(no subject)

I’m trying to reread A Thing of Vikings. I’ve praised it a few times for having enough honesty not to pull the usual “war is fun and awesome” crap. But on the other hand, I forgot just how bad the Alternate History Wank got. This Jewish author really wants you to know that Jews are wise and well-educated and fair lawmakers, and the reason the Norse characters are so wise is because a Jew taught them to be that way.

(At least it’s less tedious than the whole Byzantium subplot.)

(no subject)

There’s this assumption in a lot of writing advice that if you care about structure and the “rules” of writing, you also care about realism. Unrealistic writing is treated as something that just comes to you and doesn’t need thought. But I think it could be satisfying to carefully and precisely engineer the dumbest Rule of Cool bullshit possible.