Author: VD

CITY BEYOND TIME now in paperback

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. Utilizing a centuries-spanning perspective, 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 by one of the most important and audacious authors in science fiction today.

John C. Wright is the Dragon Award-winning author of SOMEWHITHER, THE GOLDEN AGE and AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND. CITY BEYOND TIME: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis is 192 pages and retails for $12.99. From the reviews:

  1. This collection of stories is amazing, and, true to form, incredibly deep and convoluted, (although well thought out). The vagaries of time when time travel is a part of the equation, when cause and effect are disassociated from one another, when paradoxes are used and abused by the ruling class is positively mind-bending.
  2. There are a lot of time travel books out there, the best and enduring being ones that examine questions of why or how or who. John C Wright has done what I’ve never seen before and examined time travel by “ought”; only with questions far deeper than just “ought you kill baby Hitler?”
  3. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves time travel science fiction. It is better then most time travel books that are linear in style and movement. It is by no means predictable and keeps you reading for more.
  4. Time travel has been a staple of science fiction for decades, as has the usual paradoxes. But Wright has tried a new twist – the morality of time travel. What is right and wrong when you can go back in time, rerun the past, and create the future? And what horrors can you conceal? Wright tells these stories with an elegant phrasing rarely seen today. Highly recommended.
  5. He writes as if Ray Bradbury and G.K. Chesterton stepped into an oddly shimmering portal, fractured the timelines, and produced an amalgamation, bent on one thing and one thing only: to produce engaging and enlightening entertainment disguised as books.

SJW doesn’t like being identified as such

The amusing thing about SJWs taking offense to being called SJWs is that they clearly don’t understand that it was originally their own label adopted by their own kind that was weaponized by the Alt-Right’s sarcasm. Also: Every.Single.Time.

I’ve always said that I appreciate all my readers, both those who agree with me and those who don’t. But lately I’ve been puzzled by the new slurs directed at me by some of the latter. Many I didn’t even understand, so I did some digging.

Apparently, tried-and-true insults such as “fag,” “fairy,” “kike” and “hebe” (yes, I’m Jewish) are old-school, especially among the alt-right. That small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state is developing new coded language, much as the Nazis once did, says noted linguist George Lakoff, a professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley.

For instance, in February I wrote about Milo Yiannopoulos, the now-disgraced Breitbart News editor and alt-right poster boy. I heard from many readers about that column, which took Yiannopoulos to task for his incendiary language. But one email caught my eye: “Milo is far less bigoted, misogynist, and hateful than those of you sick sociopathic and psychotic SJW’s who smear him so desperately.” Sick, sociopathic and psychotic, I knew. But SJW? I had no clue. In a personal ad it might mean “straight Jewish woman,” but two of those don’t apply to me. So what was this snarky new gem of an insult?

I emailed back, “What is an SJW?” The reply: “An SJW is a social justice warrior. In the press, this particular public predator tends to be big on PC [political correctness] virtue signaling but happy to smear others viciously with false accusations of sexism, racism, white nationalism, hate speech, etc.”

Well, that was certainly clear — I’m a “public predator” allegedly guilty of smearing Yiannopoulos by referring to his very own, widely reported hateful language.

I started looking into other slurs readers hurled at me. There was “libtard,” and one I really liked at first — “snowflake,” because they’re magical, in moderation.

But here’s the nasty undercurrent: These new words are intrinsic to the alt-right’s rise, according to Lakoff. He connects this to the Nazis and the coded language (prime example: “the master race”) that eventually allowed them to topple governmental institutions. “The strategy is to control discourse,” Lakoff points out. “One way you do that is preemptive name calling . . . based on a moral hierarchy.”

First, the Alt-Right is much bigger than the Alt-White, much less the Alt-Reich. As evidence of this contention, I note that I’ve just been sent translations of the 16 Points in Ukrainian and, of all things, Esperanto. Second, Milo is Alt-Lite, not Alt-Right.

Third, the incessant whining about name-calling by people who don’t hesitate to hurl “Nazi” and “anti-semitic” at a pizza delivery driver who arrives thirty second late with their Veggie Supreme with extra eggplant and tofu is both pathetic as well as indicative of the extreme susceptibility of SJWs to rhetoric.

Fourth, they’re not “codewords”. As one of Steve’s commenters pointed out: ” The alt right is small but has power and this is for one reason only – the alt right is the one group that Calls Things By Their True Name.” And fifth, it’s not hard to understand why Steve Sailer’s appeal remains self-limited, he’s the classic example of the dialectic speaker who simply can’t bring himself to accept the necessity of rhetoric. I mean, if you’re still loftily sperging at this point about using the term “warrior” for SJWs, you simply don’t grasp the way rhetoric works.

Steven Petrow’s column is prima facie evidence of why you should simply utilize SJW instead of whatever your preferred dialectic alternative might be.

“We’re not going into Syria”

The God-Emperor spells it out:

Amid complaints that his aides are saying different things about Syria and his policy is confusing, President Trump emphatically cleared the air. “We’re not going into Syria,” he told me yesterday in an exclusive interview. “Our policy is the same — it hasn’t changed. We’re not going into Syria.”

He was especially upset that Syria had used chemical weapons after supposedly destroying all its stockpiles under a deal President Obama signed in 2013 and repeatedly boasted about. I asked whether that fact gave him more pause about Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.

“I don’t need more pause about Iran,” Trump said. “It was the single worst deal ever. It’s a disgrace that a deal like that was even signed. It made Iran a power from a country that was ready to fall apart.”

He wasn’t finished. “Iran won’t honor its deal. Instead of saying, ‘Thank you very much for saving our country,’ they’ve been emboldened.”

Noting those problems and North Korea’s threatening aggression, Trump said, “I knew I was left a mess, but it’s worse than I thought.”

We’ll see whether he stands by that statement. But regardless, it’s clear that he hasn’t been entirely captured or convinced by the neocons, or he wouldn’t come out publicly and say that.

Sic semper cucks

Any time you see a politician waxing holier than thou and posturing righteously, that’s a pretty reliable sign that he’s covering for his own misbehavior.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said he could no longer vote for Donald Trump in wake of the GOP presidential nominee’s sexually charged words about women.

Bentley comments came as state Alabama U.S. Reps. Martha Roby and Bradley Byrne, on Saturday called for Trump to step aside from the GOP ticket. Trump is under fire for his remarks about him groping women in a 2005 recording.

Roby was one of the first Republicans to speak out against Trump on Saturday, leading what would soon be a chorus of voices against the GOP nominee.

“Now, it is abundantly clear that the best thing for our country and our party is for Trump to step aside and allow a responsible, respectable Republican to lead the ticket,” Roby said in a statement. “Hillary Clinton must not be president, but, with Trump leading the ticket she will be.”

Governor Bentley is expected to resign today after audio was uncovered of Governor Bentley describing how he embraced and placed his hands on an aide’s breasts.

Clearly he should have simply grabbed her… well, you know. Smooth, old man, simply smooth.

The end of civic nationalism: literary edition

Steve Sailer notes that even an SJW version of the 88 books that shaped America tends to demolish the 20th century civic nationalist construct:

I like lists, so here is the 2012 Library of Congress list of 88 Books that Shaped America. It’s not supposed to be the best books, but the most influential, with lots of non-literary works. Despite obvious biases like blacks being vastly better represented than in reality, it’s not a bad list.

A few comments:

– Benjamin Franklin wrote 3 of the 88 books. The only other author with more than one book on the list is Harriet Beecher Stowe with 1.5.

– You can see the role of identity politics taking over as the list gets closer to the present. The last book on the list, one I had never heard of existing before now, was no doubt thrown on in panic when the list-makers realized they hadn’t checked a certain demographically sizable (but culturally insignificant) box.

– One striking thing is the lack of influence of Catholic writers until fairly recently…. This is in contrast to England, where Catholic writers, such as Alexander Pope, pop up even during eras of oppression. And America mostly lacks a literary tradition of converts to Catholicism, like Newman, Hopkins, Chesterton, Waugh, and Greene in England.

– Jewish writers were not major literary figures until roughly after WWII….

– Overall, the weight of Protestants on American culture is pretty overwhelming until the mid-20th Century. So, you can see why there is such a strong urge to retcon American history with heapings of Ellis Island Nation of Immigrants schmaltz to inflate the reputations of the ancestors of today’s top dogs.

Steve is nicer than I am, so he tends to say the same thing rather more politely. Translation: American culture is a white and Protestant culture. Period.

It’s not a nation of immigrants. It’s not a melting pot. It never was. And anyone who tells you otherwise is not only lying, but is usually doing so for reasons related to identity and self-interest.

Z-man’s comment indubitably won the Internet today: Maybe they should pick the 14 that really stand out.

You don’t say

My proposed scenario of a joint US-Chinese effort against North Korea is looking considerably less out there than it did three days ago:

According to Chosun, a Korean news agency, the People’s Republic of China has moved an estimated 150,000 troops to the border of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (a.k.a. North Korea) in order to prepare for “unforeseen circumstances.”

Among such unforeseen circumstances?  The possibility of “military action” by the United States.

Over the weekend, U.S. president Donald Trump ordered the U.S.S. Carl Vinson (CVN – 70) – a 1980 Nimitz-class aircraft carrier – and three guided-missile destroyers to break off planned exercises in Australia and head toward the Korean peninsula.

This redirection was ostensibly ordered in response to North Korea’s latest missile test – in which a nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile called the Pukguksong-2 was successfully fired for the second time.

Both North Korean missile tests took place as Trump was welcoming key Asian leaders for meetings at his Winter White House in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

The Chinese military posturing comes two months after its government announced the immediate suspension of coal imports from North Korea – cutting off a vital economic lifeline for North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.

This doesn’t mean I’m correct. It doesn’t mean that the God-Emperor isn’t sending 150,000 troops to Syria in order to attack Russia, Iran, and the Assad regime there.  But it does demonstrate why it’s probably best to keep your eyes open and your mouth shut when the God-Emperor does something you don’t understand.

Mailvox: but what about [fill-in-the-blank]s

Huggums asks about the likely fate of US Africans in the coming period of ethnic strife:

VD, in your ideal world, what would become of American black people in the coming years? I think you already told me what you think will happen: black people will be forcibly moved or killed at some point in the future based on the “diversity + proximity = war” principle. I’m asking because I want to continue offering my support to your cause because I believe it is actually based in truth, but I no longer see how I can. Where could a black person possibly fit in to this?

My cause is a) the truth, b) Christianity, and c) Western civilization. If anyone can’t support those things, well, I can’t honestly say that have any more concern for their opinion or support than I do for anyone else who is devoted to a) falsehood, b) Satan, or c) barbarism. I don’t have an “ideal world”. I have never constructed my version of utopia. I don’t even believe in the concept of an “ideal world”, and as my novels tend to demonstrate I do not spend any time whatsoever dreaming up a flawless version of the real world. I have certainly never once given any thought to where American black people might fit in such a Panglossian conception.

In fairness, I have likewise never given any thought to the ideal fate of Venezuelans, Esquimaux, kangaroos, dandelions, or praying mantises either. I simply don’t think about such things. I never have. They are not of interest to me.

Huggums is, in my opinion, making two very common mistakes. First is to view everything from the “what about me?” perspective. This is a literal category error; one cannot meaningfully consider macrosocietal trends and issues from an individual perspective. It is ridiculous to say “X would be wrong because it would have negative consequences for me” and it is even worse to say “X is impossible because I wouldn’t want that to happen.”

History doesn’t care about you or your kind. The great waves of social mood don’t care about you or your nation. Even the great men of history, the Gaius Juliuses and the Wellingtons, were caught up and tossed about by the uncaring tides of events. The arrogance of the globalists who think they control the direction of history is entirely misplaced; they are no less utopian dreamers than the communists with their inevitable worker’s paradise or the Christian rapturists who recalculate the date of Christ’s return every other decade.

His second mistake is to confuse what I expect to happen on the basis of past historical patterns with what I want. I cannot stress this enough: what I want is totally irrelevant. What all of us want is irrelevant. What is going to happen is going to happen according to the usual patterns of history.  Yes, blacks will be forcibly moved and killed. As will whites, Koreans, Chinese, Mexicans, mixed-race people, and pretty much everyone else. How does anyone imagine homogeneous nations are created in the first place? They don’t spring ex nihilo out of the rocks.


That being said, my preference is for all association to be voluntary, since it is one of the basic Rights of Englishmen secured for the Posterity of the Founders by the U.S. Constitution. If white people don’t want to live around black people, they should not be forced to do so. Each community should have the right to decide who is, and who is not, permitted to reside in it.

Some communities would prefer to be entirely homogenous. Others would value diversity. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with either preference. I suggest that Huggums try considering the question from the other perspective: how can blacks NOT support the Alt-Right cause when Mexicans are displacing them from historically black communities in the United States and the Chinese are beginning to move into Africa in increasing numbers?

It’s one thing to worry that white people might not want you around. It’s another to realize that your people are liable to be entirely deprived of anywhere they can call home. But if white people don’t have a basic right to their own inviolate homelands, neither does anyone else. In this age of genetic testing, I cannot be certain that I would be welcome in a white community, but that does not lead me to conclude that, therefore, the people of that community should be deprived of their right of free association.

Because neither I, nor Huggums, nor anyone else, possess the intrinsic right to impose ourselves, wanted or not, on literally the entire human race as we happen to see fit at the moment.

Alt-Hero in action

As there has been a tremendous amount of interest expressed in supporting the launch of a Castalia Comics line, and because the Brainstorm almost unanimously decided it was a project that merited pursuing, I’ve done some preliminary work in developing storylines, creating characters, finding good artists, and sorting out what sort of formats we should utilize. This is a mostly new area for me – writing the text for three Archangels comics is the full extent of my previous experience – so there is a bit of a learning curve involved, but I’m leaning towards a combination of smaller digital products combined with larger softcover print books and the occasional hardcover book for the hard core supporters and comics aficionados.

We also have to deal with the fact that Kickstarter is not a serious option. I contacted them and was open about what we intend to do with Alt-Hero, but instead of simply telling us that there was no chance in Hell they would permit such an egregious offense to their SJW principles, they said that we should put the entire campaign together, launch it, and then at that point they would let us know if it was acceptable or not.

Right. Fortunately, there are other options, as needless to say, even this small glimpse of the world of Prophet, Captain Euro, Michael Martel, and the UN-sponsored Global Justice Initiative will suffice to trigger outrage in the average SJW. Assuming that support for the project continues to remain strong, I expect we’ll launch the Alt-Hero kickstarter in 2-3 months.

The Alt-Lite’s fatal flaw

The Z-man explains the fundamental weakness of the Alt-Lite: their firewall is to the Right:

The defect with the Alt-Lite is the same problem the Buckley Conservatives had a generation ago. They have no antibodies to resist entryism, because they lack a timeless definition of what it means to be Alt-Lite. Western Civilization, after all, includes Karl Marx and Hitler. Nazism is just as much a part of the West as John Locke. In fact, Hitler currently casts a longer shadow than any of the men of the Enlightenment. On what grounds can the Alt-Lite reject Hitler, but embrace the slave owning Jefferson?

The same is true of anti-racism and egalitarianism. How can these be rejected when they are inventions of the West? Of course, the Alt-Lite makes no attempt to reject these as that would get them in trouble with the Left. That’s what opens the door to, and requires them to accept, the defining feature of the dominant orthodoxy. That feature is the blank slate. As McInness goes to pains to point out, if a hotep brotha is on the Trump Train, he has a place at the table of the Alt-Lite, a cherished place.

That’s the fatal flaw that was the undoing of the Buckley Right. The Alt-Lite has no affirmative argument. Instead, it is a list of things it is not and most of those things are to their Right. That firewall they are building to their Right, just as Buckley did with Kirk and with the paleocons, comes at the expense of any defensible line of demarcation between themselves and the Left. That leaves them open to entryism, corruption and subversion, which is why the leading opponents of Trump are all Buckley Conservatives.

That brings us back to the beginning. O’Sullivan was mostly correct, but he left out the most important part of the rule. That’s the definition of Right Wing. What is it that forever separates the Right from the Left? What is the thing about which there can be no meeting in the middle, between Left and Right? The great divide that can never be crossed, is biology.The Left embraces the blank slate and rejects biological reality. The Right accepts biology, human diversity and all the truths about the human animal that arise from it.

And biology is precisely where the Alt-Lite flirts with the delusional approach to reality of the Left, because it finds reality too painful and too dismissive of their egalitarianism as well as their various utopian notions.

Spacebunny helpfully sums up the intrinsic incoherency of the Left:

  1. Celebrate Diversity!
  2. We are all the same!
  3. Cultural appropriation is wrong!
It doesn’t bode well for the Alt-Lite that they attempt to cling to so many of the same equalitarian myths that have rendered the Left an incoherent intellectual joke. I’ve yet to see the civic nationalist who can even begin to defend himself against the growing quantity of conclusive nationalist arguments, and yet, many of them cling to their civic nationalism all the same. For now.

That being said, I wholly support the Alt-Lite. Because it is from them that the Alt-Right will grow, as experience and observation gradually clarifies their thinking.