Andrew Van Ness
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I've been listening to an excellent podcast about WWI and the diplomatic/military complexity of the situation is astounding. What historical influences/texts helped you to form the mindsets of Aral, Piotr, and Miles? I love the way they strategize and plan. They make me think of many different generals and tacticians, and I would love to read those auto/biographies. I wish to plumb the depths of your mind.
Lois McMaster Bujold
My mind has no wish to be plumbed at this time, nor even have wiring run in, but off the top I can direct you to T. E. Lawrence, Basil Liddell Hart, John Keegan, and Barbara Tuchman.
Probably about a hundred more historians and memoirists (first-hand accounts are way the best) whose names escape me without a major spelunking. I read a lot of this stuff back in my teens, when WWII was still saturating the zeitgeist, and my 20s. I was recently reminded of Bat Bomb by Jack Couffer, my fave WWII memoir, although it has no actual war in it. Unless you count burning down the army air corps base.
I don't think you realize how far down and murky the depths of my mind are by now. A lot of my references are reduced to hand-waving and things like, "that memoir by the youngest paratrooper general (oh, Gavin), or "that appalling account of the Bataan death march" (could be any of many), or "the one by the Pacific pilot (Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, aha!) or "the one about the Flying Tigers", or, "the one about the borked first landing in Italy", or... And so on.
You could just take it chronologically, and start with Thucydides, I suppose. Or Herodotus. I can't say that either informed my mind that much, but I guarantee many of the military geeks you wish to study, studied them. Have not read Julius Caesar, but he still has works in print, too.
Ta, L.
My mind has no wish to be plumbed at this time, nor even have wiring run in, but off the top I can direct you to T. E. Lawrence, Basil Liddell Hart, John Keegan, and Barbara Tuchman.
Probably about a hundred more historians and memoirists (first-hand accounts are way the best) whose names escape me without a major spelunking. I read a lot of this stuff back in my teens, when WWII was still saturating the zeitgeist, and my 20s. I was recently reminded of Bat Bomb by Jack Couffer, my fave WWII memoir, although it has no actual war in it. Unless you count burning down the army air corps base.
I don't think you realize how far down and murky the depths of my mind are by now. A lot of my references are reduced to hand-waving and things like, "that memoir by the youngest paratrooper general (oh, Gavin), or "that appalling account of the Bataan death march" (could be any of many), or "the one by the Pacific pilot (Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, aha!) or "the one about the Flying Tigers", or, "the one about the borked first landing in Italy", or... And so on.
You could just take it chronologically, and start with Thucydides, I suppose. Or Herodotus. I can't say that either informed my mind that much, but I guarantee many of the military geeks you wish to study, studied them. Have not read Julius Caesar, but he still has works in print, too.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Andy Lopez
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
A question about the Five Gods world: I would assume that each soul is taken up by one God and one God alone. Has there ever been a case of a soul being given special honors by more than one God? I can think of a man who once bore the miracles for two different Gods, and was the cause of a restoration of something significant to a third. I can picture those funerary rights as being far from the norm.
Kristina
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
First, I love all your books. Thank you so much for writing them! Second, in the afterword to the Young Miles omnibus, you mention two Enya songs - "Cursum Perficio" and "Cu Chulainn" - that you associate with elements in "The Vor Game." Is there any other music that helped inspire your writing, or that you particularly associate with the Vorkosigan or World of the Five Gods books?
D
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hi! I am a huge fan. I have been re-listening to the Vorkosigan books recently, and I was wondering… have you considered writing a book about one or more of Elli Quinn’s sons leaving Athos and coming to find her? I think it would be really fun to see how they interact during an adventure together. Thanks so much for your wonderful books!
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