John C. Wright's Blog, page 48
October 15, 2014
Publications
I was updating my list of publications, both current and forthcoming, but I am haunted by the thought that there is one or two I forgot. So, as a service to any reader who wishes a complete list of wrightabilia, and a service to me from any editor or reader who bought or read something of mine not on this list, I thought it was fitting to draw your kind attention to it.
If you see anything missing from the list, please tell me.
Publications by John C. Wright:
Short Fiction:
Farthest Man from Earth, (novella) Asimov’s Science Fiction Vol. 19 # 4 & 5, No.229-230, April 1995.
Guest Law, (novella) Asimov’s Science Fiction Vol. 21 # 6, No.258, June 1997;
–reprinted in Year’s Best SF 3, ed. David G. Hartwell, HarperPrism, 1998.
Not Born a Man, (short story) Aberrations #24, October 1994.
– reprinted in No Longer Dreams, ed. Danielle McPhail, Lite Circle, 2005.
Forgotten Causes, (short story) Absolute Magnitude #16, Summer 2001.
–reprinted in Breech the Hull, ed. Mike McPhail, Marietta Publishing (October, 2007)
Awake in the Night (novella) appearing in William Hope Hodgson’s Night Lands: Eternal Love, edited by Andy W. Robertson, Wildside Press (December 2003).
–reprinted in: The Year’s Best Science Fiction 21st Annual Collection, ed. Gardner Dozois,
–and Best Short Novels 2003 (Science Fiction Book Club), ed. Jonathan Strahan
–and published separately as Awake in the Night Castalia House (May, 2014)
Last of All Suns (novella) appearing in William Hope Hodgson’s Night Lands II: Nightmares of the Fall, edited by Andy W. Robertson, Three Legged Fox Books (2006).
Silence of the Night (short story) Readercon 18 Souvenir Book, 2007 Readercon, Inc.
– reprinted in electronic publication, Andy W. Robertson, ed. His website http://www.thenightland.co.uk/nightsilenceofthenight.html
Cry of the Night Hound (novella) appearing in William Hope Hodgson’s Night Lands II: Nightmares of the Fall, edited by Andy W. Robertson, Three Legged Fox Books (2006).
Father’s Monument, (short story) No Longer Dreams, ed. Danielle McPhail, Lite Circle (2005)
The Kindred, (short story) No Longer Dreams, ed. Danielle McPhail, Lite Circle (2005)
Peter Power Armor, (short story) Breach the Hull, ed. Mike McPhail Marietta Publishing (2007)
Guyal the Curator (short story) Songs of the Dying Earth, ed. Gardner Dozois, Subterranean (2008)
The Far End of History (short story) New Space Opera II, ed. Gardner Dozois, Eos (2009)
One Bright Star to Guide Them (short story) The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science Fiction, ed. Gordon van Gelder, April-May 2009 issue.
Last Report on Unit Twenty-Two (short story) So It Begins, ed. Mike McPhail, Dark Quest book
Choosers of the Slain (short story) Clockwork Phoenix, ed. Mike Allen, Norilana Books (July 1, 2008)
Twilight of the Gods (novella) Federations, ed, John Joseph Adams, Prime Books (April, 2009)
—Reprinted in Years Best Science Fiction 27th Annual Collection ed. Gardner Dozois
On the People’s Business (short story) Dappled Things, ed. Katy Carl, Mary Queen of Angels 2009 issue (web publication)
Murder in Metachronopolis (novella) Clockwork Phoenix, ed. Mike Allen, Norilana Books (July, 2010)
Judgment Eve (novella) Engineering Infinity, ed. Jonathan Strahan, Solaris Books, London (2011)
A Random World of Delta Capricorni Aa, Also Called Scheddi (short story) electronic publication Flash Fiction Online, ed. Jake Freivald, May 2010 issue.
The Lunar Sacrament of Confession (novella) Altered Perceptions, ed. Brandon Sanderson (2011)
The Ideal Machine (short story) Sci Phi Journal: Issue #1, October 2014.
The Golden Oecumene Trilogy:
THE GOLDEN AGE (novel) Tor Books (April 2002)
THE PHOENIX EXULTANT (novel) Tor Books (April 2003)
THE GOLDEN TRANSCENDENCE (novel) Tor Books (November 2003)
The Books of Everness
LAST GUARDIANS OF EVERNESS (novel) Tor Books (August 2004)
MISTS OF EVERNESS (novel) Tor Books (March 2005)
The Chronicles of Chaos
ORPHANS OF CHAOS (novel) Tor Books (November 2005)—Nominated for a Nebula
FUGITIVES OF CHAOS (novel) Tor Books (November 2006)
TITANS OF CHAOS (novel) Tor Books (April 2007)
A.E. van Vogt’s Null-A
NULL-A CONTINUUM (novel) Tor Books (May, 2008)
The Count to the Eschaton Sequence
COUNT TO A TRILLION (novel) Tor Books (December, 2011)
THE HERMETIC MILLENNIA (novel) Tor Books (December, 2012)
JUDGE OF AGES (novel) Tor Books (February 2014)
ARCHITECT OF AEONS (novel) Tor Books (April, 2015)
VINDICATION OF MAN (novel) Tor Books (forthcoming)
COUNT TO INFINITY (novel) Tor Books ( forthcoming)
A Tale of the Unwithering Realm
SOMEWHITHER (novel) Castalia House (forthcoming)
NOWHITHER (novel) Castalia House (forthcoming)
Anthologies
AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND (anthology) Castalia House (April, 2014)
Introduction: On the Lure of the Night Land (essay)
Awake in the Night
Cry of the Night Hound
Silence of the Night (revised for this volume)
Last of All Suns
CITY BEYOND TIME Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis (anthology) Castalia House (June, 2014)
Murder In Metachronopolis
Choosers of the Slain
Bride of the Time Warden
Father’s Monument
Slayer of Souls (original to this volume)
The Plural of Helen of Troy (original to this volume)
THE BOOK OF SEASONS Tales Inspired by Feasts and Fasts (anthology) Castalia House (forthcoming)
Pale Realms of Shade (original)
A Random World of Delta Capricorni, Called Scheddi
Nativity (original)
Sheathed Paw of the Lion (original)
On the People’s Business
The Meaning of Life as Told Me by an Inebriated Science Fiction Writer in New Jersey (original)
The Parliament of Beasts and Birds (original)
Eve of All Saints Day (original)
Yes Virginia There is a Santa Claus (original)
Awake in the Night (Novella) Castalia House (May, 2014)
One Bright Star to Guide Them (novella) Castalia House (September, 2014) — expanded and revised from a previous short story for this publication.
Nonfiction Collection:
TRANSHUMAN AND SUBHUMAN Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth (collected essays) Castalia House (May 2014)
Introduction: The Wright Stuff (by Mike Flynn)
Transhuman and Subhuman
The Hobbit, or, The Desolation of Tolkien
Whistle While You Work
Science Fiction: What is it good for?
John C. Wright’s Patented One Session Lesson in the Mechanics of Fiction
Swordplay in Space
The Glory Game, or, The Bitterness of Broken Ideals
Gene Wolfe, Genre Work, and Literary Duty
Storytelling Is the Absence of Lying
The Golden Compass Points in No Direction
Faith in the Fictional War between Science Fiction and Faith
The Big Three of Science Fiction
The Fourth of the Big Three of Science Fiction
Childhood’s End and Gnosticism
Saving Science Fiction from Strong Female Characters
Restless Heart of Darkness
Nonfiction Articles:
May The Midichlorians Be With You; The absence of religion and ethics in Star Wars, (essay) Star Wars on Trial, ed. David Brin, Benbella Books (June, 2006).
Twas Beauty Killed The Beast; King Kong and the American Character, (essay) King Kong is Back, ed. David Brin, Benbella Books (November 2005).
Just Throw Him In The Engine; Or The Role of Chivalry in FIREFLY, (essay) Finding Serenity, ed. Glen Yeffeth, Benbella Books (April 1, 2005).
Heroes Of Darkness And Light; Or, Why My Girl Goes For Batman over Superman (essay) Batman Unauthorized, ed. Glen Yeffeth, Benbella Books (March 1, 2008).
Faith And Scientific Imagination (Published as Aliens Need Christ’s Redemption, Too) (essay) Catholic Herald (June 2008)
C.S. Lewis Was The Joshua Flattening The Walls Of My Disbelief (testimonial) Mere Christians—Inspiring Stories of Encounters with C. S. Lewis, ed. Andrew Lazo and Mary Anne Phemister, Baker Books (February, 2009)
Heinlein, Hugos, and Hogwash (essay) Intercollegiate Review May 7, 2014 (web publication)
Faith and Works in a Science Fictional Universe (essay) One Peter Five, ed. Steve Skojec, August 2014 (web publication)
Prophetic & Apotropaic Science Fiction (essay) Sci Phi Journal: Issue # 2 (forthcoming)
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Oceania Has Always Been at War with Eastasia
Bush, and all Republicans, have been vindicated in everything we said about the Iraq War.
Lest I be accused of cherry picking my sources, allow me to quote from an ardent sufferer from Bush Derangement Syndrome. Any reader reading these words can tell they mean the exact opposite of what the writer is saying, and I am so confident that any reader can tell the truth hidden beneath the layer of bullshit, that I will not bother to interpret it from Newspeak to English.
This article is one taken at random from dozens:
On Tuesday, an investigation by veteran New York Times war correspondent C.J. Chivers revealed that between 2004-2011, American troops fighting in the Iraq War found over 5,000 chemical warheads, shells, and aviation bombs. The discoveries were never publicly disclosed by the military; U.S. soldiers who were exposed to nerve agents like sarin and mustard gas while attempting to remove conventional weapons were denied appropriate medical care and ordered to remain silent about yet another miscalculation of the Iraq War.
But in the midst of the revelation about the Bush administration cover-up, conservatives took to Twitter to express vindication for the former President who embarked on the ill-fated war.
The debate over the legitimacy of the Iraq War was never about whether or not Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction at some point in history.
Five thousand warheads and shells, eh? FIVE THOUSAND!?!
The Iraq War was never about WMDs? WAS NEVER ABOUT??
Wow. It boggles the mind.
Note the utter lack of dignity present in the act of humbly admitting being proved wrong, or, rather, note the psychotic ferocity with which the parties proved wrong pretend not to notice themselves proved wrong. They are as elegant as if the Queen of England were to be found at a public function with a leprous wet dog slumped from ear to ear on Her Majesty’s head, dripping, barfing and puking down her shoulders and bosom, but grandly not noticing the faux pas.
Leftism is a mental disease, or, specifically, a self-induced rejection of religion, reason, decency and shame wherein the victim deliberately at first (but rapidly losing the ability to correct or control his behavior) impersonates the behavior of a neurotic, and, for more hardcore Leftists, a psychotic. The neurosis is an inability to grasp history, economics, or political realities, and a pathological need for self flattery and for an unearned moral superiority.
The day is fast approaching when we should all rise up and club to death all Leftists as one would club down a shambling mob of zombies. The shambling Leftists can avoid being on the receiving end of the real version of the Zombie Apocalypse — for the living shall surely overwhelm the dead — if and only if they wake up and shake off their addiction to lies, delusions, delirium, self-righteousness, falsehood, sleaze and bullshit.
But Leftists never wake up. Never.
* * *
As a public service, for those with short memories, I here reprint an article that I have reprinted more or less annually to remind the zombie hoards of Leftists allergic to thinking what the causes of the war were. Note that the sole claim not proved was the WMD claim, which, at the time this was written, had not been found. Now they have been.
This article is now so old that I cannot confirm all the links are still good. That is how long this easily-debunked lie has been going on.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
October 14, 2014
Darwinian Blithering
One Mr. David P Barash wrote a bit of typical Hitchens-style Christ-bashing, but without the stylistic wit of Hitchens. Also without the manly courage: Unlike Hitchens, Mr. Barash never actually finds the fortitude to come out and say what he means to say. This affords him wide avenues of retreat, as well as a mask of objectivity. Because he is a professor.
He has the startling news that science exiles faith! Because Darwin!
It is astonishing that some parents somewhere are paying this inarticulate or uneducated windbag good money to ruin the minds and souls of their impressionable schoolchildren. Simply the errors in straightforward logic are appalling, not to mention the lack of structure in his column: he seems to drift from topic to topic without any rhyme or reason.
Let us fisk this bit of blather.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
October 12, 2014
Othering the Cis
CPE Gabler asks:
[Quoting me] “The difference is that the Puritan moral code was actually moral, if excessive. They were trying to be holier than God, and to be meek, chaste, modest and humble. These modern Puritans express the same degree of zeal and mouth-foaming fervor by trying to kill more children than Moloch, screw more catamites than Asmodius, gnaw out their own guts with more envy than Leviathan, flatter themselves with more vainglory than Lucifer, and in general by trying to be more unholy than the wretched devils swarming in the smoldering sewers of Hell.”Aren’t those vile depths generally reached from a starting point of wanting to be more loving than God, and to be compassionate to the outcasts and disenfranchised? I believe you’ve said similar things in the past.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
October 9, 2014
Beyond Binary Sanity — and a call to arms by Hoyt
Back when I was a Libertarian, we would ask each other when it was time to stop talking and to shoot the bastards.
Myself, I would like to have conservatives ask each other when it was time to stop apologizing to the Left, being nice to the Left, petting the Left, and bending over and clutching our ankles to allow the Left once again to kick us in the butt, or, given their sexual proclivities, perform an unnatural act which they regard as equal to marriage.
Here is yet one more example the Left buggering civil society:
This is not a parody.
A Nebraska school district has instructed its teachers to stop referring to students by “gendered [sic] expressions” such as “boys and girls,” and use “gender [sic] inclusive” ones such as “purple penguins” instead.
“Don’t use phrases such as ‘boys and girls,’ ‘you guys,’ ‘ladies and gentlemen,’ and similarly gendered [sic] expressions to get kids’ attention,” instructs a training document given to middle-school teachers at the Lincoln Public Schools.
“Create classroom names and then ask all of the ‘purple penguins’ to meet on the rug,” it advises.
The document also warns against asking students to “line up as boys or girls,” and suggests asking them to line up by whether they prefer “skateboards or bikes/milk or juice/dogs or cats/summer or winter/talking or listening.”
“Always ask yourself . . . ‘Will this configuration create a gendered [sic] space?’” the document says.
The instructions were part of a list called “12 steps on the way to gender inclusiveness” developed by Gender Spectrum, an organization that “provides education, training and support to help create a gender [sic] sensitive and inclusive environment for children of all ages.”
Other items on the list include asking all students about their preferred pronouns and decorating the classroom with “all genders [sic] welcome” door hangers.
If teachers still find it “necessary” to mention that genders [sic] exist at all, the document states, they must list them as “boy, girl, both or neither.”
Furthermore, it instructs teachers to interfere and interrupt if they ever hear a student talking about gender [sic] in terms of “boys and girls” so the student can learn that this is wrong.
“Point out and inquire when you hear others referencing gender [sic] in a binary manner,” it states. “Ask things like . . . ‘What makes you say that? I think of it a little differently.’ Provide counter-narratives that challenge students to think more expansively about their notions of gender [sic] .”
The teachers were also given a handout created by the Center for Gender Sanity, which explains to them that “Gender [sic] identity . . . can’t be observed or measured, only reported by the individual,” and an infographic called “The Genderbred Person,” which was produced by www.ItsPronouncedMetroSexual.com.
Despite controversy, Lincoln Superintendent Steve Joel has declared that he is “happy” and “pleased” with the training documents.
“We don’t get involved with politics,” he told KLIN Radio’s Drive Time Lincoln radio show.
These people are mentally ill.
This mental illness is why some turd-scented Morlock on Tor.com called for an end to binary gender [sic] in SFF, and why Larry Correia was subjected to the Two Minute Hate.
Mr Correia pointed out that people who buy stories about libertarian gunnuts shooting monsters want a monster story, not a finger-wagging lecture on the alleged moral superiority of unnatural sexual acts.
The Morlock, like the Puritans before him, wanted an end to all entertainment that did not serve the zealous moralizing of the fanatics. Like the Puritans, for the Morlocks, there is nothing beyond the orbit of the theocratic leaders, nothing aside from the ideal, everything for the ideal.
The difference is that the Puritan moral code was actually moral, if excessive. They were trying to be holier than God, and to be meek, chaste, modest and humble. These modern Puritans express the same degree of zeal and mouth-foaming fervor by trying to kill more children than Moloch, screw more catamites than Asmodius, gnaw out their own guts with more envy than Leviathan, flatter themselves with more vainglory than Lucifer, and in general by trying to be more unholy than the wretched devils swarming in the smoldering sewers of Hell.
And now they have declared war on ‘he’ and ‘she’.
These people are mentally ill.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
October 8, 2014
Dog Latin
Okay, true believers, here is the scene as its stands.
Any Latin scholars out there, please correct any grammatical errors, except the one deliberate one.
The wolf speaking is actually a she-wolf, but the narrator, Ilya Muromets, does not yet know that. So she should use the proper gender for any words referring to herself, but he should not. (NOTE: this is the only time you will hear this world ‘gender’ used correctly this year.)
A word of background: Ilya and Abby (a thin native girl in a monkey-faced breathing mask who rescued him) are traveling down the vertical highway system at the axis of the Tower of Babel. They are in a parallel timeline where construction was completed on the Tower, and it actually reaches to heaven, or, at least, geosynchronous orbit. Astrology actually works in this universe, and correctly predicts the future. This scene takes place right after a melee fought clinging to the sheer vertical sides of freight-train sized elevator cars.
Since in Abby’s timeline the Tower builders were never scattered by the Confusion of tongues, she has the superpower of polyglossia, like Cypher of the X Men, and speaks and understands all languages.
Ilya is from Oregon on our version of Earth, but he has Wolverine power of regeneration, taken to the level of the Headless Horseman. He was dunked in the Ocean of Uncreation outside timespace, and absorbed some of the unnatural pre-creation substance, ylem, into his cells. The chaos in his bloodstream reacts to his state of mind, and when he prays, he heals.
The dog-headed baboonish wolf-things can cling like Spiderman to sheer surfaces are they nigh invulnerable, like the Tick. (You can see where, as a serious and high-class writer, where I get my themes and ideas.) They are from a timeline where Romulus and Remus actually were suckled by a she-wolf, and fathered a werewolf race in Latium. (And, as a comic book fan, I also throw in these classical references, which people who, you know, read the dreary stuff was assigned them in school rather than SANDMAN or THOR or Fank Miller’s 700 funnybooks will not catch.)
I could see above and behind me the glint of his nocturnal eyes like two coppery mirrors, or two burning matches, approaching.
He slid smoothly down the golden hullsurface toward me. I had some half-baked notion of grabbing the crossbow from him if he got closer, but he halted.
Twenty yards away. Fifteen. Ten. I tried to urge him within arm’s reach by radiating hypnotic waves from my brain, but that was not one of the superpowers I was given.
He stopped.
Does swearing count as blasphemy if you do it silently in your heart? I decided to ask Father Flannery next time I went to confession. If I were so lucky.
I sat there, playing possum and watched him hang head-downward and cock another bolt with three hands.
Cripes, but I wished I had something to throw at him during the moment when there was only one leg holding him to the surface.
This time, I heard the string go thwang before the bolt entered my back. He struck some major vein. I could see the blood pumping from my back. Even with my childhood acting skills of pretending to be a bear, I could not convincingly impersonate a man whose heart had stopped beating.
Lon Chaney spoke in a sonorous, delicate language, in the lofty accents of an aristocrat. I swear he sounded like a guy who would introduce Masterpiece Theatre on public TV.
“Immortalis videtur.” He said, with a slight lilt of laughter to his voice. “Rationalis creatura sum: noli te versari in me fallendo. Si lubet.”
Latin. It was one of the languages I had studied. I could translate it … that is, while sitting with my Lewis & Short Lexicon open at my elbow, or Harden’s Vulgate, a pencil with a good eraser for erasing plenty of mistakes, a bright lamp, a clean desk, and loads of time: hanging sideways over a sickening abyss while bloodied in combat while panicking about underfed little girls dressed in monkey-masks was a different matter. But I knew some of the words.
Deathless, you seem. I am a rational creature: do not busy yourself in deceiving me. If you please.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
October 7, 2014
Theology and Science Fiction, and the Opposition of the World
These are the notes that formed the basis of the talk given Saturday October 4th 2014 at Christendom College, St John the Evangelist Library:
It is always fitting at the beginning of any speculative enterprise to state the position one supports and to define one’s terms.
It is particularly fitting at the beginning of this particular talk, since the spirit of the modern world is very much opposed to defining one’s terms or stating one’s position too clearly, and opposition to that spirit is one of the themes this talk will address.
The subject of this talk is the theology of science fiction and fantasy stories.
An alert student will notice immediately that, technically speaking, there is no subject to this subject matter. There is no such thing as the theology of science fiction. Theology is reasoning about divine things; even the finest science fiction stories hardly fit into that category, much as fans like me idolize them.
So I am arguing that there is no theology in science fiction, but there is something like it.
To this end, I would like to submit to your candid judgment the following propositions:
FIRST, that every genre is defined by the protocols expected by the readership. These protocols are something like an unspoken contract, but something more like the animating spirit of a school of thought;
SECOND that science fiction is defined by the protocols specific to it; it has an identifiable spirit that animates it;
THIRD and finally that the spirit of science fiction, when in an uncorrupted form, is a natural ally of the Church and an enemy of the World and the principalities and powers ruling this world.
This spirit of the world is the enemy of the Church as well.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Any Latin scholars out there?
I have several phrases in my current manuscript that are written in Greek, spoken by a werewolf. Originally, my idea was that werewolves are the Kallikanzaro of Greek legend, the critters busily chopping down the world tree every Christmas eve. But I changed my mind, and decided to make them Roman, sons of Romulus and Remus, and to speak Dog Latin.
I am fair hand at Greek, which I’ve studied, but not Latin, which I have not. Can any of my learned readers help me? Here are the phrases I need in Latin, and medieval or Ciceronian Latin is better, the older the better:
Immortal, you seem. I am a rational creature: be not occupied in deceiving me. Please.
speech without reason
if you please
Carrion-eater
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Book Bomb! CHAPLAIN’S WAR by Brad Torgersen
I want to help out my fellow Legionnaire of the Evil League of Evil by spreading the word. This is from Larry Correia:
The Chaplain’s War
Today we are Book Bombing Brad Torgersen’s debut novel, Chaplain’s War.A chaplain serving in Earth’s space fleet is trapped behind enemy lines where he struggles for both personal survival and humanity’s future.
The mantis cyborgs: insectlike, cruel, and determined to wipe humanity from the face of the galaxy.
The Fleet is humanity’s last chance: a multi-world, multi-national task force assembled to hold the line against the aliens’ overwhelming technology and firepower. Enter Harrison Barlow, who like so many young men of wars past, simply wants to serve his people and partake of the grand adventure of military life. Only, Harrison is not a hot pilot, nor a crack shot with a rifle. What good is a Chaplain’s Assistant in the interstellar battles which will decide the fate of all?
More than he thinks. Because while the mantis insectoids are determined to eliminate the human threat to mantis supremacy, they remember the errors of their past. Is there the slightest chance that humans might have value? Especially since humans seem to have the one thing the mantes explicitly do not: an innate ability to believe in what cannot be proven nor seen God. Captured and stranded behind enemy lines, Barlow must come to grips with the fact that he is not only bargaining for his own life, but the lives of everyone he knows and loves. And so he embarks upon an improbable gambit, determined to alter the course of the entire war.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
October 6, 2014
Prayer Request
A reader writes and asks:
On October 15th the Supreme Court of Canada is set to hear the Carter vs Canada case that seeks to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia in Canada.
Christians around Canada will be praying this does not pass for the next week until the case begins. We could really use all the support we can get as Canada is not the country most acquainted with reason.
I would very much appreciate any spiritual support you can offer.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
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