Majipoor has issues, I’m sad to say.

Not the same art as the one I first read, but cool.

So, back in 1980, I bought this thick paperback by an author I hadn’t ever read or heard of. It was called Lord Valentine’s Castle by Robert Silverberg, and I read it, loved it, & over the years re-read it once or twice. I thought it was a great fantasy novel about a huge World with magic, particularly oneiromancy, & a bunch of cool races. A fun, cool read.

A year or two ago, I got reminded about it, and that there had been a couple sequels. I checked, there were. Like, a bunch. I had a bit of spare cash, {unlike now} so I splurged bought the whole thing in ebook format, and away I went down the wormhole.

Still great stuff, amazing detail in world-building, but some things had changed. I knew the vast world of Majipoor was not set in a fantasy universe anymore, I now understood that it was a world in a universe that had interstellar travel, that the various ‘magical’ or ‘mystical’ aspects of the setting were technological. This isn’t a deal breaker but it, combined with my vastly more advanced understanding of just how fucked up humans are, how so much of what I was taught as history was edited, whitewashed, propaganda… it wasn’t fucking ‘fun’ anymore.

Mr. Silverberg is still alive. I honestly don’t know jack shit about his personal philosophical views, political & social stances. That’s not what this post is about.

This is about realizing that a book I thought was about a fictional society that was kind of cool and fun is actually a huge indictment of colonialism, elitism & racism, wrapped up in some incredible universe building.

Majipoor is a dictatorship run by mostly human elitist technocrats in a Universe with interstellar travel. The population of the planet are basically held at a medieval peasant level of ignorance, manipulation via herbal pharmaceuticals & psionic/oneiric machines of incredible power is used to maintain a stable society.

There’s more than one native race that has sentience, they are utterly demonized, marginalized and subjugated by the colonial social elite that came to the planet, millennium before. The world is left to run itself this way because it’s either a backwater that’s hard to reach, or there is not ‘higher government’ capable or willing to intervene.

It’s transformed, in my understanding, from a ‘fun fantasy world’ to a dystopian nightmare with no way out. Kind of like… reality.

Ancient Mass Production, again…

Huge pottery complex in Poland

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/61067

The factory was an economic driver for the area for centuries.

Once again, from The History Blog, another archeological site where a single product was manufactured in massive quantity.

Located in what is now southern Poland, the pottery factory used Roman technology, in this case the pottery wheel, to make just one type of vessel. With over 130 large kilns, and an operation spanning at least 3 centuries, the place obviously supplied a huge number of folks with cookware.

The area was outside the Empire, the domain of Romanized Vandal tribes, mixed with former veterans. The flow of coinage through the region over the time of it’s operation is evidence that this was a major source of trade.

Check it out…

Fermentation, again…

Article link;

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/worlds-oldest-industrial-scale-brewery-found-egypt-180977026/

The notion that ancient human cultures did everything on a ‘small’ scale is just ridiculously out-of-date.

Anyone surprised by the idea that the Egyptians had ‘mass production’ needs to take another look at those pyramids…

It’s great to have archeological proof, sure, but this isn’t a stretch.

One Tool Can’t Do Every Job.

Just what it says on the box, boss.

Monoculture Isn’t Viable.

One size might fit most, but it never fits all.

It’s a wonderful, enlightened seeming sentiment to say “treat everyone exactly the same”. Most especially when you’re talking about acting with kindness. You definitely should try to act with kindness and benevolence towards everyone in all situations. The wisdom of this will become self-evident immediately in your everyday life, once you implement the policy.

You’ll feel better, think clearer, have more resilience in your whole life. You’ll actually be healthier. It’s a proven fact that your immune response is linked to your mental health. If you give positive responses to the Multiverse, it’s going to pay you back in kind. It genuinely works.

There’s a hitch, my friend. Because of course there is.

You simply cannot reply to evil with kindness. Thanking someone who’s beating you for every blow is insanity. Aberrance, perfectly defined in a single act.

You’re absolutely free to be as bat-shit fucking crazy as you like, or must. I certainly have no legs to stand upon in that particular glass house. It’s probably a beautiful house too, with wonderful stained-glass tarot card window-walls.

Something like this…

But it’s not practical, or durable enough for the Real World.

Just like Marxism fails to account for the Human flaw of greed and lust for power, trying to be kind to everyone, always is doomed to fail. There’s always going to be someone who fucks it up. They won’t step down from power. They might even delude themselves that they are ‘doing what is best for everyone’ and have really good intentions. They’re still fucking up the plan.

Usually, you can spot the system gaming ratfucks right off. The ones who don’t just ‘take one/what you need’ but empty the damn containers. Ever notice that ‘take a penny/leave a penny’ dishes never, ever have dollar coins in them? They don’t even usually have nickels, and in most urban locales, they are empty when they’re there at all. Your local corner store guy might actually be solid enough with you to let you slide until next visit once and a while. Mine does now, because the first couple times I was short a quarter, I not only came back with it within 5 minutes, I damn well insisted he take 0.50¢. Yeah. I showed him I wasn’t just ‘good for it’. I took a loss to train his brain into comprehending I was solid. But this isn’t about me.

It’s about the evil scumbags who mistake kindness for weakness.

The sort of person who hoards toilet paper, then tries to sell it on eBay for war-profiteer level mark ups. They are out there. Occasionally, one gets caught and made an example of. Most of them get away with it. {this is the part where I don’t go into a seething diatribe about the current administration being collaborators with the Orange Warlord of Ameristan, who remains not just alive & at large in the World, but completely free of consequences for unspeakably monstrous crimes against humanity}

Evil rat fuckers are going to keep fucking those rats, boss.

Sometimes, someone who follows an evil path or serves an evil master can reform. Occasionally, this will even happen because they choose to, not because they got caught and punished. Everyone deserves the benefit of doubt, a second chance, sure. If they mean it, and demonstrate that it is legitimate.

You keep trying to pull scams and play every possible game on every single person? You run out of that shit, right quick.

If you try and repay evil with kindness, you’ll end up being used. You might achieve some internal state of satori but you’re never going to to reach Nirvana. Not that I’m a Buddhist, very far from it, indeed. The observation & experience I’ve lived through prove my point, regardless.

You absolutely cannot ‘be kind to everyone’. I wish to Hel we existed in a Multiverse where we could.

But we don’t.

And one more thing; if the kind, wise gentleman who inspired this particular post is reading this (and got this far)? You’re a damn good human, I value your friendship, kindness and wisdom, deeply. Please don’t hate me for this. Because I had to say it, and I chose to do it this way rather than make a public spectacle of it on that other social network. Thank you for your understanding.

It’s Just the Sound of History, Repeating…

“I need this like I need another hole in my head.”

Here’s a link to my ‘go to’, again; the amazing History Blog.

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/60936

“The study also considered the potential role of climate change in the mass burial event. When climate changes, resources such as water, vegetation — including feed for cattle and other livestock — and game animals become less predictable. Furthermore, hazards, such as unpredictable extreme weather, become more common.”

Given the fact that I was just reading about how the Atlantic Gulf Stream was at it’s slowest in a thousand years, you can well understand how this article about a 6221 year old massacre might seem topical.

The shit we’ve dealt with for the last year is just a fucking warm-up, fellow humans.

Keep safe. Wear a mask, wash your damn hands. Build networks, alliances, local stability. Spend wisely, conservation of resources isn’t something you should only do when you’re experiencing scarcity, it’s a way of preventing it.

Don’t think like a fucking parasite– if you think “apocalypse preparation” means stocking up on ammo and scoping out who’s got more/better shit than you? You’re not just ‘part of the problem’, you’re a godsdamned social disease walking like a human.

Stop fawning over celebutards, sports idols & media darlings, get yourself together. The 1-5% of the human population that controls +85% of the wealth on the planet not only understand this, but have been acting accordingly for almost a decade. But hey, by all means- getting to go to movie theaters & restaurants is necessary, right?

Get your damn heads straight, or your going to end up in a hole like these poor people did.

Learn From History.

Plan for Reality.

High Guard beats bathtub toys…

Project Thor is 70 years old.

Anyone in .gov office lamenting the fact that Ameristan no longer has “the largest surface fleet on the 7 seas” is a benighted moron who needs to be removed from their post.

Rebar is cheaper than ships.

J. Pournelle theorized Project THOR in the 1950s.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment

Fermentation, in textile arts.

Scythian Rug.

HERE (http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/60911) is a link to a fascinating article on fermented wool.

No, seriously. I’ve said many times that “fermentation is not only proof that the divine exists, but proof it wants us happy”, but until yesterday, I did not know that fermented wool was a thing. Apparently, if you apply wheat bran and sourdough to wool very carefully you can convert the fat in the fibers and make it much more colorfast.

This 2,400 year old rug was unearthed in 1947 in the Altai region of what is now Kazakhstan, and resides in the Hermitage. Detailed study with modern equipment has revealed that the wool was processed before dyeing with fermentation.

Go read the article. You’ll probably learn something, I know I did.

On the topic of ‘Solo TTRPG Play’

Imagination is the only toy you’ll use every time.

I was recently involved in a conversation with a fellow TTRPG aficionado and the subject of solo RPG play was broached.

They were scornfully dismissive of the practice, likening it to, if I may refine their language a bit, pseudo-intellectual onanism. I forged on in defense of the concept, mentioning several major TTRPGs specific, successful products, and the oft-maligned but ubiquitous ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ book format. They doubled down on the shit-talking.

So I simply asked “So, you’ve never played any video game in ‘story mode’, by yourself, then?”

Gobsmacked silence for a full minute.

It’s the smallest victory, but I figured I’d benchmark it.

In for a penny, in for a groat

When one deals with Medieval coinage, say in the context of a TTRPG, the terms “Penny” & “Groat” come up, but far too many folks don’t understand that these terms convey important specifics about the coin in question. Let us, for the sake of simplicity, …

Oh Dear

I’ve been feeling pretty trapped myself, but I thin I might have my fingers jammed in a crack wide enough to give purchase. I’ll get some fiction up here for you, soonest. PROMISE.