RFTIT Tumblr Weeklyish Roundup

Hey folks! I have a fair few irons in the fire – I’ve written close to 700 words more of Hour of the Wolf Part III, which is kind of crazy to say because Part II came out almost a year and a half ago; at the same time, I’ve outlined Dany IV and Arya VIII – but nothing’s quite ready to come out right now. Luckily, I’ve got some great stuff in the Tumblrs for you!

ASOIAF:

• Robert’s Rebellion isn’t Romeo and Juliet.
• Ryswell involvement in the War of Five Kings.
• Linguistic extremism and nation-building.
• Specialization in medieval universities.
• What would a permanent Great Council look like?
• Potatoes vs. turnips/parsnips.
• Popular culture in Westeros?
• LSH and Robb’s crown.
• The Grand Weirwood Conspiracy.
• Myr and Genoa.
• Westerosi heraldry is pretty basic:
  • Part I
  • Part II

Non-ASOIAF:

• How to depict fictional bureaucracy.

 

Livestream with History of Westeros!

https://youtu.be/87sA6stczkQ

Hey folks! In about a half hour, I’m going to do a livestream with the History of Westeros folks, finishing up our discussion of the War of Ninepenny Kings.

So if you’re around, hop on and chat with us.

Non-ASOIAF Content: People’s History of the Marvel Universe Primary Special – Krakoan Economics

Pages: 1 2

(This is wildly out-of-order, but if you follow me on Twitter or Tumblr, you’ll know that these ideas are running around in my brain, and the only way to get them to stop is to write them up.)

There have been many x-cellent analyses of House of X/Powers of X and Dawn of X from many different perspectives – from nationalism and nation-states to queer and disability theory and the politics of “safe spaces” – but one relatively unexplored dimension is economics and economic policy. As Spencer Ackerman points out, while Jonathan Hickman may be familiar to many Marvel fans as the writer of Fantastic Four and Avengers, he’s also the author of Black Monday Murders, which presented economic theory and high finance as black magick. (Wait, wrong Image series.)

Is Hickman et al’s interest in economic topics just style and symbolism, or is there content to Krakoan economics? Do we have a mutant economic policy to go along with our mutant language for a mutant culture and a mutant nation-state?

RFTIT Tumblr Weeklyish Roundup

Hey folks! It feels really good to have Dunk Egg, Part I in the can. As to where I could go from here…I think the next project is either Hour of the Wolf Part III or Dany IV, depending on where the flow takes me.

In the mean-time, got some good stuff on the Tumblrs.

ASOIAF:

• Varys’ plan during Robert’s Rebellion.
• What Varys and LF want to do with power?
• Varys’ plans for Young Grift’s kids.
• Young Grift’s reaction to Varys.
• A potential solution to the Hornwood Crisis.
• How to burn castles: slighting and you!
• Encirclement and leaving escape corridors open.
• Sailing for pleasure.
• Some bits and pieces on the Tyrells:
  • Part I
  • Part II
• Robert, Margaery, and Lyanna.
  • Part II
  • Part III
• If Renly got Margaery with child…
• Why Tywin gave Darry to Lancel not Kevan.
• Demons in Valyria.
• Openhandedness and charitable donations.
• An increasingly exasperated discussion of Valyrian dragon-boinking:
  • Part I
  • Part II
• What if Euron killed Balon earlier?

Non-ASOIAF:

• Nothing this week, but I might be working next on a PHOMU, so there will be more comics stuff to come.

 

Dunk and Egg, Essay 1: “What Worth a Hedge Knight?”

Introduction:

At long last, we come to the much-promised, frequently-delayed essay series on the Dunk & Egg series, as a window on the (let me check the wording on the Kickstarter for a second) “history of House Targaryen and the Blackfyre Rebellion.” In this essay series, I will cover one novella at a time – which means initially the three stories collected in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, but I will be more than happy to re-open the series on that happy day when “Village Hero” or “She-Wolves of Winterfell” or any other Dunk and Egg story are released.

So let’s see what we can mine from our memories, shall we?

Classic Podcasting: Graphic Policy Roundtable on the MLK/Malcolm X Analogy in X-Men

So way back when, I participated in a roundtable podcast on the problems with the Xavier = MLK, Magneto = Malcolm X analogy in the broader X-Men commentariat. It turned out to be a rather more significant podcast than I had thought, because the research I did for the podcast directly inspired my People’s History of the Marvel Universe series.

Graphic Policy Radio re-released the podcast today, with updated and cleaned-up audio, so have a listen!

Guest Appearance on Ranking Thrones

https://open.spotify.com/show/7cO10eSJBo0XgwrpXKueyE

This time on Ranking Thrones, we discuss Daemon Blackfyre, who I wrote quite a bit about here and here.

Have a listen!

RFTIT Tumblr Weeklyish Roundup

Hey folks! So much for that break from ASOS, eh? Well, I got Jon V out of my system and now can turn a bit of attention to my first Dunk & Egg essay (although I’m also teaching a new course this semester, so it’s back to “flying the airplane as I build it” mode).

In the mean-time, I’ve got some fun stuff on the Tumblrs:

ASOIAF:

• Ironborn and sieges:
  • Part I
  • Part II
  • Part III
• Impact of Harrenhal as Riverlands capital.
• Who told Stannis about Cersei’s infidelity?
• What is gold plate?
• Harrenhal as a Fantasy Arcology:
  • Part I
  • Part II
• How unified is the Reach under the Tyrells?
• How did medieval literature and poetry authors get published?
• Admissions criteria for medieval universities.
• Did the Yronwoods work w/the Reach? No.
• Why are Skagos and Bear Island so different?
• The arrow spoon saga:
  • Part I
  • Part II
  • Part III
• Does cutting out a tongue stop someone from speaking? (The answer may surprise you.)
• How did GRRM come up with the name Daenerys?

Non-ASOIAF:

• The problem(s) with means-testing.
• Advice on history as a career.
• Was FDR a social democrat?
• Thoughts on Dawn of X:
  • Part I
  • Part II
  • Part III
• How much of their Rogue’s Gallery has the MCU used up?
• Is Krakoa a republic?
• Do people on Krakoa have jobs?

Patreon Questions:

• “How do the slaves of slaver’s bay rationalize that not only are they free, but that the institution of slavery does no longer exist (at least technically)? How do they build a new life? The books show positive and negative examples, but personally I would have liked to learn more about the overall situation. I mean, the slave masters are looking into the existential abyss of extinction, but what about the other side?“
• So there’s a good quote from Ben Aaronovitch, one of my favorite fantasy authors, where an immortal ex-slave named Oberon says “There’s none more piteous than a slave. And I have been a slave, and took my freedom at the point of a knife. But before I could pick up the knife I had to believe it was my knife to hold.” What Aaronovitch is getting at is the process of physical or political emancipation has to be accompanied by a parallel process of mental emancipation – after all of the threats and acts of violence that can only be described as terrorism, all the careful indoctrination of caste systems and religions and the small accomodations that pass for kindnesses, work has to be done by the formerly enslaved to think of themselves as free in fact as well as in name. Now, how much work is something of a debate among historians, some of whom want to argue that enslaved peoples were constantly resisting in ways both small and large and therefore “mental domination” is a racist fiction and others of whom argue that the system I described above has some sort of traumatic impact on the human psyche that explains why you didn’t see more resistance.
• Without trying to be a craven Third Way type, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle, and it has to do more about people’s expectations of the possible, which is why you tend to see acts of resistance spiking when the environment suddenly shifts and disturbs the social/political order around them. As for the people of Slaver’s Bay, well a lot more people enlist with Daenerys Breaker-of-Chains than don’t – although the strength of their convictions is clearly affected by the proximity of Dany’s Unsullied army – and a lot more people sign up for the Mother’s Men, Free Brothers, Stalwart Shields, and Brazen Beasts than sell themselves back into slavery (although even there that doesn’t happen until after Dany tries to walk back her revolution).

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Jon V, ASOS

“I am going home, he told himself. But if that was true, why did he feel so hollow?”

Synopsis: Jon breaks cover.

SPOILER WARNING: This chapter analysis, and all following, will contain spoilers for all Song of Ice and Fire novels and Game of Thrones episodes. Caveat lector.

Livestream with History of Westeros!

Hey folks! In about a half hour, I’m going to do a livestream with the History of Westeros folks, talking about that seminal generational event, the War of Ninepenny Kings, and how it influenced the lives of the Baelishes, Tullys, Arryns, Baratheons, Lannisters, Starks, and so many more!

So if you’re around, hop on and chat with us.