Fantasist's Scroll

I finished The Freemasons: A History of the World’s Most Powerful Secret Society by Jasper Ridleylast week.

As a Freemason myself, I found the book quite interesting. First of all, it looks at masonic history from the perspective of a what is known and concrete, not with any real speculation at all. It’s a very, very scholarly work which included a significant bibliography.
Secondly, it was written by a non-Mason. While that, in itself, is not remarkable, what is special about that is that the author maintains an even-handed look at masonic history. He sticks to the facts and was actually quite enlightening in many areas, at least to me.
Thirdly, the book covers quite a bit of history, but it completely discounts the claims that some authors have made regarding Freemasonry being descended from the Knights Templar. This is, oddly enough, unusual these days. It seems like the majority of books lean the other way. Jasper Ridley, though, maintains that the simplest explanation is, in fact, correct. That the story we’re told from the Grand Lodge is right. Namely, that the Freemasons are an outgrowth and offshoot of the original working, or operative masons, who were essentially an early trade union.
Finally, as Mr. Ridley sums up at the end, he gives the Freemasons a fairly good endorsement, which we can surely use for a change!

If you have any interest at all in the history of Freemasonry, this is an excellent place to start. I wish I’d read it first, before all the others that I’ve gotten into this past year or so. But, if you’ve only a passing interest, there are other, easier books to read. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, this is a rather scholarly work.

I finished Iron Council by China Mi�ville last week.

It was good, but not quite as good as his last two.
This one dealt with an attempt to run a transcontinental railroad across Bas Lag, home of New Crobuzon. Something goes wrong and the people building the railroad rebel and become their own, moving, city. While the idea is interesting, and the descriptions of magic and struggle are compelling, the book focuses elsewhere. Specifically, it seems as if Mr. Mi�ville has a social message to impart to us. A rather anti-capitalist, socialist message.
While there’s nothing wrong with that, per se, it does take away from the story in this case. The book seems less about exploring the world of Bas Lag than either Perdido Street Station or The Scar . It is not, by any means, his best effort.
However, it was a good book. I certainly enjoyed the previous two more, but I was not sorry that I bought Iron Council and read it.

If you’re already a fan, Iron Council will be worth it. But, if you’re new to China Mi�ville, it would be better to start with either Perdido Street Station or The Scar .

I’ve always been fascinated with Japanese.

Mainly due to a fascination with the martial arts, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish. In any case, I have several links for you fellow Japanophiles. First, there’s Japanese for the Western Mind. It looks like a good place to start. Of course, I’m biased, I have a Western Mind! And, also there’s The Japanese Language, which is not quite as comprehesnive as it sounds! Though it does look like an excellent second stop for the amateur linguist.
And, lastly, I have a vocabulary builder: the Philippi Martial Arts Glossary page. It’s actually got more than Japanese terms on it, so it might be usefull to conlangers, as well.

In any case, these looked like fun sites to me, but then I’ve been sick, so, what the hell, it’s Friday! Go check them out!

You may have noticed a change here at Fantasist.net.

Namely, the fact that there are now advertisements. Well, frankly, it just can’t be helped anymore. So far, in over five years of having this site, less than ten people have bought books from my Amazon.com store, no one has bought anything from the CafePress store, no one has bought anything for me from my Wishlist and no one has donated any money. It’s not cheap to run the place and costs keep going up, so I finally decided that I had to host some small ads. Hopefully, they’re not too intrusive, but they’re here to stay. I may move them around some, but I’m fairly certain that I’ll always have them from now on.
I actually got the idea from Langmaker.com, run by Jeff Henning. He has a few, very tasteful, ads on the side of his site now. And, knowing what I know about the web and costs and such, I don’t begrudge him any of the tiny revenue he must take in from it.

So, now you know.

This is a bit of a personal issue, really.

Okay, since I’ve been reading stuff online about the ocean, and posting about it, too, for a change, this seemed appropriate. I’ve found a tool to help me maintain good seafood consumption, namely, Seafood Watch at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. It’s a list, or series of lists, of safe, sustainable seafood reccomendations. There are several pocket “cards” here in PDF format that you can print out and take with you to restraunts and shopping. Each card has three categories: Safe, Warning, and Danger. And each has an explanation of why the various fish were put in their categories.
The population is growing at such an amazing rate that I think we, as an entire race, need to look at how we manage our resources. Toward that end, farming fish and being carefull to consume sustainable fish just plain makes sense. It may end up being the world’s last, best, source of protien.

Noticed something different?

Yeah, I’ve gotten so much comment spam that I had to turn off comments on the blog. Frankly, that’s a shame because I liked getting the occasional comment from my three readers. Ah, well, such is life. Maybe when I change to a new blog system, they’ll be better about blocking comment spam.

I can only hope.

I knew you could become an ordained minister on-line, but…

I had no idea you could sell your soul on-line! Well, apparently, you can. And, also apparently this is the only way to Make money on the Internet. And, based on how many people have made donations or bought books from this site, I think that’s the only way I might make any money from the Internet!

Anyway, it struck me as funny, so enjoy it, or not. It’s Friday, so it’s your choice!

I finished The Descent by Jeff Long the other day.

I liked it!
It’s actually in the Horror section of the bookstore, but I didn’t really feel the horror aspect of it that much. In a nutshell, mankind discovers an extensive system of natural tunnels under the Earth and they’re inhabited. The inhabitants aren’t all that friendly. Mayhem ensues.
There are actually some interesting plot twists along the way, but it’s pretty much some straight-on adventure fiction. Not the highest quality, but pretty good. And, most importantly, fun.