Familiarity Breeds Contempt

Posted on November 30, 2025 by JC

Adam Piggott wrote an article on his new Substack about the Indian concept of “izzat”. This is from a post on Kiwi Farms which has spread through X as that is where I first read about it. Rather than try to put the concept in my own words, I will just quote from the Kiwi Farms thread as it is a good summary:

Izzat conflicts are not about who is right and who is wrong. It’s about who wins and who loses. This means it’s a zero-sum game where just about any action is justified (including murder) to restore the lost Izzat. Izzat is a limited social currency and the easiest way to get it is to take it from someone else. Winning is righteous in Izzat. Losing is unrighteous. This means that if someone plays the game of izzat well enough, they can get away with just about anything (murder, rape, scamming, cheating, stealing). The only morality in Izzat is the protection of your group’s collective ego. The only appropriate response when your Izzat is attacked is the complete destruction of whoever insulted it.

The first thing that came to mind when reading this was the less defined concept of ‘keeping it real’ among American blacks which I was introduced to on Chappelle’s Show around twenty years ago. The latter might not be as intensely ingrained as ‘izzat’ but it is similarly destructive and certainly irrational to the Western mind.

Before seeing this, I was thinking of writing something about it myself and his article has prompted me to do so.

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The Gamma of Melniboné

Posted on November 25, 2025 by JC

Last month I wrote a general review of The Witcher series of short stories and the novels up to The Lady of the Lake (two prequel novels have been published since). Like most, I was more familiar with the character through the computer games which were the main vehicle for the series’ popularity outside of Poland and Eastern Europe. I mentioned in passing some claims of plagiarism due to a number of similarities The Witcher has with Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné series. As I had only read the first novel (by internal chronology), in this series, I didn’t know enough to offer an opinion. I decided soon after that post to seek out the books and was able to find an omnibus of the first four novels (again by internal chronology), which I quickly read through over the last month. 

Although I wouldn’t describe myself a “fan”, I certainly found them far more engaging and absolutely better-written than The Witcher novels and may read the rest of the series in the future. I can also add based on these four novels that The Witcher novels are different enough that Andrzej Sapkowski can’t be considered a plagiarist in the strict definition of the word. I do think that because of his career translating English novels into Polish before becoming an author, that he was aware of and influenced by Moorcock and probably did knowingly copy a number of Elric’s attributes for Geralt. I don’t think being derivative in your writing is necessarily a literary sin but I do think it is unprofessional not to acknowledge your influences and especially the direct ones.

With that out of the way, this is not a post written to compare the two series. It is about what I found most irritating in the otherwise entertaining Elric novels I read which were Elric of Melniboné, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate and The Weird of the White Wolf. These are all collected in a 2022 publication by Saga Press. 

As the title of this post makes clear, Elric is yet another gamma protagonist in the Fantasy genre though one that is saved by the quality prose and imaginative ideas of his creator. Having covered a number of notorious examples including the especially egregious The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, I felt it my duty to add some commentary on Elric too. 

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An American Hero

Posted on November 19, 2025 by JC

Jefferson Davis, American by William J. Cooper Jr., Knopf, November 1st, 2001

Though I’ve long had an interest in the American Civil War, I’ve never written a dedicated post about it on the blog. On my one and only trip to the United States almost twenty years ago, I remember going out of my way to seeing some famous sites. I was on a university student exchange at the time and the college I studied at was located in the Shenandoah Valley in the state of Virginia where Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s brilliant military exploits took place. At that time, I was also able to have a visit  to Richmond, Virginia where I could see the monuments to Confederate war heroes and after some further searching, to see the Confederate ‘White House’ which is not white but was the home of the president for most of the war. These statues were all taken down and destroyed five years ago in one of the most disgraceful acts of cultural iconoclasm in the nation’s history; following orchestrated rioting across the country after the death of violent criminal, George Floyd. This death, although entirely a result of Floyd’s own actions, was used to justify a range of attacks on the American people which as I write has merely abated. It was fortunate then that I was able to see these statues and something of what was still a proud South before yet another attack on these people was perpetuated from the malignant powers above. 

Although, I’m generally well-read on the Civil War (at least for an Australian), I had not read much about Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. I knew him mostly by name but the history books do tend to focus a lot more on the battles and/or Lincoln. A few years ago, I sought out a biography and found this lengthy and comprehensive one by William J. Cooper Jr. which I finally got around to read this year. I thoroughly enjoyed it but naturally, I have further thoughts to share below.  

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The Punisher (2004) Review

Posted on November 2, 2025 by JC

I never regularly collected superhero comic books growing up. I read them here and there but only acquired them from others, in show bags or in other ways that… weren’t regular. I assume this was true for many in my circle as I didn’t have any friends that did either and the only comics I had readily available were Tintin and Asterix which were available in my school library. I mostly knew about superhero characters through the Batman and Superman films and television series’ such as the X-Men and Spider-Man: The Animated Series. It was the latter where I was first introduced to Frank Castle ‘The Punisher’ and also around the same time period I played the home port of the Capcom arcade game also titled The Punisher.

I was immediately attracted to the character though he was (from memory), portrayed antagonistically in the series which was also how he was first introduced to Spider-Man fans in the 1970s. I don’t remember whether I consciously sympathised with his more ruthless methods of dealing with criminals in contrast with Spider-Man but I know I did immediately like him. Years went by following this until my early adulthood when I saw the 2004 The Punisher film adaptation starring Thomas Jane and John Travolta. Continue reading →

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Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition Review

Posted on October 19, 2025 by JC

A while back I wrote a post discussing the differences between Japanese and Western RPGs which I concluded by stating my firm preference for the latter. Though I have not changed my opinion, this does not mean I won’t play JRPGs and occasionally one comes along that I am interested in. For example, I played the Super Mario RPG remake that released in 2023 and Mario & Luigi: Brothership which was released late last year. Earlier this year, a remastered version of Xenoblade Chronicles X which was originally released on Wii U, was released on Nintendo Switch. Though there are now two numbered sequels to the original, Xenoblade Chronicles X was the first chronological release. I did play the Japanese Wii U version back in 2015 but had a hard time as it was all in Japanese which for such a text heavy game, certainly limited enjoyment; not being able to understand much outside the basics. I got about a third or so through the main story before giving up and moving on. 

I did however remain interested in the game’s concept including the Skell mechs which are a significant part of the game as indicated on the awesome front cover. Never having got far enough in to experience one of the game’s biggest selling points, I was still interested in giving the game another go. With the announcement of a remaster, that not only allowed me to play the game in my native language but with a number of quality improvements, I was keen to revisit it.

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Scattered thoughts on Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher Series

Posted on October 12, 2025 by JC

Like many in the English-speaking world, I learned of Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher series through the 2007 of the game of the same name. The first book which is a collection of short stories titled The Last Wish, was published earlier the same year. I did not play the first game until after the ‘Enhanced Edition’ was released and my interest in the game also had me seek out related media. Though the original game sold very well, it was the third game where the series really took off. The first two games were mainly PC releases though the second did get an Xbox 360 port. The third game was a much-hyped multiplatform release and one of the biggest game releases of 2015.

For anyone unfamiliar, the series is about Geralt of Rivia who has undergone mutations that significantly enhance his physical characteristics to make him an ideal monster slayer — a witcher. He is part of a dying order of monster slayers who were taken as children and managed to survive the intense training and often fatal mutagens used to become an emotionless killing machine. Though not conceived as a game, it has parallels with the science-fiction setting of Halo where the protagonist Master Chief goes through a similar program to become a super soldier. Were I better read on science-fiction and fantasy, I am sure I would be aware of earlier examples too.

I enjoyed the game series and so read a the first few books as they were published in English beginning with The Last Wish and then the first three of the five novels, Blood of Elves, Time of Contempt and Baptism of Fire before stopping and forgetting about them. The last two were not published in English until after the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2016 and 2017 respectively. By this time, a lot of things were happening  in my life (including my conversion to Catholicism) and I had lost interest in the series. Those familiar with the games (as well as the novels), will know they include some rather unsavoury elements such as some disturbing horror, violence and sexual content and I was generally re-thinking the kind of media I consumed at the time. This also included the Game of Thrones television series based on the unfinished novels by George R. R. Martin which contained frequently gratuitous sex and violence. This is less evident in the first novel in the series though I can’t speak of the others. 

I mentioned I was re-reading the series in a previous post and have just today finished the concluding novel in the series though there are also two prequel novels by the author which I haven’t and likely will not read. I also replayed all three of the games over the last year for the first time in a decade. This I confess broke a pledge to avoid media like this and wanting to reappraise the series a decade after the third game’s release is a poor excuse. Still, it at least inspired this post.

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Robert E. Howard’s Spicy Adventures

Posted on September 30, 2025 by JC

The last time I covered Robert E. Howard was in my review of the El Borak stories and at the end of that post, I stated my intention to move on to Bran Mak Morn next. It has been almost two years since and I have not yet read these stories though I have continued to acquire the various collections of Howard’s work I can find. Most recently, I discovered the books published by the Robert E. Howard Foundation and have bought a few of the hardcovers and am still waiting on one more as of writing. These more or less fill-in the missing stories not published in the Ballantine/Del Rey paperbacks I’ve mostly been drawing from; though I expect I will also find some crossovers within. As of writing, they don’t seem to have publishing rights for the better known Howard stories but I must say that both the printing quality and the editing is excellent. One of the titles that jumped out was the subject of this review which I was initially reluctant to pick up as I wondered just how “spicy” these adventures would be. Someone familiar with the stories assured me they were not pornographic and so I added these to my collection too.

As evident from the slimness of the volume as well as in the introduction, Howard only briefly wrote in this genre and all of the stories within are very short — even by Howard’s standards. This volume is about 250 pages but includes earlier drafts and a few unfinished synopses to pad it out. Had these extras not been included, the text and printing borders could easily have been scaled to fit the entire collection into less than one hundred pages. Due to a combination of the shortness of the collection, my curiosity and the length of time between my last review, I decided to tackle these stories next.

What follows will not be as detailed as I’ve tried to be with the more recent reviews, as this is the first collection of Howard’s work that I frankly wouldn’t recommend. 

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Billy Hudson of The Game Chasers, Rest in Peace

Posted on September 21, 2025 by JC

In late August there was a video posted by Billy Hudson of The Game Chasers from the emergency room. This and a subsequent video indicated he was seriously ill with a brain tumour but he was upbeat and confident to the point that I thought he would recover. I offered up prayers at the time and kept him in my thoughts but learned yesterday that he died on the 18th of September.

I did not know Billy personally but I did enjoy his YouTube Channel which he began in 2011 with his friend and co-host Jay Hatfield. From all appearances, he was an amiable and fun guy to be around. I will continue to pray for the repose of his soul but I wanted to offer a little tribute to what he created below. Continue reading →

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Logos Rising Review

Posted on August 31, 2025 by JC

Logos Rising: A History of Ultimate Reality by E. Michael Jones, Fidelity Press
April 2nd, 2020

E. Michael Jones is a contemporary writer I’ve mentioned a couple of times on this blog including one post dedicated to an article he wrote on J.R.R. Tolkien. I mentioned in that post that I had been reading (but still not finished), the subject of this post. I bought it soon after it was published in 2020 and did read three or four chapters in before stopping for what I assumed would be a short time and which ended up being over five years. So long in fact, that I promised myself I would start the whole book again and work through it this year and finished reading it around a month ago. 

I should hasten to add, that this was not because I found the book wanting but that I simply wasn’t in the mood for such a lengthy work partially given the strange reality of the world in 2020. Like many, I was seeking to escape this reality somewhat which I did by retreating into Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian Age and as a spectator in the Medieval Japanese Heian Court.  On checking my reading list from that year, a lot of the non-fiction I did read were shorter works and usually with a Catholic focus. I will note that I did at least tackle Plato’s Republic that year too though one can see where my mind was in this post from late in the year.

Nonetheless, I finally got to Logos Rising this year and what follows is a short and largely positive review.

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Does the Poodle Mince His Words?

Posted on August 20, 2025 by JC

The Insider by Christopher Pyne, Hachette Australia, March 31st, 2021

I have previously reviewed two other works by Australian politicians with one by Cory Bernardi and the other by Tony Abbott. It is not a coincidence that these two as well as the subject of this review, are from the Liberal Party of Australia; which is more or/and increasingly less the conservative party in Australia. If you’re among the midwitted chattering classes of Australia, Cory Bernardi and Tony Abbott are as right-wing as you can get before having to resurrect Adolf Hitler. Though as my reviews of those two works demonstrate: they aren’t really all that “right-wing” at all. Christopher Pyne in contrast, is considered by most (and his own words), to be a moderate. As the more genuinely earnest politicians learn by experience, moderates are the ones most likely to leave a metaphorical knife in your back while crossing over to the enemy when you most need them by your side. 

Unlike the other two works, I didn’t intend to read this book or even know it existed until it came up in a library search when I was looking for the Michael Mann film of the same name. This might sound like a joke but I am quite serious and though I may now have to search elsewhere for the Mann film, this chance discovery has at least provided ample material for the post that follows.

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