It seems that nobody has ever really been able to agree on what genre Faction Paradox is - it could arguably fit into fantasy, sci-fi, weird fiction, magical realism, or a billion other categories. I think the closest I've ever seen someone get was classifying it as historical fiction. However, with its emphasis on differing perspectives - for example, chapter 2 of the first part of Warring States shows an account of an expedition into a Chinese tomb by the British archaeologist who lead the expedition while chapter 2 of the second part shows an account of the same expedition by a Chinese worker, and Warlords of Utopia is told in the first person to show the mindset of a citizen of Roma I - and on history as a structure - history being imposed on the Spiral Politic by the Homeworld maps fairly nicely to the fact that, in real life, history isn't just the past, it's the narrative around the past, and the primary view of history can be seen as being imposed on the rest of the world by Europe - I think the best genre classification for FP is historiographical fiction.
I think the counters at popular chain coffee shops I won't name should be replaced with a fully covered area where customers can't see the employees faces or what they're doing. I'm talking once ler levels of obfuscation. The counter should look like this
secondly, the whole enclosed area should constantly emit various steams and smokes like a horrible machine, and employees should be encouraged to make as much conspicuous noise as possible. I want customers to walk up to what is basically a steel wall on a steel counter, nervously place their order in a microphone, hand over their method of payment through a small door, have it returned, then the cashier slams shut the door, they hear an absolute cacophany for a minute and their drink and receipt are unceremoniously slid out the very same little door in the wall
To be released June 2022. Available for preorder now!
Obverse Books has opened preorders for Volume One of The Boulevard, a new two-volume Faction Paradox anthology set in the Boulevard of Alternate Brutalities from the 2010 Iris Wildthyme short story “The Shape of Things”. The summary takes the form of a new piece of Book of the War apocrypha!
THE BOULEVARD [Faction Paradox: Location Unknown]
More formally, The Boulevard of Alternate Brutalities, the Boulevard is a Faction Paradox prison.
Physically, the Boulevard is, as the name suggests, a single broad street, stretching for an unknown distance in both directions, and lined on one side with a dense forest of oak trees.
Facing this forest is the prison itself, which is comprised of buildings lifted from throughout history at the moment of their destruction. This lifting extends to the street immediately outside each building, giving the Boulevard a patchwork appearance, and leading one time travelling visitor to describe the Boulevard as a ‘funky Frankenstein’s Monster of a place’.
Behind each doorway on the Boulevard there is a cell, containing a single prisoner. Each cell can extend to encompass anything from the traditional square concrete enclosure with barred windows, to an entire planet. It is believed that the Boulevard is controlled by an appointed Godfather and a cadre of Cousins, assisted by guards taken from certain of the more aggressive Lesser Species.
Although there has never been any formal proclamation regarding the purpose of the Boulevard, it is believed that the environment of each cell is tailored to the punishment – or, possibly but implausibly, the rehabilitation – of the individual imprisoned.
define hole / is a hole a real thing? / Marco Poloni, Black Hole, from The Majorana Experiment, 2010 / Flatfields Fotografien / What We Talk About When We Talk About Holes / Dark (2017-2020) / post / Disco Elysium / Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) / Donnie Darko (2001) / Kaveh Akbar, from “The Miracle,” Pilgrim Bell / post / Weizmann Institute of Science / Mathworld / post / post / post / post / Anne Boyer, from “Woman Sitting at the Machine,” in A Handbook of Disappointed Fate / Dennis Patrick Slattery, The Wounded Body: Remembering the Markings of Flesh / The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, Caravaggio, 1601–1602 (detail) / The Incredulity of St. Thomas, Bernardo Strozzi, 1582-1644 (detail) / Don McKay, from “Twinflower,” Field Marks: The Poetry of Don McKay, intro. Méira Cook (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006) / thierryetherve / Pathologic / post / Gregory Orr, from How Beautiful the Beloved / Tomas Tranströmer, tr. by Robert Bly, from a poem titled “Track,” / Disco Elysium / Anne Carson, Economy of the Unlost / Pathologic 2 / Disco Elysium / Carl Phillips, from “Givingly”, Wild is the Wind / post / Pathologic / The Juniper Tree (Nietzchka Keene | 1990) / John Banville, Eclipse / Twin Peaks / Disco Elysium / VectorStock / True Detective / Night in the Woods
I also want to give credit to @arairah for being the lead holologist on this site and the intermediate source for a lot of this, thank you!
elon musk’s months-long very public breakdown reached a fresh peak today when he accused one of the divers in Thailand of being a pedophile in response to criticism of his metal death-tube
the greek democracies used to have this mechanism called ‘ostracism’ where everyone would just get real fed up with one particular rich asshole’s shit, someone would call for an ostracism, and everyone would get together and write the dude’s name on a pottery shard, toss it into a container and then have it be tallied up later to determine a yay-or-nay
there didn’t have to be a specific charge, no crime needed to be committed, you just had be such a tremendously unbearable shithead that everyone in the city decided to just officially exile you for ten years and send you packing
we should seriously consider bringing this back it would solve a lot of problems
Exile him to where though? In the modern world where could he be sent to really exclude him from society. Really we’d end up having to help him build a Martian colony, and he’d only win from that
ok kids, gather round for another episode of auntie vrabia’s academic advice.
say you’re working on a paper and you badly need this one article. but it’s not in any of the databases your library gives you access to. and you can’t find it on google. or, well, actually you can find it on google, but it directs you to this:
listen. it’s not just you. the mythical affluent academic who sees this and immediately thinks to themselves ‘yeah man time to pony up’ does not exist. no one any of us knows gets their articles this way.
but you still need that article, right? so what do you do? here’s two solutions to this capitalist problem you never asked for:
1. do you just need some definition, argument, specific bit of data or empirical result from that article? find another source you do have access to that cites it and then put this in your paper: ‘smith et al. (as cited in jones, 2015) argue that this business model is bullshit and a grand total of zero money is being made by publishers through this channel’. then in your references include jones (2015) and omit smith et al. i don’t recommend citing smith et al. like you’re pretending you’ve actually read their stuff because you don’t know what else is in there, so just play it safe. citing things this way when you can’t access the original source for whatever reason (including a fucking paywall) is perfectly acceptable and you won’t fail your class or be accused of plagiarism for doing it.
2. is it vitally important that you read the whole article from start to finish? EMAIL THE AUTHOR. after you’ve made super sure it’s really not available anywhere, contact them and ask for a copy. write a nice (short!) email along these lines:
dear [academic title][name],
i am a [student] at [university], currently working on a paper about [topic]. reading your article [title] would really help me develop my argument about [specific thing from their article] unfortunately it’s not available for access through our library services at the moment, so i was wondering if you would be willing to send me a copy for reference purposes. thank you.
best regards,
[your name]
there is no guarantee that this will work, or that they’ll even read your email (increase your chances by an estimated 37% by using your university email and putting ‘question about your article [title]’ in the subject line, we read that shit)
BUT. there’s actually a pretty good chance that it will work, and here’s why: if that $40+ article sells one copy on the publisher’s page, the authors don’t see a single solitary dime from it. not from one sale. not from 5,000 sales. we make nothing off our academic publications. so they’re not going to reply to you with ‘sorry kid, go buy my article, i get 20% royalties and it contributes to my livelihood’. plus, most of us really hate the idea of our articles being stuck behind paywalls instead of circulating and getting cited. contact the author. they know their articles’ copyright situation and usually if they give you express permission to cite them, even from stuff like drafts or working papers, you’re safe to do so.
a polite (short!!) email to an academic goes a long way. and even if you think this might not work, it still gives you a better shot at getting what you need than just sitting in the library and understandably crying into your hands.
This is awesome advice, and I’d like to add a couple of extra options (as I might as well use my degree for something).
Firstly, https://openaccessbutton.org is a website/bookmarklet tool that can search for free (and legal) versions of articles. If they can’t find it, they also offer the option to email the author for you, if contacting a total stranger gives you The Fear.
Secondly, ask your librarians! Your library website probably has contact details for the librarian responsible for your subject, or you can just ask the friendly people on the front desk. Libraries usually have a ton of extra options for locating articles (they might have an article share arrangement with another institution, or have access to a hard copy, or any number of things).
Thank you TuT This makes my day every time I see it. My favourite moment is when sealbab screws up and starts sliding and you can SEE the ‘OH NO I FCUKED UP I FUCKED UP’ look on it’s face as it goes down XD
In honour of one of the car idiots saying something incredibly bigoted and stupid this week, here is a story I wrote last year about the chief car idiot. It is probably libelous.
Jeremy Clarkson buys a new car to cheer himself up. Something incredibly expensive and exclusive. A Turbot Antigone, or a Helpmeet Gunsteel 5000 or a Klubsy. What matters is that Jeremy Clarkson loves it. He can drive fast, and it makes him feel like a real man. There is a spider crawling up his shirtsleeve, and he lazily crushes it between his fingertips at a hundred miles an hour.
There is an old woman in the seat next to him, an impossibly old woman, so old that even her wrinkles are wizened. She was not there a moment ago. Jeremy Clarkson yelps and jerks the wheel involuntarily, and the old woman gently guides the car back on course.
Jeremy Clarkson has to chew his words, in order to dislodge them from between his teeth with his tongue. He's doing it now, his demands of "who the fuck are you" impacting against "I could have died" and coming out as just noises.
"This is a wanker's car," she says. "That Jeremy Clarkson, they say, he's driving around in a wanker's car. Get rid of it, that's my advice."
She is gone before Jeremy Clarkson has finished chewing out even a single syllable.
Jeremy Clarkson's wife embraces him. He can no longer remember her name. He calls her "Darling" to her face, and in his brain he thinks of her as "Wife".
"How was the drive?" says Wife as she admires her favourite plate.
Jeremy Clarkson says a manly metaphor in response. The ladies love his many driving metaphors, presumably.
"As long as it makes you happy," says Wife as she leaves the room. Jeremy Clarkson does not leave the room. That night he buries the favourite plate in the back garden.
Jeremy Clarkson is filming his famous television programme about cars. A crew person is telling him that hes agrees with the opinions in Jeremy Clarkson's latest newspaper column. Jeremy Clarkson isn't sure if he agrees with his own opinions. He mostly has opinions in exchange for money.
The crew person is leaning against the side of the car as Jeremy Clarkson gets into it and Jeremy Clarkson slams the door on the crew person's fingers.
"Augh!" says the crew person. And, "fucking wanker!"
Jeremy Clarkson accelerates away without apologising.
Jeremy Clarkson is at his friend David's house. David used to be the Prime Minister. Nowadays he is only so rich that he does not have to worry about anything.
"Is that a new car that you have been driving?" says David. They are doing the handshake that manly men do, when they try to crush each others hand. Jeremy Clarkson is winning because he is the manliest.
They talk about manly things, like the cars they have driven and the women they have had unsatisfying conversations with. Jeremy Clarkson wins at the talking because he has the manliest stories.
"Goodbye Jeremy," says David as Jeremy stands up to leave."Have a good drive in that car for wankers that you own."
David looks like a condom full of jam. Jeremy Clarkson wonders what it would be like to tear the condom open. Jeremy Clarkson wonders what it would feel like if he screamed forever.
"Jeremy?" says Wife. "Are you even listening to me?"
Jeremy Clarkson doesn't say anything because he is not listening to her.
"You're such a wanker," says Wife.
Jeremy Clarkson's blood is howling. That night, he buries the rest of the plates in the garden.
Jeremy Clarkson is filming a different television programme, where he is interviewed by another television man. Jeremy Clarkson is lurking off stage, where the camera cannot see him, waiting for his turn for the camera to see him.
"And now," says the other television man, "please give a very warm welcome to Jeremy Clarkson, the man with the wanker's car!"
Jeremy Clarkson walks unsteadily in front of the camera's eyes and sits on the interviewing sofa. He is not sure if he heard right, is not sure if he has ever heard right. There is an old woman on the front row of the audience. She is impossibly wrinkled, and she is eating a bag of crisps. As Jeremy Clarkson makes eye contact with her, she cheerfully makes the universally recognised hand gesture for "wanker".
"So Jeremy," says the other television man. "You've been the focus of some controversy recently."
This is normal. This is something that Jeremy Clarkson is used to being asked, because he is always the focus of some controversy. He must have misheard. He's very on edge at the moment. He might have to buy another car to cheer himself up. He's got his eye on the new Palpitation Retchtractor.
"And I think what we all want to know is," continues the other television man, "why the wanker's car?"
He's not mishearing, he's been set up, realises Jeremy Clarkson. This talentless worthless little fuck is in on it, they've all been in on it everyone who talks like they care about him has been part of this stupid spiteful joke that's only there to make him Jeremy Clarkson look stupid. Look like a wanker. Feel like a wanker.
"Wanker?" says the other television man.
"Wanker!" roars the crowd. They are all old women and that sickens Jeremy Clarkson. They are not his demographic.
Jeremy Clarkson's new car drives very fast and that is why he loves it. It means that he can get away. He can also arrive. Jeremy Clarkson arrives his car into the front of the other television man's house. Jeremy Clarkson piles out of the car, his friends and business associates at his side, their throats raw from screaming. Richard Hammond eagerly gathers plates from the kitchen, yelping with idiot delight. James May stares with dead fish eyes at the cowering other television man. James May is holding a large knife that he plunges repeatedly into the walls without breaking eye contact.
Jeremy Clarkson's digs a hole by the light of the flames that his new car is in. His mouth is full of earth and crockery and screaming. He is content.
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