SyntaxVorlon's New Writeups

The Avengers (review)

2009-08-11T22:13:06Z

The Avengers was a television series from the British '60's. The program was a drama depicting British spies working for counter-intelligence within the UK, stopping criminals and Soviet spies and giant carnivorous plants. Wait, what?

The show is not exactly realistic fiction; indeed it is in the style of so much British television, a story about the main characters being thrown into whatever plot might be given them. The series was focused on the adventures of John Steed, a dapper English gentleman, bowlered and ever equipped with an umbrella, who must solve mysteries and fight evil men. With him is often someone, typically female, who embodies the straight-man to his enigma. Early on, he had a Doctor Watson to his Holmes, but as the series progressed his companions became more feminine and leather-clad. His most famous partner in avenging was Emma Peel, who kicked high in leather pants.

The kernel of the series is that the British action hero is a charming but decisive man who…

gain (fiction)

2009-08-09T02:14:19Z

The day had begun but the term was, and is on this ship, obsolete. Indeed, the diurnal ship cycle had been modified to fit a human schedule to 30 hours, instead of 24. On Earth, the day is still the same, but the place the ship is headed to has a cycle that goes on for 33.5 hours. The passengers aboard generally spent 10 hours working, 10 hours resting and had 5 hour buffers to their own devices, though being imperfect, these varied from person to person to some degree. Duties on the cargo-vessel were remarkably similar to many of those held by sailors in days far in the past. Inventory keeping, husbandry was now hydroponics and aquaculture, navigation was the realm of a few men and women trained in astrophysics who spend most of their time running simulations. The captain still managed to hold the whole thing together. All in all, nothing new, psychologically. A few dozen crew and couple hundred passengers stuck together for a few months of travel from one place to another trying to stay sane.

…

it's vs. its (essay)

2009-07-15T19:17:45Z

Fear not young noder, if your write-up has been linked here, do not despair. Some passive-aggressive twit has likely decided that your multiple uses of the possessive or contracted version of this homophone is incorrect. You may be panicking, worried that you've committed some atrocity against English with your spurious use of apostrophes. You may say to yourself, 'who is this masked hero? Who has darkened your door long enough to mark your writeup as substandard?' as the silhouette in the lightning flash disappears.

The truth is that you will never know, because that brave defender of literacy will never send you any message more than a link to this page. They know already that you are deeply in need of remedial English lessons and to condescend to write a message to someone who probably would not understand would be hideously unsubtle of them. Instead they will simply feign ignorance of the rules governing the difference between 'its' and "it's".…

Homo Mechanus (fiction)

2009-07-14T19:38:23Z

Wu awoke that morning...well afterno...well early evening with a slight hangover. At least in the sense that a sledge hammer was long and skinny, not very filled out at all. This analogy was the best he could seek to produce at such an hour, with horrible post-party toxins coursing through his circulatory system. Too much of a stretch, but there was little he could do about it. He had been, as he realized, quite thoroughly hammered the previous night/morning. OH, he thought, THAT'S why it's a good analogy. Sort of. I must have thought of it last night, he thought.

This entire monologue, he realized at this point, had been composed entirely without opening his eyes, because of the pain associated with becoming aware of one's surroundings after a night to remember, if only he could. Why had there been a party, why, why, why? Perhaps the answer would present itself before him on opening his eyes.

The sun shown through the west facing windows of the living room, the burnt orange of 7PM on…

Gardens of the Moon (review)

2009-07-01T00:41:43Z

The debut book of 'Steven Erikson' and first book in his series The Malazan Book of the Fallen. As a debut book it strikes a new and staggeringly complex mark in the fantasy scene. Inscribed is a fantasy world not too far removed from others in its immediate nature, there are new names for a bunch of different fantasy races and a few old names. There are wizards and alchemists, dragons and armies of swords and sorcery. But the innovations that Erikson offers in this and the later books grant the series great depth of plot and the fine crafting of words make the work enjoyable on many levels. Furthermore the depth of story and character development are at times breathtaking. So I hope that with this review I can bring this series to the hands of more people.

Introduction

On the continent of Genabackis the army of the Malazan Empire, under the command of High Fist Dujek Onearm, continue their campaign of conquest. Two free cities face the onslaught of the…

Beauty and the Beast (idea)

2009-05-22T02:17:35Z

I hope that you'll forgive this young astrophysics student with a vehement dislike of gaudy post-modern literary criticism the present analysis of so long loved a story as Beauty and the Beast. My reason for this, aside from a passing trip along the nodes and a perchance reading of the story given above by SophiesCat, is that I see in it a great deal of depth as a document pertaining to women in European Traditional society and indeed women in any society. The story of a young girl who, for the purpose of saving her father from death at the hands of a Beast, willingly allows herself to be sent away from home. In another context, one less romanticized, the situation becomes more familiar to people who've read a bit of history.

The girl is sent to live with a Beast; an ugly, brutish mis-shapen creature. Her age is not given, but let us replace it with one that would be typical of such a precocious child; let's say that she is 15 or perhaps 14. Young enough to lose wealth gracefully but…