Author: VD

The Problem of Popularity

The good news is that one of science fiction’s greatest living grandmasters, China Mieville, has a new novel coming out this year. In this typically interesting interview, he notes one of the serious problems of popularity, which, interestingly enough, is something I was touching on yesterday on Sigma Game, albeit a different one:

Given the movement of the various weird genres into the mainstream, or this dissolving of the barriers between them, that’s brought some of the writers you care deeply about into the limelight. But have there been any downsides?

Sure. This, to me, is what happens with all subcultures. The more high profile it is, the more you’re going to get sort of sub-par stuff coming in, among the other really good stuff. It’s going to become commodified. Not that it was ever not [commodified], but let’s say, even more so. There will be a kind of cheapening. You end up with kind of Cthulhu plushies, all this stuff. And you can drive yourself mad with this.

It happened with drum and bass. It happened with surrealism. It happens with any interesting subculture — when it reaches a certain critical mass, you end up with the really good side that more people have access to it, more people learn about it, you end up with more people writing in that tradition, some of whom might bring wonderful new things to it. You also end up with the idea that there’s often a banalization. It ends up throwing up its own tropes and clichés and becomes very domesticated.

And this happened with science fiction. I mean, this is slightly before my time, but when there was one of the first waves of real theoretical interest in science fiction in the late ‘60s or ‘70s, there was a playful, tongue-in-cheek response from fandom that was like, “Keep science fiction in the gutter where it belongs.” And this, to me, is the endless dialectic between subculture and success. You’re never going to solve it.

In the case of SF fandom, this popularity combined with diversity, inclusivity, and equality, has literally killed off the very genre itself; the most recent SFWA-denoted science fiction “grandmasters” write neither science fiction nor fantasy. Its a farce that would be absolutely comical if it weren’t metaphorically grinding modernity’s heel in the face of all the good and great science fiction writers of the past. Fortunately, the convergence of the organizations doesn’t actually affect anyone’s ability to write and read the real thing, but this is how we have complete SF/F non-entities like Nalo Hopkinson and Nicola Griffith being dubbed “science fiction grandmasters” while true grandmasters such as Mieville, Neal Stephenson, and John C. Wright go officially unrecognized even though literally everyone knows who the real grandmasters are.

And yes, I know Mieville is a communist. I couldn’t possibly care any less what his ideology is; having been one of 14 economists to correctly describe and anticipate the debt crisis of 2008, and one of even fewer to correctly publicly predict the US-China trade war in 2016, if I didn’t read authors because I believed their views on economics were retarded, I wouldn’t be able to read anyone at all.

In any event, concerning the related discussion on Sigma Game, a commenter pointed out how Heidigger correctly described this process of what is both a widening and a leveling of things and concepts that become popular. In both cases, the effect is much the same.

The problem of rehashing is much broader and a major detriment to thinkers. Heidegger articulates the phenomenon quite well with his notion of “leveling” in which, in being repeatedly rehashed and thereby popularized, things become flattened or leveled down. What were authentic disclosures, observations, ideas, etc. are essentially dumbed down by the public repeaters into something inauthentic but easily digestible at the level of the lowest common denominator. The ideas then — even in their original articulation — are “understood” and quickly passed over as something allegedly familiar, even though what they are familiar with are the dumbed-down rehashings that no longer resemble the original.

This was in a context of one Gamma’s attempt to transform the SSH from a taxonomy that provides a predictive model of human behavior into a neo-Jungian system of archetypes that would theoretically provide objectives for human potentiality. Which, of course, is a dumbed-down rehashing that no longer resembles the original, just as today’s AI-generated elf harem porn and Amazon-produced television bears no resemblance to the literary works of JRR Tolkien.

DISCUSS ON SG

Russell Brand Arrested

One can’t say that this arrest comes as a huge surprise. Although I had Jared Leto and Neil Gaiman higher on my Arrest Bingo card than Russell Brand. It’s not a great time to be a skeezy celebrity known for preying upon one’s fans, however “consensually” one wishes to insist it all was.

British police on Friday charged Russell Brand with rape and sexual assault following an 18-month investigation sparked when four women alleged they had been assaulted by the controversial comedian.

London’s Metropolitan Police force said Brand, 50, faces one count of rape, one of indecent assault, one of oral rape and two of sexual assault. The alleged offenses involve four women and took place between 1999 and 2005 in central London and the English seaside town of Bournemouth.

Police said the investigation remains open and urged anyone with relevant information to contact the force.

In September 2023, British media outlets Channel 4 and the Sunday Times published claims by four women of being sexually assaulted or raped by Brand. The accusers have not been identified.

The comedian, author and “Get Him To The Greek” actor has denied the allegations, saying his relationships were “always consensual.”

Brand is due to appear in a London court on May 2.

The obvious question this raises is if it’s only celebrities currently out of favor with the media who will be held accountable before the law or if it will go after its skeezy darlings too.

And, you know, what about those Pakistani rape gangs whose victims number in the thousands?

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An Echo of Eco

Chapter Two: Bibliothecarius Scriptor Timoris

“For whoso speaketh of Time’s lie, seeketh his own destruction, wherein the keepers of chronology shall pursue him like water pursues the lowlands.”

— Anonymous marginalia, Codex Sangallensis 193

I could still feel the weight of the mysterious tome in my hands as I made my way to Father Umbertus’s private study. The symbols on its cover—a circle quartered by a cross—seemed to burn in my mind’s eye. What had I stumbled upon in that forgotten corner of our library? And why had the sight of it transformed our normally impassive librarian into a man seized by fear?

These questions churned within me as I approached his door. I had been summoned, as I knew I would be. Father Umbertus von Kreuzlingen had been the keeper of Saint Gallen’s literary treasures for longer than I had been alive—thirty-seven years of vigilance that had etched deep lines into his face and turned his beard the color of aged vellum. He was not a man easily disturbed. Yet when he had seen the book in my hands, his face had drained of color as if he beheld not parchment and leather, but the very gates of Hell.

The second episode – the first part of Chapter Two – is up on Arktoons and can be read there. I’ll be posting ~1000-word episodes five times a week, M-F, but I’ll only mention it here if there is a new chapter starting.

If you want to start from the beginning, please begin here: Annos Dormi.

And if you’re an Eco fan, let me know if you think it works or not.

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China Hits Back

Even though the trade war is not the war that China can win right now.

China will soon impose an additional 34 per cent tariffs on all American imports in retaliation for Donald Trump’s 34 per cent levy. Beijing announced the measure today, the most serious escalation in a trade war with Trump that has fed fears of a recession and triggered a global stock market rout.

The new tariff, which comes into effect on April 10, matches the rate of the ‘reciprocal’ tariff imposed by Trump this week. The levies are in addition to the existing tariffs already imposed on US goods.

US exports to China totalled $143.5 billion last year, according to Office of the US Trade Representative data. Oilseeds and grains, including soybeans, machinery and aerospace products were America’s top exports to the country. The US imported $438.9 billion worth of goods from China last year, with top imports including electrical and electronic equipment, machinery, toys, and plastics.

I don’t know why China is doing this, since the balance of trade surplus means that the more US-China trade declines, the more it will hurt China rather than the USA. All I can think is that China isn’t actually concerned about the inevitable trade war, but is more interested in gradually turning up the heat in a conflict that it knows to be unavoidable.

Time would appear to be on China’s side in this regard. It has been 25 years since Bill Clinton announced the United States-China Relation Act of 2000 that opened the floodgates of US-China trade.

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It’s Just the Opening Bid

The “tariff rates” to which the God-Emperor 2.0 utilized to generate his newly-announced tariffs aren’t actually anything of the sort.

Flexport’s team was able to reverse engineer the formula the Administration used to generate the “reciprocal tariffs.” It’s quite simple, they took the trade deficit the US has with each country and divided it by our imports from that country.

This makes a lot more sense, because Switzerland doesn’t have a 61 percent tariff on anything. Which means that we’re in the realm of rhetoric here, not dialectic, and I suspect what the God-Emperor intends is for everyone to simply accept a 10-12 percent tariff rate without any reciprocating tariffs on their own imports.

I’ll admit, I’ve seldom been more wrong than seeing the initial tariffs being graduated UK-EU-CH instead of the other way around, as I was expecting. But Trump’s usual tactic is to slap his interlocutor into accepting his framework, then offering a much more palatable deal that would have looked unattainable before the metaphorical slap in the face.

Regardless, he’s doing the right thing if he wants to rebuild America’s industrial capabilities again.

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Shall We Step Into the Narrative?

This will be the most Gaimanesque thing you’ve ever read in your life, possibly that you will ever read, even if you happen to have been a former fan who read everything that Mr. Tubcuddle has ever written. Not for totally consensual mutual bathing survivors or for the faint of heart.

The Cauldron of Possibilities

Come, let me tell you a secret. The night has unfolded its ink-stained wings, and there is a tub—my tub—waiting like a vessel of polished ivory beneath a sky trembling with stars. It is no ordinary tub, you understand. It is a cauldron of possibilities, a porcelain oracle brimming with water warm as a whispered promise. And it occurs to me, as the moon hoists itself above the pines, that you and I are characters in a story half-written, poised on the brink of a paragraph that could only ever be penned in steam and starlight.

Picture it, if you will: a clawfoot sentinel, older than sin and twice as elegant, crouched in a thicket of wild rosemary and twilight. The air smells of damp earth and distant bonfires, of secrets the wind carried here from places we’ve yet to name. Fireflies drift like embers loosed from some primordial hearth, and the water—ah, the water—shimmers as if the stars themselves dissolved into it, liquid constellations swirling around your ankles, your knees, the curve of your shoulders.

You might protest, of course. The night is cool, you’ll say, and the world beyond this garden is a cacophony of oughts and musts. But consider: the chill is but a goblin’s breath, fleeting and harmless, and the steam rising from the water is a spell to banish it. As for the world? Let it spin on without us awhile. The tub is a life raft, a sanctuary, a confessional where the only vows exchanged are between your skin and the silence.

I cannot promise you safety, mind. There are risks in such an undertaking. The water may play alchemist, transmuting your weariness into something lighter than foam. Your bones might forget their burdens; your mind might wander off, barefoot and grinning, into the labyrinth of stories we’ll conjure between us. You may find yourself laughing at nothing, or everything, or the sheer absurdity of two souls huddled in a tub while the cosmos glitters above like a diamond-studded net.

And yes, there is vulnerability here. To slip into warm water is to surrender to the oldest magic—the same that cradled us before we drew our first breath. But I will be your witness, and you mine. We’ll speak in half-sentences, in glances, in the language of ripples. We’ll let the water carry off the residue of hours and obligations, the silt of small griefs. We’ll be rinsed clean of all our many sins, if only for tonight.

Stay. The night is a raconteur, and it has gifted us this scene: steam curling into the dark, the symphony of crickets and creaking branches, the tub’s embrace like a mother’s arms. There are stories that can only be told submerged. There are truths that dissolve unless spoken into hot, wet air.

Come. The water is growing restless. The stars are leaning closer, eager to eavesdrop. And I—well, I am but a man with a tub and a whimsy, hoping you’ll help me turn this ordinary evening into a tale worth remembering.

What do you say, my dear? Shall we step into the narrative together?

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NOTA BENE: Interestingly enough, this was graded as only 11 percent AI written by Grammarly

EU Hit From Both Sides

The EU’s reaction to getting a taste of its own medicine is downright humorous:

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyden has three big concerns with the new trade/tariff reset. I strongly suggest everyone to read the EU concerns slowly to fully absorb decades of hypocrisy now surfacing:

  • The EU will not be able to compete for U.S. market share with 20% general tariffs and 25% auto tariffs.
  • The EU must deploy countermeasures against the risk of losing industrial capacity and manufacturing to the United States.
  • The EU must defend itself against China dumping cheap products into the EU now rejected by the USA.

Von der Leyen is concerned mostly about the extremely valuable U.S. consumer being leveraged by President Trump, essentially blocking exploitation from EU and Asia. The EU will not tolerate losing access to the most valuable customers in the world, Americans.

So, just to be clear, the EU is now going to a) fight a shooting war with Russia, b) fight an economic war with the USA, and c) fight an economic war with China.

I strongly recommend exiting the so-called Union at the earliest opportunity to every leader of an EU member state. The EU is the last surviving vestige of the neo-liberal world order and it’s going to collapse soon.

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TEMPUS OCCULTUM

When I mourned the death of Umberto Eco, it was also the sense of an opportunity lost. I was planning to see him only a few weeks later, and I was hoping to run an idea past him that I thought he might enjoy. He is gone now, although thankfully he has left a significant treasure trove of books and other writings behind for our edification. But then I thought, if I could get my new best friend to mimic the styles of Neil Gaiman and Larry Correia so well, why could I not combine that ability with my own ability to think in an appropriately convoluted manner, that, while it might not approximate the great man at the peak of his powers, might at least hope to exceed that of his lesser works.

So, let me know what you think of this, especially if you are a serious Eco fan or are sufficiently familiar with his novels. If there is enough interest, I’ll put up a daily post on Arktoons to keep the story going. And don’t worry, this will have no effect on my finishing either SIGMA GAME or A GRAVE OF GODS.

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Continue reading “TEMPUS OCCULTUM”

Democracy in the UK

It’s a good thing the British Labour Party aren’t authoritarians and that they’re fighting so strongly against authoritarianism in Russia, because without them, the British wouldn’t have freedom and democracy and protection from Gab! Meanwhile, in the UK…

Just days after we exposed the UK government’s escalating attacks – including their admission of targeting our infrastructure providers in an act of economic terrorism – new developments confirm that our warnings about the dangers of the UK’s Online Safety Act are being recognized at the highest levels, while simultaneously revealing the truly draconian nature of their threats.

First, the Vindication: A recent report in The Guardian has revealed that officials from the U.S. State Department directly challenged the UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, regarding the severe threat the Online Safety Act poses to freedom of expression.

According to the report:

-Officials from the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) met with Ofcom in London.

-During this meeting, they explicitly raised concerns about how the Online Safety Act risks infringing free speech.

-A State Department spokesperson confirmed this, stating: “As vice-president Vance has said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom. It is important that the UK respect and protect freedom of expression.”

This is significant validation of everything Gab has been fighting against. Even elements within the US government recognize the UK Online Safety Act for the threat it is.

Now, the Stark Escalation: While Ofcom downplays the Act, claiming it only targets “illegal content,” the reality is far more sinister and extends into unprecedented personal threats. The scope of this law isn’t limited; it potentially applies to any user-to-user service accessible in the UK.

And here’s the truly chilling part: Buried within this tyrannical legislation is the power for UK authorities to bring criminal charges against named senior managers at companies deemed non-compliant.

Andrew Torba is at the forefront of this fight and he’s really proven the importance of one man standing his ground against the forces that Clown World brings to bear on every organization that refuses to submit to its Narrative. Fortunately, it appears the God-Emperor 2.0 and his administration are starting to pay attention to this sort of thing, but we can’t count on him or anyone else to ride to the rescue.

We just have to keep building our platforms and infrastructures. I should have some good news on those fronts on tonight’s Arkhaven Nights.

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The Trump Tariffs

They’re hitting Switzerland harder than we expected, and the UK considerably less than we expected, but this will not interrupt our plans nor is it likely to change our book prices. If we have to, we can obviously increase our manufacturing in the USA, but some of the improvements in the coming payment systems should cover most of the increased costs for us. And, as with all things Trump, wait two weeks before attempting to analyze anything.

Regardless, we’re on top of it, we’re prepared for it, and we’ll deal with it in whatever way least disrupts our subscribers.

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