The Prompt For Today Is “Conversant”: I’m Biting…

Conversant much lately?  I certainly have not been so when it comes to most areas where I have tried to be conversant in the past.  I’m struggling with many factors in my life, and find it difficult if not approaching impossible to remain civil in conversations about current affairs (I am NOT a fan of the current administration of the USA, or most modern politics for that matter), and many of the dialogues I enjoyed in the past are beyond my grasp for one reason or another.  Yes, yes, I am still CAPABLE of remaining conversant about most if not all of the areas I once was (at least in American English — Ich spreche nur kleine Deutsch, and even less of any other language even though my reading comprehension was surprisingly high for French when I tested it some years back … for which I still bless a succession of language teachers who taught not just by rote when it came to vocabulary, but actively encouraged me to learn the roots of words and phrases as well).

To be conversant, one needs not only a common language, but also subjects about which you and at least one other person need to be knowledgeable enough to exchange thoughts and information in a civil manner.  The conversant individual becomes so not by shouting but by speaking or writing in moderate tones FIRST.  Shouting may follow, for one reason or another, although typically at a point where the conversation has exceeded the limits of civility that emotion can be restrained by.  Madmen and madwomen are seldom if ever conversant in the subjects that drove them to madness in the first place, at least not until they have passed through their insanity and come out the other side leaner, refined by the fires of the spirit, fed by the fuel of knowledge and smelted into the crucible of their own brain.

Being conversant in a subject is not a thing that remains static if one is active and continues the necessary level of interest to be rationally so.  Sure, I can still carry on deep conversations upon the subject of bounded infinities, but I’m not so certain as to how conversant I remain on the subject with as little reading or research as I have done in that field in the most recent twenty years.  Heck, I wasn’t even able to finish my most recent attempt to read Hawking’s popularized work on the subject.  (That may have had more to do with my declining eyesight than I was aware of at the time, yet still…)  For the record, at least two of my most ardent conversational foils on the topic are now deceased:  their personal infinities being freed from mortal bounds, they could perhaps bring new insight into some of the intricacies, new understanding to the nuances of how an infinity can remain so while suffering to exist within the limitations of boundaries.

Conversant now with time in other ways, I’ll close this ramble for the moment with an eternal consideration.  Anyone ready for a conversation?

Daily Prompt: Conversant

Something’s Going On ‘Round Here

I’ve been quiet on-line recently.  Scrambling to survive can rake up a lot of energy, denying it for creative purposes other than furthering survival.

To quote a favorite line from a broadcast personality:  Can we say “Whee” now?  (Bless you, Benny Hill, wherever you are…)

Really.  We have a roof for now.  We have food for a week or more, even if not of a type or with a variety to please both of us.  BUT the challenges are piling up taller, deeper, and darker.  Does make it difficult to write cheerfully positive viewpoints, although some of the darker futures I have envisioned over the years are already getting far too much reinforcement from the political front these days.  (The work on “Tales of the Apocalypse Decade” had to be suspended when I saw where some of the storylines were headed in the face of the ill wind out of Washington D.C. …)

I’ve not updated this blog in far too long.  Distractions and realities of navigating end-of-life care for family members took their own toll.  Added to that was the challenge of assisting my partner’s family as they prepared the house (we’d lived in it with her family as they declined) for disposition.  No small task:  they’d been there for more than thirty years, and there were family records and “stuff” going back at least fifty beyond that even ignoring some of the genealogical records and family history.

We were exhausted by the process, which was made worse by conflicting points of view about the needs of preserving financial records for the estate.  It saddened me considerably to have more than one adult who should have known better advocate for the wholesale destruction of records that legally the estate is bound to preserve by law and / or IRS rules.  My brain suffered whiplash in the process, I tell you true!  (As later matters have developed, even some of what we did manage to preserve has been lost, but we could not have known that at the time.)

Then there’s the small matter of lacking income since.  Declining health has not helped with the writing or the employment search either.  Only so much energy remains after days of dealing with Texas heat, mountains of sometimes crumbling paper, and emotional disruptions.  Health demands a toll, and takes payments from you even when you have nothing in reserve to make those payments.  (Human biochemistry has a VERY efficient collection agent in these matters, a mechanism that is relentless and not easily bribed or mollified.)

So.  What’s next?  We don’t know yet.  Even once we find out, there could be interesting twists and turns before, during, and after the revelations are made.  No doubt interesting to those directly affected, maybe not so much to others.

And THAT, my putative readers, is Life with a capital L.

Art & Craft of Writing: Using Maps And Games

(A prior, simpler version of this article appeared as a reply to a thread [on using maps in the writing / marketing process] in the writer’s forums on How To Think Sideways)

I’ve been a wargamer almost as long as I have been a writer, and have been creating scenarios or adapting published material to game systems pretty much since Day One. Ergo, I have quite a number of odd bits available when I want to haul in a working-space for my story characters — and have dealt with some really creative game rules for approximating 3-D line-of-sight using a 2-D map for the playing surface (the FASA BATTLETECH system has been my fall-back there, although the earlier methods of the Avalon Hill SQUAD LEADER game system appeal to others of my acquaintance). This can be a real help when checking LOS (line-of-sight) for story continuity and visualization.

I find that it helps some people to use hexagonal grids instead of the commonly-available square-grid graph paper when creating or interpreting maps, but that may be an anomalous personal bias of mine showing. With either of those aids, or several other possibilities, it can help to find or make a (semi-)transparent overlay that can be laid on top of any printed or created map. This provides an immediate visual scale that can be simpler to read than measurements acquired by repeatedly moving a ruler. Transparency sheets (like those used with overhead projectors) allow for marking up a map without damaging the original; with a little practice, this concept can be used to show damage effects, terrain additions (where DID that parking garage go up?), temporary structures / “placed” equipment, etc.

The concepts of Frontage, Depth-of-Ranks, and March Times I learned in gaming translated well to my own writing, and may help in “feeling” / visualizing the relationship of map to real- / created- world:

Frontage:
Frontage is not just how wide a person or vehicle or critter is, but how much width of passage they need to function at a given rate of effectiveness for a desired activity — movement, hold-the-line defense, active fighting, et cetera. Frex, that five-foot hallway can be run through if “empty”, but add just one console table and a big guy may have to slow and sidle past (or smash the furniture accidentally while fighting).

Depth-of-Ranks or alternately Formations:
People and objects are three-dimensional at the least, and that includes length as well as width! A covey of quail, a homecoming parade, or an army on the march all take an amount of time to pass by any given reference point. If for some reason the moving group stops, it still has an area-of-coverage greater than the sum of the individuals making up the group. Think for a moment about a marching band. Unless there are VERY careful rehearsals and practice involved, each band member is separated from all those nearest by a minimum of an arm’s-length, or (roughly) one pace.

To further complicate our writing and gaming lives, movement is required — both physically and in terms of position-over-time — to shift from normal marching into any selected formation, either for static (“motion-less”) position or relative to allies, enemies, and features yet still in motion.

One Special-Case class of examples in military formations is any infantry unit maximizing defense through use of shields. “Special” here also involves nomenclature: a Testudo is not a Schiltron, and neither of those is a simple Shield-Wall… and all three have cultural variations. These (and most other) formations require varying amounts of acreage depending upon current circumstances as well. Each has benefits, each has limitations, and each has failed spectacularly when faced with advances in tactics or technology. (Massed archery or gunnery, and area-effect weaponry, being the death of most close-quarter formations at one time or another…)

The classical Phalanx is a fourth often-used description for shield- and spear- / pike- intensive infantry formations, and is perhaps the one most often MIS-used or simply misunderstood. Any discussion of the phalanx is further complicated by placement in history: a phalanx in the army of Alexander the Great at the time of his death was different in composition from that of the Athenians a mere three or four generations earlier, and both were different still from the Greek phalanx that would face Roman legions a few generations afterward, and NONE of those really relate to any modern (20th-century or later) military unit, although usage might make us want to believe otherwise.

The basic phalanx CONCEPT was little changed for at least two millennia, however: a mass of men arranged in a rectangular formation, all carrying a spear or spear-like primary weapon and usually also armed with a secondary (dagger / knife / short sword / etc.). Later descriptions indicate some specialization in the ranks: first rank shield, spear, and short secondary weapon; second rank shield and medium-length weapons (or “choked-up” longer ones), third and fourth ranks pike or other long weapons, sometimes without shields. Additional ranks were usually added up to a depth of eight or more, and a minimum front of ten men, usually more. A “true” Phalanx was seldom less than a hundred soldiers in number, although the more common camp & march unit was based upon the file (column or sometimes pair of columns within the deployed phalanx). Some of my sources are loathe to give the title of Phalanx to any formation of less than five hundred or so…

A convoy of vehicles has a minimum-safe separation distance that increases with speed (if you have been through Driver’s Ed or similar learning experience, remember the discussions about reaction time required to brake to a complete stop?), but ALSO typically has a minimum separation distance when parked in a line. That separation should be enough for crew and passengers to move between convoy elements without crawling through / over / under. There may be special circumstances where the minimum separation is reduced or eliminated due to any of several factors. These include but are not limited to providing cover to dismounted forces (use of vehicles as a temporary fortification, a la “Circle The Wagons!”, whether stationary or on-the-move), reducing threat from dismounted opposition, temporary fencing for herds, etc.

March Times: individual or group, living or mechanical (or other), humans assume that it takes some amount of time to move from Point A to Destination B. (Even with teleportation, Glinda – havta at least think about destination / initiate the transfer, after all!) In the simplest cases, this is a straightforward calculation. At a slightly more complex level, add in meal-times / fuel stops / potty-breaks. For any journey requiring more than the normal amount of time between two meals, it is best to include deliberately-scheduled rest time(s) and other possible fatigue factors.

The astute writer also does a little research into the perils of forced-march and subsequent effects upon performance of not only people and animals but also machinery not given extra maintenance attention.

* = * = * = *

(YES, I do happen to also design or expand / correct the rules for games in an attempt to make the experience more realistic. There is a balancing act involved quite simple to exposition in a given story, where too much detail detracts from enjoyment of the experience. I also happen to sharpen knives, swords – and wits…)

The Semantics of Naming Genres For Books (and other things)

A Curmudgeon-In-Training Rant: cf. http://curtisagency.com/blog/about#comment-9784

INCOMPLETE / WORK-IN-PROGRESS

OK, so Richard J. Wilson asked on a publisher’s WordPress-maintained blog (and had received no visible response after MONTHS…):

Can someone please define these terms: “commercial” fiction; “mainstream” fiction; “upscale” fiction; “literary” fiction; “steam punk” fiction. Thank you!

 My immediate reply said in part:

The first four genre-indicators you list are essentially variations upon the same theme, and may apply at one point or another in the lifespan of any given book with equal degree of squishiness / accuracy (or failure to achieve direct semantic meaning when examined in isolation).  The first three in particular are more-or-less semantically null: a book falls into those because the publisher or a critic says that it does.  “Literary” is a bit more of a stretch, and often indicates something with a high degree of acceptance by critics and perhaps academia, but often lacks true market penetration with the majority of readers (at least within the year or two after initial release).  _Valley of the Dolls_ might be one example of a novel spanning all four categories within my lifetime (and I’m still short of six full decades as I write this).

Steampunk is actually the most descriptive out of the five, and also perhaps simultaneously restrictive and free-wheeling.  The most simplistic definition of steampunk is as a subgenre of science fiction (and fantasy) where technology has advanced or otherwise exists in combinations not seen in the “real” world.  From TV and film, approachable examples can be “Wild Wild West”, “Briscoe County Junior”, and “Back to the Future III”.  In books and derived works, the ancestors of steampunk include Captain Nemo (Jules Verne), the Traveller (H.G. Wells “Time Machine”), and Anthony “Buck” Rogers (Nowlan – yes, a novel came before the film serials, comic strips, and more recent TV series).

So here, in an initial form, is the Curmudgeon-In-Training’s long-form response defining some uses of “genre” in categorizing literary works:

Ground rules up front – what follows is MY opinion.  That opinion is based upon more than a half-century as a reader, and may in some ways contradict your own.  Almost certainly things I opine here will be at odds with one publisher, or academic, or critic, or any other individual who reads.  However, my blog = my rules.  (Grumpiness number one established.  Yay.)

OK, with that basic precept / (hopeful) understanding established, here’s the next biggie:  as long as my stories are getting sold, I don’t give much of a rat’s behind what some scholar in academia or critic hiding behind their position’s title might say, at least as far as I am accorded the right of defense AND (gosh-darn-it-all-to-heck) real and intelligent debate upon our differences.

Going for the third leg of the tripod:  genre definitions inherently begin with a value judgment as to the veracity of the work being defined by the genre. Is it a work of fiction? Is it a poetic examination? Is it NON-fiction? (Yes, there are cross-overs and cross-pollinations and cross-ups out there in the wilds of the “real” world. Live with them. I will attempt to recognize them in the chart/outline when we get there, but remember always that I never claim this to be THE definitive work on this subject. It will go further than the most simplistic basics, however.)

Batter up!  OK, yet, mixed metaphor alert should also be issued.  If I am going to batter at the gates of the literary castles out there, I’m bringing siege equipment to bear upon the task, including shovels to clear away the batter. (Some research may be needed on your part to follow portions of the preceding sentence — have fun storming the castle!…)

Definitions Before Definitions:  Topicality versus “True” Genre

Publishers have traditionally (mis-)used genre to such an extent that the term is indeed rather fuzzy around the edges.  My working Rule of Thumb is to differentiate Genre from Topic.  Genre is hereby decreed to cover a range of topics that have some (RATIONAL) commonality.  Sub-genre is often determined as restrictive to a narrow range of topics.

By way of example, consider the Fiction:Young Adult genre.  One traditional sub-genre of Young Adult popular in my own youth  was Animal Stories, which were further distinguished by topic as Horse Stories, Dog Stories, and the like.  In more recent years, a substantial subgenre of Fiction:Mystery has grown up around Cat Mysteries.

Generally recognized sub-genre in Fiction:Romance may be complicated about as far as any other of the top-tier genre can be.  Consider for the moment a romance set on an alien planet among the survivors of a crashed starship, who have the uncomfortable additional complication of developing psychic abilities due to contamination of the water supply.  Is it Science Fiction, Paranormal, Survival, or Eco-Disaster – or simply Romance in a strange setting?  Pity the traditional publishing assistant trying to market this one!

Genre:  The Essential short-List

• Fiction
• NON-Fiction
• Poetry
• Games/Simulations AKA Participative / Interactive Entertainment

That’s it.  Oh, you wanted more?  Therein lieth the rub.  You get as much out as you put in, and in this case that REALLY requires some skull-sweat on both our parts.

Also, here is as good a place as any to handle “and other things” from the title of this blog entry. “Media” has become another of those over-used conflated words that it really does yield results for us to peel back a few layers from every now and then. Every form of information presentation in a recorded and reproducible form goes into making up “THE MEDIA” — at least when it comes time to try and define genre. Whether a given tale is being related by written words or full-immersion VR, the story will at some point be categorized as existing within the context of one or more genre. I can read an adaptation of any entry in the Indiana Jones movie franchise or I can watch the films. I can do the opposite with Harry Potter, where the books existed first and independently of the cinematic productions. Likewise for The Avengers, or Superman, or One Piece (the last is anime-related, just in case your personal viewing habits aren’t the same as mine).

To maintain our rationality, and occasionally to challenge it, humans tend to categorize the disparate elements of the world we live in as we build up our cognitive understanding of that world. This happens on both individual and group levels, At the least, perhaps at the best, the practice tends to improve not only understanding but the communication of our individual understanding to others we come in contact with. Categorization reduced to memes begets genre. Or such is MY understanding.

Genre Within Super-Categories

I like outlines when dealing with multiple levels of description.  Blame my high school teachers who taught me how to use The Outline as a tool and not something to be feared.  Therefore, we are going to extend the definitions above as bullets-in-outline warrant doing so.  (I’ll keep these as visually consistent as I can, within the limitations of the HTML implementation I’m using to generate this blogpost.)

• Semantic-Null Market Definition (Publishers / Critics) Gradations

See above, in my initial response to Richard.   “commercial”, “mainstream”, “upscale”, “literary” and – sometimes – “non-genre” all tend to blend in and out, mutable marketing terms in the main.  “Literary” is perhaps the one item in the list that is most often MIS-used, particularly when applied to works that haven’t yet been released to the general reading public. In my most curmudgeonly moments, I would advocate reserving Fiction:Literary to works that have remained in print (or return to print regularly) for at least 25 years, or whose authors are deceased and still continue to be reprinted, and / or can truly be described as “timeless”. Note further that I am very well aware that this definition is in serious need of refinement for the new reality of electronically-published works.

1. Fiction (general catch-all heading)
2. Fiction:Children’s

Topics and sub-topics within Children’s Fiction generally are over-shadowed by intended age of the reader and intent of the writer. Much that is written for children has a substantial educational purpose above and beyond entertainment for entertainment’s sake, but not all. Bless Dr. Seuss for now and forever! Theodore Geisl got it right, and brought back silly for the child in all of us…

3. Fiction:Young Adult
4. Fiction:Young Adult:By SubGenre/Topic
• Fiction:YoungAdult:Adventure
• Fiction:YoungAdult:Animal (may be better described as Animal-Centric: Lassie, Flicka, Black Beauty, Flipper, etc.)
• Fiction:YoungAdult:Teen Angst (High School / College Life)
• Fiction:YoungAdult:Mystery/Thriller (including series such as Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Rick Brandt, etc.)
• Fiction:YoungAdult:Vocational (a [dated] series example is Cherry Ames: [whatever] Nurse)
• Fiction:YoungAdult:Fantasy (e.g. Harry Potter, )
• Fiction:YoungAdult:Science Fiction ([dated] example Have Spacesuit, Will Travel)
• Fiction:YoungAdult:Paranormal
5. Fiction:Young Adult:Media-Driven
6. Fiction:Science Fiction
   • Fiction:Science Fiction:Space Opera
   • Fiction:Science Fiction:Alternate Reality
   • Fiction:Science Fiction:Apocalyptic
   • Fiction:Science Fiction:Post-Apocalyptic
   • Fiction:Science Fiction:Media-Driven
   • Fiction:Science Fiction:Military
   • Fiction:Science Fiction:Science Fantasy
   • Fiction:Science Fiction:Slipstream
   • Fiction:Science Fiction:Steampunk
   • Fiction:Science Fiction:Sociological/Political

   and so forth… Science Fiction as a genre has been under attack of one form or another since the genre was developed.  Often conflated with “pure” Fantasy even by the practitioners in the field, there has been some push from time to time to use “Speculative” fiction to describe the combination — a somewhat misleading term, as ALL fiction is in some fashion speculative.

7. Fiction:Adventure AKA Men’s Adventure (significant subgenre by topic exist)
8. Fiction:Mystery
9. Fiction:Nautical
10. Fiction:Nautical:Pre-Napoleonic
11. Fiction:Nautical:Napoleonic
12. Fiction:Nautical:Other Historical
13. Fiction:Alternate History
14. Fiction:Western (“Horse Opera”)
15. Fiction:Romance
16. Fiction:Horror
17. Fiction:Fantasy
18. Fiction:Thriller
19. Fiction:Thriller:Techno-thriller
20. NON-Fiction
21. NON-Fiction:Journals, Memoirs,  and Auto-biography
22. NON-Fiction:Biography
23. NON-Fiction:Erotica
24. NON-Fiction:History
25. NON-Fiction:Science
26. NON-Fiction:Religion
27. NON-Fiction:Textbooks and Instructional Materials
28. NON-Fiction:Commentary And Criticism
29. Poetry
30. Poetry:Lyrics
31. Poetry:Epic
32. Poetry:NonRhyming

February 11, 2014CE – Implications of Fighting Back

There is an organized movement opposing mass surveillance of Internet and other electronically-exchanged information sources.  The organizers have chosen 11FEB2014CE as the day for a mass observance and general resistance point.  (Link follows, after some commentary on my part.)

I’ve yet to decide a more formal stance for myself – I tend toward “Not on your tintype!”, but there is such a thing as too little regard for evil in the world.  Be very very certain that I class terrorism as evil, be it on the scale of bullying one person or forcing a commercial jet to impact an occupied skyscraper.

Fighting back for me takes nearly as many forms in the long run.  “Fat jokes” aren’t a safe refuge for bullying if I’m in the neighborhood.  Neither are gay jokes, Scouting jokes, ethnic jokes, or geek jokes.  Plenty more “target” jokes that will get me riled up, and some of those even if the joke-spouter is targeting themselves.   I may laugh.  I may cry.  I may even repeat the joke later (AdAPOLOGIESvance, not perfect here) – but only after re-consideration.  Is the joke a deliberate attack?  Is it mean-ness for the sake of being mean?

OR is the joke a sharing, a commiseration with the human plight we share with the target?  Deprecative humor does have a role in establishing community.  My contention here is that it should not be used to tear apart what is still being built.

Government agencies by their past actions very seldom receive the same level of defense from me.  There are good men and women working to keep us safe however, yet all too often they find themselves at odds with the procedures and policies of the agencies which employ them.

In the interest of fairness, I’ll make this declaration —  NSA / FBI / CIA / whatever other alphabet-soup agency is out there from whichever government, group, or corporation:  you have full permission to kiss my rear repeatedly and with relish.  When/if you choose to try and do more than that, or your assorted lackeys seek to make a profit off the act, remember my words and the actions I have used in the past and hereby pledge to use in the future.

To paraphrase a few recent cultural icons, you really do not want to make me angry.  I bite back when bitten.  As the little guy in the fight, I’m also likely to show only as much restraint as it seems to take so I won’t inadvertently damage bystanders (and even then, I’ll weigh the cost of collateral damage as much after the fact as before, particularly if you rush my thinking too much).

And for all of that and quite a solid bit more I will make NO apology.

https://thedaywefightback.org/

Absence and Presence

“Life Happens … sometimes, with great insistence on PAYING
ATTENTION”

Calendar 2013 was not kind to the household I live in, or to my family, or to many friends.

To that end, I spent far more time dealing with off-line events than I did paying attention on-line.  Oh, I kept writing (as mentioned elsewhere, I write like I breathe…), but my awareness was very much focused on physical and immediate matters of existence.  Friends and family facing cancer, loss of loved ones, and in one case a Parkinson’s-afflicted household member’s broken hip leading via surgery to long-term residence in a nursing facility (now expected to be permanent relocation).  More about that last in a bit…

Some of my creative outlets went away as well.  Others lost my regular attention as matters requiring focus and physical presence consumed my thoughts, time, and energies.

That all said, “I’m back!” and I have a backlog of commentary upon life, the universe, and everything to put into something like a permanent form of expression now.

That should account for my renewed presence in an on-line sense.

About that broken hip:  Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive and ultimately fatal condition, and some of how it affects the patient is all the more nasty because it is relatively slow in the onset of symptoms — and those symptoms may be mis-attributed or conflated with other medical events.  Add in the general declines associated with aging, the deterioration in muscle response, and stubborn (human!, after all) insistence upon maintaining as much of the daily routine as possible, THEN serve up a few lesser-known “Gotcha!” side effects.

There are other terms / descriptions that may be more medically-correct, but I will call one of those Parkinson’s “Gotcha” effects “anesthesia senility”.  Three and a half years ago I’d never heard of this, but it seems that there is a significant segment of the Parkinsons Disease patient population which reacts very poorly to general anesthesia.  Observed effects are that upon emergence from anesthesia, the patient exhibits marked decline in mental acuity and other symptoms generally associated with dementia and senility:  full-blown hallucinations, anger, diminished capacity for communication, and so forth.  Even worse, the impact appears to worsen with subsequent anesthesia events.

In the immediate instance, the household member I am helping to care for, a mistake in judgment led to a fall after a shower – a hook on the back of a door placed before physical decline was just THAT much out of reach – and a fractured hip.  General anesthesia, partial replacement of the joint, and off from the hospital to a skilled nursing / rehabilitation facility.  Fast-forward a week, and the rebuilt joint is recognized as being dislocated.  Back to the hospital, return to general anesthesia to allow a closed reduction of the dislocation (the physician was able to put the ball back in the socket without repeating the surgery).

The physical effects would have been hard enough to deal with all on their own.  Adding in the sudden mental deterioration was simply too much, with an end result of what is now expected to be end-of-life permanent residence in a nursing facility.  Physical therapy failed to regain any useful mobility in the affected leg.  General physical weakness, and a prior shoulder surgery, made other common alternatives unavailable or unwarranted, particularly in combination with the mental deterioration.

Parkinsons sucks.  Parkinsons combined with broken hip sucks far worse.

“Roughing It In” – Weapons Theory & Descriptions: Part V “FANTASY”

Mike C. Baker

SECTION UNDER DEVELOPMENT / INCOMPLETE

 (Caveat: I’m not only a writer, I’m an old-school wargamer… and the following is at best a SUMMARY of the field)

 FANTASY WEAPONS

Whew. If ever there was a wide field to explore for weapons, here it is.

With or Without Magic?

Possibly heretical in the eyes of some, I must begin this segment of our study with two truisms / “laws”:

 Clarke’s Law (paraphrased)

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Magic.

Fantasy does not require magic to be fantasy.

 

Now, now, don’t send the villagers with pitchforks after me just yet, please. What I mean by this second observation is that to distinguish fantasy from science fiction (The future! OR is it necessarily?), I will make my distinction based upon whether or not the underlying universe follows the “laws” of science as generally expected for our own universe. This does introduce / incoporate the possibility of “science fantasy”: H.G. Wells’s “Cavorite”, Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Barsoom, John Norman’s Gor all come immediately to mind in this light.

Where does that leave us? Fantastical weaponry that exists without magic as well as all manner of weapons that have been enhanced or created by magic.

We’re gonna have some fun now, ubetcha! 

Except … as before, I will have to define some additional terms as we go along.

FANTASY NON-MAGICAL WEAPONS

Materials Science:

• Glass / Ceramics – tempered or otherwise treated, glass-bladed weapons have been postulated for years. At least one sub-group relies upon a glass blade to introduce poison / venom into a wound (as part of the shards created when broken, via ducts within or grooves upon the surface of a more durable weapon, etc.)
•  “impossible” Metals / Alloys – collapsium, neutronium, ur-metal, ultron, adamantium, silver-steel are some notable possible examples (while the first two are more likely associated with future based science fiction, their attributed properties usually cross the border into science fantasy in the opinion of many purists; anti matter can fall upon either side of the description boundary as well…)
• Invented Materials – includes materials with properties different than those known to “real world” science: “lifting wood”, “uhl”, unobtainium, radioactively stabilized uranium, Barsoomian “radium” explosive projectiles ({Edgar Rice Burroughs}from which the “radium” explodes when the shell is broken open and the contents are exposed to sunlight)
•  Mundane materials granted special properties by the milieu – silver bullets or blades for attacking lycanthropes or certain undead; mirrors used to reflect and weaponize natural light sources.; laminated fish scales built up to form a buckler, etc.

 Weapon Forms:

• Culturally-modified Weaponry – examples that come immediately to my mind are the Yuetshi knife with the saw-toothed back edge {Robert E. Howard}, the Karjixian yggdraxel two-handed claw-on-a-stick alternative to the sword favored by the Tigermen {Lin Carter}, and the four-handed sword carried by the Thark (Green Men) of Barsoom {Edgar Rice Burroughs}.
•  Culturally “Dissonant” Weaponry – the “boom stick” Ashe carries against the medievals, and his chainsaw (Army of Darkness movie franchise)
•  Complete fabrications / inventions – odd patterns for the blades on polearms, new names for rarely seen items from real world cultures (Star Trek was particularly productive in this arena, with both the Klingon and Vulcan / Romulan cultures: for example, the batleth is essentially a bardiche with the pole removed, and the ahn woon is a variation combining a simple sling and the usually knotted strangler’s cloth); the so called “glaive” from the movie Krull (debatable science in that piece of fiction tips the scale to fantasy on my tally-sheet); the floating/levitating “death sphere” in Phantasm / Phantasm II
• Gladiatorial Weapons – particularly those never in general use outside of an arena, but still notable for their use inside… the ancient Roman impresarios became fairly inventive in trying to maintain interest in their audiences.
•  Adapted Tools of the Fantasy Setting – the tarn-stick and the tharlarion goad of Gor {at least in John Norman’s book series} or similar handling equipment in other settings; thuribles and censers “borrowed” from Church rituals and now used to thrown acid or distribute soporific smoke across a group of opponents; shoppo diggo {H.Beam Piper, Little Fuzzy}
•  Defensive Items – a fish skull helmet, split dinosaur bones for greaves or vambraces, turtle shells for paldrons (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic books, et al.), etc. 

FANTASY MAGICAL WEAPONS

Considerable underlying theory must be filled in for a “compleat” understanding of magical weapons. This includes particularly and especially an examination of just what magick is, and some consideration of how it produces tangible results.

 Forms of “Magic”

Writers are a marvelously inventive lot. Game designers, a sub-set of writers after all is said and done, tend to be even moreso even when they limit themselves to the existing body of myth, legend, and folklore. Nowhere is this as apparent as in the basis of magick.

 Therein is also a root distinction to be made: one occasional but sometimes necessary distinction is between “real” magick and “stage” magic, also known as prestidigitation or “theatrical illusion”. There is no clear preference out there in the “REAL” world, but the addition of the terminal “k” was popularized by P.E.I. Bonewitz (among others) when attempting to lay the groundwork for serious modern study of the Artes Magickal.

Principles Underlying the “Laws” of Magick

1. Contagion – two things near to one another begin to share similar properties, and those shared properties can be manipulated to affect either or both things
2. Similarity – two things which are similar are linked by that similarity, and the link so established can be manipulated to affect either or both things
3. Substitution – one thing can be substituted for another to create an effect that affects another thing (related to the thing being manipulated by reason of Contagion or Simularity)
4. Energetics – All forms of energy are permanent, although they can be manipulated into behaving like other forms – or converted into other forms by some means. An extension of this principle was formulated and popularized by A. Einstein in the e=mc-squared formula, the distinction being that mass is merely stored energy (in a semi-fixed form) and light is only the most visible of the energies by which mass can be converted / converted into.
5. Will-force (Intelligence and Self-Awareness – the use of or imposition of a magickal effect ultimately requires the intervention of a self-aware being, which in turn implies an intellect. However, every magickal effect may have unintended consequences (As observed in the ABC-TV series “Once Upon A Time”, all magick comes at a price, and the practitioner / user does NOT always know the full extent of the price required at the time the effect is triggered or invoked.)

“SCHOOLS” AND SUB-SCHOOLS OF MAGICK

• PRIMAL (“UR-” magics) – The energies associated with the original creation of the universe, in their pure & original unused form, are generally accounted as being more effective than any other to achieve a given desired outcome. With greater power or effect also come greater potential side effects / total degree of effects: burning down the whole castle instead of simply blasting through a door is typically a Bad-Thing…
• ELEMENTAL – manipulation of the basic alchemical materials and their directly-associated energies
• ILLUSION – as one of the primary Artes Arcane, deals with appearance and affect more than physicality and effect. Associated most often with but not limited to visual imagery.
• EVOCATION – direct effects created by direct transfer of energies to a target. The classical example is the mage’s fireball or lightning-stroke
• TRANSFORMATION – a form of magery focused primarily upon substitutions. Most alchemy involves transformations as well as elementalism.
• NECROMANCY – generally associated with manipulation of or creation of the undead; may involve any of the energies related to death, life, and the transitions in between
• ENCHANTMENT – creation of effect by instilling energy into a target item or person
• SORCERY – the Sorcerer or Sorceress derives magick from a source outside themselves, often after a bargain has been made according to some descriptions but conceivable due to ancestry or association by other means. (SEE ALSO: Theurgy)
• INVOCATION – deals in the transference of energy by the imposition of the mage’s will
• THAUMATURGY – magery driven by rote and ritual; often touches upon the borders of theurgy. Important subschools include numerology and astrology; most divinations make use of thaumaturgical means.
• DIVINATION – although often exercised through other source means, divinatory Arte is typically considered a separate major school dealing in revealing information, particularly information about the a subject person, thing, or place. Sub-schools deal in psychometry (the history of an object, place, or person), interpretation of omens / cards / astrological charts / etc., and dowsing (locating a substance, person, or object by any of several means: includes but is not limited to the forked-stick dower’s rod, pendulums, paired rods or wands, etc.)
• THEURGY – magick accomplished through the intervention of Powers (gods, goddesses, angels, or their direct messengers); generally differs from Sorcery in that Theurgists are receiving a gift while Sorcerists are drawing directly upon a source through some channel. If you will, Sorcerers “pull” while the Powers “push” to their supplicants.
• ABJURATION – the Arte of barriers, and of the denial of another’s will
• PSYONIC / PSYCHIC – Effects achieved by direct impositionof the practitioner’s will-force upon energy & matter. Sometimes referred to as “mind-magic”, often considered as completely separate from Arcane or Theurgic magics

The Place of (small) Rituals In Considering Weapon Enchantments

A recurring theme in the lore of magic weapons involves the need for an activation phrase or other “trigger” action. Items that store spells for later discharge are particularly likely to need the wielder to speak or at least think a phrase or magickal word, or make a series of particular motions to invoke, evoke, or call forth an effect. Indeed, in the wizard and muggle world created for Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, wands generally require both prescribed movements and associated incantations to create spell effects – and unintended effects can occur if a mistake is made in repeating either element of a casting.

Other fantastical settings have differing rules to be followed, different expectations of the witch, wizard, druid, sorceror, or muscular fighting man presented with a shiny new glaive or ancestral battle axe. “My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure” just doesn’t ring quite as true for the villain as it does for a noble hearted Prince; likewise, a classic Hero doesn’t get as much mileage pronouncing an ancient curse upon his foes as his buddy the not-so-pure wizard will get…

Creation of magick, especially magickal weapons, very seldom fails to involve some form of ritual. Likewise with their later destruction. (Just would NOT be the same if the One Ring as envisioned by J.R.R. Tolkien were vulnerable to a common blacksmith forge, now would it?)

ENCHANTED / ENSORCELLED WEAPONS (AND TOOLS)

Enhancement of Existing Weapons

In the literature to date, swords are generally the most likely magick weapons to receive individual names.

• Enchanted Swords – Excalibur, Durandal, Glamdring, Sting, etc:  Swords tend to be the most-often recognized magick weapons. Common changes include unbreakable blades, incredibly sharp blades, resistance to corrosion, stored magick spells, personalities, usage restrictions (e.g. the Sword in the Stone that could only be drawn forth by the true heir to the throne), emitting light, acting as a direction finder or detector, innate telepathy, etc. Less-common are properties like disguise or invisibility (for the weapon, the user, or both), flight, singing, ability to ignore / completely penetrate armor, non-lethal damage inflicted, regeneration or other healing of the wielder (or others), etc.
•  Enchanted Bows, Crossbows, Slings:  Increased rate of fire, improved range, enhanced targeting, resistant to damage (the weapon, the user, both), keyed to specific user, uses energy bolts in the shape of arrows, always supplied with the “best” arrow to use against an intended target, etc.
•  Enchanted Axes and Warhammers (plus related “tools”):  An axe that fells any (normal) tree in a single blow; Hammers that strike with the force of a thunderbolt; Hammers that when thrown strike with force that is somehow multiplied / duplicates the attack of a larger assailant (e.g. damages like a giant thrown boulder)
•  Enchanted Spears, Javelins, and the like:  Javelins that transform into lightning bolts or beams of fire when thrown; Spears that also function as banners (extend the effects of the leader’s presence, communicate commands to forces out of immediate normal earshot, etc.); Halberds that provide “perfect” defense if the user chooses to defend instead of attack
•  Other Enchanted Blades:  Daggers that return to the owner if thrown (and/or if stolen); Stiletto blades that act a bit like fish spines / hooks (and do more damage coming out than they did going in); Knives that “multiply” / separate to inflict more possible strikes against a target than the single weapon would otherwise deliver
• Enchanted Arrows, Sling Stones, Quorls/Bolts:  general-purpose enhancements to hit or damage, envenomed missiles; missiles as the method of delivery for other spell induced effects; specially prepared missiles intended for specific targets (individuals or broader type classifications)
• Animated Objects (weapons that fire / wield themselves)
• Enchanted Firearms / Enchanted Ammunition

 

Purpose-Built Magickal Weapons

• Wands – of Fireballs, of Negation, of Thunder & Lightning:  Depending upon the origin, wands may be general-purpose tools in the mage’s repetoire or may be storage devices with prepared spells loaded which one only needs to activate (by will-force, key word, mechanical manipulation, or other method)
• Rods:  Differs from the Wand primarily in mode of construction, may be more common in items prepared by Theurges.
• Staves:  Wizard’s staff, Druid’s staff, or other similar forms have long been associated with magery, while theurges (priests and the like) are far more likely to enchant staves than wands, and seldom go to the rod for “positive” / “good”-related purposes UNLESS associated specifically with healing / recovery.
• Other Storage Devices / Means of Invoking or Enlisting Aid:  Rings, Amulets, Talismans, Bracelets, Necklaces, Other Jewelry
• Golems and Other Constructs – The Golem, Minoton:  Statuary or Clockwork or other material depiction to be animated and (preferably to most!) controlled.

MAGICKAL DEFENSES and “USEFUL” ITEMS

Heroes, Demi-Gods, and even the Powers themselves have need of more than just weapons to succeed in their quests and other endeavors.

• Armor and Shield: the Aegis, the hide of the Nemean lion:  defensive items worn on the person
• Mobility Aids: Hermes’ Sandals, Arthur’s Ship, ARGO:  winged boots or sandals, chariots, boats / ships, animated objects
• Hats, Robes, Cloaks: the Tarnhelm, Cloak of Invisibility, Wizard’s Robes:  invisibility, invulnerability, spell enhancement / transport of spell components or prepared objects
• Belts, Girdles, Baldrics, and Bags / Purses: the Portable Hole, the Bag of Holding:  damage resistance or quick repair (healing), other protective qualities, strength, increased carrying capacity, safe transport of dangerous substances, invisibility, disguise,etc.
• Cauldrons, Kettles, Spoons, Other Kitchenware: the Kalevala, Arthur’s Cauldron: Food, shelter, potion creation, other creations,
• Other Oddments: unicorn horn, the root of the mandrake, feathers of the Stymphalian birds, Gorgon’s Blood, Medusa’s Head water from a particular source, poison/venom neutralizaton, poison/venom, creature summoning, direct attacks, indirect attacks; knowledge / wisdom, invulnerability, increased vulnerability, transformation(s)

 

“Roughing It In” Weapons Theory & Description: Part IV “FUTURISTIC”

“Roughing It In” Part IV “FUTURISTIC”

SECTION UNDER DEVELOPMENT / INCOMPLETE
Mike C. Baker

(Caveat: I’m not only a writer, I’m an old-school wargamer… and the following is at best a SUMMARY of the field)

The Future!

Considering that the future of weapons as we can forsee / foretell relies strongly upon what we’ve already seen, much of what falls into this category consists of speculation into the possible improvements upon existing weapons OR speculation into the weaponized effects of other technologies.

MELEE WEAPONS OF THE FUTURE

What? Didn’t you expect hand-to-hand combat ranges to still be important? Foolish mortal, haven’t you seen Star Wars, Blade Runner, and Escape From New York often enough already (not to mention Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and a good many other post-Apocalyptic offerings…)

Note on Edged Weapons

For those who do not know, conventional edged weapons actually cut by means of tearing – at a microscopic level, even the sharpest steel or alloy edge has a series of notches that make up the active cutting surface. It is the combination of a weapon’s mass and the action of the edge against a target that produces a cut – and part of why a slash is typicaly more effective than a straight chopping motion for a sword or knife. (An axe or other relatively massive weapon produces a cut more on the chisel principle than that of a knife…)

Consider this, too: a saw works most efficiently when the teeth are allowed to fully remove material from the kerf (the track of the saw blade inthe material being cut). A serrated or notched blade takes advantage of essentially the same mechanics, and also the “bumpity effect”: as a series of smaller edges make their track through the target, as long as force still remains behind the blow each new mini-edge receives an impact bonus (small, perhaps, but rapidly accumulative).

Why aren’t all weapons serrated or saw-edge, then? Multiple factors apply, but two of the most important over the centuries have been the tendency of the saw-edge to snag or bind in the target AND the weakening of the blade introduced by cutting or molding notches into it. The smooth edge has greater utility in non-combat uses as well.

Improved Materials / Construction

• [*]Monomolecular Edges – The sharpest imaginable blade with permanent materials is postulated to be precisely one molecule in width. The challenge, from a material sciences standpoint, is how to make such an edge that can be actually used: how does one hold, swing, and maintain structural integrity for such a construct?
• Advanced Ceramics / Improved Plastic – What are the ideal shapes, physical properties, and other expectations for a weapon that must be able to escape “normal” detection yet remain useful / functions as well as a metallic blade? Advanced ceramics and polymers already provide some of these characteristics in the late Modern era and there is every reason to believe that even more capable versions will exist going forward.
• Vibro-blades – Ever since the first edged knife was created (or found after natural fracturing of a stone), humans have sought to improve upon the concept. One common postulated form considers what would be the impact of vibrating the cutting edge of an engineered blade at very high frequencies, producing a sawing effect at the near-molecular level – the vibrobladed knife or sword has been described as acting something like a chainsaw…without the need for a moving chain.
• Punch/Slap Enhancers – the “slug ‘gun'” postulates use of explosively released compressed gas to create more damage from a swung fist than the fist alone could produce;
• Muscular / Skeletal Enhancement – from the science fiction of the Golden Age, and the comic books, to the battlefields of the future, a vast number of speculative means have been used to enhance the physical capabilities of the individual soldier. Surgically-implanted solutions gave Marvel Comics’ Wolverine not only his signature claws but also adamantium-plated bones, while geneto-chemical enhancement provided extra muscular strength. Exoskeletal suits, with or without armor, also serve as mobile weapons platforms (cf. Avatar, Starship Troopers, Aliens, Armageddon: 2419).

Composite Materials / Construction

• Advanced Alloys
• “Stabilized” Mateials
• “Sandwiched” Materials
• Adaptive Striking Surfaces
• Electrical-discharge Stunning / Other Non-Lethal Effects

“Energy” Weapons (Very Short Range)

• Force-blades – going beyond the principles of monomolecular edges or vibroweapons, forceblades conceivably act by slicing between the atoms of a target
• Laser Swords – in perhaps their most recognizable form, the lightsabers of Star Wars fame. Highly speculative as to workable science, may be a more primitive OR a more advanced development of the forcesword
• Sonic Grenades – primarily expected as “technically” non-lethal; differs from the late-Modern flash-bang in that these do not require explosives and just may be rechargable/reusable…
• Sonic Stunner Baton – a postulated “early” development of the research that leads to longer-ranged sonic-based weapons; precision use narrows target to the individual struck (and direct contact enhances effect of the applied sonic energy via musculoskeletal transmission)
• Neuro-whips / Neutralizers – any of a broad class of weapons that deliver damage as directly as possible to the target’s nervous system (or circuitry). In the most primitive form, electroshock effects are a precursor.
• Electro-stunners – Taser and “stun ‘gun'” have become important elements of the non-lethal personal defense arsenal here in the late-Modern era

IMPROVED BALLISTIC WEAPONS

Weapons that act against a target by the delivery of a projectile are going to be with us for a long time to come for a variety of reasons: the sheer numbers already in existence, their underlying simplicity, their economies of production, etc. For the human race, their immediate sense of destructive potential can make their display something of a deterrent where an equivalent energy weapon might ony be seen as a threat after it had been witnessed in use. (A missile sitting in the launcher still can convey a sense of threat through size and sense of mass if one has ever witnessed a gun fired or even a small fireworks rocket launched.)

• Improved Targetting Systems – automated target recognition, enhanced optics
• Improved Active Terminal Guidance / Target Homing – target recognition by multiple means (optical, sonic, radio-frequency, chemicl signatures);
• Improved Survivability / Resistance to Counter-measures
• Enhanced Warheads
• Miniaturization / Scalability of warhead effects
• Mass Driver – the “new” railgun model, with vehicular application in the Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) principles being developed in the late-Modern era for high-speed rail transportation
• Other non-explosive propellants – pressurized gases, simple orbital mechanics (cf. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress for a combined-effect example of mass drivers and falling rocks)

(IMPROVED) “ENERGY” WEAPONS

In general, energy weapons discharge their effects as Pulse, Stream, Bolt, Beam,or Field (Area / Volume)

• Lasers / Masers – Masers are in essence Lasers operating in the microwave energy ranges
• Particle Beams – Proton, Neutron, Electron, Ion: Beam weapons in this category emit some amount of physical material in addition to the direct energies they are being used to transmit to the target.
• Disruptors – postulated to function by temporary suppression of one of more of the basic forces in the universe: strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, gravitation, or electromagnetic
• Phased-Energy – Star Trek Phaser: functions by tuning to and then destabilizing the vibratory phase of a target. With a little skill, can be used for multiple non-lethal purposes (stunning effects, generating heat from otherwise inert materials, etc.)
• Sonics – unfocused, focused; containing/directing the emitted sound without also affecting the weapon’s user is a common concern. Primitive/early examples with unfocused emitters are speculated to need some form of “sonic armor” / sound-reduction equipment for the gunner
• Plasma – another hybrid form, where the confined energy stream creates a highly energized gas-plasma either from a carried source of material or from the available atmosphere
• Fusion – postulated enhancement of the Plasma weapons where the constriction of the energy field at the surface of the target generates a microminiature fusion reaction (visualize bringing the surface of a star into contact with the target for a picosecond or slightly longer…)
• Graviton Beams / Gravitic Manipulation – if it isn’t enough to inflict the results of gravity upon a target by means of a kinetically-accelerated ballistic object, consider the application of gravity directly to a target (and/or the contents thereof). Now start shaking the beam up and down. Nasty!
• Disintegrators – nastier still, disintegration effects may be seen in several of the other energy weapons noted above (phasers in particular, but at higher frequencies of pulsation gravition beams should do the job as well). In some early “science fantasy” / “scientific romances”, the speculation was for disintegration effects that could be tuned in some manner (e.g. Armageddon: 2419, the original Buck Rogers novel, where “r-rays” disintegrated only flesh but “t-rays” disintegrated everything not specifically proof against them)
• “Packeted” – the “pulse-popper” in stories by Alan Dean Foster is one example where the primary weapon damage is energy-based, but the effects when in use are somewhat similar to those produced by a grenade launcher firing HE rounds

WEAPONIZATION OF OTHER TECHNOLOGIES

• Medical Advances – non-lethal effects (tranquilizers, temporary physical enhancements, other drug-induced bioreactions), varying Poison effects
• Maglev – see Mass Drivers, above; also of import in considering logistics trail and ad hoc / unintended uses (deliberately derailing a train moving in excess of 100mph will create a LOT of damage)
• General-purpose Gravitics –
• Energy Screens / Force Fields – a plane-restricted energy field makes one fine blade for slicing between atoms…
• Weapon Effects of Star-drives

DPchallenge – “I wish I were…” (“Proper” use of Subjunctive Mode)

Language mavens take note – I’m a bit of a contrarian when it comes to grammar & spellynge. There are times that I wish I were more consistent, certainly.

There are also times that I revel in my inconsistency, or at least my willingness to maintain that a treasured construct is perfectly acceptable. “I wish I was in de land of cotton…” just does not have the same visceral impact with the grammar corrected. Same for “curiosity” as an object versus “curiousity” as a trait – or as a deliberate choice to invoke an accent and mindset through subtlety.

Not everything can be given a pass as some attempt at poetical song lyrics, however. Not everything needs, or deserves, an oddity from the depths of the writers love of language.

I wish I were able to better communicate these feelings on a daily basis. Guess I’ll just have to keep up my practice in order to demonstrate a practised hand at such things.

When Definition Does Not “Count”

There have been some interesting conversations cropping up in my mindsphere this last week or so, and many of them have rotated around differences in definition. 

(working definition of “Mindsphere”:  that part of existence and awareness that actually gets noticed by an individual’s active mentation processes… kind of like the BlogOSphere, but only inclusive of what is actually within immediate use/grasp)

One of the more troubling of those differences was heard during an installment of the “A Way With Words” radio program (on the Web at http://www.waywordradio.org), in which a caller was describing his daughter’s education and a teacher insisting that a FACT could be true OR false.  Silly me, I knew that facts are facts – but no, it seems that a secondary definition in at least some dictionaries has corrupted what was once a pure concept, an invariant of the thnker’s mindscape.  A fact can now, and is specifically being taught as, neither true or false in and of itself.

Then I thought some more.  What seems to have happened, at least as I theorize here, is that “statement of fact” and “fact” have been conflated  in a rush to (over-)simplify.  Or, phrased alternatively, the perfectly good terms “hypothesis” and “hypothetical statement” have fallen even further out of fashion than I believed they had.  Admitted, perhaps a bit beyond a third-grade level of comprehension, but is there a real NEED to so over-simplify a concept as to corrupt a perfectly good, solid word in our common lexicon?

No simple answer presents itself on this one – remembering that dictionaries are DESCRIPTIVE of actual word use and meaning, not PRESCRIPTIVE.  Le Sigh.

On a marginally related note, consider the writing genre of “Historical Fiction”.  Just what part / how much of our shared mental landscape agrees on the range of years that are covered by the concept?  For one immediate example, I learned just today that there is a rather extreme divide by national bias:  German publishers apparently only use the label on works set in the Middle Ages or earlier, while from direct personal experience here in America the divide is much, much closer in the chronicles.   

Or is it?  Consider novels set during the Viet Nam “conflict”.  When do they cease being “Contemporary Fiction” and become “Historical Fiction”?  World War II?  World War I? The Crimean War? 

What makes the “Historical Romance” so very different, underneath, and creates so many rich sub-types / niches (settings like Regency, Frontier, American Revolution, mid-1950s Nursing, etc.), that in turn take on their own narrow range of requirements?

All this becomes even more tangled if I include “alternate history” settings, such as created by H. Beam Piper, Harry Turtledove, S.M. Stirling, or Eric Flint (and his collaborators).  Or others – the field has expanded considerably.  A few years back there was even a mainstream-ish effort to teach “real-world” history by contrasting against a backdrop of alternate history scenarios (What if LSD research had been successfully kept secret, or never happened at all?  What if Truman had aborted the Nagasaki atom bomb attack, or chosen a different target? What if the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand had never occurred?).

I have been known to write speculative fiction, including science fiction, fantasy, and other related genres never quite as accepted as “contemporary”.  The pigeon-holes have from time to time made marketing a given work difficult.  To draw upon examples from film, consider ALIEN.  Is it science fiction? Well, certainly?  Is it horror?  Undoubtedly!  Is it effective story-telling?  Individual opinion, but I believe so. 

Third theme for this post, and I’ll give my fingers a rest.  This past week also saw the first Presidential debate of the 2012 American campaign season matching the Democratic and Republican party candidates.  Won’t go into who “won” or “lost”, for in the context of this current exploration the far more important development was the extent to which external FACT checking was needed / required to truly evaluate the statements made from behind the podiums.  Things presented as facts were more precisely opinion even where number values were being given, or were made less reliable by rounding of those numbers.  (Five billion, my left hind cheek – the original source for that appears to have been 4.8 billion.  Two hundred million dollars is not exactly insignificant.)  

One of the problematic rules of the whole process should have been exposed more completely, I think:  the candidates were not allowed to use any written notes or similar references.  May have meant more words coming out of their mouths, did not make for better words.  Anywhere else in reasoned discourse, we would expect representations of “fact” to be backed by citations.  Gentlemen, where are your sources?  Who provided those glib numbers?

Who commands and controls YOUR truth?

(Disclaimer / usage note on applied definitions:  numerical word values throughout are as associated to American English, not British…)