John C. Wright's Blog, page 196

I have met the enemy, and he is ... Elmore

The latest from Wright's Writing Corner

http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/111104.html

I must say,  I agree with the sentiments of the lovely and talented Mrs. Wright.

I was not even aware of this stupid "war on adverbs" that Mr. Elmore declared, since I do not solicit the opinions of others on my writing, nor do I take kindly to the red pencil of the editor when the matter is one of style rather than grammar. The insolence of simply decreeing that what was formerly a matter of style (that is, a m...

Recuse! J'Accuse!

Why is it that Toyota is being hounded by the US Government, which now just so happens to own two of its major competitors? Why are we letting Congress, the owner-manager of GM, hold hearing of the safety of Toyotas, with whom they are in economic competition? Should they not at least be required to recuse themselves, and let some neutral third party, such as Fiat, hear the case?

In the meanwhile, for your reading enjoyment, let me pass along this article, which I found at fpb 's journal here, ...

A Thank You

The wife and  I had a book signing at the local Barnes & Noble this Sunday, and to my pleasant surprise more than two readers from my livejournal showed up and bought a book, and one of them sent his parents. So please accept my gratitude!

Fortunately, they merely talked to the chubby, out-of-work actor I hired to impersonate me at public appearances (usually, I am not allowed to bookstores, unless I am wearing a seeing eye harness, and I get the actor to pretend to be blind). However, with m...

Witchcraft and the Dark Ages

Cross posted from http://m-francis.livejournal.com/139367.html I reprint the whole here without comment. It speaks for itself.

Witchcraft and the Dark Ages

Although some folk apply the term "Dark Ages" to the entire medieval period, others apply it only to the early middle ages and refer to the High Middle Ages as the Early Renaissance.  This is done in service to belief, of course.  It is not how the historians generally view things.  (In fact, those have been abandoning such propaganda label...

In case you thought I was exaggerating

In yesterday's article, I proposed the theory that Leftism was not a mental disease nor a political theory, but a religious heresy, that is, a Godless form of Christianity that believes in millennial eschatology, personal revelation, and overthrow of the world-system, an internal deity, and, in short, was modern Gnosticism.

One aspect of Gnosticism is rejection of all the world as illusion. Matter is innately evil, and exoteric systems, such as theology and logic, are innately misleading. Onl...

Dialog in Cloudcuckooland

Let me apologize at the outset for the length of this article, but I ran out of time during the trying-to-shorten-it phase.

QUESTION OF CONSENT

I had a thought-provoking dialog with a commenter earlier this week in this space, on the topic of what, aside from the mere consent of the parties, made behavior licit. The conversation began as a debate about the definition of marriage, but addressed the more general question of the nature of liberty in society.

Wealhtheow: What criteria would you...

Yellow Journalism

CBS ran a hit piece on the adoption agency the wife and I used, which is CWA (Christian World Adoption). When asked if they could give their side of the story, CBS at first agreed, and granted them an hour-long interview. All of that interview, their entire presentation of their side, was left on the cutting room floor.

Here is a link to the CWA statement on the issue.

Wright's Writing Corner: Interior Dialogue

Not to be confused with interior decorating. The lovely and talented L. Jagi Lamplighter holds forth on the merits of saying what your characters think.

Interior Dialogue:  Readers don’t trust dialogue.  Have your characters think, and have what they think be juxtaposed to the dialogue, showing a new angle.
 
This one I learned the hard way.
 
When I first started writing novels, I was under the impression that the best writing was like a screen play, all dialogue. So, I set out to write just...

The Age of the Looking Glass

Allow me to recommend this short article appearing over at FIRST THINGS, a review of a book on the Narcissism that afflicts the current era. 
Of all the astonishing features of the medieval cathedrals, one feature must stand out as particularly surprising to the modern mind: We have no idea who designed and built them. In a fashion quite foreign to contemporary practice, the architects and builders did not bother to sign their names on the cornerstones. The anonymity of the great souls...

Personal Appearance

World-Famous fantasy authoress L.Jagi Lamplighter (author of PROSPERO LOST) and obscure midlist author John C. Wright (author of SPICE GIRLS OF DUNE VERSUS THE FREE AMAZONS OF GOR, and other questionable books) will be making a personal appearance.

Where? The Manassas Barnes and Nobles on Sudley Road.

When? Saturday, February 20th between 5 and 7 pm.

No, really, Where? Westgate Plaza, 8117 Sudley Road, Manassas, VA [phone: (703) 393-0910]

NOTE FOR THE HUMOR IMPAIRED: I did not actually write SP...