Monthly Archives: June 2018

Jun 18

Some people dislike the idea of “worldbuilding”.

Posted on by

Some people dislike the idea of “worldbuilding”. While the distinction made in this piece is more of a spectrum than a binary, it does have a point.

Reviewers seldom mention the worldbuilding in my Gryphon Clerks series, which was mostly worked out in advance, in detail. Several reviewers have mentioned enjoying the depiction of the world of the Hand of the Trickster books, which I made up as I went along. I think there’s something to be said for both approaches.

Originally shared by Adafruit Industries

Worldbuilding or Worldconjuring? The Science Fiction and Fantasy Debate

https://blog.adafruit.com/2018/06/17/worldbuilding-or-worldconjuring-the-science-fiction-and-fantasy-debate/

via Electric Literature

In contrast to “worldbuilding,” I’ll offer the term “worldconjuring.” Worldconjuring does not attempt to construct a scale model in the reader’s bedroom. Worldconjuring uses hints and literary magic to create the illusion of a world, with the reader working to fill in the gaps. Worldbuilding imposes, worldconjuring collaborates.

Let me make a necessarily incomplete analogy to another platform. In painting, worldbuilding is like Renaissance art that attempts to create realistic figures even when they are cherubs, demons, or god. Worldconjuring is a spectrum of other techniques: Matisse implying dancing figures with a few swoops of the brush, Picasso creating a chaos of objects to summon the horrors of Guernica, Magritte shattering our vision with impossible scenes. We should enjoy realistic paintings, but we shouldn’t impose their standards on every school of art.

Worldbuilding is The Silmarillion, worldconjuring is ancient myths and fairy tales. (In fairy tales, we don’t learn the construction techniques of the witch’s gingerbread house or the import/export routes of evil dwarves.) Worldbuilding is a thirty page explanation of the dining customs of beetle-shaped aliens, worldconjuring is Gregor Samsa turning into a beetle in the first sentence without any other fuss.

Read more

https://blog.adafruit.com/2018/06/17/worldbuilding-or-worldconjuring-the-science-fiction-and-fantasy-debate/

Jun 15

By my count I’ve read 58 of Amazon’s 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime.

Posted on by

By my count I’ve read 58 of Amazon’s 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime. Many of them I enjoyed; some I did not.

I’ve started some others and not wanted to continue. I own a couple more and have never got to them because they’re not really my thing. There are others that I know I won’t like, so I’ve never even tried.

I don’t think I noticed any of them that I’d never considered reading.

I think what I’m saying is: it’s OK to have your taste and not like everything that other people consider amazing. And this is pretty much a list of the usual suspects.

https://www.amazon.com/100-Science-Fiction-Fantasy-Books-to-Read-in-a-Lifetime/b?ie=UTF8&node=12661600011

Jun 15

:: Male mice grow ovaries instead of testes if they are missing a small region of DNA that doesn’t contain any…

Posted on by

:: Male mice grow ovaries instead of testes if they are missing a small region of DNA that doesn’t contain any genes, finds a new paper published in Science. The study, led by researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, could help explain disorders of sex development in humans, at least half of which have an unknown genetic cause. ::

https://godl.es/2JXctDM

Jun 15

The most common result of internal conflict “ending” seems to be that the people who had been fighting it switch…

Posted on by

The most common result of internal conflict “ending” seems to be that the people who had been fighting it switch over to being violent criminals, since that’s what they know. (As I understand it, this is what has happened in Ireland with the remnants of the IRA and the Protestant militias; they’re now criminal gangs, though arguably they always were.)

When violence has impacted the whole of society, it’s very difficult to move on from it.

Notably missing from this analysis is South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I know a little about its existence, but nothing about its long-term effects; any South Africans want to comment? Masha du Toit?

Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger

How do you reintegrate people who have participated in mass violence into society? We don’t often think about this, but our past successes, and failures, to do so have defined our world profoundly.

I wrote this as a follow-up to a side comment I made in a tweet thread this morning about ICE’s child seizure policy. (https://twitter.com/yonatanzunger/status/1007296192378597382) I decided to dive more deeply into it, because it’s something most people don’t know much about the history of, and it’s important.

https://medium.com/@yonatanzunger/war-and-reintegration-d8433c36c8de
Jun 15

Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a hero, who saved ~30,000 Jews & others fleeing Hitler, 10x that of Schindler, defied his…

Posted on by

Originally shared by Anne-Marie Clark

Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a hero, who saved ~30,000 Jews & others fleeing Hitler, 10x that of Schindler, defied his dictator govt & died shunned, in poverty:

“Portugal was neutral during the war. But its Fascist dictator, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, had actually issued orders banning Jews, Russians and stateless people from entering the country.

“Sousa Mendes, his country’s consul general in Bordeaux, knowingly disobeyed those orders, frantically signing visas day and night just before he was recalled to Lisbon in late June 1940.”

^^^^^

“Starting today I will obey my conscience. As a Christian I do not have the right to let these women and men die.”

Quoted in this article, written by his grandson:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/holocaust-remembrance-day_1_b_1434733.html

^^^^^

“I cannot allow all you people to die. Many of you are Jews, and our constitution clearly states that neither the religion nor the political beliefs of foreigners can be used as a pretext for refusing to allow them to stay in Portugal. I’ve decided to be faithful to that principle, but I shan’t resign for all that. The only way I can respect my faith as a Christian is to act in accordance with the dictates of my conscience.”

Quoted in this article:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/sousa-mendes-saved-more-lives-than-schindler-so-why-isnt-he-a-household-name-too-2105882.html

More:

http://sousamendesfoundation.org/aristides-de-sousa-mendes-his-life-and-legacy/

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/08/04/486735086/remembering-portugals-schindler
Jun 14

“When a type of person isn’t depicted in a society’s art, that art conveys a worldview in which that type of person…

Posted on by

“When a type of person isn’t depicted in a society’s art, that art conveys a worldview in which that type of person is either notably rare, non-existent, or not worth depicting.”

My only experience of being attacked and insulted by an internet rando was over the statement that all fiction is political. His namecalling and hostility did not, oddly enough, convince me otherwise.

Originally shared by Standout Books

All art is political, but not all art is consciously political.

Jun 12

The gradual advance of women has seen many new opportunities and possibilities open up for them, but fewer for men.

Posted on by

The gradual advance of women has seen many new opportunities and possibilities open up for them, but fewer for men. That’s one of the reasons two of my recent books (Mister Bucket for Assembly and the not-yet-published Illustrated Gnome News) depict men exploring the possibilities of enjoying “women’s work” as well as vice versa.

I was fortunate to grow up with a close friend who’s gay (although I didn’t know this until we were in our late 20s; such were the times). We somehow managed to remain free from some of the more toxic expectations for how our friendship could be and how we performed masculinity.

I’m a middle-aged straight cis white man, but that doesn’t need to make me into a stereotype.

Originally shared by Keith Wilson

While society is chipping away at giving girls broader access to life’s possibilities, it isn’t presenting boys with a full continuum of how they can be in the world. To carve out a masculine identity requires whittling away everything that falls outside the norms of boyhood. At the earliest ages, it’s about external signifiers like favorite colors, TV shows, and clothes. But later, the paring knife cuts away intimate friendships, emotional range, and open communication.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/imagining-a-better-boyhood/562232/