Comments by "William Cox" (@WildBillCox13) on "Overly Sarcastic Productions"
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"Bushido the Soul of Japan" from where a lot of our misconceptions spring like poo from a well fed dog was written in the very late nineteenth century (1st published in 1900). From the Wikipedia:
"Bushido: The Soul of Japan is, along with Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1659–1719), a study of the way of the samurai. A best-seller in its day, it was read by many influential foreigners, among them President Theodore Roosevelt, President John F. Kennedy and Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts.[1]"
The book is kind of like a more modern Ivanho, not a treatise on anything real or rational, but a wistfully compelling social indoctrination in an impossibly idealized format put
forth by the Meji to promote a "new" tradition that everyone was Samurai, not just the privileged few. But, the guy was a brilliant writer. Read the book. He's so good in English
I bet my English teacher Mom would've loved to correspond with him.
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A lovely coverage.
BTW, Red: have you read Long Dark Teatime of the Soul? Doug Adams does a good job on breaking down the 5th wall.
Also, I have no problems writing with immortality as a trope. My "PatchWorld" series examines each trope in turn. In it, I define immortality as:
1) Non Persistent (supernatural health and recuperation)
2) Persistent (comes back if killed-and hates the process on every level)
3) Godhead (can create avatars to send across the worlds. If one dies, it's just X amount of power expended. Avatars are difficult to create, refine, or personalize, however. There is no free lunch). Such a "god", if confronted on his/her/its/their home plane, however, is vulnerable to attack and, possibly, death. I explore that idea, too. A dead, soulless, body that lives forever after its owner was killed.
While the second category is further declined into subclasses.
A) Artifact driven (Stormbringer, the Immortality Pit, Eshkalar's Ring (Patchworld)
B) Ikonic (an Ikon of Xaos, for instance, is a single, non replicating, entity who so represents an ideal that he/she/it is granted virtual immortality. If one loses its Ikonic status it becomes mortal. An Ikon of Xaos persists, regenerates, and might return after being killed. An Ikon of Law, on the other hand, is a reflexive warping of the Planck Field to stabilize imbalances of ethical imperative. Though not individuals, each Ikon of Law will, of course, be identical to the last. Law does not learn. Rather, it commands, restricts, enforces, existing rules.
in conclusion, love the content.
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Law (Kosmos), by definition, is represented on an individual basis by the archetypal "Good Guy"-we see him killing bad guys but his work in the community or toward the commonweal is only alluded to en passant. White hat. Unbreakable conviction in his righteousness, able to kill if he sees the need.
Chaos, by way of contrast, is represented in this swathe of the Myriad Ways by Eshkalar Wardsmith. He's a drunken sot, a drug addict, a mental case, and quite able to act in the world if his sources of inebriation are threatened. He forever falls in with folks about to face the ultimate existential threat. His memory is spotty, however (he's an aphasic amnesiac, the trauma caused by overuse of magic during the creation of the Wards of Elysium), so he forgets it's all happened before until the very end. Then, and only then, does he start bitching about his fate.
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Keeping in meme, are you going to cover Sax Rohmer? Fu manchu strikes again! And Robert E Howard! Conan the noble savage (who gets laid a lot)! Then there's Edgar Rice Burroughs! Tarzan of the "Why am I wearing a loincloth in an Ape pod? Male, elitist, racist, sexist, fantasy pervaded generations! Female oriented literature didn't make the Pop Charts until the Oz Stories! ;-) Well, those and that guy Lewis, and that guy James Barrie who wrote Nancy Drew! And Peter Pan. And the Hardy Boys . . . there's gotta be a chick in there, somewhere, writing about chick issues! I've got it! Mary Shelly! Cursed by a cruel, godless, universe to cold born babies, she sought out an immortal child, born like Athena, directly from her perfectly functional brain. Winning! Another one worth a look is Marion Zimmer Bradley. Check out her coming of age epics; her coverage of teenage angst and anxiety; the Darkover stories. I loved every one, even after they began to echo one another. Wait! There're more! Andre Norton's many fantasy and science fictionesque stories had important scenes in the dark, and she a blind poet . . . and human smart helper animals (social anxiety), mental powers (fear of rejection) . . . and, again, I loved every one! I may hate cultural intolerance and pin-headed racism, but I love a good adventure story!*
<Maxwell Smart> "Your name is Yerrow Craw?"
<Yellow Claw> "Not Yerrow Craw, you idiot! Yerrow Craw!"
*And I enjoy your posts, too!.
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The following heresies are my own.
Anyone see a resonance between the Egyptian and Mexican supernatural/metaphysical/allegorical use of snakes as portals between Earth and the Underworld? I wonder if that's part of Thor Heydedahl's reasoning. I've already written a novel (c2012) based on a supposed Japan/Yucatan connection . . . which, BTW is why Tengu. Again, the guys who draw them heard about them third hand. Bird headed men. Oh yeah . . . the way I see it both bc/ad Egypt and Muromachi or, perhaps, mid to late Ashikaga Japan must've known about the Central American City States built by the Olmec, Toltec, and Maya. In my Conversations with a Dragon (the aforementioned novel) I suggest that a thriving trade in goods of gems and gold on the one side for sword blades and spear heads* and other manufactured goods on the other, drove a series of gambits by the monks at Takao (who do have a convenient tradition of sending their senior monks to sea packed into a boat stocked full of "offerings to the gods"). Now we can properly re-imagine Tengu; they're Mayan Ambassadors and diplomatic staff living on mount Takao during the times in question. And, we can re--imagine the Egyoptian fascination with bird-headed 'gods".
*I know what that sounds like, but I also know how quickly iron rusts to nothing in that climate. That's why the Americans didn't use the stuff. It was too frail for longevity. In short term, however, like in spears or sword blades, it would be game unbalancing . . . like a mandate from the gods of war. When trade broke down, so did Maya's material superiority and, well, the empire collapsed.
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Easy to take a course proven ever-popular and, best of all, television-worthy.
Robin-a Welsh archer of no small talent- distinguished himself in service of the four kings in the Holy Land. Richard conferred upon him Lord of Lox (and Earl of Bagels in France), which is all well and good considering the original Lord of Locksley had recently succumbed to leprosy in Acre.
Returning along a route not shared by his overland riding lord, he-Robin-avoids being taken prisoner, arrives in England, only to discover Prince (now King) John has given those lands (of Lox and Bagels) to another. For want of cream cheese a kingdom was lost.
Arise, sir Robin! Heir to extensive lands since stolen away and none in court to support their return. Richard, conveniently imprisoned by Duke Leopold, cannot help his distinguished minion; in fact, cannot help himself, with John's hands on the royal purse.
The land needs a hero, a man tried and true, with no stink of Abu Grahib on him. So is born the man in the hood, a medieval Batman able to bankroll a considerable stable of mercenaries and like-minded fools in their Sherwood Forest Paradise for Bros.
As one can well imagine, the main target of this underground mud show Combat Sports team was wine shipments from the various monasteries. A good time was had by all <hic>.
Once Richard is ransomed and retrieves the crown, Robin becomes once more lord of yaddayadda, Sir Lion of Bouf, and Duke of Earl. He marries his squeeze; the transvestite spy Mario, and settles down for an interesting go at surviving the plague.
No historical anomalies, no stretches, just every returning veteran's story transferred to an exotic space and time. Certain names have been changed to suit my narrative, however.
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