Tag: trainwreck

A shameless scalzification

Jake Kerr shamelessly scalzies G.K. Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday.

So, my new novel is about a future Earth where the population escapes the polluted and dying planet by logging into linked virtual reality servers. They take on roles as fantasy characters, live in former time periods, cruise the Tinder server—all in an effort to get away from the sad world where they live. A mysterious group wants to destroy the virtual reality network to force the citizens to wake up and force the corporations and governments to clean up environment. Their belief is that the planet was purposefully polluted to move people to the corporation-controlled virtual reality operating system. Our hero infiltrates the supreme council of this group and finds that her life is constantly in danger as she moves from secret meetings to administration buildings and virtual reality fantasy servers where she is a level 73 mage. Along the way, everyone betrays everyone else and nothing is what it seems.

That is the description of Thursday, and based solely on that you would never know that it is an adaptation of G. K. Chesterton’s classic The Man Who Was Thursday. And therein lies the following tale.

I first read The Man Who Was Thursday in college, and it immediately became one of my favorite novels. The humor. The plot twists. The intrigue. I was entirely enthralled. Michael Moorcock called it one of the top 100 fantasies of all time, and it’s a seminal novel in the thriller genre, with its series of chases and pursuits. It’s an amazing book with one significant problem—it’s very dated.

The humor references have little cultural meaning to many readers today. The surrealist/spiritual metaphors and allegories are highly specific and jarring for many. And the expositional and philosophical prose is far out of fashion. To make matters worse, the frightening bad guys are anarchists, a group that provides little sense of dread today.

It always struck me that this extraordinary novel deserved to be updated in some form or fashion so that a new generation of readers could enjoy Chesterton’s genius. The more I thought of it over the years, the more I considered doing it myself. Chesterton wrote the plot, the scenes, and the characters. How hard could it be? I thought. Well, I found out when I took on the project last year….

Chesterton’s background was decidedly religious and based on the secular, frightening, and chaotic anarchist forces in 1908. My background was of a modern world dying from neglect, with virtual reality the way the population escaped this dismal reality. The world is even described as “IRL” and the IRL spaces where people live are delineated as “inside” and “outside.” Making all this work required me to add some scenes and change some of the ways that the characters interacted. For example, the opening scene in my book doesn’t exist in The Man Who Was Thursday.

At its heart, The Man Who Was Thursday is steeped in Catholic symbols and Christian messages, and this is where I am most curious about how the book will be received. I’m an atheist and removed all of those pieces from the novel. Yet I’m convinced that I’ve kept the spirit of the novel enough that if you are religious or a Chesterton fan, you will still see those things there, just not as overtly as Chesterton made them. Christian speaker and author Matt Mikalatos addresses this in the book’s afterword.

Now, there is nothing wrong with retelling an old tale. The Brothers Grimm did a bang-up job of it, as did Shakespeare and Tanith Lee. I’ve done it myself, as QUANTUM MORTIS: A Mind Programmed is a rework of Jeff and Jean Sutton’s The Programmed Man, a childhood favorite of mine that I must have re-read at least six or seven times.

The first big difference is that even the biggest fans of the Sutton work like QM:AMP even better than TPM. That is simply not true of Scalzi’s various ripoffs; literally no one likes any of his books better than the original sources from which he borrowed and/or stole. Why do TPM fans like QM-AMP? Because I removed absolutely nothing that was significant or essential from the original novel. I started with the utmost respect for what was there, excised as little as I felt that I possibly could, and focused on expanding from the original. Of course, it probably doesn’t hurt that I am a better writer than Sutton.

Scalzi is not better than Heinlein, Dick, Piper, or Asimov. Dan Brown is not better than Umberto Eco. Terry Brooks is not better than JRR Tolkien. I haven’t read Jake Kerr, but there is virtually no chance he is a better writer, or a better observer of the human condition, than G.K. Chesterton. Their imitations, homages, or ripoffs, as you prefer, are almost guaranteed to suffer by comparison with the original.

Writer’s Lesson #1: follow Shakespeare’s lead, not Scalzi’s. Use lesser writers as source material, not those who are markedly better than you are. It’s rather like a band releasing a cover song. If you try to record and release a Beatles’ song, or a Metallica song, you’re most likely just going to look stupid while pissing off their fans.

The second difference is that you absolutely should not make any changes the core structure or the philosophical heart of the story. Subversion is not homage. To polish some clunky prose, add additional detail or story, or breathe life into previously cardboard characters is one thing, to rework everything to suit your personal prejudices is something altogether different. This scalzification of a classic is not only unbelievably stupid, but tone-deaf, and tends to demonstrate how it is that moral-blind atheists so reliably create ugly mediocrities, even when they begin with solid source material.

You shouldn’t record and release a cover of “Sweet Home Alabama”. But if you insist on doing so anyhow, you definitely shouldn’t change the state of reference to Massachusetts or San Francisco.

In the meantime, WE. ARE. AMUSED. You see, this is a screenshot of the Also Viewed list for The Collapsing Empire. Tor and McRapey are desperately trying to ignore it, so it will be interesting to see how long their self-discipline lasts. If you haven’t preordered THE CORRODING EMPIRE yet, you really should join in the fun. Let’s face it, you’ll want to be able to say that no only were you there, but you made it happen.

How Wikipedia determines reliability

Even I didn’t realize things were this bad at Wikipedia:

In the modern world, bigoted oddballs who are over-familiar with the internet can wield tremendous power — and this potty-mouthed man is a case in point. For when he’s not posting obscene images or racist sentiments, Cockram is a regular editor of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, where (according to multiple posts on his Facebook feed) he operates under the alias ‘Hillbillyholiday’.

Last month, ‘Hillbillyholiday’ was the architect of a cynical PR stunt which saw this newspaper publicly smeared by damning its journalism ‘unreliable’. He and 52 like-minded anti-Press zealots, almost all of whom remain anonymous, collaborated in a vote which persuaded Wikipedia, the sixth most popular website in the world, that it ought to ban the Daily Mail.

The move by the online encyclopedia — which was founded in 2001 and has in a few short years become a hugely influential source of information — was revealed in the pages of the Left-wing Guardian newspaper. It reported that Wikipedia’s editors had decided, in a democratic ballot, that the Mail’s journalism cannot be trusted.

No statistics were offered in support of this claim, which, incidentally, came days before the Mail won Sports Newspaper Of The Year for an unprecedented fourth straight time, and was shortlisted for 15 awards at the British Press Awards, the news industry’s Oscars. (Indeed, as we shall see, the Mail has an enviable record on accuracy.)

Neither did Wikipedia, nor The Guardian, bother to shed much light on how this decision was reached. If they had, then it would have become apparent to readers that this supposed exercise in democracy took place in virtual secrecy, and that Wikipedia’s decision to censor the Mail — the only major news outlet on the face of the Earth to be so censored — was supported by a mere 53 of its editors, or 0.00018 per cent of the site’s 30 million total, plus five ‘administrators’.

Five thought police plus 53 editors is enough to permanently nuke a source for “reliability”. This fact alone is sufficient cause to justify, if not demand, the creation of Infogalactic.

The fall of the house of Tor

It begins….

Now, obviously I am not going to reveal my sources, but I believe I can safely observe that one result of last year’s anti-PNH campaign is that I happened to make a few contacts in the publishing world aside from the obvious ones at Simon & Schuster and Random House. Some of you have probably noticed that we were among the first independent publishers to make use of Pronoun, which may have surprised those who were under the impression that we were anti-Macmillan, but that was never the case.

Anyhow, I understand that we can look forward to hearing that a number of Tor authors are going to suddenly develop newfound respect for the art of self-publishing. And, moreover, this harrowing of the authors is, at least in part, the result of the failure of a major new book from a top author upon whom the publisher was counting to produce significant revenue in a timely manner.

You see, when a Castalia author is late, it doesn’t harm us in the slightest. But when a big book from Tor Books slips, or worse, doesn’t produce, or even worse, slips and then doesn’t produce, that inflicts serious harm on their financial flows. And, contrary to the impression created by their sizable revenues, the big publishing houses tend to get by on relatively small margins, so even a moderate financial shortfall often has to be addressed by slashing books and contracts and authors.

So, keep your eyes open. We should learn exactly where the cuts have been made in the relatively near future.

Tor delenda est.

A tale of two preorders

The Corroding Empire
#15 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera

The Collapsing Empire
#151 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera

And to think that we didn’t even have to pay seven digits for the right to publish the former! A collapsing empire indeed.

Many thanks to Alexandra Erin for the inspiration!

A failure of courage

Merkel and her ministers knew they had blundered badly fairly early on in the migrant crisis:

Germany planned to close its border with Austria and turn back asylum-seekers in September 2015, a move that could have dramatically changed the course of the European refugee crisis that was at its peak at the time, according to a German newspaper.

The Welt am Sonntag reported Sunday that Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ministers agreed Sept. 12 to send thousands of police to the border, where they were to turn back migrants who didn’t have documents entitling them to enter Germany – “including in case of asylum request.”

The plan was halted hours before it was due to take effect on Sept. 13 after officials raised concerns about the border closure during an emergency meeting at Germany’s Interior Ministry, the paper reported .

Citing interviews with several unnamed high-ranking officials involved, Welt am Sonntag reported that ministers didn’t want to take responsibility for a decision that might have been illegal under German and European law. The possibility of unpopular images of police officers blocking women and children was reportedly also a concern, resulting in a change to the police order that effectively allowed all asylum-seekers to enter the country.

It was an invasion and the German officials knew it. But they didn’t want to take responsibility for doing what was necessary or endure the inevitable media heat. So, instead they doubled down on their idiocy. And they are responsible for every theft, every rape, and every murder that has taken place since.

Germany has Magic Dirt too

Angela Merkel announces that standing on German ground is sufficient to make one a member of the Volk:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing heavy criticism for claiming the German people, or Volk, are comprised of anyone currently living in Germany regardless of their background.

The word “Volk”, or people, in German (pronounced “folk”), is a somewhat controversial term in Germany and like many German phrases has no exact English equivalent. Chancellor Merkel is now facing opposition from many, including within her own party, for claiming that anyone living in Germany is part of the Volk, which amounts to saying that all migrants are German by virtue of living in the country, Tag 24 reports.

Merkel made the comments in her home region of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania as she received the formal nomination from her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), to lead the party in this year’s federal election. 95 per cent of the roughly 140 delegates voted for Merkel who ran for the nomination unopposed.

“There is no justification that small groups of our society presume to define who the Volk are, the Volk is everyone who lives in this country,” Merkel said.

These luanatics are making the historical National Socialists look sane and reasonable by comparison. The Nazis merely regarded their ethnicity to be ideal. Merkel is openly disavowing science, history, and philosophy.

The Teutonic edition of Magic Dirt theory is no more credible or convincing than the American version. Indeed, if we are to take it seriously, we will be entirely unable to make any sense of history whatsoever. I mean, who sacked Rome? It couldn’t have been the Visigoths, because the Gothic people who crossed the Danube became Romans as soon as they settled inside the borders of the Eastern Roman Empire, regardless of their background.

Therefore, Alaric the Roman sacked Rome in 410 AD, with the assistance of tens of thousands of other Romans, for no apparent reason.

Civic nationalists who understand that Magic Dirt theory is completely insane when applied to Germany or Great Britain should be able to grasp that their logic is just as insane, and and just as false historically, when applied to the United States of America. At this point, one has to be either borderline retarded or stubbornly self-deluded to remain a civic nationalist rather than a nationalist proper. A dog living in a human household remains a dog, even if it has lived there its whole life. This is hardly a revelation. A can never be Not A.

There is no such thing as a “proposition nation” any more than there is a “proposition animal” or “proposition element”. A “proposition nation” is no more a nation than “social justice” is justice. It is the same damnable deception by redefinition in which the Left habitually engages.

Simon & Schuster cancels Dangerous

It’s official. From Publisher’s Weekly:

After enduring withering criticism since it was revealed in late December that it planned to publish a book by controversial Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, Simon & Schuster said late Monday that it has canceled the book.

A brief statement released by the company read: “After careful consideration, Simon & Schuster and its Threshold Editions imprint have cancelled publication of Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos.”

Castalia will certainly publish it, if Milo is amenable.

I will do a Darkstream tonight, touching on this and other things, at 7 PM Eastern. The replay is here.

Every. Single. Time.

In case you don’t think immigrants are ruthlessly self-serving and totally indifferent to the fate of the nation they pretend to be joining, even for multiple generations, just listen to this third-generation immigrant talk about the so-called benefits of immigration.

Neoconservative Bill Kristol says that white working class Americans should be replaced by immigrants because they have become “lazy,” “decadent” and “spoiled”.

“Look, to be totally honest, if things are so bad as you say with the white working class, don’t you want to get new Americans in?” asked Kristol. “You can make a case that America has been great because every — I think John Adams said this — basically if you are in free society, a capitalist society, after two or three generations of hard work everyone becomes kind of decadent, lazy, spoil. Then, luckily, you have these waves of people coming in from Italy, Ireland, Russia, and now Mexico, who really want to work hard and really want to succeed and really want their kids to live better lives than them and aren’t sort of clipping coupons or hoping that they can hang on and meanwhile grew up as spoiled kids and so forth. In that respect, I don’t know how this moment is that different from the early 20th century.”

No, Bill. They’re not “new Americans”. They are not Americans at all. And neither are you.

There is that vaunted “melting pot” assimilation of which we have heard so much about. Americans should deport Bill Kristol, then dig up the bodies of his father and his grandfather and deport them too.

Ever wonder why (((certain neocons))) are always idiotically banging on about going to war with Russia? Read The Melting Pot and you’ll know why. They’re filled with an irrational historical hatred and seeking retroactive revenge upon Tsar Amalek. Apparently even the 70 years of communist slaughter, suffering, and deprivation to which the Russian people were subject isn’t enough for them. Forget America. Forget Israel. Forget all the challenges that the modern world presently poses to Western civilization. What is really important is that Russia and Germany be destroyed!

They’re observably insane by any civilized standard. Thank God both the God-Emperor and his Strategikon clearly understand this and refuse to listen to them.

Kristol was apparently nervous about his comments being recorded despite making them at a public event. “I hope this thing isn’t being videotaped or ever shown anywhere. Whatever tiny, pathetic future I have is going to totally collapse,” said the founder of the Weekly Standard.

Fortunately, only 731,909 so-called conservatives were dumb enough to follow this disgusting creature’s lead and vote for Evan McMullin. Cellar-Kennedy. Kristol-McMullin. It’s almost as if there is a noticeable pattern there….

That is NOT what is required of an American president

Steve Sailer has no comment concerning Bernard-Henri Lévy’s declaration of U.S. presidential priorities, Jews, Be Wary of Trump in the New York Times.

There is a law that governs the relations between the Jews and the rest of the world. That law was articulated in one form at the time of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, when the great Jewish thinker Gershom Scholem faulted Hannah Arendt for falling short of “ahavat Israel” — for showing insufficient “love of the Jewish people.”

This love is precisely what is required of an American president in dealings affecting Israel. … Whether Jon Stewart or the Jewish Republican donors disdained the kitschy builder with his flamboyant hair, his money, his bling and his properties, including the now world-famous Trump Tower, is obviously not the question.

The essential thing is that President Trump thinks they did, that he seems to see Jews as the caricature of the New York establishment that, for decades, took him for an agreeable but vulgar showman.

This is a perfect example of the self-defensive contempt that has so often fed anti-Semitism, with the Jews appearing, once again, as representatives of an elite that patronized him and against whom he can, now that he is in power, quietly take his revenge.

It reminds me of a story from the Talmud that illustrates this logic well.

It is the story — part history and part “aggadic” embellishment — of Rabbi Yehudah Nessia, one of the foremost figures of Jewish thought of the third century.

Rabbi Yehudah ran a school that a young Roman swineherd would pass by nearly every day. The students at the school, their heads full of knowledge and a sense of their own superiority, never missed a chance to mock and beat the pig farmer.

Years later, Rabbi Yehudah was summoned to the distant city of Caesarea Philippi, to appear before Roman Emperor Diocletian. It seemed that the emperor was full of consideration for his guest. He sent to him one of his most distinguished ambassadors and ordered that a sumptuous bath be provided to allow his guest to cleanse himself after his dusty voyage.

But Diocletian also sent his ambassador on a Friday, so that Rabbi Yehudah would be forced to travel on the Sabbath, violating the most important of commandments.

The emperor also heated the baths to such a degree that the rabbi would have been boiled to death — a fate from which the rabbi was saved by the last-minute intervention of an angel, who cooled the waters.

When the rabbi appeared before Diocletian, he recognized the former swineherd, who said to him with spite, “Just because your god performs miracles, you think you can scorn the emperor?”

I cite this story because it provides a good metaphor for the West today, where, as in ancient Rome, the triumph of nihilism can enable a pig farmer — anybody — to become emperor.

It is a good example, too, of Jewish wisdom, which responds to the situation as follows: “We had contempt for Diocletian the swineherd, but we are ready to honor Diocletian the emperor provided he, like Saul — who, before becoming king had tended donkeys — heeds the prophecy, rises to his office, and becomes a new man.”

Not unlike one reader’s self-defeating attempt to explain how trying to renegotiate the price after receiving what one has bought somehow does not qualify as attempting to cheat the other party, reading this sort of thing makes me wonder if this gentleman even listens to himself talk. He clearly has no idea how reprehensible he sounds to both American and European ears.

I have considerably more respect for swineherds and farmers than for Bernard-Henri Lévy or the sort of “scholar” who believes it is acceptable to mock and beat people because knowledge. Nor is Lévy alone; Bill Kristol also does not believe in prioritizing American national interests, for as he said in response to the God-Emperor’s inaugural speech: “It is profoundly depressing and vulgar to hear an American president proclaim “America First.”

This demonstrates, as if it were necessary, the truth of Jesus Christ’s observation.

No man can serve two masters: for either he. will hate the one, and love the other; or else. he will hold to the one, and despise the other.