Tag: Philosophy
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Inducing Flow Through Mindful Writing
You have finite time and energy. The world has infinite distractions. How, then, can a writer stay true to his calling? I began writing my first novel when I was 13. Every day, I sat at my beat-up second-hand laptop and wrote. I wrote and wrote and wrote until I was done. Then I went…
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Cultural Appropriation Enriches Everything
Cultural appropriation is nonsense; adopting ideas from other cultures enriches life.
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Female Characters are not Men with Breasts
The stench of social justice is strong with this piece. Which is why Rat Queens is so damn important: it’s essentially a D&D campaign driven by women. The heart of the story follows the eponymous mercenary team, a brash quartet who know what they want and just go for it… On the off-chance that…
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The Unmaking of Heroes
I grew up with heroes. Sun Wu Kong, Perseus, Thor (the god not the comic book character), Bellerophon, the Eight Immortals, Justice Bao, Heracles, David. The list goes on and on. As I grew older, I found different kinds of heroes: Kusanagi Makoto, Batman, Okumura Rin, the Punisher, Deunun Knute. And, yes, Captain America. People need…
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Only Goodthink Allowed in SFF
The cult of social justice strikes again. Social Justice Warriors have launched a whisper campaign to purge the works of John C. Wright, Larry Correia, Brad R Torgersen and Michael Z Williamson from science fiction and fantasy bookstores in Toronto. All of them have been accused of making homophobic comments. Only Wright has made remarks that could be…
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No safe space for predators
Castalia House recently concluded a series of posts on paedophiles in science fiction. (Part 1 here.) Drawing on testimonials, newspaper reports and oral statements, the expose accuses a number of high-profile writers as sex predators or defenders of sex predators. The series makes for morbid reading. It includes descriptions of outrageous sexual violence, exploitation of…