John C. Wright's Blog, page 226

On a Lighter Note

I saw this on Catholic and Enjoying It   a journal written by my water-brother Mark Shea (who groks were I am only an egg):

Dante's Inferno:  The Video Game!
 Mark Shea's comment: 

 They've changed things a teensy tiny bit. Now Dante is a beefed up veteran of the crusades who seizes Death's scythe to plunge the depths of hell and rescue Beatrice's soul, which has been stolen by Lucifer after she was brutally murdered while her love was away at war.

Vast volumes of social anthropology could be writ

campaign finace reform = censorship

Back when the public was still debating the wisdom of campaign finace reform, I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine, who claimed that the purpose of state supervision of political adverts was merely to "take the money of out politics." He was convinced it could never set a precedent to justify censorship of political speech.

Well, I should not say he was naive-- (he was, but I should not say it)- but I should say he did not appreciate how the law works. The law operates by cate

Can't Libertarians and Socialists Agree?

Can't socialists and libertarians agree that we should not support that form of government sometimes called Plutocracy, or Fascism, where the state power and the major industries are intertwined in incest?

The libertarian will blench in horror at the sight of populist demagogues assuming the power to fire the CEO's of private corporations, forcing mergers, reorganizing Boards of Directors, setting or vetoing compensation and bonuses, interfering with contracts, establishing lines of production

The Blessing of Infanticide! Enjoying God's good gift of sexuality without consequences

The Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge has unanimously elected a new dean, Dr. Katherine Ragsdale.  Chris Johnson at the Midwest Conservative Journal has the following on Dr. Ragsdale. I reprint it here without comment:

How radically pro-abortion is Katie Rags?  This radically pro-abortion:

And when a woman becomes pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option open to her; decides she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to a safe, affordable abortio

Prometheus Hall of Fame nomination

Well, well. It looks as if THE GOLDEN AGE, my three-volume love-letter to Liberty, has finally attracted the attention of the Libertarians.
In Indiana.

I read this announcement on the website of the Indiana State LP:

Futurists Announce 2009 HOF Finalists
The Hall of Fame committee moved their schedule ahead this year in order to give the members of the LFS more time to read the nominees. The committee started reading and discussing classic works in August, and have agreed on the list of finalists b

Bragging Rights!

Well, well, I have just been interviewed for CATHOLIC WORLD REPORT by Sandra Miesel (whose name you might recognize if you read THE DA VINCI HOAX -- a debunking of Dan "all descriptions of made up stuff in this novel are accurate" Brown). I am placed alongside such luminaries as Gene Wolfe, (whom we rverently refer to as 'The Master') Tim Powers (whom we rvently refer to as, 'The Powers That Be')  andMike Flynn (whom we reverently refer to as 'The author of FALLEN ANGELS who wasn't Jerry Pourne

700

As if right now, I have made 700 first drafts of my latest novel.

That number is no doubt inflated. I save my work as a separate 'draft' when I make any change, even minor ones, in case I feel the urge to return to a previous wording of a scene. But, still, draft 01 is dated February 2006. I am not sure why this project is taking so much longer than my others. I went from first to final draft in NULL-A CONTINUUM in seven months. THE GOLDEN AGE from start to finish took only about nine months.

De Revolutione Scientiarum

Please read this: http://faculty.ugf.edu/jgretch/syllabi/psy450DeRevolutione.pdf

A fascinating article by Michael Flynn, author of the FIRESTAR books, WRECK OF THE RIVER OF STARS, and, more recently, EIFELHEIM. 

In proper Aristotlean fashion, Mr. Flynn politely demolishes the persistant myth (and I mean myth in the sense of lie) that the Middle Ages were a period of scientific backwardness. This is not merely false, it is the precise opposite of truth: the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries were wh

Myths about the Middle Ages

Hat tip to: m_francis 

James Franklin has a collection of links (some of them dead) in an attempt to debunk some common myths about the Middle Ages. This list is a summary of his longer essay here: The Myth of the Renaissance, where he argues that the Renaissance was a period when thought declined significantly, bring to an end a period of advance in the late Middle Ages.

I note two of the items on Mr. Franklin's list -- the one about Medieval thinkers believing the Earth was flat, and the one

Friendly Neighborhood Spider Man

In other news, Spiderman saves a little boy. I am not making this up. Here is the story:

An unusual disguise has helped a Bangkok fireman rescue an eight-year-old boy who had climbed on to a third-floor window ledge, Thai police say.

The firefighter dressed up as the comic book superhero Spider-Man in order to coax the boy, who is autistic, from his dangerous perch.

Police said teachers had alerted the fire station after the boy began crying and climbed out of a classroom window.

It was