Brimir & Blainn

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The very first sci fi, written at the height of people making stuff up and prtending it was history (looking at you, Herodotus). Nice to see the art of the spoof is so old...From the wiki:A True Story (Ancient Greek: Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα, Alēthē diēgēmata;...

Abrahamic Mysticism

Abrahamic Mysticism

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, Three of the most important religions in western culture stem from the same original text. In today’s world, many of their branches are didactic and rule-bound, treating their holy texts as technical manuals rather...

It begins in an age of war unlike any known before…A time of unprecedented change, disaster and destruction matched only by the flowering mind…Humanity hears the choir of voices from the rest of the universe…Three who become legend rise in the ranks...

Alarms & Discursions

Alarms & Discursions

The fragments of futile journalism or fleeting impression which are here collected are very like the wrecks and riven blocks that were piled in a heap round my imaginary priest of the sun. They are very like that grey and gaping head of stone that I...

Civil War in the Roman Republic, 106 to 44BCE

Civil War in the Roman Republic, 106 to 44BCE

IntroductionWhile compiling and narrating these speeches, I've often been struck by how easily they could be translated into a modern day context. Frequently, a speech has reminded me of the news of the day, somewhere in the world. Nowhere has this...

Demosthenes is generally acknowledged as the greatest orator in history. He overcame a stammer and the theft of his inheritance by his legal guardians to become as foundational to oratory as his contemporaries Plato and Aristotle are to...

Essentials of Daoism

Essentials of Daoism

This book comprises five classic works of Chinese mysticism. Culturally, these are the companion works to Confucius’ thoughts, as expanded by Mencius. Confucianism is very much the Apollonian side of Chinese culture. It focuses on matters of ethics,...

From Enlightenment To Revolution

From Enlightenment To Revolution

History is often concentrated into short bursts of change, with long periods of shifting before and waves of alteration afterwards. Nowhere is this more obvious than the thirty year interregnum between the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution....

Gazing at the Moon

Gazing at the Moon

Collected here are six tales that span nearly two thousand years, from a Roman citizen writing a satire of the ‘historical’ literature of his time in 182 AD to Edgar Allan Poe exploring the idea of a scientific ascent to the moon in 1835. Humanity...

One of the four central works in Daoism. The Lie-Tzu, or Liezi, was originally thought to have been composed in the same period as the Dao and Zhuang Zi, around the 5th century BCE. However, it is now believed to have been compiled nearly a thousand...

Lord Dunsany's Early Collections

Lord Dunsany's Early Collections

Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett was born into a very unusual situation in 1878. He was the eldest scion of a family that had lived in the oldest castle in Ireland since its construction in 1180 CE, he became the 18th Baron Dunsany in 1899 at the age...

Niels Klim's Underground Travels

Niels Klim's Underground Travels

Niels Klim's Journey Under The Ground. By Louis Holberg, 1741. Tr. John Gierlow. 1845.Being A Narrative Of His Wonderful Descent To The Subterranean Lands; Together With An Account Of The Sensible Animals And Trees Inhabiting The Planet Nazar And The...

Reports From The First World War

Reports From The First World War

Includes the collections Nowadays, Tales of War, & Unhappy Far-Off ThingsThe great fantasy writer Lord Dunsany wrote very little in the way of fantasy after the onset of the First World War. This was partly because he was busy, having volunteered in...

Selections from the Writing of Lord Dunsany

Selections from the Writing of Lord Dunsany

Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett was born into a very unusual situation in 1878. He was the eldest scion of a family that had lived in the oldest castle in Ireland since its construction in 1180 CE, and became the 18th Baron Dunsany in 1899 at the...

Somnium: The Dream

Somnium: The Dream

The Renaissance gave us a lot of things, including the earliest science fiction that relates to modern science. The book would now be called hard sci fi, as it leans heavily into the known orbital mechanics of the moon.From the wiki: Somnium (Latin...

There are many versions of this work in English, and it is included as a useful reflection once one has pondered Daoism’s key texts. The title is properly ‘'Sun Tzu's Military Method'. It was written at the time of the Dao and Zhuang Zi, several...

The Author's Craft

The Author's Craft

Why do we write? What does it mean to be a writer?This book contains no useful tips on grammar, style, or plot. Instead, it focuses on the observation and perspective that is needed to be a good writer - on the fact that writing is an expression of...

The Birth of Anarchism

The Birth of Anarchism

Mankind can rule itself without the force of top-down authority, and freedom is more than just choosing how to meet the needs and demands of capital. Inequality is structural and intentional, not inevitable and necessary.It does not have to be this...

The Complete Gertrude Barrows Bennett aka Francis Stevens

The Complete Gertrude Barrows Bennett aka Francis Stevens

“Haunted by a history that hurts - the loss of so many men in her life, the ravages of war, the struggle to survive and its seemingly hopelessness - Stevens gives us stories that plunge us in despair while also pulling us onward. Her writings are not...

The Elements of Style

The Elements of Style

The founding classic of modern editing practice.From the wikiThe Elements of Style is an American English writing style guide in numerous editions. The original was written by William Strunk Jr. in 1918, and it was published by Harcourt in 1920,...

The End of Empire

The End of Empire

No discussion of the 19th Century is complete without Napoleon. We begin with Charles Phillips’ eulogy, summarizing the strangeness and contradiction of the most influential man of his time. Followed by 7 brief speeches by Napoleon himself.Two...

The Era of Faith

The Era of Faith

Five speeches from a millennium shaped by faith and empire.632CE. In Muhammed’s farewell address, he lauds his people for their achievements and virtues, and gives them his final instructions for living within the faith.In 1095, Pope Urban II’s...

The Era of Liberation

The Era of Liberation

The late 19th Century was a time of liberation. After the collapse of empires, people of all creeds demanded their equality.We begin with two speeches that represent the old order, by Bismarck. Between the two speeches he went from being Prussia’s...

The Era of Revolution

The Era of Revolution

Six speeches about freedom and revolution from the American, French and Irish revolutions.The first two speeches are from the American Revolutionary war (1775-1783). Patrick Henry’s “Give me Liberty or give me death” is recognized even today, two...

Progressive Islam takes over England, and two men go on the run with a barrel of rum and a wheel of cheese, intent on keeping English pub life alive. Packed with songs, satire, and style as only Chesteron could write."Perhaps prophetical more so than...