Word of Nathan

I’m sure this is making the rounds, but just in case you haven’t seen it, Lewis H. Lapham has written a piece in this month’s Harper Magazine entitled “We Now Live in a Fascist State.” Touching on the old 14 points from Umberto Eco, this is a fascinating look at why Fascism has succeeded so well in the USA without the need for the more brutal repressive methods of the old Fascist regimes. You can read the text of the article here.

Every now and then you stumble on a website which seems destined to be A Big Thing. The Bounty Network seems like it could well be one. I’ll say up front that I’m acquainted with one of the guys behind this project, but ordinarily that isn’t enough to make me write about something. (Nor, for the skeptical, am I getting paid in any way to write this.) After trying out the site itself, I was simply impressed.

After a painless registration process that establishes your general geographic location, the Bounty Network opens up as a cross between eBay and craigslist, with Google Maps tossed in. Combining a modified bidding process like eBay with the locale sensitivity of craigslist, you not only get the ability to list and bid for items and services, but you get a map that shows you local projects and services. Moreover, unlike craigslist, Bounty Network is distance-sensitive rather than city-specific. This means that you aren’t limited to listings in your particular city; rather, you can see all listings within X miles of your own location. This could be a breakthrough offering for anyone wanting to buy or sell services or items - but especially services.

I haven’t played around with it much yet, but it seems pretty obvious that it’s the way to go if you want to offer, say, babysitting or lawnmowing, or any other sort of service with a limited geographical range. Obviously it’s a pain to tote your carpentry tools across the country to build custom shelving for someone, but with Bounty Network you could simply post a bounty and local people with those skills can contact you. Once enough local bounties (and bounty hunters) discover this, it will simply be much better than craiglist, and will blow eBay out of the water for anything best done locally.

There are a couple other interesting innovations: the feedback system at Bounty Network gives a “reputation” element that eBay lacks, so if you get a bad reputation yourself, it feeds back on people who have given you good feedback in the past. While there will have to be some caution against deliberate poisoning of the system, it seems that this could prevent careless awarding of positive feedback to people who really don’t deserve it. Secondly, unlike eBay, the poster of a bounty can choose to accept any bid, rather than only the highest bid. I think this will allow for more interesting bidding processes overall, as well as not obliging you to accept services from a local person with a bad reputation and a high bid.

I’m not sure that it will necessarily replace either eBay or craigslist, but it certainly is shaping up to be a strong competitor once word gets out. If you have a service to sell, or simply want to check it out, I strongly recommend it. The Bounty Network guys are still looking for feedback, so feel free to tell them if you think of any problems/suggestions while you’re there.:-)

Last night, I bought and read the latest installment of the never-ending Wheel of Time epic, Knife of Dreams. I had been fairly anxiously awaiting the novel for a couple of years, so it’s good to see that it’s out.

Funny enough, the “gasp” moment that we were supposed to get in the novel flew right by me. I actually had to go digging around at wotmania to find which scene should have so astonished me. It turns out that it’s the death of the Tremalking Ayamar islanders, who apparently decide to butcher themselves en masse after the giant hand statue melts on their island. Seems that it’s a trigger for their apocalyptic homicidal mania or some such. I dunno, I just read it as ‘huh,’ and moved on. I guess I’m a cold-hearted bastard.

There were a couple other minor scenes that bugged me, such as the wonderful, dripping, heartfelt reuinion between Perrin and Faile (after Perrin has just apparently carelessly killed the one Aiel guy helping her out. We never hear about this Aiel again, even though he’s been with us for a couple of books now! Faile doesn’t even get a POV to help us feel resolution. Just WHACK, bye.) Another would be the Semirhage scene near the end; it just felt so rushed, and BOOM, it’s over. I actually had to read that scene three or four times just to realize that yeah, that really was the entire scene.

But the book, overall, was great. I dunno if I’d say it was worth the wait, but as a writer, I’m not sure I could push out 750 pages in 2 years easily, so I can’t complain. The Nynaeve scenes were probably the best, and even tho I’ve always respected Egwene, I respected her even more so after what she is going through in the White Tower. Mat got lots of page time, which is good. He’s by far my favorite character in the entire story. I think Tuon got a bit tiring with all of the mind games. Rand got some time, Min was much less interesting than usual, Perrin was his normal sulky self. It will be nice to see if he gets some testosterone again in the next (last?) book. Elayne, as usual, is the least interesting one of the bunch.

Speaking of the last book, I really am not sure I’ll like it if Robert Jordan tries to close the series in only one more novel. It feels like there are still too many open plot lines, and that it would be entirely too rushed and out of keeping with the pace he’s set for the epic so far.

In summary, great read. Now I get to re-read the entire series and try to put it all in proper perspective again. Whee!

It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted, so just thought I’d let everyone know what I’m up to.

I’ve finally gotten back on the writing roll, pushing 45,000 words on my current writing project - a second novel. It’s a sci-fi novel, a bit cyber-punk maybe, with a lot of action. The basic premise? Three cultures colliding in one future city, and the human body itself the first front in an inevitable war. Overall, quite different from my first story. Have I titled it yet? No, but as soon as I come up with a title I’ll announce it here.

I’m seriously considering trying to publish the second novel officially, and from what I read online, publishing it on my website will make that process more difficult. If you want to read some of it, email me and I’ll send you enough to whet your interest.

My Earth:2025 rewrite is still in progress. I’ve made some minor changes in the code and am still working with a buddy to get a server up for an alpha run of the game. The first time through will be pretty vanilla, but some major gameplay changes definitely possible - as well as extensive community modding, which I think would be a first for this type of game.

Look out for more stories to come in my writing section, and one closet [comedic] drama which might be posted as well.

If you’ve read the Irish myth of the Tain Bo Cuailnge, the epic story of Cuchulainn, you might be familiar with the character Finnabair (sometimes spelled Findabair, apparently). Throughout the story, Finnabair keeps being used as a lure by her mother Medb, queen of Connaught, to get horny men to do various stupid and/or dangerous things - like fighting Cuchulainn in single combat. In the translation I’ve read, by Thomas Kinsella, Finnabair apparently dies of shame after she sleeps with an Ulsterman named Rochad, thereby ruining her virginity and pissing off seven kings of Munster whom her mother had promised her to in exchange for their help. (Probably with her “own thighs” as a bonus.) A fight ensues, during which 700 men die, and Finnabair apparently blames herself for their death and collapses on the spot.

In any case, at the end of the story, we read that there are seven years of peace, and Finnabair “stays with Cuchulainn.” I’m wondering how she can stay with Cuchulainn after she’s dead? Does Cuchulainn have a necro thing going? Or is it, as my girlfriend suggests, that “dying of shame” is a euphemism for “fainting of embarassment” - in which case, why do we hear no more about Finnabair for the remainder of the Tain? Unfortunately, I can’t read Gaelic, so I can’t go back through the original sources, but if any Celtic scholars happen to read this, I’d be grateful for a comment with your opinion on this matter.

I might add that the Thomas Kinsella translation is a great one; it’s very easy to read, while not feeling “dumbed down.” In addition, it is abstractly illustrated with brush drawings by Louis de Brocquy that are quite amazing. If you’re interested in the story of Cuchulainn, I’d recommend this book.

Looks like one of my short stories, “The Final Casualty,” will be published in an upcoming edition of the UK horror mag Thirteen Magazine - volume 2, number 8. Not a major publication, but still the first time that I’ve gotten something in print, so I’m pretty happy!

If you’re interested in reading short fiction online, you can find a collection of read-in-one-sitting stories at Noon Spool. My short story “Dragon Hunting” made this month’s edition. Check it out sometime:-)

Okay, this isn’t as good as Briggy, but I can’t help it. I’m a GIMP newbie:-)

If you look closely, the guy has Bert hair. My only regret is that I couldn’t easily move Hillary’s head closer to the guy. The original image, by the way, is located at Flickr, and the Sesame Street pic was found here thanks to Google’s Image search.

Cheezy, maybe, but I can’t get past the manic expression on Hillary’s face:-)

I don’t usually like to do the meta-link thing, but here is one that is worthwhile

From the article:

Men deciphered female voices using the auditory part of the brain that processes music, while male voices engaged a simpler mechanism, [a Sheffield university study] said. [Emphasis mine.]

So apparently, it really is more difficult to hear women if you’re a guy. It’s really not that I’m not listening!

Recently I’ve been reading a few books on Celtic mythology, including Rees’ Celtic Heritage and Peter Ellis’ A [not so] Brief History of the Druids, and one thing that was touched on at least briefly in both books was the importance of various numbers in the Celtic worldview. For instance, five and nine supposedly referenced the concept of “unity,” especially in Ireland.

Having just read that, I happened to walk by a billboard for Coke’s Dasani water today. I can’t remember the exact wording, but it was something like “5 steps for purification. 1 thirst-quenching drink.” Or something about as inane. In any case, it occurred to me that I can’t really think of many great examples of modern numerical symbolism, apart from the incredibly annoying “9-11 / 7-7″ craze that’s going around right now. While that’s certainly symbolism, it’s not really the same thing as 5 representing the unity of your nation, or 7 representing the sacred. I realize that the latter is around in religion still, but I’m trying to think of a distinctly modern example and failing.

It seems to me that on the whole, modern society deals with numbers largely in terms of quantity and not symbolism. More is better, unless it’s price, in which case less is better. Perhaps I’m oversimplifying, but I feel that it’s a sad thing that numbers have been so completely colonized by science that they’ve lost mythological meaning for the most part.

If you can think of examples of “modern” number mythology, please comment on this post. I’d be interested to see what people come up with.