New Worlds: Censorship
This week on the New Worlds Patreon, you are not permitted to read what I have written — just kidding. Let’s talk about censorship!
Posts Tagged ‘new worlds’
New Worlds: The Printing Press
This week on the New Worlds Patreon, a topic near and dear to my heart: the printing press! (Without which I would have no career, because it’s bloody difficult to make your living off the written word when the only way to make copies is by hand.) Its history is more complex than I was taught in school, and much more interesting.
Comment over there!
New Worlds: Handwriting
This week on the New Worlds Patreon over at Book View Cafe, we discuss handwriting: calligraphy, cursive, chicken scratch, all kinds, and the things those styles say about the people and societies that use them.
Comment over there!
New Worlds: Literacy
This week on the New Worlds Patreon, literacy! Something every reader of these essays possesses . . . but whether that ability is common or rare depends on a lot of factors.
Comment over there!
New Worlds Theory Post: Against Monoliths
One of the funding goals for the New Worlds Patreon was a fifth essay in the months that have five Fridays, focused on techniques or underlying concepts rather than specific details of culture. This month over on Book View Cafe I rant about monolithic worldbuilding: fictional societies where something (religion, fashion, sports, whatever), is exactly the same for every single person, with no regional, historical, class, or other variations.
If you’ve been enjoying these essays and aren’t yet a patron, now is a lovely time to become one! (My birthday is tomorrow.) Patrons get photos, ebooks, bonus essays, the opportunity to request topics — even direct feedback on their own work at the higher levels. We aren’t too far from the funding goal that would add a regular Google Hangout for patrons in which we can discuss worldbuilding more generally (on a rotating schedule to accommodate people in different time zones).
New Worlds: Religious Specialists
Another week, another New Worlds Patreon post! There are five Fridays in this month, so next week you’ll get a “theory post,” but today we wrap up this pass through religion with the question of religious specialists: shamans, priests, monastics, diviners, and so forth.
Comment over there!
New Worlds: Religious Texts
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.
Comment over there!
New Worlds: Religious Practices
From the sites of religion, the New Worlds Patreon continues onward to the practices of religion, from prayer to asceticism to sacrifice to hallucinogens.
Comment over there!
New Worlds: Religious Sites
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!
New Worlds: Modesty
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.
Comment over there!
New Worlds: Clothing and Status
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.
Comment over there!
New Worlds: The Social Economy of Clothing
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.
Comment over there!
New Worlds: Clothing Basics
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.
Discuss over there!
New Worlds: Gratuitous Worldbuilding
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!
New Worlds: Taboos
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!
New Worlds: Superstitions
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!
New Worlds: The Magic of Numbers
It’s been twenty years since I read A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe, but it came to mind again when writing this week’s post for the New Worlds Patreon. Numbers have meaning; numbers are magic, for both good and for ill.
Comment over there!
New Worlds: Language as Magic
From the very physical realm of combat, we move toward something more spiritual in this month of the New Worlds Patreon, starting with the idea of language as magic. It’s an old idea — but oddly, one I think has been falling out of fashion in fantasy lately . . .
Comment over there!
New Worlds: Unarmed Combat
As a card-carrying black belt, I felt obliged to close out a combat-focused month of essays in the New Worlds Patreon with a discussion of unarmed fighting: what it is and isn’t good for.
Comment over there!
New Worlds: Armor
From weapons, the New Worlds Patreon continues on to armor! Which people did not generally wear while running around town, contrary to what my favorite video games would have me believe.
Comment over there!
