I might be at Worldcon, but the New Worlds Patreon continues! This week it’s religious texts, looking at the different types of thing that get venerated as scripture, and how such things get marked out from secular material.
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From the sites of religion, the New Worlds Patreon continues onward to the practices of religion, from prayer to asceticism to sacrifice to hallucinogens.
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This week the New Worlds Patreon doesn’t just have an essay for you — though there’s that, too, on religious sites — but some news as well!
As those of you who follow this blog know, I’m working on a collaborative novel with Alyc Helms. Since it’s a secondary-world fantasy and we’re both anthropologists, we are eyeball-deep in worldbuilding and swimming ever deeper . . . and with Alyc’s permission, I’m going to be reporting on that process to my New Worlds patrons. Everyone at the $10 level and above receives a bonus essay each month, and for a while to come those are going to be focused on different aspects of the setting we’re creating for Sekrit Projekt R&R. So if you’d like a front-row seat to how I do this stuff — not after-the-fact musings but a look right down into the guts of how we’re creating the clothing and religion and geography and monetary systems of our world — this is your chance. Become a patron, and get a behind-the-scenes peek at what I’m cryptically alluding to in the progress reports!
From ostentation the New Worlds Patreon goes to the opposite (sort of): modesty in clothing. What you’re required to cover, and how, and how the answers to those questions have varied to an absurd degree across time and space.
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I never quite understand Tv shows and books that purport to tell stories of aristocratic politics . . . in which nobody ever seems to think about what they’re wearing. In history, showing off one’s wealth and style through clothing has always been a major part of social maneuvering. So this week the New Worlds Patreon delves into how clothing communicates status.
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The closest I’ve come to making an item of clothing from scratch was when I used an inkle loom to weave a very long strip, then cut the strip into shorter strips and sewed them edge-to-edge to make a piece of fabric, then sewed the fabric into a pouch. (It was for a costume. I couldn’t find any fabric in the colors I wanted.) It was very small, and I didn’t spin the thread myself, and it still gave me a strong appreciation for how much work went into making clothing before industrialization. This week’s New Worlds Patreon post is all about the labor involved, and how that affected the way people interacted with their clothing.
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For reasons having to do with a project I’m currently working on, I’ve decided that this month I’m going to discuss clothing! Starting with the basics: what we make it out of, and how we make it.
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One of the earliest funding goals of the New Worlds Patreon was a fifth essay in the months that have five Fridays. (The baseline premise of the Patreon is four posts a month, but the calendar does not always agree.) Rather than having these all continue on with the same kind of culture-focused topics, I decided to devote them to “theory” — by which I mean both discussions of concepts that underlie certain social structures (like liminality), and discussion of how one goes about putting these kinds of things into stories.
This week’s post, on “gratuitous worldbuilding,” is one of the latter. It’s an ode to the details that don’t matter: the little setting touches that are there just because they would be, and because they make the story more flavorful. Comment over there!
And if you enjoy the New World series, remember, this is all brought to you by my Patreon backers. You can join their ranks here!
With the topic du week being taboos, you would be justified in expecting something salacious out of today’s New Worlds Patreon essay. But the danger here is more metaphysical than moral — read and see for yourself!
It’s Friday, which means it’s time for a New Worlds Patreon post! This time we’re discussing superstitions: what they mean, why you don’t see them more often in fiction, and how to go about including them.
I’ll note, by the way, that if you’re not a patron then you’re missing out on some of the content. Every patron at the $1 level and above receives a photo each week — one that’s themed to that week’s post, if I can manage it, though some topics make that easier than others — along with a brief discussion of it and how it relates to worldbuilding. Today, for example, I sent out a photo of a gargoyle and talked about the architectural and apotropaic roles they play (and why it’s so interesting to find them on the Natural History Museum in London). Patrons at higher levels get free ebooks, the ability to request post topics, bonus essays, and even the chance to get private feedback from me. So if you’ve been enjoying the series, consider becoming a backer! Or recommend it to friends — that also helps!
