A Working Map of the Railsea

After the promised re-read of Railsea, taking notes on all mentions of place-names as I went along, I was able to add a few names to the map. Comments on additions & corrections are, of course, welcome.

Since I wasn’t able to figure them all out, I give below a table of: all place-names I found; page-numbers; non-exhaustive descriptions that might help to figure out the geography; &, of course, suggestions or guesses of the real-world (or present-day) equivalents.

intradiegetic place-name	p/pp	notes from the text	extradiegetic equivalent
Amman Sun	367	cold
Bollons	55, 60	close to upland, volcano	Bollons Seamount
Cabigo	56, 121, 195	federal
Cambellia	54, 52, 60	wild continent, bad legend, looming slopes, large, southeast of Nuzland, that farthest shore	Campbell Plateau
Chatham, Cape of			Chatham Rise
Clarion (island)	35, 56		Isla Clarión
Cold Basin	67	easter than Streggeye [sic]	Chile (‘chill’) Basin, Robinson Islands?
Colony Cocos	115, 121	has updivers	Cocos Island
Deggenlache	367	near Mornington
Gul Fofkal	120		Gulf of California
Gulflask	35	woods	Gulf of Alaska
Kammy Hammy	56, 61, 113	Many-island nation, people with brick-coloured skin, South Kammy Hammy, far-off islands	Hawaii
Kribbis Hole	265		pun on Scilla & Charybdis, no real equivalent
Leweavel Range
Manihiki	56, 74, 87, 112, 129, 193	Grey-skinned people, centre of the world, west of Streggeye, Subzi: a quarter of Manihiki City north of the old town, has southern outposts	Society Islands (incl. Tahiti), French Polynesia
Marquessa	261		Macquarie I.? Or Marquesas?
Mendana	120		Solomon Islands, discovered by Álvaro de Mendaña y Neira
Molochai	300		Moloka’i, part of Hawaii / Kammy Hammy. A city?
Mornington	56, 367	far off, near Deggenlache
Norwest Peace	219		pun on Northwest Passage?
Nuzland (toxicontinent)	52		New Zealand
Pittman	121, 192	North Pittman	Pitcairn Islands
Rockvane	35, 56	southern neighbour of Streggeye
Salaygo Mess (archipelago)	34		Sala y Gómez Ridge
Sowmerick (toxicontinent)	68	mythical	South America
Streggeye	55, 92, 112	western tip of Salaygo Mess archipelago, east of Manihiki	Easter Island
Teekhee (archipelago)	119
Tharp	121		Tharp Fault??

A Preliminary Map of the Railsea

Update: A Working Map

I have wanted to create a map of the Railsea for a long time now. Today I gave in & started. Note that this is very much work in progress!
Now, a re-read is in order, with the map at hand, to try & fill in some names. (The south-western landmass ought to be Manihiki, I guess?)

southern marking: Streggeye Land
northern marking: speculative position of the abyss

Read the Comments

CN: Violent misogynistic threats and rape apologia quoted in screenshot.

Yesterday, the Guardian ran a piece about Puppygate. In the comment section, a discussion of the opinions of Mr Theodore Beale ensued.

 The Guardian moderator weighed in with some helpful advice.

Beatus qui procul illi canulo est.

A Postcard from Herman(n)stadt

 

Miyazaki-esque.

Tolkienwulf

Seamus Heaney’s poetic translation or rendering of Beowulf has garnered the nickname Heaneywulf; but I will immediately concede that J. R. R. Tolkien probably did not infuse equally much original invention into his prose translation to merit the analogue Tolkienwulf. (Whether this would or will stand for his own fragmentary poetic translation remains somewhat unclear – that translation is not included in the present edition, without comment on reasons for its exclusion.)

To my knowledge, Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary has not made a big splash (yet?), one month after its publication. Which is perfectly understandable: It is a dense matter, necessitating close reading, and is most properly evaluated by Anglo-Saxonists. To be clear: I am not yet through with it, and this is not a full review. But I can give an idea of what this edition has to offer.

The book includes a complete prose translation of Beowulf, commentary on its first half drawn from lecture notes, Tolkien’s ‘reconstruction’ (titled Sellic Spell) of the fairy-story he assumes to underlie Beowulf, and a (in relation very much shorter) adaptation of the matter of Beowulf into a ballad.

To address a plausible concern: Can this edition be enjoyed without prior knowledge of Beowulf and Old English? Well, I very much guess so. All passages not in Present-Day English are provided with a translation. The commentary actually is quite accessible, and allows to really dig into the background of the poem. It clarifies the connections behind the text both in major and minor matters.
A prose translation of Beowulf has the obvious (at least, potential) advantage of being more readable – and it is! The non-truncated presentation of a flowing text, mostly even in quite ordinary syntax, can be followed. Furthermore, according to the Tolkiens, Old English poetry was syntactically quite close to prose, which is then adequately reflected in this translation. Nevertheless, the text is still deeply rhythmic.
Another remarkable feature is how this edition demonstrates and reflects on the variety of poetic styles which were Tolkien’s trade. I have remarked before on Tolkien’s description and mastery of the different characteristics of Old English and Norse poetry; here, it is again superbly elucidated and exemplified.
As ever, the editor [Christopher Tolkien] lets glimpses of his personality shine through. At 90 years of age, this becomes rather touching: he clearly recalls his father singing the ballad to him “when I was seven or eight years old” (p. 416) — “my first acquaintance with Beowulf and the golden hall of Heorot” (p. xiii). I could go on and on about the unique symbiosis of Tolkien sen. and jun.!
The book design of this edition fits well enough with the informal series of epic poetry editions (Sigurd & Gudrún, The Fall of Arthur). Basing the cover and interior artwork on Tolkien’s own drawings adds unique charm, and the blue cover and burgundy endpapers combine into a goergeous flair of luxury. A major quibble with the typography is that line references to the original poem and to the translation are disambiguated by font size; hence, the commentary is littered with incongruous-looking digits.

Obviously, in this scholarly work one does not encounter Tolkien’s tendency of appropriating legendary matter into his legendarium. But true to form, Sellic Spell exhibits Tolkien’s tendency to creatively fill the gaps in our understanding of ancient lore. As has been pointed out before, he brought nearly as much poetic intuition as scholarly erudition into his work. Or, to state it in a manner more compromising to the science of philology: With poetic intuition, he brought unique visions out of his scholarly work.

I wonder, though: who’s the audience of this peculiar book?

Intersectional Tolkienism: Typography

Tolkien’s calligraphy and decorative¹ handwriting (“worthy of an illuminated medieval manuscript”) are well worth some admiration, and Hammond & Scull’s J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator is an excellent place to start. There’s one ironic little twist to be gleaned from that book which I’d like to point out.

When designing the covers of the first edition of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien commented on the typeface chosen by the Production Department of Allen & Unwin:

I think the lettering […] is unusually ugly. It has no affinity at all to ‘Black Letter’, being not decorative but brutally emphatic: the f e R g and J might be singled out for special condemnation. (It is much less unpleasant when smaller, but even then the e stands out as an ill-designed letter.)²

This is an approximation of what the lettering might have looked like:

Looks familiar? It’s Albertus, a typeface nearly contemporaneous (designed 1932–1940) with the publication of The Lord of the Rings. And, more saliently, since 2001 (or thereabouts) it has been in the style guide of the movie franchises helmed by Peter Jackson. Have a look at your movie merchandise, be it one of the official books on the The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit movie trilogies, or the OSTs, or the recent trailer of The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug … you’ll find it all over the place. Keep an eye out for the characteristic upper left corner of the capital M or N, for example.

I guess this might be one mosaic tile of what Tolkien would have thought of the movies.

---

¹Though not the other handwriting – “mere wavy lines rather like the print-out from an oscilloscope” (John D. Rateliff (ed.): The History of The Hobbit. HarperCollins, London 2011: p. xxix f.)
²W. G. Hammond, C. Scull: J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator. HarperCollins, London 2004: p. 182.

Newspeak

I just came across this Mind Meld by SF Signal. It’s been online for two weeks and I primarily wanted to check out which readings Karen Lord would recommend in regard to the question »If you were creating the syllabus for a high school English Literature course, what SF/F stories do you think should be included?«—Lord’s debut novel Redemption in Indigo was given to me as a birthday present by my parents. I haven’t yet been able to read more than a few pages of it, but I have been very intrigued, and likewise now by Lord’s recommendations. I was also impressed that she was the only participant in the Mind Meld who asked the question (very appropriate for a literature class) what actually constitutes fantasy literature.

James Patrick Kelly, the Steward of Slipstream, also recommends some interesting stuff. On the other hand, I couldn’t help noticing that Bradley P. Beaulieu praises The Lions of Al-Rassan as »a story of two men who are at first on opposite sides of a brewing conflict«. That’s not quite true, because The Lions of Al-Rassan is a story of one woman and two men who are on opposing sides, and the plot is actually not about the two men struggling for the love of the woman, but about three people who are bound together by intellectual companionship and mutual interest.

Only when I started reading John C. Wright’s contribution I discovered that this Mind Meld was also good for a laugh. Wright begins by stating »The question is frankly a very difficult one. Let us analyze it...«, then, after giving his unwanted opinion about a wide range of topics, exclaims: »Ah! But there are three other purposes to education I have not mentioned.« And goes on to ramble for a dozen or two paragraphs more. Given the possibility that Wright, as a published author, actually writes novels like that (»Ah!«), I am now glad that I never read any of his fiction. I only knew that Wright is the kind of cardboard conservative who wants to come across as provocative but is merely whining, who desperately wants to be like G.K. Chesterton or Walter M. Miller (the great conservative fantasists who really had some interesting things to say), but fails because he lacks the shrewdness and the argumentative skills. In other words: I knew before that Wright’s opinions are an unwilling caricature, but now I am actually impressed, because seldom a writer has convinced me with such few lines (the other one being John Asht) that not only the content, but also the style of his writing is simply ludicrous.

But it gets even better. In the comment section, Wright says:

Ironically, the complaint against me here seems to be that what I say is so preposterous that I cannot be taken seriously, so I ought not be answered. But what is actually happening is that what I say cannot be answered (for that would require honest reason), and therefore dare not be taken seriously. [...] The problem is primarily linguistic. In Newspeak, there is no word for “honesty.” Ideas are judged on being either fashionable or not, current or not, politically useful or not.

Yes, he really says this. And he is almost right. I say almost, because it is of course not primarily a linguistic problem (as every English-speaking person with average intellect knows the meaning of the word ›honesty‹), but an ideological one. It is a rather simple process: Whenever someone says that his opinions are preposterous, Wright’s mind somehow renders this as »What I say cannot be answered, for that would require honest reason«. And I’m sure it also works the other way round. Whenever someone labels Wright’s opinions as »daring«, »rebellious«, »right, proper, normal and real«, »astonishing«, »manly« or »useful to civilization and civility« (I am merely quoting Wright’s vocabulary here), his mind will interprete the bootlicking as a display of »honest reason«.

I find this fascinating to witness. John C. Wright really can tell us something about Newspeak. After all, he is an ardent practitioner of it.

on the ſubway

one day · on the ſubway · a dragon came in • very ſilently indeed · ſilent as a leaf of linden tree · drifting · falling in a ſummer breeze • he · the dragon · ſtepped lightly · lithe · and carefully • wound his way through · paſſing by unſeeing commuters unſeen · roared his wafting bellow unheard • the greenness of his ſcaly armour · the greatness of his · caught a child’s eye • his beauty · rippling like a ſeaweed · a ſtreaming banner · took the child away · left it unbreathing · for as long as it takes a dragon · to pass through a ſubway car • as a parting gift · he granted the ſmall girl · a deep look into his eyes · alive with ſtillness · breathing reſt • until he proceeded · to ſilently · with great warmth of heart · to disintegrate the train · into a ſtunning fiery flaming inferno

Rechts blöd

Yesterday I named an anonymous comment on Pat’s blog the most damn stupid thing to say about Elizabeth Moon’s Islam-baiting. I admit I've been a little hasty, because only now I came across this blog entry.

Now we have Lawrence P.* not only explaining how survivalists and libertarians benefit the whole community, but also telling us that antisemitism is worse than anti-muslim bigotry because “there are ten time [sic!] as many antisemitic hate crimes in the U.S. as anti-Islamic hate crimes.” You got it, Lawrence. Dying of lung cancer is so much worse than dying of leucemia, because it happens x-times more often.

Kidding aside, I’d say that this quantitative argument is true in one respect: Gun-wanking libertarian survivalist racist dickheads from Texas or elsewhere would still be the worst pain in the ass if there were only one of them.

* Science fiction writer and political commentar from Williamson County, Texas, according to himself.

in the midst of a dragon

In the midst of a dragon: a jewel, resting at the apex of a high heap of red gold. Its many smooth facets mirror only deep darkness, as colourless as the black of the eyes of Death himself. And yet it glows from within with a deep red blood-red light, il­lu­mi­nating nothing.
In this eternal night, in this never-changing light, time does not exist; it is outside where there is life and death, joy and pain, and strife.
But then a new light enters.

The World Cup of Fiction is on

Initiated not by the moguls of FIFA (you already may have noticed that this World Cup goes without ™), but by Jeff VanderMeer himself, who in his flaming passion for literature and fiction has called for the best, the weirdest, the most imaginative and whimsical writers of this world to be nominated by us, the equally passionate readers and bloggers, and to be set against each other in a unique tournament of quill and ink (or tournament of typewriters, if you prefer) — the amazing First World Cup of Fiction!

Given my lack of knowledge about the tradition of fiction-writing (partly due to simple ignorance, partly to my illiteracy in the respective languages) in some of the participating countries, I will thoughtfully restrain myself to nominate some players that I regard as especially promising for this competition.

Let's start with the country I'm living in right now, my beloved and beautiful Argentina. The Silver Republic has enough top-class players to field not only a team, but a deadly host of champions with the ability to shred the paper-wasting and pompous ink-blobbing of any adversary. Take alone the field of the phantastic, and Argentina runs up with ingenious authors like Jorge Luis Borges, Leopoldo Lugones, and — more recently — Alejandro Dolina. Julio Cortázar adds a striking touch of the surreal. Enter the dystopic novel with Angélica Gorodischer. Or if you're rather into genre fiction, Liliana Bodoc ventures into the realm of epic fantasy, which is a novelty for Latin America. As you can see, there's hardly any field of literature where Argentina can be beaten. Especially its team captain Borges is a master of all styles, whose more-than-impressive work ranges from the essayistic to crime fiction to the phantastic short-story. With Borges teaming up with his sidekick Adolfo Bioy Casares, the opposing team won't stand a chance.

Mexico has got the one and only Carlos Fuentes. He's an oldschooler, no doubt, but alive and kickin'. A fearless player who won't accept any bullshit from his opponents, which are many (first and foremost the Roman Catholic Church and the US of A).

Italy's Umberto Eco, the Milan Mastermind, can be seen as a fading talent. The critics who accuse him of having written his last enjoyable novel in the 1980s are legion. And indeed, at times his writing moves seem to be too predictable or lacking of depth. But let the critics try to smear his legacy, I hold his Foucault's Pendulum in highest esteem. It's no less than an all-time favourite. Eco still enjoys the support of a huge fanbase that will do its very best to back him in the match. Besides, Eco is not alone, but comes in a team with Italo Calvino, the great cosmocomical Warlock of Turin.

The Netherlands show up with the quirky-but-very-serious Harry Mulisch. If the English-speaking world hasn't discovered him yet, this World Cup is the time to check him out, because this guy in The Discovery of Heaven does what Dan Brown and the Army of his Clones will never be able to do.

Last but not least, let's nominate a Spanish champion. I'd like to introduce Ana María Matute, who with her Olvidado rey Gudú proved that you definitely still can write old-school epic fantasy without either imitating Tolkien or going grim and gritty. As far as I know, this mythic masterpiece hasn't been translated to English yet. But if you can read Spanish, you should better sooner than later immerse yourself in this wonderful piece of imagination.

It's tournament time.