John C. Wright's Blog, page 178

On a slightly lighter note

I plugged in the verbiage from my short story, 'One Bright Star to Guide Them'  which appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in the April-May edition of the magazine (I plugged in the first chapter of my current novel, COUNT TO A TRILLION, but it came out that my writing style matched that of Vladimir Nabokov, a writer not to my taste, so I decided to see whether a second sample would produce a more flattering result.)



I write like
William Shakespeare

I Write Like by...

What is Wrong with the World?

This essay is in many parts

What’s Wrong with the World Part  I — Introduction What’s Wrong With The World Part II— Qualifications & DefinitionsWhat’s Wrong With The World Part III —IllogicalWhat’s Wrong With The World Part IV —HypocriticalWhat’s Wrong With The World Part  V —More Hypocrisy— Four PuzzlesWhat’s Wrong With The World Part  VI —Vicious What’s Wrong With The World Part VII— IgnorantWhat’s Wrong With The World Part  VIII—More Ignorance — The Parochialism of the EnlightenedWhat’s...

Dr Who Played on Tesla Coils

SF music played on Tesla Coils. It is to awe. (Hat tip to Sf Signal)

Wright's Writing Corner–Dickens' Trick

Wright’s Writing Corner this week is a clue on writing technique from Charles Dickens.

http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/132499.html

“There is not just a kettle on the fire, it is boiling over.” “Horses at the cab stands are steaming in the cold and stamping. When people enter a room they are sneezing or hiding something in their pockets.”

Prospero in Hell and Prospero in Paperback

Announcing two more books from the Wright household in the bookstores!

Prospero In Hell

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0765319306/thewrighthouse

Prospero Lost paperback:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0765358832/thewrighthouse

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP SALES?!?!

Fly now to your nearest outlet, buy every book in stock, find the name and home address of the story manager, and appear on his doorstep at 4.00 in the morning, drunk and raving that these are the best books you have e...

Nonhumans in human literature

This question from a reader has so many ramifications, that I thought it merited its own post. And even this lengthy post cannot but begin to delve the surface of  a deep mine.

“Question: do most sentient beings in other worlds constructed dawn a human like nature? You said in Dark City they have that very other worldly quality. How hard is it to truly (at least attempt) to construe a non-human intelligence/nature?”

Answer: It is as hard as the writer (and his readers) wants it to be,...

Prayer Request — They Arrested my Son's Teacher

Yes, the police literally led her away in handcuffs.

Had she done anything wrong? I very much doubt it. From what I know of her, she is an exemplary teacher, skilled and patient.

Here is my wife’s words on the matter:

Something has happened that is so upsetting, I can hardly write about it without crying.

As a mom with several kids in special ed programs–and with many friends with similar issues, I’ve seen and heard about a lot of teachers. Some teachers are not so good with autistic...

The 5 Definitive Criteria by which Science Fiction Cinema is to be Judged

Many folk have asked me,”Pardon me, sir, but could you leave the store? You are frightening our customers.” While this is a good question, a better question is, “Dear world famous yet humble science fiction author John C. Wright, why is it that your taste in movies is so very bad? Didn’t you actually like LADY IN THE WATER by M. Night Shyamalan? What criteria do you, world famous science fiction author John C. Wright, use to achieve such an astonishing nadir of goodtastemanship?”

Let u...

The War against the War Between Science and Faith Revisited

With considerable discontent, I just concluded a conversation with a young man (I assume he was young, and human — on the Internet one never knows ) about the deleterious effect of Christianity on the march of science and progress. The exchange (I will not call it a dialog, since we were merely speaking past each other) consisted of his assertion that Christianity deters and discourages science, and my request for some historical evidence to back that assertion, and my request for some ...

A Review of a Review of a Review of INCEPTION

In this article, which he describes as a review of a review, James Bowman laments that films are no longer about real things related to the real world, but merely about spectacle, sound and fury. He further laments that film criticism is no longer about criticism, but about alienism or mass psychology.

http://www.jamesbowman.net/reviewDetail.asp?pubID=2049

I must reject James Bowman’s criticism of INCEPTION in the strongest possible terms. His argument, boiled down to its ugly nub, is...