danbensen

[danbensen]

"Oh, we don't really care about the other gods. There are so many of them and frankly we don't see any evidence for their existence." "And you do see evidence for Apollo, Dionysus, and Hades." "Reason, madness, and opportunity? Yes. We see them all regularly."

From Wealthgiver

[danbensen]

Etruscan names were top notch

Two Etruscan sarcophagi showing embracing couples.

[danbensen]

As I was reading this to my kids, I kept thinking of Hayao Miyazaki. There's a scene where little princes Sophie and her foolish nurse are fleeing home as dusk falls and the goblins emerge. I could see Miyazaki’s blobby, wobbly-outlined style. I really wonder if he based Sheeta and Pazu on Sophie and Curdy.

From my February Newsletter: https://www.patreon.com/posts/february-storge-125139737

[danbensen]

Into the Looking Glass by John Ringo

Fun and un-serious events occur after portals open up to a whole bunch of alien planets. There were some big ideas – one right at the end and seemingly attached to nothing. I guess, to the sequel? I wish Ringo had treated this book as a first draft and written another that was better thought out. General Pta-pta-pta needed a lot more screen time.

From my February Newsletter: https://www.patreon.com/posts/february-storge-125139737

[danbensen]

I never thought about "before" and "after" that way. Thank you for reminding me that I have a great past before me ;)

Can you point me to any reference works or articles about metaphors for conlanging? I’m a beginner so I don’t know all the right terminology. Thanks in advance

A foundational work you could check is Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.

It’s a fairly easy read that introduces the concept of conceptual metaphors, which can lead to a lot of interesting directions for you. I’m sure with some searching you can find a free PDF.

Just to give an idea, a conceptual metaphor is a basic metaphorical relationship that is pervasive in a language to the point that speakers don’t notice it.

One of their key examples is TIME IS A LIMITED RESOURCE and the extension TIME IS MONEY. From that metaphor we end up saying things like “spend time”, “save time”, or “waste time”, and generally have a relationship to the passage of time that we might not otherwise have. After all, you can’t actually stockpile a bunch of time — it just ticks on — but it does make sense to think of it this way when most of the population is paid by the hour.

Time is a big source of conceptual metaphors, especially when you get into how different cultures link time to space, but there’s lots more to look at in every corner of language.

[danbensen]

Funnier than Anna Karenina, more insightful than Vanity Fair. I wish it had focused more tightly on Katherine and Dorothy, whose relationship is the sweet counterpoint to the bitter ones with foolish husbands and untrustworthy peers. The conversation between Dorothy and her befuddled old husband is tragically perfect. I wish there was a sharper climax, though, and the superior husband isn't drawn with nearly the detail as the bad one. I definitely need to read it again.

From my February Newsletter: https://www.patreon.com/posts/february-storge-12513973

[danbensen]

Three years ago, I learned about conodonts and made up some of my own. More here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/63737156

[danbensen]

The past-forward-future-backward language they were referring to was probably Quechua.

Can you point me to any reference works or articles about metaphors for conlanging? I’m a beginner so I don’t know all the right terminology. Thanks in advance

A foundational work you could check is Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.

It’s a fairly easy read that introduces the concept of conceptual metaphors, which can lead to a lot of interesting directions for you. I’m sure with some searching you can find a free PDF.

Just to give an idea, a conceptual metaphor is a basic metaphorical relationship that is pervasive in a language to the point that speakers don’t notice it.

One of their key examples is TIME IS A LIMITED RESOURCE and the extension TIME IS MONEY. From that metaphor we end up saying things like “spend time”, “save time”, or “waste time”, and generally have a relationship to the passage of time that we might not otherwise have. After all, you can’t actually stockpile a bunch of time — it just ticks on — but it does make sense to think of it this way when most of the population is paid by the hour.

Time is a big source of conceptual metaphors, especially when you get into how different cultures link time to space, but there’s lots more to look at in every corner of language.

[danbensen]

She wanted help writing fiction, which is closer to my heart than English grammar and vocabulary. And, just a few years older than my daughter, she seemed to prefigure the dread shadow of the teenager.

From my February Newsletter

[danbensen]

A year ago I wrote about the relationship between readers and writers:

"The metaphor I use in my own head is that a writer is the host and the reader a guest. You invite a stranger in, you sit with them, you serve them something good. Even if you don't have what they need, you're gentle with them. Likewise, as a guest, you're respectful. You might say "no existential risk, please," but you don't hand your host a list of demands. If this isn't the house for you, you just leave."

you can read the rest here: https://danielmbensen.substack.com/p/invitations

[danbensen]

A year ago, I began serializing Petrolea, a novella about saving the robot rainforest.

Now, you can read the whole thing here.

[danbensen]

I first tried and failed to read Dostoyevski’s The Devils. Now that I’ve read Brothers Karamazov, I have a better idea of what he was driving at. These people are vicious, mean-spirited, self-defeating fools. Yes, and so are you, reader. Now watch: this is how you practice compassion.

From my January Newsletter:

[danbensen]

@cmkosemenillustrated is still making art and publishing books, but I should say that All Tomorrows is substantially the same as the version he released as a PDF back in the '00s, with the addition of some "making-of" material in the back.

I think his next specevo project is a Snaiad book, but I might be wrong.

Notes from the Underground wasn't on my to-read list yet. I remedied that! Thank you!

I first tried and failed to read Dostoyevski’s The Devils. Now that I’ve read Brothers Karamazov, I have a better idea of what he was driving at. These people are vicious, mean-spirited, self-defeating fools. Yes, and so are you, reader. Now watch: this is how you practice compassion.

From my January Newsletter:

[danbensen]

One Thursday night in January, this anime absolutely wrecked me. I’ll give you the premise: teenage girl (who isn’t as much of a delinquent as she likes to pretend) gets into an argument with boy (who is exactly as much of a dweeb as he appears). He’s obsessed with UFOs, she’s embarrassed by her grandma the ghost-wrangler. After arguing about whether UFOs/ghosts are real, they challenge each-other to spend the night in a haunted service tunnel (him) and an abandoned hospital (her), where they are, respectively, possessed and abducted. That’s the first 15 minutes. You won’t get to the part that made me cry until episode 8.

From my January Newsletter.

[danbensen]

"Ours is a war of civilizations. There are no civilians. Only our armies and yours." On sale this week

George Boatman trained to be a priest, but his people need a criminal. Five centuries after the mighty Gondwanan civilization conquered the Northern Hemisphere, George leads a band of thieves and smugglers in the Ilinwa city of Shikaakwa. It's a bloody job, but his people need him. What George needs is vengeance. Bounce Nakmara didn't expect her post-graduate work to be so demanding. Placed without her consent into a home-stay with a bunch of incomprehensible Native Eurasian refugees, she does her best to settle in, help out, and pursue George, who has interesting depths. Except it turns out he's killed someone! Now they're all threatened by ruthless drug lords, the local authorities, and international religious extremists. If Bounce doesn't make George choose to save the future, he'll be consumed by the sins of the past. Love, loyalty, and cultures collide in The World's Other Side, an alternate history scifi thriller.

[danbensen]

Another book I first listened to 30 years ago. Ellis Peters has aged less well for me than John Mortimer - I guess because Brother Cadfel isn’t as funny as Rumpole. And although there were some action scenes, Peters’s story is so very girly. One man has a gleaming curtain of raven hair.

From my January Newsletter: https://www.danielmbensen.com/blog/coffee-broom

[danbensen]

"Why are we still having this conversation? Once the new gods take off, we'll all be living in either an earthly paradise or we'll be dead. And even if neither of those things happens, the gods will take our jobs.

“The old magic persists thanks to it’s unfathomable power.”

No, the old magic persists because the new magic can’t run the legacy spells I need to do my job, and keeps trying to install spirits I don’t want or need onto my orb.