The Marquis de Leech
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Posts posted by The Marquis de Leech
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New story out. The Library of the Ratio, as part of the new issue of New Maps:
https://www.new-maps.com/news/2024/03/spring-2024-announcement/
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14 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:
Congrats!
any word when Old Phuul is out?
I believe Inspired Quill has it pencilled for 1st December 2024.
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Daughters of Derbyshire, my plague story, has been accepted for publication.
The publisher in question? The Lesbian Historical Motif Podcast.
Now, to clarify, given my other recent work: Daughters of Derbyshire does not contain sex at all. Or even romance. It's actually 'clean' historical fiction, this one involving a pair of young Puritan women in 1665-1666. Aforementioned young women obviously delight in each other, but this is a relationship shaped very much by time and place. This is also my first 'professional rate' story sale (8 US cents a word), making it far and away my best ever writing payday.
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On 2/11/2024 at 8:23 AM, Zorral said:
His 'friend' Plato, who was enslaved, could have some words about this natural condition of slavery.
Plato was an aristocrat. Ergo, he'd consider himself one of the people who weren't naturally slaves. It wasn't as if any writers in the Ancient World - apart from those Stoic weirdos - really disputed Aristotle's basic point.
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10 hours ago, SeanF said:
Almost no one in the ancient world tried to pretend slavery was good (Aristotle’s efforts are unconvincing - interestingly he mentions unnamed people who argue that slavery is immoral). It’s accepted, pretty much, that being a slave is a bad condition, one to be avoided.
The attitude seems more, that the world’s a cruel place, and that’s just how it is. You’re either giving the beating, or taking it.
Which has the merit of honesty, at least.
Aristotle's argument is more along the lines of "some people are naturally slaves. Slavery is natural." Though oddly, he does distinguish between that and enslaved people who are not naturally slaves - the latter being enslaved by force and not by nature.
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6 hours ago, Kalbear said:
My vague working theory on why astrology occasionally feels a bit right and might be sometimes is that we are, as a rule, a very northern-hemisphere world and the combination of temperature, moisture and light does actually instill certain personality traits in humans from an early (like 0-3 months) age. This would be testable if we wanted to by seeing if people in the southern hemisphere exhibited more traits associated with 6-month lags in star signs - so, for example Scorpios (Oct 20-Nov 20) in the southern hemisphere would be more like Taurus (April 20th- May 20th).
It's probably bullshit but at least it's testable.
The issue there is that the oldest form of astrology was not the natal variety, which focuses on the individual and their birth. Instead, the court astrologers of the ancient world were interested in the fate of entire societies - whether a given day was an auspicious occasion for a royal marriage, or a war, or something.
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Several points on Astrology:
- The modern newspaper variety has nothing to do with the way it was traditionally practiced.
- Astrology and Astronomy were considered the same thing for most of human history.
- Countless ancient writers, from Aristotle to Augustine, condemn astrologers. This notion of superstitious ancients versus sceptical moderns ignores that humans have been having this conversation for thousands of years.
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7 hours ago, maarsen said:
The scientific method had a very good record of predicting the future of inanimate objects. Religions not so much. As for animate objects, the scientific method does work but not as well as it could, but with improvements every time I look. Again, with religions or philosophies, not so much. However much I enjoy studying philosophy, we really have not made much progress since Plato's time.
You might have noticed that Immanuel Kant pretty much established limits to science... using philosophy.
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8 hours ago, maarsen said:
Mary of England did burn Protestant heretics and Elizabeth certainly had a few Catholics executed but as an Arian Newton would have been seen as a heretic by both sides and would have no protection.
Wrong century. The last burning was well before Newton.
Newton was an eccentric Protestant in the post-Civil War era. In other words, no burning. In fact, he'd have been substantially more safe, given that the post-1688 fear was of Catholics, and Newton safely wasn't that. All those requirements for religious conformity? Done to weed out Catholics, not the likes of him.
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19 minutes ago, maarsen said:
The question arose about Newton's religious and scientific work. Most of Newton's time seems to have been spent on alchemy and numerology, with actual math and science taking a back seat. As to his religious beliefs, he would have been burned as a heretic if his Arian beliefs were known.
England's last burning for heresy was thirty years before Newton was born. Newton's eccentric religious leanings would have cost him his job, but he would not have suffered beyond that.
Newton himself would not have differentiated between his alchemy work and his scientific work. In fact, it has been suggested that his inspiration for gravity was esoteric in origin.
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On the Monotheism/Polytheism front: Platonism gives you a combination of the two. The One as the originator (not strictly a god in Platonic view, because that would be to limit it. The One does not exist because it is Beyond Existence), and the Demiurge as the Craftsman of the world.
On Religion and Science. Science is merely a method of learning via testing hypotheses. It is not the only path to knowledge, of course (mathematics does not test hypotheses). Meanwhile, religion does not make scientifically verifiable claims, so the two fields remain non-contradictory.
On Galileo. The model Galileo was using involved circular orbits, and thus made predictions no better than the old Ptolematic model. When asked to present his work as a hypothesis, Galileo refused, and wrote a text that goes so far as to thinly call the Pope an idiot. The Church reacted badly. Meanwhile, the elliptical orbit issue came with Kepler, and an actual underlying theory of motion to explain matters came with Newton. At the time of Galileo, the matter was far more complex than folk-history would suggest.
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Podcast of my fantasy erotica piece, Blackberry Picking, now out:
https://nobilis.libsyn.com/ep-491-blackberry-picking-by-daniel-stride
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The podcast audio of Blackberry Picking (fantasy erotica) is now out:
https://nobilis.libsyn.com/ep-491-blackberry-picking-by-daniel-stride
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On 12/22/2023 at 2:08 PM, The Grey Wolf Strikes Back said:
Wrote another poem, this time reimagining Bluebeard as an eldritch evil of sorts.
I have an old short story (it's never been accepted, so remains unpublished) where I gender-flip Bluebeard and move the story to the Prohibition-Era USA.
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Five chapters done on novella project, one to go (currently manuscript sits around 27,000 words).
Also a new short story out: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2023/lost-in-the-desert/
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My Arabian horror short story, Lost in the Desert, now out:
https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2023/lost-in-the-desert/
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The Freedom of the Watcher novella sitting at 17,100 words at the end of November. 25,800 words overall this month... yep, that's a good writing month.
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Three chapters done on novella project, totalling 16,000 words.
I'm closing in on 25,000 words for November. A truly excellent writing month.
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Over 20,000 words written in November - two meaty short stories done, and one on-going novella.
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56 minutes ago, SeanF said:
They might once have believed, sincerely, that they were working for the greater good. But it's hard to see them genuinely believing this, by the end of the Third Age. Both of them practise chattel slavery; Saruman is willing to resort to mass rape, to produce the Uruk Hai; both derive amusement from torture; they are either indifferent to the suffering caused to others by their plans, or else they take outright pleasure from it.
Saruman believes it, I think. "Knowledge, rule, order," and all that, and the notion that Sauron can be steered in desirable directions. Saruman is the poster-child for thinking the ends justify the means.
(Sauron is much more advanced on this front. For him, there is no greater good than the advancement of his own power).
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On 11/11/2023 at 6:51 AM, Zorral said:
Herodotus was the older of the two, he was the model, not the other way around.
I said Xenophon, not Herodotus.
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Busy writing shorter fiction at the moment. 13,000 words done so far for November, spread across three stories.
Pat Rothfuss XVIII: Whereof one cannot speak...
in Literature
Posted
I think The Slow Regard of Silent Things is the best thing Rothfuss has written. Primarily because Kvothe isn't in it.