The first post, ever

It is Wednesday...

In the good old days, back when people were not fanatically close-minded about the possibility of biological differences between humans, the year count was often updated at around this time, e.g. the 25th of March in much of White Christ-using Europe, which was a few days after the spring equinox, and also in some other places the year was reckoned to begin in early spring.

So, I'm thinking, this might be a good time to start my weekly blog.

In part because of the time of the year, and in part because of the fact that recently, my age began equalling my "lucky number" (which is 34; 18 has never been my lucky number, but was just an in-joke between me and a childhood friend, who was once "16"), a situation that will persist for the next many moons (and no, I'm not going to tell anyone what my birth date is. You simply do not need to know. If people want to send me gifts, the time around winter solstice is apt). Not that I consider chronological age to be all that important. If you meet me some day and ask me how old I am, I might have to stop and think, before trying to answer, and that brain hesitation is neither because I'm senile nor because I'm contemplating to lie. I simply do not worry much about exactly how I old I am or other people are. That's never what is interesting about a person.

What's this blog going to be about?

I think I'm mainly interested in writing about fantasy and science fiction, including writing about them as genres, and about how they work, how fantasy and science fiction stories are told and how they are read, what sets them apart from other genres, and maybe a bit about what genres are, various useful ways one can think about genres in. "Models" to use, and so forth. Sometimes I might talk about novels I've read or re-read. I might also touch upon world building and the use of worlds in various forms of fantasy and science fiction (including interactive fiction such as roleplaying games), and about characters, and of course about individual biological differences.

Occasional progress reports on my RPG design projects might also show up, and possibly WIP progress reports, and updates about the various wikis that I'm working on or will be working on. None of the users of those wikis need to follow this blog, though. I'll tell you guys what you need to know on the appropriate mailing lists.

This is, very explicitly, going to be an intellectual blog, rather than a personal one. If you want to be kept up to date about all the pain and tragedy that is in my life because those of lesser intellect have power over me, it's not going to be here. Try friending me on Facebook, or send me an email.

I'm not only arrogant and elitist, but also a bit of a genre fascist. Fantasy and science fiction are two genres that are challenging and difficult to write, and to read. They demand more from the intellect of both writer and reader. If you have problems with this fact, perhaps you should find some cuddlier blogs to read.

In spite of the choice of blog name, I'm an atheist, but in terms of sympathies, I'm definitely much closer to pagans than I am to White Christ-users and to other followers of desert-originated religions.

Tags will be used. I'm not sure how long my posts will be, but the longer ones will probably usually touch on multiple subjects, making tags a really good idea. I have no idea how I want to use blog entry titles, or if I even do want to use them.

This is the first post, of course, so there's a fairly high probability I'll return to it and edit it later, to correct mistakes. I'm especially uncertain about how labels tags work, but in general this interface is somewhat confusing.

Peter Knutsen typed these letters