John C. Wright's Blog, page 197

Serious Tip on Writing from A Professional

One of my fellow writers reports that he calls a good writing session one where he ends up with more words than he started with. Any positive sum is a good day. "I have a tendency to open up my word processor, stare at the last few paragraphs in disgust, delete them, and close the file."

Perhaps your problem is a lack of self-esteem, what we writers call "Writer's Ego". I found an easy means to combat low self-esteem. It is my habit to sing to myself in the mirror.

Fortunately, in our current ...

Unprogress Report

Argh! Disregard last post. I have to throw away twenty pages or so and rethink the scene.

The question is whether I should have my posthuman from Texas named Menelaus "Meany" Montrose sliding down the cable of the space elevator from geosynchronous orbit when his wedding night with the mysterious but alluring post-posthuman Space Princess also known as Star Maiden Rania is interrupt by a subterranean paramilitary attack be shot by a sniper using a surface-to-orbit directed energy weapon at th...

Progress Report

15,896 words this week. Not Bad. I will post a snippet later.

An Argument for Marriage

Regarding my last post, more than one reader asked what logical argument, if any, could be made for exclusivity in marriage, or on what possible grounds anything other than the consent of the parties could be contemplated as relevant. The question was further posed on what non-religious grounds such an argument could be made.

By no coincidence, I happen to have such an argument all written out and ready to hand.

It is basically a legal argument from a Stoic viewpoint, since it approaches the c...

When did it change?

A reader brought to my attention this post over at First Things

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/02/04/marriage-minus-monogamy-redux/

Which comments on this article at the New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/us/29sfmetro.html?scp=1&sq=Homosexuality%20%20%20Monogamy&st=cse

New research at San Francisco State University reveals just how common open relationships are among gay men and lesbians in the Bay Area. The Gay Couples Study has followed 556 male couples for t...

Why I am not Quite a Libertarian, revisited

I have been asked in condescending words what part of the natural law proposed by the Libertarians I do not understand. The Libertarians are natural-law theorists who have an elegantly simple axiom of legal principle: whoever initiates force is in the wrong. Force is to be used only in retaliation and only against the aggressor, and then only in proportionate retaliation. It is as elegant and simple an answer as a Hobbesian saying that the only passion in the human breast is the desire to avo...

A New Theory of the World

I heard on the radio this morning that the Administration (apparently with the consent of the consensus of opinion in the United States) has published the guideline the military will use when deciding when to kill without trial any American citizens found overseas aiding and abetting the enemy, or bearing arms against their sovereign homeland. I have no objection here: it is as we did against Germans and Japanese American citizens who crosses the seas and swore allegiance to National-Socialis...

Wright's Writing Corner: Engaging the Senses

http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/107314.html
Advice about adding sensual details to make a scene come alive: 

Why? You ask. What’s the big deal about sound and smell, and maybe taste or feel?

 

Makes the experience feel more real.

 

Imagine you had someone in a virtual reality suit, and you wanted to convince them [sic:] into believing your program was the real world—not necessarily to delude them, but to entertain them. No matter how realistic your visuals, if they heard and smelled their living...

Violence as Violation

Here is a quote (from, of all things, a movie review) which I pass along without further comment. Those of you kind enough to have read some of the topics being discussed in this space in recent days will perceive the application:

The whole concept of "violence" is flawed from the get-go, for it makes no distinction between legitimate and illegitimate force. The use of the word in this generic sense implies that the "violence" of the criminal is no different from the "violence" of the...

Progress!

1473 words today, and good words too, not just words written at random like James Joyce. In this scene my hero and heroine are ascending a car up an Arthur C. Clarke style space elevator. Dear readers, do you like seeing little random snippets like this? Or should I hold back and wait till the hold thing is written, and (God willing) sold?

* * *

Rania was speaking softly. "The Tower is a living thing. It breathes, pumping air up to the station; its heart pumps hydraulics and coolants; it...