WBH Weekly Digest 2023-05-12

Found him

Book reviews and literary criticism of adventure stories, along with an archive of John J. Reilly’s The Long View

With Both HandsBenjamin Espen

The Wizards and the Sheep

This is a long-winded story about how master 20th level wizards often get into the sheep business.

Critical Hitsmultiplexer

D&D is in part a resource management game, a kriegspiel that is meant to teach the player how to think strategically.

A Tale of Two Conans - The Essential Malady

Conan - Blood of the Serpent by S. M. Stirling, Titan Books, December 6th, 2022 Last month I reviewed The Siege of the Black Citadel by “The Legend” Chuck Dixon. I mentioned in the review that it was the first I had read that wasn’t written by Robert E. Howard (excepting comics). I expressed that

The Essential Malady - a little bit of anything...JC

My opinion of S. M. Stirling has been waning for some time, but this recent blog review of Stirling's attempt to write a sequel to Robert E. Howard's Conan story "Red Nails" cements that impression.

Causal analysis

Book reviews and literary criticism of adventure stories, along with an archive of John J. Reilly’s The Long View

With Both HandsBenjamin Espen

Suspending Psychology From the Sciences

Until it figures out what its subject matter is. || Crispin Sartwell

Splice TodayCrispin Sartwell

I agree with this, and I suspect the path forward is a synthesis of mental illness as behavior different from the norm and something in your brain isn't right.

Gemini Man Kickstarter Bonus Content

JD Cowan announced that Generation Y: The New Lost Generation will be included as a bonus for all backers of his Kickstarter for Gemini Man. Cowan wrote the book with David V. Stewart and Brian Niemeier to talk about the foibles, and also the promise, of my generation. * Generation X

With Both HandsBenjamin Espen

King Hochschild’s Hoax - The American Conservative

An absurdly deceptive book on Congolese rubber production is better described as historical fiction.

The American ConservativeBruce Gilley

This was pretty interesting. Even I had assumed that the Congo possessions of King Leopold were as bad as often said, but this article goes back to the original sources and shows how the author of the most famous book on the subject systematically mis-represented what people said.

It might still be the case that King Leopold's agents ordered atrocities, but a more honest author would need to redo all of the work. This looks as bad as the attempt to smear Pius XII.

Shakira

Book reviews and literary criticism of adventure stories, along with an archive of John J. Reilly’s The Long View

With Both HandsBenjamin Espen

This should be a Tim Powers story.

Training for the modern age

Book reviews and literary criticism of adventure stories, along with an archive of John J. Reilly’s The Long View

With Both HandsBenjamin Espen

Bob Pardo Once Pushed a Crippled F-4 Home With His F-4. In Flight.

...while in combat over Vietnam.

Smithsonian MagazineSmithsonian Magazine

"Pushed home" oversells what happened, but this is genuinely remarkable.

The age at which we do our greatest work

John J. Reilly was born in 1954. He wrote Spengler’s Future in 1992, and published it in 1993. He was thus 38 or 39 when he started to produce his characteristic works. John continued to write up until his death at the age of 58, a writing career of two

With Both HandsBenjamin Espen