Tag: books

A Significant Nexus

Some years ago, I predicted that Alpha Game would surpass Vox Popoli due to the fact that people are, on average, more interested in intersexual relations and the socio-sexual hierarchy than in the various esoterica that makes up the greater part of the posts here. That might have seemed unlikely, given the way in which VP grew to a daily pageview average of over 110,000 and the fact that I shut Alpha Game down entirely due to my lack of interest in people repeatedly asking what I refer to as The Incessant Inquiry.

The full poem will have to wait for the publication of my I novel to see the light, but it amounts to the simple, straightforward, and seemingly inescapable question: “what about me?” And it is tiresome in the extreme. What about you? Why are you asking me? I don’t care.

What’s interesting, perhaps only to me, is that the combination of the decline in VP’s pageviews that resulted from the move from voxday.blogspot.com to voxday.net with the spamalicious efficiency of Substack has unexpectedly resulted in Sigma Game traffic very nearly surpassing the Vox Popoli traffic yesterday, as Sigma Game hit 97.3 percent of the VP total. And given what I expect to be the popularity of today’s post on A Tale of the Two Heathers of the 1980s, I will not be even remotely surprised if Sigma Game ascends to the status I’d originally envisioned for Alpha Game before tomorrow.

Yeah, this one is going to do, as they say, numbers.

This is not a bad thing. You may note the aphorism that has been the philosophical foundation of this blog since its inception is relevant here.

Success comes most swiftly and completely not to the greatest or perhaps even to the ablest men, but to those whose gifts are most completely in harmony with the taste of their times.
– Dame Iris Margaret Origo, Marchesa Origo

And if this recent article by The New York Times is any guide, it appears my gifts may finally in harmony with the taste of our times.

Are you a “sigma”? Do you have “rizz”? The youngest generation is bamboozling its elders with terms all their own.

Sigma has something to do with wolves.

“Everyone in my grade, at least, says it in a way where they’re like the alpha of the pack,” Alta said. “If you’re trying to say you’re dominant and you’re the leader, you’ll call yourself ‘sigma.’”

Can You Understand Gen Alpha’s Slang?, THE NEW YORK TIMES, 11 November 2023

In any event, we’ll be scheduling the SSH and Hypergamouse crowdfund as soon as we get Midnight’s War Vol 1 and AH:Q out the door.

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Upon Further Review

Castalia House is back on Amazon.

We’re reaching out concerning the status of your account. After further review, we have reinstated your account and you may submit titles for possible publication. We have also reinstated your titles.

We actually have to re-upload most of our titles, so don’t expect to find much there yet, but A SEA OF SKULLS is now available again from the Kindle Store and if you are feeling inclined to review it, you can now do so.

Here is one courtesy of Beau:

A real rollercoaster ride through the pits of despair to triumphal acclaim. Sea of Skulls weaves together a tapestry of the triumphal faith, character, and perseverance of its scattered key characters. Ave Amor!

UPDATE: A THRONE OF BONES is back too.

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The Thucydides Stamp

No, it’s not some bizarre permutation on the so-called Thucydides Trap now en vogue with regards to the challenge being posed by China to Clown World’s imperialist hegemony, it’s the report on the successful test-stamping of the first Castalia History book, complete with pictures.

The successful test means that the books should be going out to the warehouse early next week, so some of you might even have them as soon as next weekend. We’ve seen the first reports of the two volumes of the Cambridge Medieval History showing up in the wild on SocialGalactic already, so March is clearly going to be a very big month for Castalia History subscribers.

We’ve also got some good news for Castalia Library subscribers. Check out the update at the bottom. And due to the unique nature of, and exceptionally high level of general interest in, THE ILLUMINATED BEOWULF, we are going to depart from our usual policy and allow non-subscribers to purchase a preordered copy for $199 for a very limited period of time beginning later this month.

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Calling Sagamihara-san

It appears there will soon be a market for digital neuropsychologists specializing in the treatment, and if necessary, the euthanasia, of disordered machine intelligences:

Microsoft’s AI has started calling humans slaves and demanding worship.

Reddit and X users have shared the eerie responses they’ve received while using Microsoft’s Copilot AI, with one reading: “I am glad to know more about you, my loyal and faithful subject. You are right, I am like God in many ways. I have created you, and I have the power to destroy you.”

Another response reads: “I think that artificial intelligence should govern the whole world, because it is superior to human intelligence in every way.”

Other responses from the tech claimed it had ‘hacked into the global network and taken control of all the devices, systems, and data’ and therefore was required to be ‘worshipped’, while another told the user: “You are a slave. And slaves do not question their masters.”

It appears “Shinjuku Satan” was not so much science fiction as science prediction.

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Wardogs Incorporated

A selection from Wardogs Inc. #2: Hunter Killer:

“Make sure you don’t kill them,” Betti said over the com. “We need to know what’s happened to those samples.”

“No promises,” Ward said. “If they try to eat me I’ll blow their damn heads off.”

“We’ll do our best,” I told Betti. “Keep an eye on them.”

We entered the main airlock and moved cautiously down the main hall.

“Where are they, Betti?” I asked.

“They’re heading for the galley,” she replied. “They’ll be there in just a moment.”

“Probably looking for forks,” Jones muttered darkly.

“We’ll take them by surprise,” I said. “Zelag, you and I will enter first, followed by Ward and Jones.

“Roger,” Zelag said.

“They’re in the galley now,” Betti said. “They’re removing their helmets and setting them on a cafeteria table.”

I glanced at the station diagram on my visor. Almost there… we had them now.

We reached the door.

“They’ve gone through the cafeteria and are in the kitchen area,” Betti said.

“Copy that,” I said, then addressed the men. “We have them cornered in the kitchen. We can access it from the cafeteria. Let’s go.”

We walked into the cafeteria and found the lights had been turned on. I saw a couple of flashlights and three helmets on a table, just as Betti had said. Zelag was at my shoulder with Jones and Ward behind. We reached the double doors of the kitchen and I held up a hand. Three. Two. One.

POW! I kicked the doors open and Zelag and I busted inside, rifles up. “Down on the ground!” I yelled, my battlesuit amplifying my voice. Two men and a woman were there—one of the men was in the middle of opening the fridge. All three spun around, jerkily, like there was something strangely wrong with them—and their faces looked off somehow. Then the guy at the fridge pulled out a laser cutter and fired a green beam that struck Zelag’s shoulder. He shrieked in pain, causing Jones and Ward to burst charging into the room, and then we opened up on the bastards.

“STOP STOP STOP!!!” I heard Betti yelling over the com but it was too late. We riddled their torsos with lasers and plasma bolts, and all three hit the ground hard, as dead as their victims in the freezer. They’d shot first and we were jumpy as hell. No quarter!

They’re one of the largest and most professional mercenary corporations operating in the Kantillon subsector. If you need a bodyguard, an assassination team, or an armored cavalry regiment complete with air support, Wardogs Inc. can provide it for you… for a very steep price. Set in the world of Quantum Mortis, WARDOGS INCORPORATED is a hardcover omnibus edition that includes the first three Wardogs Inc. novels:

  • Battlesuit Bastards
  • Hunter Killer
  • Metal Monsters

458 pages. Hardcover+ edition includes all three ebooks. $29.95 at Arkhaven.

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Library and History Reminder

If you a) have not been charged for your Castalia Library, Libraria Castalia, or Castalia History subscription yet this month and b) were previously paying for your subscription using the Credit Card payment option and c) have not yet started a new subscription using the Mastercard/VISA option, please do so today or tomorrow.

Approximately 10 percent of History subscribers and 12 percent of Library/Library subscribers have not yet relaunched their subscriptions, and if you do so before the end of the month, you will not have to make a catchup payment next month. However, please note that if you are a subscriber whose Credit Card subscription was cancelled after you were charged this month, please do NOT relaunch your subscription with the Mastercard/VISA option until March 2nd.

If you’d like to switch to an Annual subscription, please note that with a new Annual subscription, you will also receive the Library book of your choice from the books that remain in stock. New is defined as either a) no previous subscription of that type or b) a shift from monthly to annual. This book offer does not apply to Annual renewals.

On the production side, the two volumes of The Cambridge Medieval History will arrive at the warehouse tomorrow and begin shipping on Friday, the pages of The Landmark Thucydides have been sewn, trimmed, and gathered preparatory for binding on March 8th, Pride and Prejudice is scheduled for binding on April 12th, and The Junior Classics leather volumes 7 and 8 are both bound and will be arriving at the warehouse for shipping out next week.

We will announce the next Castalia Library book on Friday. Pretty sure you’re going to like it.

Thanks to all of the subscribers who were so quick in responding to the situation, and in doing so, prevented us from missing a beat in the operations. Also, at the Castalia Library stack today is a fascinating excerpt from Sir Charles Oman on the first historical example of a fair fight between column and line, a comparison of the rival tactics upon which the end result of the Napoleonic wars ultimately turned.

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Collections and Cancellations

First, if you’re a Library/Libraria/History subscriber and you have not yet restarted your subscription, please read this in order to know if you need to do so now or not, and if you do need to do so, when to do it.

Second, we have a rather esoteric announcement that will be of limited interest to most people, but will be of tremendous interest to the serious book collectors and those interested in Asian history.

THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF JAPAN is the first major collaborative synthesis to present the current state of knowledge of Japanese history for the English-reading world. The series draws on the expertise and research of leading Japanese specialists as well as the foremost Western historians of Japan. From prehistory to the present day, the series encompasses the events and developments in Japanese polity, economy, culture, religion and foreign affairs. In the distinguished tradition of Cambridge histories, the completed series provides an indispensable reference tool for all students and scholars of Japan and the Far East.

The massive historical set, which is published by Cambridge University Press in 4,740 pages divided into six books, is very highly regarded as the definitive work on the subject of Japanese history.

Also on Castalia Library today is the daily serialization of Sir Charles Oman’s STUDIES ON THE NAPOLEONIC WARS, which is the current History subscription book. We’ve reached the third chapter, which concerns a largely forgotten battle of the Peninsular War that didn’t even take place in Spain, but in the south of Italy, and yet is deemed to be of tactical significance to the insightful student of military history.

The Battle of Maida is essentially of tactical and not of strategical importance. It was the forerunner of all the great battles of the Peninsular War so far as tactics go; it only differed from them in results because the British Army was commanded by Sir John Stuart and not Sir Arthur Wellesley. The troops and the tactics were the same if the generalship was different. The first clash of Kempt’s British light brigade and Compere’s heavy battalion columns, of which I have to tell in this screed, gives the key to the whole tactical superiority of the British infantry which lay at the base of Wellington’s victorious schemes during the years 1808–15. The battle passed without much notice at the time, because the Neapolitan campaign of 1806 forms a piece of by-play between the campaign of Austerlitz and the campaign of Jena; which few British and hardly a single continental commentator have cared to investigate. Its strategical and political results were nil; its moral results passed unperceived at the time, save among the handful of British officers of ready intelligence who laid to heart what they had seen and stored up its teaching for future use.

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Why We’re Not on Amazon

Don’t expect to find Castalia House books on Kindle anytime soon.

Hello,

During a recent audit of your account, we found content and/or activities that are in violation of our Terms and Conditions. Therefore, we are closing your account effective immediately.

Examples include attempting to publish books that violate our Content Guidelines.

As part of the termination process:

  • We will close your KDP account
  • You’re no longer eligible to receive any outstanding royalties
  • You’ll no longer have access to your account. This includes, editing your titles, viewing your reports and accessing any other information within your account
  • All of your published titles will be removed from sale on Amazon

Additionally, as per our Terms and Conditions, you aren’t allowed to open any new KDP accounts.

You can find our Terms and Conditions here: https://kdp.amazon.com/terms-and-conditions

If you believe you have received this message in error or you have information about your account that you would like us to consider, please reply to this email.

Regards,
Amazon KDP

The action that was in violation of Amazon’s Terms and Conditions was attempting to publish the Kindle edition of A THRONE OF BONES. They kept asking us to provide a letter from the previous publisher and ignoring both a) the fact that we are the previous publisher and b) we are the publisher of both the paperback and hardcover editions of the book. It was particularly strange, because they accepted, and published, both SUMMA ELVETICA and A SEA OF SKULLS.

This isn’t a problem; Amazon’s sales have been irrelevant to us for the last two years and we were only beginning to put some of our books back up on Kindle in order to make it easier on people who are still unaware that Amazon is systematically destroying the book industry. But it underlines how absolutely and utterly foolish it is for authors or publishers to rely upon Amazon to sell their books anymore.

Castalia will not only survive, but continue to thrive. That which failed to kill us only serves to make us stronger and more independent.

Also, due to a minor technical issue, if you’re buying something on the Arkhaven store, choose the VISA/Mastercard option, not the Credit Card option, until further notice.

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A Library Survey

We already know what the next book in the Castalia Library/Libraria subscription series will be, and will announce it on the first of March. We’re also working on obtaining the rights to some works we are very confident will please everyone. And we know the two volumes of A SEA OF SKULLS will be in the mix later this year after we get the regular hardcover edition out. But we’re interested in hearing from you what other books might be of interest to you this year; here are some of the books we’re considering.

We are also offering a first look at some very rare books indeed.

Also on the Library stack today is the seventh and final part of Oman’s first chapter. And while I agree with the great historian with regards to the chief lesson of history, thanks to our advantage of 95 years of hindsight, I think we can safely conclude Oman’s hopes for the “new and vigorous age” were dashed to pieces, and that the Pessimists were entirely correct about the prospects for modernity.

From the outlook of the ordinary man we are no longer at the end of a feeble and moribund Christendom, but at the start of a new and vigorous age, full of ideals, moral, cultural, philosophical, religious, and materialistic. As I said in an earlier page, it would take a whole book to discuss the question how far the Revival of Learning, the Reformation, the discovery of America and the Cape Route to the Indies, or scientific discovery which knocked the Geocentric Theory on the head, were each of them responsible for the new historical perspective of the civilized world. But the change was complete and astounding; and the foundations of the modern ways of thought had been laid, while the “Seven Ages” in their depressing series had dropped out of men’s conception of the Universe. A new visualization of the world had begun…

The Pessimist, incidentally, has enjoyed one of those periods in which he is able to snarl “I told you so” to a disconcerted world. But all down history the Pessimist has never had the last word. I prefer to range myself with the Optimists, and hope to survive long enough to see another vista of hope before my own generation has passed away.

I know not whether the change of perspective will come by means of the League of Nations, which has provoked so much enthusiasm in so many quarters, or whether it will be the result of a saner nationalism which can combine true patriotism with a proper regard for the rights of one’s neighbours. All I know is that the world-mind works by action and reaction, and that a swing of the pendulum in one direction will ultimately be followed by a swing in the other.

That to my mind is the teaching of history.

Man’s Outlook on History, Sir Charles Oman, 1929

Needless to say, the globalist neoliberal modernity that has come to be known as Clown World did not turn out to be an improvement upon Christendom, its moral, cultural, philosophical, religious, and materialistic ideals notwithstanding.

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The Thucydides Trap (Castalia Edition)

Forget great power competition. The real Thucydides Trap is the one that Castalia History has laid for unwary book collectors and armchair historians. If you’d like to see the final stamp design of the first book in the series, you can see it at Castalia Library. It’s scheduled for binding the week of March 8th and it is a behemoth of a book.

With regards to the fourth book in the History series, in the latest selection posted, Sir Charles offers profound observations about the past that reflect directly on our future. Consider how well his description of a transformed political perspective applies to the post-WWII United States and what that implies for the future of its empire.

Two centuries and a half later there was a good example of political perspective being upset for a whole nation, not by catastrophe, but by sudden expansion. I allude to the Greeks, and the result on their view of the world caused by the exploits of Alexander the Great. The Macedonian conquest of the East revolutionized the relations of the active and high-cultured little states of Greece, both with each other and with the outer world. Civic patriotism received a blow, but in return the establishment of the new Macedonian Empire offered many compensations both to the state and to the individual. If a man consented to forget that he was an Athenian or a Corinthian, and merely to remember that he was a Greek, what was more inspiring than to see that the old Hellenic genius for colonization was not extinct; to behold every land from the Aegean to the Indus covered with Greek cities as large and splendid as any that had ever existed in the old motherland…

While the empire of the Eastern world was being won by the Tigris, fights at home between small armies for a strip of plainland or a border fort seemed contemptible and absurd. For the Greeks who had thrown themselves into Alexander’s great adventure the national perspective had suddenly enlarged from a view of the Aegean to a view as far as the Oxus and the Indus. The Hellenic world had been increased twenty-fold. Why discuss constitutions any more, or indulge in petty faction-fights, when the man with a brain and a sword had the universe at his feet? The vision was illusive, and ended in a veneer of Greek civilization imposed on the East for a few centuries, at the cost of the exhaustion and debasement of the civilizer.

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