WBH Weekly Digest 2023-04-21
Synoptic history of Europe, The Night Land, how epic fantasy has failed readers, the most horrifying anti-war satire I've read, and a cover reveal for Spengler's Future
Mythic fiction
Art as social technology
You need to ask yourself: what thing am I being accomdated to by reading this story? What am I offering, and to whom? All art does this, whether consciously or not. The character of the author is of supreme importance in making this judgement.
Eulalia!
Northrop Frye on the Romance
Following my online mentor John J. Reilly, I often refer to Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism when I write about stories. It is useful to have another point of reference for talking about the modes and structure of stories than Joseph Campbell, whose Hero’s Journey is the only
Linkfest 2022-10-21: What Killed the Crabs?
Some evidence is provided in this Twitter thread that changing sea ice extent lead to over-crabbing which resulted in a population crash.
I enjoy that one of the spurs of this innovation is oppressive CAFE regulations.
This video has been colorized, and the audio was added to match the image
Linkfest 2022-10-14: Yimbys Don't Hate Cars
The City of Auburn in Maine gives a good example of what YIMBY reforms tend to look like in practice. I see a lot of criticisms of the type “YIMBYs hate cars”, which aren’t even close to accurate. This is what it actually looks like. See for yourself.
Congress
Light Unto Another World by Yakov Merkin
Light Unto Another World by Yakov Merkin [Amazon link] is the first of a planned 10 volume isekai series, with volumes 1 through 5 already published, and 6 through 10 recently crowdfunded on Kickstarter. Uriel Makkis is on his way to a deployment with the Israeli army when he finds