Some Words, From Others, to Ponder upon the Subject of Past, Present, and Future

"The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future."
-- Teddy Roosevelt

"What is history? An echo of the past in the future; a reflex from the future on the past."
-- Victor Hugo

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
-- George Santayana

"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."
-- Karl Marx

"And history with all her volumes vast, Hath but one page."
-- Lord Byron

Because my mind works oddly at times

For no particular reason, okay, that is not true. I have been reading Joe Abercrombie's First Law series - an entertaining fantasy yarn, incidentally, well worth the time - in which he presents a creature in his world called the Shanka. This is clearly his stand in for the standard non-human monstrous threat, very much in the same vein as Tolkien's Orcs in terms of being a 'created' species by a evil wizard-type.

Anyway... I challenged myself to to remember (without looking) the names of traditional monstrous humanoid races that function and act together in fantasy. And this is as far as I got.

• Goblin
• Kobold
• Gnoll
• Orc
• Hobgoblin
• Troglodyte
• Troll (this is a bit of a reach, generally portrayed in small numbers, but often along with some of the above)

The following are not always 'good', and certainly are non-human:

• Elves 
• Dwarves
• Gnomes

My Favorite Movie Scenes (vol 1)

I struggle with what my favorite movies are. People ask me... and I just cannot find a way to rank and sort the many movies I love for many different reasons.

On the other hand, I can put together a list of favorite scenes. Moments that leap out from film into crystallized emotion or thought or acting. Here are 5 such.

*****There are spoilers here. Consider yourself warned.*****

 If you haven't seen a film here. Make it a goal to see it.

These scenes alone make these films worthy of your time.

Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Say what you want about the movie script drifting away from the classic novel, the movie is largely well done with some great period costume work, beautiful sets/scenes and nothing quite like Uncas' charge up the hill to reach Alice as she is dragged away by Magua (in one of the best movie villain portrayals ever by the actor Wes Studi).

Wikipedia offers a very dry summary of this scene,  "Uncas, who cares for Alice, races ahead to intercept Magua's band, killing several warriors before engaging Magua in single combat. Magua kills him, then drops his body off the cliff. Rather than join Magua, Alice follows Uncas, jumping to her death."

Fantastic use of music as Uncas runs up the hill, determined, silent, and violent. The relationship with Alice has been effectively and brilliantly conveyed with simple facial expressions and minor physical gestures. It is unspoken, but achingly powerful as he makes his charge, and the results of the scene are a powerful punch in the gut... all without a single spoken word.

I admit that I tear up every time I see it.

Schindler's List (1993)

The story of Oskar Schindler is a fantastic movie by Steven Spielberg. Little needs to be said about it's grim and firm presentation of the holocaust from a specific position within the machination of the worst of that regime. But for me, the moment in this film is near the end. Oskar Schindler has run with many of his remaining workers, they are near the border escaping from the invading Soviets and dodging the last German hold outs. Oskar collapses before the crowd of those he has led to freedom... and breaks down. He cries that he didn't do enough, that he could have done more. That he should have done more. That moment, from a man that had done so very much, bemoaning his failure and weakness is strong and heartbreaking.

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

The film opens with an older gentleman walking the graveyard of Normandy, his family behind him not understanding... clearly not knowing his story. He finds the grave he wants:

"My family is with me today. They wanted to come with me. To be honest with you, I wasn't sure how I'd feel coming back here. Every day I think about what you said to me that day on the bridge. And I've tried to live my life the best I could. I hope that was enough. I hope that at least in your eyes, I've earned what all of you have done for me."

And the movie presents itself. A good war film. A good dramatic story. There are several excellent scenes in this work, but it is the end that kills me. Again the film returns to the older man in the graveyard, and he turns to his wife and begs her to tell him he has led a good life, to tell him that he is a good man. It is what every real man wants to know for his life, for his family. In the end. Made more poignant from the sacrifice specifically prompting the request in this case, and unknowing confusion on her part. It is an effective exclamation point on a solid film.

Jaws (1975)

I'll close this Spielberg trifecta with an iconic film, with iconic characters. But it all comes together in one scene for me.

Hooper, Quint, & Brody are out at sea together. They don't exactly see eye to eye and have not been bashful about it. They have been drinking and collect in the galley... They begin talking and find themselves sharing scars. A bunch of mismatched men, out on a mission together, find commonality and share a bit of their personal history and character with each other and the audience. It is accented by the great personal story of the Indianapolis and a little music. It is an honest, focused, and effective moment of levity and heart before the action kicks up with the shark. Well done.

Show me the way to go home 

I'm tired and I want to go to bed 

I had a little drink about an hour ago 

And it went right to my head

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (1989)

The Cook: Richard Borst (portrayed by Richard Bohringer)

The Thief: Albert Spica (portrayed by Michael Gambon)

His Wife: Georgina (portrayed by Helen Mirren)

Her Lover: Michael (portrayed by Alan Howard)

This is the one film I will save you from my recommendation/insistence you go watch it. This movie is... difficult to tolerate for many. It is one of the few films that I have literally seen people get up and walk out on in the theater. The opening moment is a man being coated in feces as punishment, and it does not particularly go uphill from there. Suffice to say that the Thief is a vile and horrible man.

But this movie does indeed have worthy moments, if you can make your way to them.

The Wife carries on an affair, the Thief finds out. The Lover is tortured and murdered. So then, the Wife goes to the Cook with a plan. She has been meek and mild the entire film, yet presents a plan of horrible vengeance. And there they sit alone in his kitchen, speaking quietly. An air system fan churns away high up the wall *chuff, chuff, chuff* and she makes her request for the Cook's aid. He struggles. The fan churns. The strong color presentation of the kitchen is bright and dreadful as they speak of something unspeakable. The fan churns. She pleads. He struggles. The fan churns. The Cook shares his philosophical theory of why black food sells at a higher price in the restaurant. The fan churns. He eventually complies... and the final scene of the movie moves to it's dreadful end.

******
So there are 5 of mine. What are some of yours?

I have a scone, therefore I am...

I have had... am having... a bizarrely existential morning.

I woke up with a desire to have coffee. By itself this is not particularly unusual, as most of my mornings have 'get out of bed-shower-dress-coffee' as the primary script call sequence to satisfy the prerequisite requirements to meet the conditions for 'wake up'. Today, however, the coffee at home was insufficient to perk my interest (those of you old enough, see what I did there?). So I hauled my pre-woken self to the place where coffee is dispensed with the digital promise of payment. (The 'digital promise of payment' really does sometimes smack of sorcery and other times seems perfectly rational, but that is probably an entirely different discussion.)

(For the curious, the digitally promised coffee was in fact provided. It was warm, brown, and delicious and was consumed with all the relish it deserved. This is not directly pertinent to my story, but it seems fair to share the facts of this liquid joy as coffee has figured so prominently in the setup for something not actually dependent upon the dispensation of the coffee.)

So, the crux of our existential morning.

While standing and waiting to request my cup of warm happiness I found a shelf with scones before my eyes. Now, I already had a breakfast bar - granola, chocolate, cherries - to have for food as an extraneous supplement to coffee in the waking process. "Scones," I thought, "are good." At least, I assume I had such a thought - first because, well, it is a true statement, and second it seems a cranberry-orange scone was handed to me with my cup of coffee (also with my sorcerous promise of payment). I know the second item is true because as I exited my car upon arriving at work I found... a cranberry-orange scone sitting with my belongings to carry into work.

So now I am sitting at my desk. Beside me - a cranberry-orange scone. And I am left only with questions:

• Do I now truly want the scone?
• Will my morning be complete without the scone?
• Perhaps better asked, will there be a butterfly effect from the scone? A Scone Effect, as it were, the consumption of the scone changing the arc of my morning and life into a a parallel temporal timeline different ever so slightly from the timeline I would leave behind just slightly out of phase wherein I did not consume this scone....
• Were their other flavors of scone on that shelf which I passed over, and may have appealed more now that I sit here with scone doubts?
• Who first thought, 'cranberries and orange need to be blended as flavor partners within a scone'?
• Did I actually voice my desire for a scone, and the dutiful employee responded to provide it, or did somehow my unspoken and unconscious mind simply convey the desire so strongly that... no, best not go there...

Health as 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness'

This. This right here (headline: $1,000-a-day miracle drug shocks U.S. health care system).

The perfect example of why the healthcare system is broken, and why all the insurance reform in the world (because really, ACA is just insurance reform) is not going to solve the problem long term. As long as you can develop a drug or medical solution and with a straight face trot it out at an outlandish price... yeah, a society of have and have-nots where the rich are healthy with long lifespans and the poor? Well, yeah, who cared about them anyway?...

Today it is a cure for Hep C. Tomorrow, the holy grail of a pill to prevent cancer. Then drops to fix blindness, treatments to live for 300 years,.... it will not stop. But only the privileged will be able to afford them.


"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

No line in any document of liberty and freedom means more to me. None.

I cannot fathom how any free, civilized society with aspirations that grow from this ideal can pretend that Life and Happiness should be gated behind the profit motive. Healthcare is not an equitable system of supply and demand meeting in an open market. It is Infinite Demand behind tightly rationed supply.


Is a solution easy? No. Do I know what it is? No. The system does certainly spur a lot of wonderful advances, such as the cure listed above. But, there remain serious structural failures in that system that make me worried about what is coming. And we cannot even agree on tackling the insurance system without hand wringing and ridiculous political combat. I have little hope on the real issues being addressed.

Are we approaching a Gattaca society?

Articles such as the one recently at Gizmodo show this isn't a question for science fiction books and movies anymore. The question matters. There is no banning this. The idea, the tools... they are out there. The world is too large a place. People, somewhere will do these things. Attempts to prevent it will be sticking a finger in a dike while the waters rise.

Gattaca is perhaps one of the better examples of wrestling with the issues the question presents, wrapped in a general drama and mystery of a man trying to rise above his station and prove the inescapable strength of the human condition.

But what risk lies before us?

Can we, will we, produce a society in which all  benefit or will only the financially and socially affluent be able to lock in their descendants' superior social position, by making themselves truly superior and a step above? Do we face a future in which a new caste structure will arise? (A caste of perfect men that will have robots and drones and bio-adapted cyborg soldiers to secure their will and position.)

And is that better or worse than everyone gaining access to what becomes possible? Everyone tailoring their children according to the fashion and style of day. Generations marked by their shared traits that were applied by their parents, just as we have waves of common names today.

What does the future hold for us?

Fredesende 'The Devil'

I have not made a CK2 post in a bit... not least because I've played multiple games since the AAR I was documenting here and I have sort of lost the narrative thread of my screenshot record. I will try to recover that at some point. As a bone for those that may be interested, I am resurrecting a forum post I made over at Paradox in Q3 of 2013 for those that may not have seen it there.

The History

The game was an 867 start with a custom dynasty (Smiðring). As a Norse/Norse County of Nantes I usurped the Kingdom of Aquitaine and destroyed France. The goal became not to paint the map, but instead keep Aquitaine's direct borders near to what we recognize as the French region, and instead place dynasty members on every throne I could and prop them up. It was a frantically active game that became a Norman Catholic effort supporting landless invasions, pressing other people's claims, joining war after war to defend family members under attack, 10 crusades (3 alone for Jerusalem) the Caliphate converted to Tengri, the Ilkhanate ate the Mongol Horde, republics rose and fell,.... The game was "successful" in that the Dynasty held thrones in independent kingdoms of Asturias, Portugal, Lotharingia, Croatia, Bavaria, Greece, Jerusalem, Lithuania, Norway, Denmark, Africa, Alba, Sicily, the joint crowns of Ireland/England, and numerous dukes and counts. Almost any war anywhere in Europe involved sides of the family squabbling over titles.

I had had no liege in the entire game. Some revolts and stresses, nothing too threatening. And every ruler male.

I began to eager look forward to taking the realm and families into EUIV.

The Setting

It was 1400 and Buliwyf X died young, after being maimed on a Crusade. One of my hard case rulers in early 1200s had taken the realm primogeniture, so this left four year old Fredesende to serve as queen.

By luck or design I have very little experience with a non-male ruler. At first, bribes and honorarium kept people off my case. (They like to complain about a woman on the throne, and a young ruler, and a new ruler.)

I sent Fredesende to tutor with mom - Queen of Sicily - figuring mother, correct dynasty (she was in the same family, though distantly related), etc. would be helpful - I couldn't go traitless after all - but Fredesende became wroth and greedy (and envious, maybe?).

Then factional pressure began to mount. My spymaster was busy as a bee, scheming people to behave. I had a nice bank of cash, and used it to keep mercenaries on staff, delaying factions. Then the first revolt, but I could see it coming and moved the retinues and mercenaries there preemptively and rapidly destroyed the faction leader's forces and then chased the others to ground.

The Killing Begins

A dangerous faction developed to install an uncle on the throne. I was concerned enough that I undertook to see him dead, and he was murdered. But my plot was discovered, and she was named Kinslayer. Another faction, another family member. Another murder.

A faction leader met his death.
A revolt, nearly unseated me, but was put down with liberal use of mercenaries.

The Pope offered to cleanse me of the kinslayer sin... I refused (out of spite). But gave him back papal investiture.

A faction proposed a family member to rule in my stead. Then another. I couldn't 'scheme' fast enough. I turned to murder again, and they all fell to the knife, heading off each faction as it formed.

Finally married and gave birth to a daughter. Malus for queen, malus for female heir, malus for dishonorable, malus for kinslayer with dynasty members on every throne that mattered...

The Devil

Bribe after bribe. Murder began to follow murder.

I knew there was no turning back when the game gave Fredesende the nickname of 'The Devil'.

And the murders piled up, one after another after another. Family members of all ages from Egypt to Aragon to Alba - dying green and bloated - old men, children in their minority, cousins so distant I barely knew why they even had a claim, nephews, nieces (once even the young girl I had as a ward to keep her father in line). I pictured each of them crying alone and begging as their relatives pushed them forward onto the knife simply by whispering their name for the throne... I had to get a new, non-dynasty spymaster when I couldn't keep the current one from joining the very factions he was battling. I started scanning the claimant list, anticipating who would be next.

She was excommunicated, but rapidly paid to have that go away. The murders continued.

In all my games I have never seen such an orgy of violence. Without exaggeration it was easily dozens of murders. I lost count. For year after year it was simply a matter of who to kill next.

But she was not going to let the unbroken line of rulers end before 1444 (and EUIV export) and Fredesende was a domineering angry woman who would not be put aside (yes, role playing this had firmly taken hold).

She finally had a son, but that hardly mattered anymore. The hate she had sown was too deep and too broad.

A powerful 70% faction was presenting the claim of her aunt - the wife of the King of Ireland & England. The fighting would start at any moment and all of Europe would rally to the cause of the rebels. It would be unwinnable. I was amazed that things had gone on so long, but she would not surrender. The order was made and the aunt died, as had all the others, and her name was again revealed.

The King of Ireland and England would not be denied, and in turn Fredesende was foully murdered to die cursing his name.

The coronation of the 2 month old King Joscelin of Aquitaine in 1426 was a healing balm on the nerves and sanity of all of Europe and the extended dynasty.

I saved the game. And exited the program.
His reign had to wait until another time. I was drained.


And that is the tale of Fredesende Smiðring, the first of her name, Queen of Aquitaine, and 'The Devil'.

Epiloque

The really sad part is that after taking the game into EUIV, the Joscelin's son Turstin was the last of the Smiðring dynasty and the realm of Aquitaine that Fredesende had doomed herself to keep for her heirs came under the control of the Rozgonyi family. Only two generations and it was all for naught...