A vote for Oxford

It’s not a subject particularly close to my heart, but I’ve tended to be a de Vere man myself. Here’s some thoughts from someone who has given the matter considerably more thought:

The theater, and even public writing in general, was discouraged amongst Noblemen and Gentlemen within Her Majesty’s service – the Globe Theater was viewed as slumming. Pseudonyms were common, and references to brilliant men suppressing or hiding their works to avoid retribution are common amongst observers of the time. With Oxford, I believe it was well known within the inner circle of the court who and what he was; but for the public at large his authorship required a mask….

Oxford was praised in a written speech during one court appearance with the interesting metaphor “thy countenance shakes spears. . . ” and his crest features a roaring lion brandishing a spear. In Sonnet 76, the author notes “That every word doth almost tell my name, Showing their birth, and where they did proceed.” I think it’s time that the words are married to the man.

I think identifying the correct authorship matters too, because it’s very clear to almost everyone who knows an author how their personality and experiences often shine through their words. Big Chilly has told me that he finds it very hard to read my novels – he’s the only person on the planet who has read THE WRATH OF ANGELS as of this moment – because his recognition of certain events and characters tends to throw him out of the story from time to time.

Writers in general, and Shakespeare in particular, love to hide things within the text. My name is an example of that, and in fact, there is a subtextual political commentary lying underneath the text of my next novel. The fact that Oxford’s crest features a shaking spear is, to me, a dead giveaway of William Shakespeare’s true identity.

Posted by Vox Day.

Visit and learn, grasshopper

The Original Cyberpunk has created a new blog for those interested in writing, publishing or other aspects of the literary arts. All questions about getting published or other aspects of getting into the business will henceforth be directed to: The Ranting Room.

Not only is the OC chock full of advice it would behoove one to at least consider, but he is not the only bona fide published award-winning fiction author who is lurking about the premises.

This public service announcement brought to you by a bona fide published non-award winning fiction author.

Posted by Vox Day.

There are no scientists

MS asserts a standard:

A person cannot be a scientist if they are unwilling to change their position if provided with new evidence or logic…

Well, that eliminates 98 percent of the economists, 100 percent of the sociologists, Women’s Studiesists and, come to think of it, the entire gamut of social sciences. I daresay it effectively eliminates virtually all of academia as well.

Can we do it to the lawyers next?

Posted by Vox Day.

Mailvox: The beeps grow louder

Spazmo harbors doubts:

Can you back that up with a statement made by Kos that asserts such superiority? Otherwise this looks like just another example of the conservative elitist strawman, and will be dismissed without further consideration. I know conservatives like to promote their “poor me I’m so oppressed” fantasy, but it is, so far as I can tell, never actually backed up with any actual *facts*.

Please prove me wrong.

That’s a nicely disingenuous attempt to disprove a GENERAL accusation applicable to many parties with a SPECIFIC defense on the part of a single party. Just how dumb does Spazmo believe right-wingers to be? Even so, I shall endeavor to satisfy to his request.

My charge of pretensions to intellectual superiority was by no means limited to Kos alone; it was leveled against him as a reasonable proxy for the Left in general. However, since Spazmo seems to require a demonstration that I very seldom write anything without the ability to back it up, I’ll be happy to provide a few examples of left-liberals asserting intellectual superiority. Including Kos, of course.

1. “Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.”
– John Stuart Mill, philosopher

2. Evangelical Christians are “largely poor, uneducated and easy to command.”
– Michael Weisskopf, reporter, Washington Post

3. “We try to hire the best, smartest people available. If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire. Mill’s analysis may go some way towards explaining the power of the Republican party in our society and the relative scarcity of Republicans in academia. Players in the NBA tend to be taller than average. There is a good reason for this. Members of academia tend to be a bit smarter than average. There is a good reason for this too.”
– Robert Brandon, chair of the Duke philosophy department.

4. I think a case could be made that ignorance played at least as big a role in the election’s outcome as values…. This is scary. How do you make a rational political pitch to people who have put that part of their brain on hold? No wonder Bush won.
– Bob Herbert, editorial columnist, The New York TImes

5. “Today’s GLENN REYNOLDS AWARD FOR WILLFULL STUPIDITY goes to… Glenn Reynolds, again.”
– Oliver Willis, from the section of his blog entitled Right-Wing Stupidity

6. “Continuing his descent into stupidity, Hugh Hewitt writes the following in his Weekly Standard story about the Eason Jordan…”
– Oliver Willis, from the section of his blog entitled Right-Wing Stupidity

7. “I have a pretty damn good understanding of the varying viewpoints on the right (or more specifically, Bush voters) and in the large majority of cases they lack any backing in rationale and reason and no matter how civil the attempts might be to gently persuade them, most of the time they will refuse rationale, reason, facts, and reality just as they did this past year.
– tlh lib, The Daily Kos

8. “Democrats More Intelligent? Study Says Yes”
– TocqueDeville, The Daily Kos

9. “Some conservatives are members of the reality-based community.”
– Kos, The Daily Kos

10. “There is a clear liberal/conservative divide in technology usage. You can find the data at any weblog with a public sitemeter, and the stats seem to hold true across the board. Liberals are more likely to use non-Microsoft products and [sic] conservatives. Draw your own conclusions.”
– Kos, The Daily Kos

I don’t waste my time or my credibility on straw men. This is why it is so easy to prove doubters like Spazmo wrong. The left-liberal obsession with its supposed intellectual superiority is revealed with every ridiculous email in circulation about President Bush’s sub-100 IQ or the average IQ of Mississippi being 85. Not to mention the bizarre fascination with regards to the versimilitude of my membership in certain groups which shall go unnamed.

And if Spazmo wishes to reach for straws by trying to claim that Kos wasn’t making any assertions about the intellectual superiority of the liberal self-selected techno-elect who refuse to use Microsoft products, I can assure him with the all the smug certainty possessed by one running a non-Microsoft browser (Opera) on top of a non-Microsoft OS (Fedora Core 2), that is simply not the case.

Interestingly enough, 43 percent of the visitors to Vox Popoli are using non-Microsoft browsers. Does this mean we finally get our Vast Left Wing Conspiracy membership cards, complete with a signed Hillary Rodham Clinton poster?

Posted by Vox Day.