John C. Wright's Blog, page 85
December 23, 2013
In Memory
Rosemary, the beloved wife of Gene Wolfe, has passed away. I met her only once at a science fiction convention, and was deeply impressed with her kindness and fortitude.
Here is her obituary:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyherald/obituary.aspx?pid=168614070
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
December 19, 2013
Chik-Fil-A Day for Duck Dynasty — Call Your Cable Company
Keep in mind that Duck Dynasty is not the highest rated show on A&E. It is not the highest rated cable reality TV show.It is not the highest rated unscripted cable show for this year.
It is the highest rated non-fiction cable show of all cable shows of all time.
But men will not chase lucre when their idols command them, even when they are false idols. The next time someone claims the media glorifies filth and denigrates decency because it merely gives the public what it wants and has no ulterior Leftwing ideology behind, ask him about this example.
You may have heard this story. This is the way the news media reported it:
“Duck Dynasty” dad Phil Robertson has been suspended indefinitely by the A&E Network following his recent comments on homosexuality, the network announced Wednesday night.
“We are extremely disappointed to have read Phil Robertson’s comments in GQ, which are based on his own personal beliefs and are not reflected in the series ‘Duck Dynasty’,” the network said in a statement.
“His personal views in no way reflect those of A&E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community. The network has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.”
When is the last time, dear reader, you heard any major media outlet proclaim themselves to be strong supporters and champions of Christ and His Church?
You may have also heard that Mr Robertson likened Homosexuality to Bestiality or Homosexuals to Terrorists. This is a slander and one that is familiar to me, because the orcs leveled the same slander at me. It is a lie without a particle of truth, uttered by those who cannot read the English language, or who do not care to, and who are confident no one will show the judgment and sense needed to look up the actual remarks.
Below the cut are the actual remarks of Mr Robertson.
(He uses the medical terms for the organs of generation when making his comment, so be warned if you find plain talk too salty.)
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
December 18, 2013
Wright’s Writing Corner: On adding Sense Impressions
Latest from the beautiful and charming wife.
Excerpt:
Next in our reboot of my Writing Tips article is: Senses: Add two to five senses to every description.
Hot and tasty! Two senses at once!
When I started writing, I used to swap the pages I finished that week with two writer friends. We would read each other’s work and send back comments. My friend’s comments were almost universally the same. They constantly complained that I had not included any sense impressions except for sight.
”What does it sound like?” They would ask. “What does it smell like?”
At first, I added additional sense impressions at their urging. Then, with time, I began to remember to do it myself—but it was an artificial process. I had to go back after my first draft and deliberately add them in.
Now, the majority of the time, I remember as I am writing the scene the first time.
Why? You might ask. What’s the big deal about sound and smell, and maybe taste or feel?
arhyalon.livejournal.com/323786.html
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
December 17, 2013
Political Correctness is a Mental Disease
As a science fiction writer, I am abashed and appalled when real life things happening on Earth sound more, starkly, blitheringly, Lovecraftianesquely insane than anything I can imagine happening on Mars or Mongo, or on Earth after the release of the Brain-Eater bacillus.
You cannot make this stuff up.
A high school teacher has been disciplined after a parent says the man told his black son that Santa Claus is white.
Officials at the school in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, about 24 kilometres north of Albuquerque, announced that the teacher recently was disciplined for his comments to the student, but they declined to say how, KOB-TV reported.
The move came after students at Cleveland High School were told they could come to class dressed as Santa, an elf or a reindeer.
Michael Rougier said his son, Christopher, arrived wearing a Santa hat and beard, and the teacher asked the boy: “Don’t you know Santa Clause is white? Why are you wearing that?”
Michael Rougier said the teacher’s comments enraged him.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
December 16, 2013
All the News That’s Fit to Print
I have met people who believe that we are visited by UFO’s. And I have met people who deny that there is a Leftwing media bias.
The difference between the two is that life could possibly exist on other planets, sufficiently advanced to be able to cross the interstellar void, so that the UFO believers have some basis, no matter how tenuous, to give their belief system some partial and tenuous relation to reality.
The other belief system has none. Did you read about the shooting in Colorado in the news today?
….take a look at the Denver Post’s extraordinary behavior this week after the shooting at Colorado’s Arapahoe High School. In the original story on the event, a student at the school describes his disgraced classmate as “a very opinionated Socialist”; in an updated version of the Post’s story, the shooter was not a socialist, but merely “very opinionated.” Why?
This is not the first time, nor the second, nor the third.
Nice, concise list compiled by http://ace.mu.nu/archives/345725.php I reprint it here as a teaching aid to those who cannot see the pro-Left bias in the media.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
December 14, 2013
Strong Female Characters of Oz
I have a question for any reader who cares to answer. In recent days, we’ve had a discussion about strong female characters. We did not discuss little girl characters.
With little girls, the question of sex (outside of perversion) drops out of the equation. But little girls can still be feminine or masculine, a tom-boy or not. My question for readers is this: can a little girl be a strong character?
I am thinking specifically of Dorothy Gale as she is portrayed in the books by L. Frank Baum. I noticed that when reading the first twelve Oz books to my sons that the great charm and the drama from Oz is not so much exciting battles or murders or suchlike. The adventures are usually travelogues or simple quests where the girl (Dorothy, Trot and the oft-forgotten Betsy Bobbin) travel from point A to point B meeting odd characters or quaint villages or talking animals or animate objects along the way.
The Friendship between Dorothy, Trot, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, the Hungry Tiger, the Sawhorse, the Glass Cat, Cap’n Bill, and Scraps the Patchwork Girl and so on and so forth is the main appeal of the series. There is not the slightest hint of romance in Oz (all the little girls are too little) and so the menfolk do not appear as father figures nor as romantic leads, but as friends.
It is rare to see men portrayed in a book starring a female main character simply as friends.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
December 11, 2013
Wright’s Writing Corner–Musings on Writing From the Beautiful And Talented Wife
My wife writes:
On Angels:
Some things are intrinsically hard to write about. Angels may be one of
those things. I have almost never seen them done well in fiction. I
have, however, read really stirring accounts of people who believe that
they have seen real angels. While I have no way to judge the veracity of
their stories, I can feel the power of the narrative. It come with a
sense of awe and wonder.
Somehow, that sense almost never appears in depictions of angels in
fantasy and science fiction. Depictions of angels in genre literature
and media is almost universally negative. They are the real bad guys,
while demons are misunderstood, emo, moody hunks. Or they are weak.
Angels are rigid. Angels are hand-wringers. Angels are boring.
Only the ones who fall in love…emphasis there on the word fall…are
even the slightest bit interesting. When they fall, then they get to be
the cute scruffy hunks.
Read more: http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/32186...
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
December 10, 2013
I Can’t Believe They Let You Do That
Please savor the following words of scathing wisdom from Bill Whittle.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Welcome to the Wrightverse and the Lampverse
My friend Mr Oka has been inspired by a doses of tea and pocky sticks to produce some illustrations.
http://dogmaanddragons.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/after-a-night-of-tea-and-pocky-fueled-scribbling/
I am so flattered that anyone would read my humble books, much less draw a picture of the characters, I would prefer to hear no negative comments about the youthful enthusiasm of the draftsmanship. Beside, my illustrations appearing inside my wife’s UNEXPECTED ENLIGHTENMENT OF RACHEL GRIFFIN are not exactly Rembrandt either (although I like them).
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
December 8, 2013
Saving Science Fiction from Strong Female Characters – Part Six
I have written five essays under the provocative topic of saving science fiction from strong female characters, and proposed a rather unprovocative idea: namely, that woman can be both strong and feminine, and that one does not need to make them overtly masculine to make them admirable and edifying characters.
Indeed, I proposed the idea that confusing strength with masculinity is in truth not a feminist ideal, but a misogynistic idea. He is no friend of woman who says women must act masculine to be equal to men, because that merely makes the word ‘feminine’ equal ‘inferior’. Masculine and feminine are a complimentary relationship, not a master-slave relationship. Is Ginger Rogers inferior to Fred Astair when they waltz, even if he leads? She does all the same steps he does, and she does them backward, and, most impressive of all, Ginger can make goofy Fred look like a dashing figure of elegant romance.
I proposed further that a brief, utterly unscientific survey of pre-1950 science fiction showed a healthy number of perfectly strong female characters even in the most boyish of boy’s literature, for example Jirel of Joiry or the Red Lensman Clarissa MacDougal or Deja Thoris (who, in the text, is both a scientist and a maiden who talks and acts like a Spartan “were his wounds in his back?” -style matron).
The same unscientific survey showed a rise of weaker female characters in the form of Playboy-bunny-styled bits of fluff in the 1960’s and 1970’s. I believe I was the only respondent to this survey, so the answers showed one hundred percent of respondents quizzed being in agreement.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
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