbroken about this, until I concluded that God would probably allow me to spend some of my Heavenly time building space-ships…
My comment:
As a science fiction writing Christian, I object most strongly to this slander.
Of course there will be galactic empires after the world is renewed and remade, and larger than that. What do you think the crowns and the thrones promised the faithful are for?
The speed of light prevents mortals from ever visiting another star, much less entering into a conversation or a hymn or a dance with one. Those limitations do not apply to the glorified and risen saints, who can step to Alpha Centauri or to Andromeda or to the Corona Borealis Supercluster in a moment, and converse with the angels and artisans who designed these stars and galaxies and superclusters of galaxies.
And we will be able to hear the music of the spheres.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Save an American Citizen imprisoned for being Christian
I thought it my duty to pass this along and urge all my readers to sign the petition, and get three others to do so.
Now is the time to redouble our efforts for Pastor Saeed, a U.S. citizen imprisoned in Iran for his Christian faith.
On Friday morning, I’m going to testify before a House of Representatives panel on behalf of Pastor Saeed and on behalf of other persecuted Christians in Muslim lands.
This is a crucial moment and our best chance yet to spur the United States government into action.
Here’s where you can help.
We need to send a message. We need 500,000 signatures to help Save Saeed by the time I testify. If you have not signed the petition, please do so now.
Sign the petition to Save Saeed.
If you have signed, we are starting a new campaign called “Reach 3.”
It’s simple: Think of three people who care about religious freedom, who care about the persecuted Church. Simply tell them about Pastor Saeed. Tell them about his unwavering courage and faith. Send them to SaveSaeed.org.
Reach three to save one life.
Jay Sekulow
ACLJ Chief Counsel
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
March 11, 2013
HERMETIC MILLENNIA Excerpt: Just Because It Made Me Laugh
I realize it is wrong on many levels for a writer to be amused by his own words, but keep in mind I don’t consider myself to have invented Mickey the Witch of Williamsburg, but rather to have discovered him from the Muse who whispered him to me.
This is a scene from HERMETIC MILLENNIA (on sale now!). The setup is this: archeologists of the race of the Blue Men in the year 10515 AD have looted a ultralongeterm hibernation facility, and woken the slumberers from several different eras and previous civilizations.
One of the men they woke is Menelaus Montrose, the inventor of suspended animation. Over the centuries and millennia, a myth has grown up around him, and the more superstitious centuries regard him as a godling, like Anubis, the guardian of tombs and sacred crypts where the ancestors rest.
He is said to condemn any age of history which does not maintain a technology level sufficient for space flight, and to sentence the civilizations of that age to apocalypse and destruction: and therefore this fearsome figure is called the Judge of Ages.
He actually does possess the art, learned from supremely advanced and mysterious aliens, of statistical prediction of the future, something like the ‘psychohistory’ of Isaac Asimov’s FOUNDATION stories, and so can predict the downfall of civilizations, or set in motion events calculated to cause a downfall. So the myth of a Judge of ages is not baseless, even though it is not accurate.
One of his loyal allies is a warlock from one of the more superstitious of the many Dark Ages cratering the landscape of history, a man named Melechemoshemyazanagual Onmyoji de Concepcion, Padre Bruja-Stregone of Donna Verdant Coven at the Holy Fortress at Williamsburg. Since that is impossible for poor Meany Montrose to pronounce, he calls him Mickey.
The archeological dig is also a prison camp, where the disinterred and thawed out slumberers are kept, and forced to work digging up other hibernating relics from ages long lost. Outside the wire, the world is suffering an Ice Age, and whether or not Menelaus Montrose’s ancient enemy, Ximen del Azarchel, is still alive, or whether anyone is still alive, is a matter of debate.
We join the conversation as Mickey and Meany are discussing the aircraft they can glimpse in a small airfield beyond the prison camp wire.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
March 9, 2013
The secrets of THE SORCERER’S HOUSE by Gene Wolfe
Here follows a review and a discussion. The review contains no spoilers, or only minor ones, and the discussion contains nothing but.
Review:
THE SORCERER’S HOUSE concerns one Baxter Dunn, an ambidextrous a scholar with double degrees and a con-man and an ex-con, living after his release from jail in perfect poverty the small town of Medicine Man. He writes to his rich brother and identical twin George begging politely for money.
At least so it seems on the first reading of the book. On the second reading, once we know Baxter’s true and sinister intentions, one can see the accusatory tone hidden beneath the courtesy and self-deprecation, and, yes, the attempt to provoke the brother to anger. The letters are written by a con-man, after all, and one who knows how to manipulate people.
On the first reading, we find that Bax (as he insists on being called) by pure happenstance finds an empty house with the broken back door, and he lets himself in to find a place he can stay rent free.
Upon second reading, it seems clear he broke the lock to let himself in, but it is unclear how and why he selected that house. A third reading is called for.
Then strange things, mysterious trespassers by candlelight, gruesome murders, strange noises in the night, begin to haunt the Black House, and it begins to seem bigger that it at first appeared, and some of the windows open up on a forest that never grew on this earth we know.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
March 6, 2013
Slowly the One Ring Brings them All to Mordor; or Cratocracy
A video from last year by Bill Whittle. It touches on my two favorite topics, politics and LORD OF THE RINGS.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
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