Technology, Rambling and Dragons
We’re kickin’ it old-school on SGS today, with a lovely post on the British Library‘s Medieval Manuscripts Blog. The image to the right is from Royal MS 20 B XX. Click the image to see a larger version, or — far better — use the British Library MS Viewer to browse wonderful, high-res zoomable scans of the original.
Warning: All links above are more perilous Internet time-wasting rabbit-holes than Wikipedia and TVTropes combined.
Some brief musings on the latest vaguely Narnia-themed theatrical treacle:
If you happen to like any linear combination of dragons and/or Art Nouveau, you should probably go see it. Treat it as a slide-show of visual wonders, occasionally interrupted by boring people talking.
I regard it as pretty absurd to talk about “spoilers” in the context of a work (ostensibly) based on a book that’s over fifty years old, and I don’t think I commit any. Nevertheless, here’s a cut:
Comparing 2008 to 2009, we’ve seen catastrophic declines in castles, glowy magic and swords. Unicorns have seemingly disappeared, and even formerly sizable populations of elves, wolves and horses are in sharp decline.
Dragons, obviously made from sterner stuff, remain unscathed.
Context? Fantasy novel covers. This news courtesy of Orbit Books (via Making Light). Their handy comparison chart is reproduced to the right, but really: go read the original article. Sample quote: “The number of dragons on covers held steady this year. The dragon population seems to be in perfect balance – but we can’t tell if that’s because new dragons are being born to replace old ones, or if last year’s dragons are just really healthy.”
Over on the philosophy page, I said I wouldn’t do political stuff here. And this is political — after a fashion — for which I apologize. I don’t intend to make it a habit. But on sober reflection, I’ve been doing something wrong, and it’s my responsibility to correct it, and to explain the reason for the change.
In brief, I’m removing all links to amazon.com from posts I’ve written here. Please read on after the jump if you’d care to know why.
As you know, Bob, Duncan & Mallory is a collaborative comic created by Mel White and Robert Lynn Asprin. Set in a not-quite-Earth fantasy setting of ambiguous place and time, it concerns the adventures of one Duncan (disgraced human warrior) and J. P. Mallory (small silver dragon temporarily between jobs). Released in 1986 by Starblaze, it never achieved the notoriety widespread recognition it (IMHO) deserves.
What you may not know (comma Bob comma) is that it is now being re-released, on the web, a bit at a time, for free. More details after the jump.