John C. Wright's Blog, page 64

Stillbrave Charity and CITY BEYOND TIME

Metachronopolis is the golden city beyond time. Ruled by the Masters of Time, who can travel freely throughout the multitudinous time lines of Man’s history, the city is a shining society of heroes and horrors. For the arrogant Masters, who steal famous men and women out of the past and bring them to the eternal city for their amusement, are not only beyond time, but beyond remorse and retribution too. 

CITY BEYOND TIME: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis is John C. Wright’s mind-bending and astonishingly brilliant take on time travel. In making use of a centuries-spanning perspective similar to his highly-regarded  AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND, Wright expertly weaves a larger tale out of a series of smaller ones. Part anthology and part novel, CITY BEYOND TIME is fascinating, melancholy, frightening, and a true masterpiece of story-telling.

As you can probably imagine, we are very pleased to be able to announce that John C. Wright’s latest book is available today on Amazon in Kindle format and at Castalia House in EPUB format. Featuring a cover by the inimitable Kirk DouPonce, the book consists of six of the aforementioned tales, which, in a manner more convoluted than I can possibly hope to summarize here, collectively tell of the fate of the shining city of Metachronopolis. At 167 pages, it is a relatively short book, but one that you will almost surely find yourself reading more than once as Wright expertly explores the paradoxes inherent in the logic of time travel.

As Wright’s fans have come to expect,  CITY BEYOND TIME is more than just an intelligently entertaining story. It is also a thoughtful musing on the nature of power and its corrupting temptations. But no matter how deep the darkness runs, it can never do more than obscure the light.

And this is more than a book announcement, it is also a charity drive. About a month ago, Mr. Wright contacted me about the possibility of bringing some attention to a charity he wished to support. The charity, called Stillbrave, was started by a Christian man who lost his daughter to cancer. Mr. Wright and his wife requested that half his royalties for the first month’s sales be donated to Stillbrave, which we agreed to do. Castalia House also agreed to match his donation.

So, if you buy CITY BEYOND TIME between now and July 23rd, about half the money Castalia receives will go to Stillbrave, in the name of Mr. and Mrs. John C. Wright. Obviously, you can simply donate directly to the charity, but if you also wish to honor Mr. Wright’s efforts, the most efficient means of doing so will be to purchase the book through Castalia House. If you have not yet read Mr. Wright’s work, you may be interested to know that we are giving away his AWAKE IN THE NIGHT today and tomorrow on Amazon.

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

On the Sexual Nature of Man

Here below is a republication of a long essay I wrote back in 2009 under the general title Apologia Pro Opere Sui.  At the request of more than one reader, I have stripped out the specific comments related only to the event that provoked it, in order to frame the argument in more general terms.

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As a faithful Roman Catholic who was an atheist for all his adult life (and most of his childhood) I occupy an interesting position in the ongoing debates concerning the social turmoil caused by sexual unchastity, particularly that one delicately called same-sex attraction.

One is tempted automatically assume that atheists do support or ought to support the sexually liberated position that declares all sexual acts licit between two or more consenting adult partners in their right wits. One is tempted to assume that no rational grounds to condemn sexual libertinism exist, aside from the dogmas and supernatural reasoning of Christian theology.

This temptation must be resisted at all costs, since not only is it untrue, it is foolish, for the drives the conversation out of the realm of natural and logical reasons to avoid sexual immorality and into the realm of the supernatural and theological. Once the issue is falsely labeled as a theological one, is the falsely libeled as an issue where all discussion is offlimits, being a personal matter, and the topic is ejected forthwith from the public forum.

Allow me, then, to give a personal account of how it was that I, resting only on my human reason and with no particle of loyalty to or faith in any theological speculations (which, at the time, I frankly dismissed as egregious and base superstition), was drawn step by step against my will and very much against my inclinations away from the comfortable libertine and libertarian opinions of my youth to the conclusion that the sex act is licit only within marriage, that unchastity is illicit, and that unnatural sexual acts are illicit as well as unnatural.

There are perfectly natural and worldly reasons for a rational atheist to support the Christian position on sexual morality. The following argument shows that the Christian position is the only logical position to hold, given the realities of human nature.

One a personal level, I did not change my conclusions about sexual morality because I became a Christian. The cause and effect was the other way. After cold logic lead me to the conclusions that the only logical position to hold just so happened to be the one held by my (at that time) hated enemies the Christians, I began to look at their egregious and base superstition with a less hostile gaze.

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Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

Attracting Flies with Dung

A reader with the addictive name of Concept Junkie poses a difficult question concerning my articles over at EveryJoe:

Your language, Mr. Wright, in this series of articles is very blunt, as your rhetoric usually is. Now, I’m the last person to want to be seen as promoting anything in the same hemisphere as PC, and I’m usually pretty blunt myself, but while the content of these columns is excellent and I’m enjoying them thoroughly, given that the intended and actual audience is not the same as for your books or your blog, what are your thoughts, if I may ask, on the idea of how to “gather more flies”?

The purpose of the current series of articles was stated in the opening paragraph of last week’s article: to convince Conservatives that the continual accusation that they are stupid, foolish, or uneducated is not merely false but the opposite of the truth. These are intended as a pep talk for our team. It is not intended as persuasive speech to convince a Leftist to question his faith.

However, your question was more general than that: you are asking in general how to evangelize.

My answer is twofold. My first answer is that gentlemen do not concern themselves with the opinions of the world, since the world is filled with folly. The Christian is even less interested in worldly opinion than the gentleman. Once he realizes that he lives in the environs of the City of Destruction, a Christian pilgrim sticks his fingers in his ears and runs toward the Promised Land, crying out “Life! Life! Eternal life!”

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Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

The Leftward Death-Spiral

The Evil League of Evil smites again. I am too delicate of constitution to repeat the details, since the writer involved, Mr. John Scalzi, is one who has treated me with respect in the past, and I would wish to return the favor if I could.

Despite this, my loyalty to the Evil League of Evil requires me to draw attention to the odd phenomenon of leftwing thinkers of reacting to public humiliation by redoubling their efforts to humiliate themselves.

There is a normal psychological mechanism, something like an inner ear, which allows someone to correct himself when his words and thoughts become imbalanced. The social cues, or the whisper of conscience or reason, tells a man he has said something too extreme or too absurd, and that his thought no longer reflect reality, and so he reverses course, modifies his position, admits of some exception, apologizes and puts himself right.

This mechanism, in those poor souls afflicted by the political neurosis of Leftwingnuttery is jammed or, worse, is set in reverse. When they discover themselves to be in an unbalanced position, instead of shifting their center of mass and returning to true, their psychological inner ear tells them their fault is that they are not tipping far enough, and so they throw themselves headlong.

You may learn the details in the words of my esteemed colleague, Sarah Hoyt. I here quote only a modicum of her superb wisdom:

I have, some years ago, identified the process by which left-leaning institutions die. Someone had asked me why an sf editor I will not name, having killed three magazines, got given yet another to kill, and why each magazine was successively more leftist. This was compared to the process by which news magazines and media when in trouble because too leftist for the general public, go hard left just before they die. (Also known as the left-leaning-death-roll.)

Because I was in a field where this (then)worked, I had to explain to the people I was talking to that this happens because in fields that are 90% or more left, this works. See, if your magazine/newspaper/tv station goes under because you’re incompetent, no one is going to give you another job. But if your magazine/newspaper/tv station goes under because you’re “too far left” then the left – aka the rest of your field. Aka those who give awards and jobs – perceive you as a hero, suffering for your convictions, and promptly give you another job. So, if you’re an incompetent idiot, and your business is failing, your best way to cover it up and assure your survival in the field, is to run as far left as fast as you can. This has been trained in at the back of the brain of most people in the media and entertainment by DECADES of this strategy working just fine.

So now that businesses (solo and corporate) in those fields are failing at record levels, everyone is racing to the left as fast as they can, oblivious to the fact that they’re all failing together and no one will be able to give them jobs. (Though frankly to be fair, they can still give them awards.)

What did you expect of Marxists? Contact with reality? If they had that, they wouldn’t be Marxists, a theory that requires you to be a blind fool who believes in wishcasting.

Read the whole thing here: http://accordingtohoyt.com/2014/06/19/the-roll-and-flail/

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

The Mistake of Believing in Americans

Today’s quote is from Mark Steyn: http://www.steynonline.com/6417/harmless-as-an-enemy-treacherous-as-a-friend The words below are his, quoting Prince Sirik:

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Forty years ago, as another American client regime crumbled, the US Ambassador sportingly offered asylum to a former Cambodian prime minister, Prince Sirik Matak. His response is worth quoting:

I thank you very sincerely for your letter and for your offer to transport me towards freedom. I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion. As for you and in particular for your great country, I never believed for a moment that you would have this sentiment of abandoning a people which has chosen liberty. You have refused us your protection and we can do nothing about it. You leave us and it is my wish that you and your country will find happiness under the sky. But mark it well that, if I shall die here on the spot and in my country that I love, it is too bad because we are all born and must die one day. I have only committed the mistake of believing in you, the Americans.

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

The Wright Perspective: On Truth

My latest column, with a shiny new graphic, is up at EveryJoe.

http://www.everyjoe.com/2014/06/18/politics/leftists-think-truth-is-not-true/

It is crucial to the worldview and self esteem of the Left that they regard themselves, despite all evidence to the contrary, as being morally and intellectually superior to their honorable opposition on the Right. A century long nightmare of the mass deaths, wars, broken lives, mass thefts, mass addiction to lying propaganda, and spiritual chaos spread by this political neurosis makes the act of total mental dishonesty needed to maintain this stance of presumptive intellectual superiority both difficult and comical to maintain, yet by heroic effort the Left manages to do so.

It is because they sacrifice everything else on this altar. Their self esteem, or, to call it by its right name, the Sin of Pride, absorbs all their attention and overthrows all other scruples, hesitations and sentiments. They are desperate to maintain their illusory and inflated self-image. Because they are desperate, they are shameless.

The prime evidence of their shamelessness is in the attitude, present in all writings of the Left that venture into philosophical areas, of disdain and dismissal toward the truth. I do not mean that they are untruthful. They are, but that is a side effect. I mean that on a fundamental and philosophical level, there is no place in their worldview for the concept that truth is objective.

In the bleary and psychedelic and flaccid mental world of the Left, truth is a matter of consensus, like the rules of grammar, or a matter of personal preference, like your taste in ice cream.

For them, truth is not true.

Read the rest here: http://www.everyjoe.com/2014/06/18/politics/leftists-think-truth-is-not-true/

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Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

A Letter from Catholic Vote

I heard about this outrage as I was driving home from my dayjob, and found this letter in my inbox. I pass it along without comment, since rage no doubt would make any comments untoward.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Church Christ Himself founded, it is hierarchical after the fashion of the Jewish priesthood, so that it is not an acceptable practice to instruct one’s own bishops and leaders as to their conduction on matter of the Catholic faith. Indeed, in a civilized society, it would be grounds for scourging:

Dear CV Friend,

Nancy Pelosi has done it again.

In news this morning, Pelosi is demanding that her Catholic

bishop not attend the March for Marriage this Thursday in

Washington, DC!

In a letter to Archbishop Cordileone, Pelosi described the March

for Marriage as “venom masquerading as virtue.”

Wow.

This is the same Nancy Pelosi who never wants her bishop to tell

her anything.

Thankfully, San Francisco’s Archbishop won’t be intimidated by

powerful politicians like Nancy Pelosi. Archbishop Cordileone

understands that marriage isn’t about hate or discrimination, or

any of the phony claims made by Pelosi and her anti-marriage

allies.

The defense of marriage is about a simple idea: preserving the

time-honored institution that has served healthy human cultures

for millennia.

So we came up with a simple idea…

Let’s send Nancy Pelosi a message: Let’s tell Nancy Pelosi that

her letter motivated us to cover the costs of several bus loads

of marchers. Then we will send a letter to Pelosi telling her

what her letter to Archbishop Cordileone inspired!

Can you chip in $5 or $10 to help CV sponsor buses this week for

the March for Marriage?

Donate here: https://www.catholicvote.org/donate/

Just $5 from a big group of CV members will help us sponsor

several buses full of marchers.

Please tell all your friends to chip in too. The more the

merrier!

Brian

P.S. I hope to alert the National Organization for Marriage of

our contribution in support of the March for Marriage by

tomorrow. Please help us today with a tax-deductible gift to the

CatholicVote.org Education Fund.

www.catholicvote.org/c3donate?=T2B

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

My Material Contribution to Materialism

Having met three and four and five avowed members of that subspecies, no doubt closely related to mankind, called Reductionist Materialists, Homo Sapiens Reductio Automata, I am exasperated beyond measure that none of them can frame a proper argument to defend, or even explain his views.

My patience, albeit legendary, has finally burst all bounds of reason. Fortunately, this time, patience bursts these bounds inward into the very interior of reason.

In a spirit then of noblest military courtesy to fallen foes, and, in this case, foe unable to mount steed and couch lance, allow me to instruct the Materialist how to frame his argument.

First and foremost, one should define one’s terms.

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Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

Sci Phi (Science Fiction and Philosophy) A Transhuman Chat!

The first interview on TRANSHUMAN AND SUBHUMAN for the sci phi show is up

at

http://sciphishow.com/sps415/

I wince that I mentioned Scarlett O’Hara as an example of a strong female character who does not physically beat anyone up, when, in fact, the scene where she shoots a Yankee soldier in the face with a pistol is the best one in the movie. Sigh.

I do like that the engineers at Sci Phi cleared up my voice to make me sound more human. In the interests of full disclosure, you should be informed of what my voice REALLY sounds like. This following is from my now famous speech given when I resigned from the science fiction writer’s guild:

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

Strength, Weakness, Meekness

Patrick Richardson pens a spirited defense of manhood in an article well worth reading:

http://www.miamiok.com/commentary/art...

I agree with what he says but say he does not say enough. Feminism is not merely the enemy of masculinity but also the foe femininity, because it is the foe of romance. Mr. Richardson is right to regret the loss of chivalry, but he does not say where it is to be found and regained.

There is only one place chivalry can be found: in the Cathedral, whence it came in times gone by. Anyone who looks into the matter will soon discover that one cannot have chivalry without Christianity just as one cannot have Romance without Rome.

All pagan societies worship and revere strength.

And, by all means, let us include among the worshipers of raw strength those postchristians like Karl Marx who borrow Christian ideals without the only metaphysical foundations which can possibly make sense of them.

That is why the question of ‘STRONG female characters’ is so strong in the minds of the new pagans. That is why all this jabber from Left and Right about ‘empowerment’. Feminists despise femininity because they think it makes them look weak.

Anyone who reveres strength despises weakness.

I say Christianity is unique because not even the other monotheistic religion, Judaism, nor the monotheistic heresies, Deism, Gnosticism and Mohammedanism, have the monotheistic God in a position of weakness, born in a stable and dying on a cross. Only we saw our God humiliated. Hence only we have a logical reason to revere and respect the humble.

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Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.