Brother Osric's Scriptorium

In his parting words Jesus said, “You shall be my witnesses.” He did not say, “Over there are two truckloads of rocks, boys. You know what to do.”

Item IV.D of the preceding philosophy of education gives the rationale for what, in the American evangelical church, is commonly called “servant leadership.” It’s the idea that true leadership has less to do with someone’s outward signs of rank than with that person’s willingness to serve others. Put more crudely, it’s based not on what the leader can do to people but on what he or she is willing to do for them.

Mark 10:42–45, the concept’s primary text, is typically thought to apply only to life within the church of Jesus Christ. As with so many good ideas, however, this one can be observed in the world around us, where it simply makes good sense. Let me show you three individuals who have demonstrated it to a degree we can only touch upon here.

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Clerk’s Log, MJDate 54987.52: Applications for faculty positions usually ask you to state your “personal philosophy of teaching.” Here’s mine.
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Awhile back I was privileged to read Movie Mantra number 64 for the estimable Martyn Darkly, and it’s apparently getting some buzz. Here’s the link.

Martyn takes lines from memorable films (or memorable lines from not-so-memorable films) and presents them for our consideration. Sometimes those screenwriters are pretty sharp.

“Personally, I believe color television to be impossible. Since it obviously exists, I shall act as though I believed in it. We must do the same with this Energy Damper.”
— Illya Kuryakin, in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Dagger Affair, by David McDaniel

In the world of Metamor City, magic and technology evolve side by side. This juxtaposition makes for a delightful variety of stories, and suggests that The Metamor City Podcast will have something for everyone to enjoy. Still, it raises¹ a worrisome question. We know what technology is: it’s applying what we know about how the physical universe functions — e.g., physics (and its parent, mathematics), chemistry, biology — to the performance of “work,” i.e., getting physical tasks done.² But what exactly is magic?

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NOTES

1. Not “begs” — people, please please please look up “begging the question” in a book on logic or rhetoric. [return]
2. In other words, technology is to the hard sciences as religion is to theology: the second element is what we know about The Way Things Are, while the first is what we do about it. [return]

Thirty-six years after Roe v. Wade we’re still tossing around the same irrelevant labels. Neither the side favoring legalized abortion nor the side opposing it is “anti-life.” Nor is either side “anti-choice.” They do differ on what “life” means, and when legitimate choices can be made. If we’re going to focus on the differences, let’s get to the point.

Anyone have suggestions?

We don’t need to worry about “saving the planet.” (Neither the Death Star nor Narada is hovering nearby.) What we want to save is the existing biosphere.

Clerk’s Log, MJD 54961.9: Oops … drat. <sigh> Thus do I break the pattern of posting the TPRT article before the subject production comes to an end. Making the Cut is now complete and available at www.metamorcity.com. Check it out — you won’t regret it. And the novel’s parent production, The Metamor City Podcast, is still going strong.
 

In Murder at Avedon Hill, the gods occasionally come down to earth. In the world of Metamor City, they’ve been forcibly relocated there, and things haven’t been at all the same since.

One of the gods, you see, began the turning of selected humans into vampires, a process that continues to this day. Among the other humans, meanwhile, a new strain emerged with similar mental powers and, despite its different social agenda, a similar determination to survive: the psychics, most of whom have bonded together (on several levels) as the Psi Collective. Each of these subcategories of humanity views the other not only as its mortal enemy but also, in light of their few similarities, its counterfeit.¹

Vampires and telepaths. Who would have thought these would be found in the same world, let alone as counterparts? Clearly we’re dealing with something different from traditional science fiction or fantasy here.

Welcome to the world of Metamor City.

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NOTES

1. Vampiric feeding, like sex between telepaths — indeed, Fred Saberhagen identified vampiric feeding with lovemaking in The Holmes-Dracula File — forms an unbreakable psychic bond between the two parties, and includes a degree of mixing between their personalities. “Blood is the river in which the spirit flows,” says medical examiner Morgan Drauling, herself a vampire. The Psi Collective might not credit the principle, but they acknowledge the parallel. [return]

• Philippa Ballantine: Gloria Platt, mother of the deceased
• P.G. Holyfield: Arames Kragen, detective; Arrin Perti, student; et al.
• Chris Lester: [Not in this production]
• Tee Morris: Father Jorrus, undead-hunter
• Web site: http://www.pgholyfield.com/maah/

It’s all in the game

All four of the works discussed in this series are impressive not only because of their imagination but also because of the amount of thought that clearly has gone into each of them. Chasing the Bard and MOREVI, as “hidden chapters” of the history of England, obviously require considerable research into that history to ensure consistency with its events and cultures. What can one say, however, about stories that depart from our world’s history into new territory — into worlds that are more built than borrowed? How does a writer craft his or her world with enough care that we visitors will trust it, and the story that takes place there, not to crumble beneath our feet?

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Clerk’s Log, MJDate 54799.5: “Double Trouble” has come and gone, and both The Case of the Pitcher’s Pendant and Digital Magic made it into Amazon.com’s top 100 titles, as well as the top 5 in Science Fiction & Fantasy. Both titles are still for sale, of course, so even if you weren’t there for the promotion, let me encourage you to purchase the books; they’re great reading.

Today, after a change of hosts and a site rebuild, we continue our coverage of TPRT — demonstrating that, although Mr. Morris has experienced various setbacks in keeping to a regular schedule, he does not by any means hold the record.
 

Last time, we considered the audio presentation of Chasing the Bard, by Philippa “The Dark Goddess” Ballantine; today we look at a landmark work by her Double Trouble colleague, Tee “The Uber-Nemesis” Morris.¹
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NOTES

1. Since both of their stories have roots in specific eras of Earth’s history, the alert reader may ask why they are presented in the order you see here. Here are three reasons:
   • Like most Virginians, I was brought up on the principle “Ladies first.”
   • I wanted to write about Chasing the Bard while it was still in production. (It has since reached the end of its run.)
   • While Tee’s story would have been somewhat different if set in the reign of a different English monarch within the era of privateering — in fact, I’d be curious to see how Capt. Rafton and Elizabeth I might have gotten along — Pip’s would have been impossible without its Bard, William Shakespeare.
   Thus, although the two ran a photo-finish race, Pip’s story was judged the more specifically historical. (Should we say, “Points awarded for degree of difficulty”?) [return]