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Archaeologies of the Weird
Official Author Blog of Matthew Rettino
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The Archaeology of Weird Fiction Project
Harness the Power of Dialectical Opposites to Enhance Your Storytelling
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My Critters List of the 5 Most Common Weaknesses in Fiction
Unpublished Work
MythCon 2015
World Fantasy Convention 2015
Tag: epic fantasy
World Fantasy Convention 2015, Part I: Guy Gavriel Kay's Children of the Earth and Sky
On November 13, 2015 November 13, 2015 By matthewrettinoIn World Fantasy Convention 2015Leave a comment
My third conference of the year brought me to Saratoga Springs for the World Fantasy Convention
He spoke in a small presentation room called Broadway I in the Saratoga Hilton at Saratoga Springs, NY, introducing for the first time the central concept behind his new novel. It was Guy Gavriel Kay giving the origin story behind Children of the Earth and Sky, due for release this Spring, and I was among the privileged few to hear him read from his new novel–the most anyone has ever learned about his latest historical fantasy.
This was only one of the many highlights over the weekend, but it was the highlight to which I had most been looking forward. I may not own Guy Kay's complete works, but I have read them all and that includes not just Fionavar Tapestry and all of his historical fantasies, but his poetry volume Beyond this Dark House as well.
Before going into the details of his new novel that were revealed during his reading, let me at first attempt to describe my experience of what went down during the first few days (Thursday and Friday) of the World Fantasy Convention. There were many panels and big-name, even venerable, authors of both fantasy and science fiction–as well as authors of horror and weird tales, and their editors, publishers, and even some literary agents.
I arrived late Thursday evening, but I was on time to attend three plays by Lord Dunsany. The tone of the these plays was British-mannered and satirical and included play where a thief gone to heaven strives to break the lock of the pearly gates–but finds only the stars of the firmament on the other side.
Usman Malik and I
I was rooming at the convention with a celebrity, as I discovered, although to me he was just a normal guy I was able to connect with in order to share a room: Usman T. Malik is an author of weird fiction and very popular in Pakistan, the first from his country to win a Bram Stoker Award. His story "Resurrection Points" was published in Year's Best Weird Fiction, Vol. II, which was one of the many books I bought at the convention.
Upon first entering the convention, we were handed canvas bags loaded with 4-5 free books. Already this was more books than I had anticipated bringing home, but then again, I had yet to learn the ways of World Fantasy. These books included an ARC (Advance Reading Copy) of soon-to-be-released novel The Alchemist's Council by Cynthia Masson, which I will strive to write a review for before its release date.
The funky thing about this book is that it was published by ECW Publications, to which I have a connection. Robert Lecker, who was my professor throughout several classes on Canadian literature at McGill and for whom I am now employed as a research assistant, was an ex-editor at ECW when it was a magazine called Essays in Canadian Writing. Nowadays, although they kept the copyrighted acronym, the publishers changed the meaning of ECW to Entertainment Culture Writing and are now publishing fantasy and science fiction, among other genres including non-fiction and literary fiction. While I knew Lecker had been with ECW, I was not aware they were publishing in my genre and I was quite surprised to see them at Saratoga!
Thursday night I chilled at the Canadian SF party, listening to David Hartwell, editor of Tor's Years Best anthologies, talk informally about how a lot of authors nowadays are being taught how to write publishable material, but rare is the writer who can write with voice and rise to greatness. Guy Kay was circulating about the room as I listened, but I missed my chance to speak with him right then. The next day, Friday, I had a better opportunity to do this.
Friday, I attended two panels before walking into Guy Kay's reading and learning the long-kept secret of the subject of his latest novel.
This was another panel that also happened on Friday: "Extracting Fantasy from the Pulps." Left to right: Ian C. Esselmont, Walter Jon Wiliams, Steven Erikson, F. Paul Wilson, and moderator Kevin Maroney
One of these panels was "Ur-Fantasies: It all Started With…" and it was composed of Tod McCoy, a Seattle-area small press publisher, Roderick Killheffer, a reviewer and publisher for 25 years, Michael Dirda, a reviewer for the New York Review of Books and who was a medievalist in grad school, Rosemary Claire Smith, who was written for Analog using her experience as an archaeologist, and Barbara Chepaitis, a novelist and the panel's moderator. What were the first, original fantasy texts? Do they stretch back to The Epic of Gilgamesh or even earlier? Michael Dirda talked about his discovery of the Icelandic sagas as a sort of Ur-fantasy; he called them and I paraphrase, "spaghetti westerns on ice." Barbara Chepaitis called Scheherazade's storytelling in The Arabian Nights "the first civil disobedience" since Scheherazade's tales, designed to always end on a hook, keep interesting the king, thus delaying his plan to execute her in order to ensure her marital fidelity. Telling stories, she saves the kingdom from the murderous rampage of the king, who has already killed hundreds of previous wives. Chepaitis also provocatively mentioned the Iroquois Peacemaker's Epic, which recounts the formation of the Iroquois Confederacy by chief Hiawatha, as a counterpoint to fantasy epics that tend to constantly revolve around warfare.
"Scale in Epic Fantasy–Tensions between the Epic and the Intimate" involved Chris Gerwel, Ilana C. Meyer, Suzy McKee Charnas, and Glen Cook, with Joshua Palmatier as moderator. How can one write an epic fantasy that also treats intimate moments of human relationships? How do you balance character interaction with the wider lens of a Risk board of military conquests? The market expectation, Palmatier opened, is for vast, sprawling epics. But readers relate to more intimate moments. Striking this balance, I must note, is something Guy Gavriel Kay is excellent in doing.
A good example of pace and scale failing was the example of the Peter Jackson Hobbit films, the panel proposed: Tolkien's story is intensely focused on Bilbo's psychology and relationship with the dwarves, while Jackson erred in making the 3-part film too epic in scope. Glen Cook told us that he knows pace more intuitively and that it is his habit to write his entire novel by hand, then type it on a computer and go through 2-3 drafts in that way. Ilana C. Meyer suggested the helpful screenwriter's trick for writing any scene: "in late, out early." Chris Girwell suggested that first person voice is an excellent way of filtering a wider, epic world through a single character's perspective. The panel also seemed to agree that multiple third-person POVS can be useful for presenting the perspectives of diverse people positioned in all walks of life, enabling an author to present a wider sense of events than a single perspective can.
Following this panel, I made a dash to catch the beginning of Guy Gavriel Kay's reading. The following is a paraphrase of the story Guy Kay told us.
An uskok pirate. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Uskok_EMZ_1300109.jpg
The story behind the creation of Children of the Earth and Sky began eight or nine years ago when Kay was touring Croatia with an editor friend while heading for a librarian conference. They were making for the coast and the editor suggested he write about the Uskoks. Kay explained how upon hearing the name, he promptly asked his editor, "What?" in a "suave and urbane fashion," he assured us. But he really had never yet heard of this culture of Dalmatian coastal pirates operative during the Renaissance. These Uskoks raided the borderlands of the Ottoman, Venetian and Holy Roman Empires in the Adriatic Sea. They regarded themselves as heroes, "warriors of the border."
What this growing interest in the Uskoks produced is a novel set in the generation following the fall of Sarantium, which in terms of Kay's 'quarter-turn of the fantastic' world-building corresponds to the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Which means we have a novel set in the Renaissance that contains a significant section set in a city state evocative of Venice, with other locales to be revealed in the Spring.
I was slightly disappointed that Kay wasn't turning towards North America for his inspiration this time around, which was my grand theory, but I felt a growing excitement for his new concept. The cover, which contains an ocean, a backdrop of a map, and a fleur-de-lys, along with a title evocative of Plains Indian mythology, suggested a novel set in New France, however inconsistent that would be with the Plains Indians. Kay had employed Plains culture in Fionavar Tapestry. My theory may have been a long shot in retrospect, but it's easy to get excited about the actual concept Kay has now chosen: pirates!
Emphatically–and this is interesting in relation to the earlier panel on scale in epic fantasy–Kay describes his new novel as not being about kings, emperors, and courtiers, but about people who are powerless, unimportant. Children of the Earth and Sky revolves around five protagonists from various milieus who struggle to cope with what history sends their way. Illuminating the lives of secondary characters is something Kay has almost always been interested in and which truly showed itself in his two latest Chinese novels, Under Heaven and River of Stars. However, Children of the Earth and Sky will be different in how it focuses on unimportant and disempowered characters.
I heard Kay read the tense opening scene of one of these characters' stories. This involved a painter who produces a scandalous portrait of a countessa and lives to regret it. You could feel Kay's strong love of art history expressed in how he weaved sexual tension into the drama of a artist's struggle, providing insight into the secret behind this painter's work, a canvas that depicts a woman's knowing smile. Leonardo Da Vinci he is not, however: he soon finds himself in hot water. The dramatic pauses and practiced pacing of Kay's reading combined to create a highly professional performance that promised only good things to come with the Spring release.
The epigraphs to the new novel are borrowed from poem No. XXX in Look, Stranger! by W.H. Auden ("We swayed forward on the dangerous flood of history…") and from the poem "Parable" by Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Louise Glück.
I, for one, am going to try to apply to Penguin for an ARC and be among the first to review it. If I am successful, I will write a review informed by my knowledge of Kay's entire oeuvre, having previously written a 50-page Honours thesis devoted to his works. As such, you can trust it will be a well-informed review.
Guy Kay and I meet at the Salon du Livre, Place Bonaventure, Montreal a few years ago
Next week look out for an account of the second half of my experience at the World Fantasy Convention, in which I interview Charles de Lint!
Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever: Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson
On February 21, 2014 February 20, 2014 By matthewrettinoIn FantasyLeave a comment
Beware! Leper unclean! shout the crowds.
Don't touch me! responds Thomas Covenant, the antihero of Stephen R. Donaldson's memorable epic fantasy trilogy. In this exchange, which Convenant repeats in his mind like a mantra for his sanity, Donaldson summarizes the conflict of his protagonist. Despite being unlikeable, Covenant tends to garner your empathy. He's a man whose marriage to his wife and his writing career crashes on the day he discovers he has been infected with a rare disease that makes him a cripple and a social outcast.
And that was before he was brought, against his will, to the Land.
Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever: Lord Foul's Bane is the first novel in Donaldson's signature trilogy, and a book that made experiments in the epic fantasy genre. Published 1977, around the time of the epic fantasy surge that saw the rise of Terry Brooks and other Tolkienistas, Thomas Covenant broke a rule by turning a leprous antihero into a protagonist and implying that the fantasy world he travels through is only a dream.
What a phenomenal idea, as original today as it must have been forty years ago. This is a book well worth rediscovering.
Thomas Covenant fights a losing battle for his health. He is missing three fingers and his wedding ring is the only sign he carries of a relatively happy past life. A social pariah in small-town America when we first see him, his great rebellion consists of a journey to personally pay his bill at the Bell Telephone Company. A woman has taken the liberty of paying his bills for him, because they just don't want a leper walking through town. In an effort to reclaim his humanity and connection to the community, he makes his epic quest to town.
On the way, he gets knocked over by a police car.
When he awakes, he is in the Land, surrounded by darkness as Lord Foul, the incarnation of Despite, gives him a quest. He must deliver a message to the council of Lords that Drool Rockworm, a Cavewight has the Staff of Law. This, Foul promises, is cause for despair. All life in the land will be obliterated soon if Covenant does nothing. Still quite ignorant of his situation, hethen finds himself high upon Kevin's Watch, a pinnacle in a mountain range where he first surveys the Land.
A Pre-Raphaelite Landscape
The Land is sublime in all its Pre-Raphaelite glory: rolling green hills, vast mountain ranges, mighty rivers. It exudes an aura of health, the vitality of all its living things. Rather like New Zealand, where the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed, it is a source of beauty and goodness.
Soon Covenant makes the acquaintance of the Stonedownor, a tribe of squarely-built, rock-solid humans who specialize in stone-lore. And his quest begins. Men, women, and giants are drawn to him, thinking that he is the incarnation of the hero Berek Halfhand–who lost half his hand from an axe during an epic battle against Lord Foul aeons ago. But Covenant cannot comprehend this lore, doubting even that the Land exists, preferring it as a dream: that his half-hand is the result of leprosy, not prophesy.
He must journey to Revelstone, the seat of the Lords, who are the most powerful magicians in the Land, although their strength is much diminished from the Lords of old. Protectors of the Land's health, the Lords will do everything in their power to defeat Lord Foul at his game. But all the while, Thomas Covenant doubts.
His wedding ring has become a powerful source of wild magic, perhaps the most useful weapon with which to fight Drool, if he can master it. However, he has no wish to. Because to buy into the reality of that magic and the very existence of the Land would be to sacrifice his sanity.
As a leper, Covenant's priority is survival. Every day, he tests his nerves by shaving with a straight razor and checks his extremities for signs that his disease is spreading. Meanwhile, "dis-ease" is spreading across the Land in the form of Drool's bane. As wrongness spreads and reality itself thins, Covenant must at once resist the Land's seductions while finding a way to get back home.
Thomas Covenant's tale is existential, filled with the conflict between hope and despair, survival and death, madness and sanity. In a wonderful, if cheeky, move, Donaldson actually provides a reading guide to his own book in the world of the story. A wizard hobo in Covenant's hometown gives him a slip of paper on the "fundamental question of ethics": is it noble to fight for a heroic, moral cause if the world we believe in is an illusion, or is it more courageous to rebel against that world, which we know to be a lie?
In one option, we buy into a lie, but can perform good deeds within that lie. The other option has us resist that lie, holding out in the hope for a more accurate reality, at the expense of neglecting the world. This is how we come to admire Covenant, even as it is the same reason we hate him. If the Land is an illusion, it means he doesn't have to be good. Yet though his rebellion against the Land seems cowardly, we still see his courage in his attempts to master his sanity.
Another less philosophical but more academic reason to read this book is that it fully develops the four-part structure of the fantasy novel outlined by John Clute in the Encyclopedia of Fantasy. (I discuss this a little more in depth here.) This structure consists of wrongness, thinning, recognition, and healing. Wrongness is mentioned explicitly as part of the disease that afflicts the Land, while a strange phenomenon of thinning happens in the presence of some forms of evil magic. The well-being of the Land itself can be restored through healing. And, in the end, Thomas Covenant does have a severe recognition in which he recognizes that he is in a story crafted by a brilliant but cruel hand with an eye for paradox and irony.
Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever will compel many readers to become seduced by the Land, even though it is Covenant's mantra to resist it.
Stephen R. Donaldson, author of Thomas Covenant
Stephen R. Donaldson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_R._Donaldson
Cover: http://sfbook.com/lord-fouls-bane.htm
landscape: http://2hpencil.com/tag/pre-raphaelite-brotherhood/
The Secret History of Fantasy, edited by Peter S. Beagle
On January 31, 2014 January 30, 2014 By matthewrettinoIn FantasyLeave a comment
If you're like me, you have probably starved for an original fantasy novel. So many novels and short stories rely too heavily on The Lord of the Rings and the epic fantasy genre that spawned from it. Are there any original fantasy works that use impossible situations without having elves, orcs, and dragons run across the page? Oh, and I don't have that much time to read.
The answer? Peter S. Beagle's anthology of short stories The Secret History of Fantasy.
True, it has a dragon on the cover. But it is half-concealed, placed against a minimalist white page. If we were to judge a book by its cover, we might guess there is a literary sensibility that went into these selections. You'll find big-name authors like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Yann Martel, Gregory Maguire, and Ursula K. Le Guin on the cover, as well as other authors with whom you may be unfamiliar, but will remember once you've tasted their stories.
This anthology represents the top fantasists of the field. Each story has its own original flavour of the fantastic. Who could forget the remarkably compelling mythagos of Robert Holdstock's "Mythago Wood?" What is a mythago, you ask? It is a "myth-imago" or "myth-image," basically a mythic archetype that runs amok in Britain's oldest forest in Holdstock's classic novel–here cut to the length of a short novella.
A John Howe illustration of Mythago Wood.
This anthology is filled with other wainscots. For example, there is Stephen King's tale of Mrs. Todd, a lady who is obsessed with uncovering the shortest shortcuts from place to place, and ends up driving her car into another world. Jeffrey Ford's "The Empire of Ice Cream" is a tale of a boy who is forbidden from eating ice cream due to his medication and forms a relationship with a girl he sees during one of this synesthetic trips.
Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, which is perhaps the most famous reworking of the classic novel The Wizard of Oz, returns with a story about the Scarecrow. Steven Millhauser's description-heavy story of the P.T. Barnum Museum is also remarkable in how it is nothing at all like a fantasy adventure–more of a reflection on a setting's affect on the people who visit and work there. The museum ends up becoming a metaphor for how we all encounter the fantastic, the wondrous, the inexplicable, and how we all remember our childhoods. Yann Martel, the Canadian author of Life of Pi, adopts an even more alternate route and writes an experimental poem in "The Vita Aeterna Mirror Company."
Another brilliant feature of this anthology are the supplementary materials. Peter S. Beagle is serious about fantasy and he lets readers become serious about the genre with him. Ursula K. Le Guin, author of A Wizard of Earthsea, and David G. Hartwell, also a fantasy anthology editor, each write essays which Beagle includes in an appendix. Le Guin's essay "The Critics, the Monsters, and the Fantasists" describes the critical reception of fantasy up to the present day and how perceptions that fantasy should be dismissed because it is childlike and escapist have improved over the years. The roadmap to fantasy, she argues, is more inexplicable than the simplicity of Tolkien-derived drivel would suggest.
Hartwell in "The Making of the American Fantasy Genre" gives the history of how Del Rey capitalized on the Tolkien phenomenon in the late 70s and published The Sword of Shannara, the first of many Tolkien homages that sold like hotcakes. Terry Brooks' first novel thus helped make epic fantasy the repetitive form it eventually became. Both essays provide you with a historical perspective on the development of a genre you love to read.
The Sword of Shannara: the book that popularized the epic fantasy genre.
Peter S. Beagle uses this anthology to propose that fantasy has become stilted due to the staleness of epic fantasy. The market tends to favour a 2,000-page, derivative, Tolkienesque trilogy over more experimental but well thought-out fantasy novels. He attempts to show readers the diversity of fantasy–which may be the broadest genre in the world in terms of narrative possibility. If you ask me, it is impossible not to love this anthology. I would say fantasy is more diverse today than it was 40 years ago. But I would have to agree with Beagle that it is difficult, at least for new writers, to escape the stranglehold of genre.
If it is time for a renewal in fantasy, then it will be through short stories and novels like the ones Beagle has published in The Secret History of Fantasy. There are infinite angles to a fantasy story and Secret History attempts to show us some of those doors. But, like the myriad rooms and passages located inside and underneath the Barnum Museum, you can always count on the fantasy genre being bigger and more expansive than your even imagination can acknowledge.
Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn and editor of The Secret History of Fantasy
The Sword of Shannara: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Shannara
Mythago:http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/dec/24/le-guin-authors-guild-deal
Ursula K LeGuin: http://www.rc.umd.edu/person/ursula-k-le-guin
Cover: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7850063-the-secret-history-of-fantasy
Peter S. Beagle: http://www.jeancocteaucinema.com/ai1ec_event/peter-s-beagle/?instance_id=
The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower I, by Stephen King
On January 24, 2014 January 21, 2014 By matthewrettinoIn Book Reviews, FantasyLeave a comment
What do you get when you combine Tolkien and the Western? Stephen King's Dark Tower series.
Meet Roland, the last gunslinger. He's Aragorn meets John Wayne. A solitary man "wandering but not lost," he carries two six-shooters that were once his father's pistols. His single quest, which he pursues with an instinctual audacity, is summarized in the iconic first line of the novel. The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
Aragorn is a lonely wanderer like Roland, but, as the prophecy says, "not all who wander are lost; the crownless again shall be king."
John Wayne is a famous actor in classic Westerns, another archetype for Roland.
Every single sentence seeps with the brooding, gritty mood of the Western genre and with the unforgiving cadence of a landscape that has, we are continually reminded, "moved on." The desert is the "apotheosis of all deserts," a world reminiscent of the American Southwest. In fact, it takes place in the future, a post-apocalyptic world that shares certain features with King's other epics, such as The Stand, Salem's Lot, and It.
We follow Roland as he runs among the ruins of a technologically advanced civilization identical to the twentieth-century USA. Most gadgets have ceased to work and people have fallen into a semi-feudal, semi-frontier society of small settlements. Petroleum, for example, is so valuable that one man becomes a Delphic oracle by inhaling fumes at a gas station.
The story follows Roland as he encounters a dweller in the wilderness named Brown and his talking raven Zoltan. Forming a brief but tense friendship, he tells them both the story of his journey to Tull, where he falls in love with a woman named Allie and has an adventure with the fire-and-brimstone preacher Sylvia Pittson. But the man in black has passed through town and his spells have laid a trap. As Roland tells his story, you find out that he is an ambiguous figure with a capacity for both heroism and merciless violence.
His real challenge comes later, when he meets Jake, a boy from New York. He takes Jake as his own ward as he pursues the man in black over the mountains at the end of the desert. In the end, however, his bond with the boy will come in conflict with his destiny, pushing Roland's moral endurance to the limit.
This novel has entranced me ever since I read a Gunslinger novella years ago "The Little Sisters of Eluria." I had no context to the narrative, but I immediately took to the crazy, gritty story of zombies and cannibal nuns. It further drew me on after I learned where King got the title for his series: a song from Shakespeare's King Lear sung by Edgar, who is posing as a madman at the time.
"Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
His word was still 'Fie, foh, and fum
I smell the blood of a British man."
Just as the "child" Rowland ("child" or "childe" refers to a squire who has yet to be knighted) pursues the Dark Tower, so does the last gunslinger. But he isn't British: he's definitely American. And he is no longer a "child," but a man. In fact, Roland at one point recalls his own rite of passage ceremony, in which he duels Cort, his training master in Gilead, Roland's now-vanished hometown. Another work of literature featuring Roland is Robert Browning's poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came." Stephen King's series, however, remains the longest sustained treatment of Roland's quest. (Of course, he is not a gunslinger in Browning, but a knight errant.)
A third factor that drew me to read The Gunslinger was how it was inspired by Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Sergio Leone's movie The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. In his understated introduction to the expanded edition, Stephen King describes how he knew he was going to get Norse mythology wrong if he wrote an epic too similar to Tolkien. So he borrowed from a genre with similar epic potential, a genre that forms the central mythos of American identity: the Western.
Stephen King, author of The Gunslinger
I would have to agree that King wrote a more honest Tolkienesque epic fantasy novel using the Western. Books like The Sword of Shannara slave too closely to the plots of the "father of modern fantasy" so as to seem derivative or worse: a simple copy. Tolkien borrowed from Norse and Celtic mythology because that was the mythology of his homeland, Great Britain. King borrowed from the Western mythology of his own country, the United States.
I once wrote a website (with bad links) that presented an academic argument proposing that the genre of modern fantasy was born of an Americanization of British myths into the framework of the "American monomyth." Essentially, this monomyth is like the stereotypical Western plot: an paradisaical community is threatened by an outside force, the ordinary law can do nothing to stop it, then a hero emerges from within the community, or occasionally from the outside, and stops evil in a final battle or shootout. The story ends with him riding into the sunset. I would not say that King follows this formula precisely, but the way in which The Gunslinger was conceived reminded me of my old observations of the fantasy genre.
Shining through the baggage I brought to it, The Gunslinger left me thirsty for more. The most powerful, resonating aspect of this story is how the mood almost seems to dictate the plot. The world has moved on is the novel's refrain and the story moves on too. Things are always going to get worse, but Roland's resolve to encounter the man in black remains a force of constant momentum. A fair word of warning: this novel ends only at the beginning of the series, with a revelation as to the true shape of Roland's quest, which he at first pursues rather blindly. These facts about the Dark Tower he discovers only at a terrible cost to himself and those few whom he loves.
Stephen King: http://thescribblerblog.wordpress.com/2009/02/05/stephen-king-denounces-stephanie-meyer-other-writers/
Cover: http://thoroughlyrussellcrowe.com/news/2013/12/russell-crowe-book-club-2-the-gunslinger/
Gunslinger 1: http://craighallam.wordpress.com/2012/06/02/book-review-the-wind-through-the-keyhole-by-stephen-king/
Gunslinger desert 1: http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showwiki.php?title=Towerpedia:Mohaine+Desert
Gunslinger 2:: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=11719683
John Wayne: http://www.doctormacro.com/movie%20star%20pages/Wayne,%20John-Annex.htm
Aragorn: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/lord-of-the-rings/images/31401318/title/aragorn-photo
Are Tolkien's Ideas Still Alive in Our Postmodern Twenty-First Century?
On January 3, 2014 December 30, 2013 By matthewrettinoIn EssaysLeave a comment
Pub where Tolkien met with his Inkling bros. Wish I was here.
J.R.R Tolkien, born this day in 1892, would be 122 if he were alive today, one of the oldest people in the world. Alas, his physical body perished 2 September 1973, even though his textual body lives on, with much thanks to the continued labours of Christopher Tolkien, his son and editor. I would love to celebrate Tolkien's birthday with a pint at the Eagle and Child Pub, where Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the rest of the Inklings used to meet. Being landlocked in Pierrefonds, a suburb of Montreal, Quebec, I cannot, however, and must compensate by posing a question to you all.
Does Tolkien's spirit live on in 2014?
It would be hard to deny, upon first glance. Peter Jackson's second Hobbit movie has hit theatres and a third is on the way. New editions of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy are being produced, while many of his more obscure works appear on shelves at Chapters—including The Fall of Arthur, his Arthurian poem in the style of the Alliterative Morte Darthur. Many people around the globe cling loyally to Tolkien's legacy. The entire epic fantasy genre claims strong ties to Tolkien's example.
However, behind such observations lies the assumption that Tolkien's survival depends on his economic value. They do not tell us how, in specific, people perceive his legacy, aside from the obvious. Such observations can tell us nothing of people's attitudes towards his ideas, aside from a vague sense that they are willing to temporarily "buy into" his aesthetics, his politics, and philosophy. Do his ideas have any deeper resonance for those who buy his books?
I have never conducted a poll among Tolkien-readers. Perhaps it is for the better, though, since I would be asking strange questions for people who just want to read The Hobbit. "What are your beliefs about mythology?" "Do you believe that the deepest human yearning is the desire for communion with nature?" "Do you believe that the subcreator's power is the refracted light of the Creator's primary creativity, imparted to the subcreator by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?"
Chances are these questions never cross our minds when first fingering a Tolkien paperback. We may outright disagree with some of what he believes. Tolkien tied his theory of art closely to his identity as a Catholic and likened the creation of art to an act of communion. Although he draws a beautiful system in "On Fairy Stories" and his poem "Mythopoeia," the religious imagery might fly over the heads of non-Catholics.
His ideas about mythology might also be described as "essentialist." Because of his religious convictions, he says he believes that mythology comes from a objective, transcendental source—whether the Tree of Tales, or God Himself. After Lacan and post-structuralism, however, mythology is not viewed as being so much transcendental as born out of sexual drives inherent in all humans. These developments in the theory of mythology place a shadow over Tolkien's more Victorian conception of fairy tales and myth.
Admittedly, most of us make no account of these ideas. We may read Tolkien for the sheer pleasure of escape. Though we may not be aware of the abstract, theological ideas saturating Tolkien's philosophy of art, we should not feel that we ought to be aware of those ideas. Each reader reads Tolkien differently and should. But how can we reconcile our investment in Tolkien as a culture to our postmodern (hyper)reality?
How does Tolkien survive today?
Do we still desire old things? Or are we so ingrained in this commodified, throw-away culture that we no longer consider old ways of viewing the world, trees, nature, and birdsong? I feel personally that I spend far too much time dealing with ephemeral trivialities. There is no better time to think about our wasteful society than just after Christmas. It's sad, but I can't think of a time of year when our fetishization of the commodity is more evident than late December and early January. As Christianity turned pagan Saturnalia into the Birth of Christ, capitalism has secularized Christmas into a fest of selfishness, line-up rage, and dissatisfaction.
But trees and old songs are free. Nature never goes out of style. "The lilies do not sow," goes an old Bible verse, "yet Solomon in all his wisdom was not clad as richly as one of these." Yet, even while faced with the deficiencies of commodity culture, do we still care about these lilies, or is commodity simply too enticing?
Perhaps we need to be refreshed in our understanding of nature. We need to go back and recognize what we have been missing—the simple truths of reality and beauty.
But in our twenty-first century, there is no reality. Or, if there is, it is not reality as Tolkien understood it.
Our age has been called "hyperreal." Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media sites are rapidly becoming the new definers of "reality." I mean an entirely new definition of reality: separate from science and theology both. Someone can become world-famous simply by posting pictures of themselves online, never leaving their dark, lonely basement. Nothing is real unless it's documented. Wedding pictures are not as frequently printed as posted. Your trip to the Louvre can only be said to have happened if you take a picture of the Mona Lisa, a picture you have seen a thousand times before. (Did you hear the Mona Lisa was a fake? The real one's hidden in a vault.)
Some of us think archaeologists will need these pictures in a hundred years, as absurd as the thought may seem. But if you do not even glance at your own photo documentation after you have saved it on a hard drive—let along print them—why would an archaeologist care about your selfie? Even the things we pretend to treasure today are as disposable as anything else we own.
Our culture is obsessed with the new and with copies of reality rather than reality itself. Where can Tolkien's idea of Renewal fit into our world? Can we "clean our windows" from triteness and ennui if the windows we look through are themselves copies of other windows? Perhaps we have lost something fundamental to reality itself.
Tolkien's Elves, constantly aware of the thinning of magic, would not doubt weep its loss—to the sound of harp strings. No wonder they left Middle Earth before it was too late.
Perhaps I am being too rough on postmodernity. The last thing I want is to sound like a nostalgic old man getting angry at these newfangled computers and social media sites. I recognize that there is a danger in glorifying the past. I am not saying we must worship Tolkien. But I am saying there is something profound in his work about the role of fantasy in renewing out perceptions of reality, whenever our workaday, commodified lives threaten to bore us to death.
I've encountered a breaking point where this shallow world confines you inside your house and prevents you from going outside and encountering nature. Even if hyperreality suggests that Renewal is impossible in this age devoid of a central reality, Tolkien can still cause us to realize that hyperreality itself is only one way of seeing the world. This is not a denial of reality: it is an opposition to consensus, a force in a struggle.
We may be forevermore influenced by hyperreality, but that does not make resistance futile. Tolkien's works—and other stories and art inspired by his ideas—argue that fantasy is the best way to clean our windows this new year. Fantasy tells us that the world was not always like it is. In particular, historical fantasy can do this to superb effect (see John Crowley's Aegypt), but other genres of fantasy can also help us see our daily lives in a different light.
All you have to do is imagine.
Movie Poster for The Desolation of Smaug. Food for thought question: Do you find the art direction more evocative of Tolkien's descriptions, or post-Tolkien Dungeons-and-Dragons-style artwork (a copy of a copy of Tolkien)?
Pub: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eagle_and_Child_%28interior%29.jpg
Tolkien:http://www.nndb.com/people/511/000022445/
Hyperreal: http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/in-theory-baudrillard-9/
The Fall of Arthur: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_of_Arthur
Desolation of Smaug: http://wallchips.com/cool-movie-the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-wallpaper.html
13 Things I Learned Writing My First Novel: Battles of Rofp
On December 27, 2013 April 28, 2015 By matthewrettinoIn literature5 Comments
I hope you all had a merry Christmas. Now, while you're still warm with Christmas feeling (perhaps you are snug by the fire with a cup of hot cocoa, or a drink of rum and eggnog, experiencing a similar but not altogether identical feeling of warmth) let me take you down to Memory Lane to see the Ghost of Matthew Rettino Past. I have finished my undergraduate degree now, sporting a valiant BA in Honours English, and have become an expert on Guy Gavriel Kay. Suffice it so say, I have grown as a writer since I finished my first serious novel in Summer 2010. How much you say? Well, lad, let me tell you.
Here are 13 things I learned while writing Battles of Rofp. I'm sure many fantasy authors have a Battles of Rofp somewhere in their past. For me, it was a 470-page secondary-world epic fantasy that took a rough understanding of J.R.R.Tolkien as my starting point, though I borrowed liberally from Weis and Hickman's Dragonlance series, which I devoured in High School, and Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle (you'll remember Eragon).
I had not written all the short stories that authors advise you should write before tackling a massive-sized novel. I just dove straight in, not knowing where I was going. It was the equivalent of learning wilderness survival without a guide, learning how to hunt the beasts and build shelter helter-skelter, by instinct. I began in Sec 1 when I was 13 and I ended just about three years ago now. My literary influences have diversified since then and I have simply become a better writer. I look back upon these years as an example of the primal literature of angst-ridden adolescence, a somewhat "barbaric" age in my career. Nevertheless, I believe I have derived a series of lessons from the experience, which I believe I can offer my devoted followers.
These are not rules. They are not even guidelines. They are simply lessons learned the hard way. If you find them helpful, do not feel constrained by them.
The front cover to my novel Battles of Rofp. The novel was not self-published exactly, simply printed and sent to family and friends. I drew the dragon and the swords, but not the horse and rider. My father helped with the colouration and layout.
1. Choose names that people can pronounce.
Yes, include a pronunciation guide as back matter to your self-published novel. But that still won't help your relatives from mispronouncing the title of your book. Do you think you know how to pronounce "Rofp?" Think again. You wouldn't be able move your tongue the right way. It's the "fp" that gets everyone. Somehow, people tend to roll it out into an "l": "Rolfph." This is not even the worse example of complicated pronunciation in fantasy. For example, anything that looks Welsh or has apostrophes is bound to be hard to read. But these challenges can be overcome.
2. Keep mechanics simple
I'm talking about your usual fantasy fare: secret keys, prophecies, hidden manuscripts, sacred stones, holy swords and the like–whatever clues or unique talismans your hero needs to defeat the archvillain. I had a prophecy, a clay tablet, four sacred swords, and a curse in my story, which took a rather long time to sort through. Oh yeah, and my villain Volkon, who is an immortal skeleton demon with his rib cage on fire, could only be harmed by one sword, owned by an undead king. This sword could only be used by that king's present-day heir, and only if he collected the four aforementioned swords in a holy shrine to summon the dead to life. But if I had kept only the one sword, things might have been simpler.
The Grand Library of Aledria: the location of the clay tablet that reveals the destiny of the Heir.
3. A band of companions must have good reasons to stick together.
Three men, two dwarves, and an elf formed my group of companions. Roy is a squire aspiring to the knighthood when Gramrige, saves him from a goblin massacre in his hometown of Ebrook. On the way to Thull, the underground dwarven city, they encounter the homesick stonemason Gourd. The other members were Prince Adrugun, the angst-ridden heir to a great kingdom, Vileros, the Grand Master of the knightly order of the Riders of Rofp, and Guillonius, a dwarven fireball bent on revenge.
How are they connected? Somehow.
It is a hard trick to keep a diverse group motivated to risk their lives fighting dragons. If your characters were friends from an earlier time in the book, however, you have rapport and history between your characters. The companions will care about each other. That can serve as glue.
4. Do not be afraid to rewrite scenes.
We rarely get it right the first time. Are you a writer or not? If so, then you cannot be afraid to rebuild. On the novel I'm working on now, I have a rough draft, but I'm going over each scene, sometimes rewriting whole scenes (though not necessarily re-imagining them entirely). Rewrites let you add depth, to hit all the notes you wanted to hit on your first pass.
5. Do not jump straight into line editing.
NEVER waste time line editing after a first draft. That stuff's raw and straight out of your unconscious. Chances are the story itself needs work, if not a complete overhaul. Line editing comes at least after draft #2. When the story itself is as it should be and all the scenes are in place, consistencies smoothed out, then you can get out the red pen and go line-by-line. For example, I will aim to cut 10-15% of my word count for my present novel.
Would you jump straight into a fray with a troll on a battlement catwalk? No? Then don't line edit your initial draft either!
6. Exposition is used best when the hero is in conflict.
I realized this early on. When writing fantasy, it's probably one of the first things you learn. Roy initially thought goblins and shapeshifters were myths, despite Gramrige's warning that they were going to attack his city. Then he had to fight through mobs of the creatures during a wholesale massacre of his city' inhabitants. Between the physical conflict of the attack and the personal conflict between Roy's disbelief and Gramrige's urgency, I managed to slip it quite a bit of backstory. Lace all exposition with tension and you can smooth it right over.
Gramrige and Roy at the Horsehead Tavern at Ebrook. Image has been colourized from b+w original.
7. Ensure your protagonist has a distinct personality.
It's easy to make protagonists have slight flaws, but be heroic enough to conquer his or her foes. It's probably because we would like to be our protagonists. But flaws should be harder, sharper. They are really what makes character. I thought Roy had a distinct personality, but it was difficult for me to bring out his own idiosyncratic reactions to events in the book, to see that personality on the page. I always vouched for him to perform the "heroic" feat, if given a moral dilemma. He was not really flesh to me, more like an ideal.
8. Be careful that secondary characters do not steal the show.
Adrugun, the angst-ridden Prince of Theomina, becomes engaged in a romantic partnership with a elven woman named Virida. This happened at that soggy point in the middle of the book, where the plot starts to run out of steam. Brilliant move in one respect: adding interest at the low point of the novel. However, I was leaving Roy abandoned by the reader's interest. The story became more and more about Virida and Adrugun and less about Roy. If your tale revolves heavily around one character, it is best to keep readers primarily interested in that character, instead of upstaging them. Other characters can have their time in the spotlight, but for Battles of Rofp, I felt as though Roy needed to be more central.
9. Diction may be the most important part of writing "epic fantasy."
Ursula K. Le Guin wrote a wonderful essay called "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" which explains this point amply enough. Tolkien's characters speak nobly, like Shakespeare without the Elizabethan conceits. Bad epic fantasy sounds like CSI:Miami or even The West Wing: whether you believe these are good or bad American TV shows, elves do not talk like twenty-first century Americans! Keep the diction measured and formal–but don't overdo it, otherwise you have impenetrable over-stylized prose, another whole problem. (Oh, and neither do elves speak like twenty-first century Canadians–eh?)
Crice the Diviner, a seeress who lives in Shife. She is immortal and performed the prophecy of the Heir long ago.
10. In writing any story, there comes a point where you can't go back.
If I could go back and rewrite Battles of Rofp, I would not. This is not because I am overconfident in my abilities as a writer–perhaps you can tell from all this self-criticism that I am not–but because I want to move on. At a certain point with every story, you put in a certain number of hours and pass the "never return" point. The story is what it is and all the labour in the world can't fix it without you having to completely rewrite it. And if you do that, why not just write a new story instead of trying to reformulate a story that's already failed? Some story ideas are so simple that they cannot sustain even a short story. Battles of Rofp was more complicated, but it was conceived by a thirteen-year-old me, so when I turned 20, I knew it had to end. There were other worlds to explore.
11. You will have a hard time framing a cliched pitch even if, in the book, you take great strides to evade it.
Battles of Rofp's plot was the cliche of epic fantasy, although I will maintain it to the death that it was more original than The Sword of Shannara. A squire's hometown is attacked by goblins. Then he discovers he is the heir to an ancient warrior of a famous knightly order, destined one day to fight the greatest evil of the age. So he goes hunting dragons across the land, collecting the four sacred swords that will be able to summon a power to defeat this evil. It had Legend of Zelda, Eragon, and The Lord of the Rings written all over it.
Yet, on the micro-level, I tried to be unconventional. Dwarves had names inspired by the Russian language. The kingdom of Theomina was divided into names that sounded Roman and names that sounded Semitic. The Phoenix Tribe, lone defenders of Theomina, were the only civilization in Rofp to use gunpowder. The Tongues of Shadow stretched from the sky like darkened tentacles wherever evil strikes, scooping up the souls of the dead in order to devour them.
Wow! Too bad the plot of my story overall still read like THE cliche of all epic fantasy! I should have demonstrated my creativity by coming up with unique plot points first. Then my synopsis would have simply sounded better. Even if you want to rebel against the post-Tolkien epic fantasy genre, you cannot do so while working within a frame that replicates that cliche. At any rate, it is usually best to have one true idea that is yours and build a world around that.
12. Model yourself after authors that you think you can imitate, using them as springboards to pursue the higher laurels.
The poet Petrarch uses the laurel branch, sacred to Apollo, the Greek god of poetry, as a symbol for his poetic aspirations. He was referring with reverence to Ovid, who in his Metamorphoses describes how Apollo chases Daphne his beloved, who the gods turn into the laurel tree. Apollo then appropriates the laurel as his symbol. For centuries, new poets aspire to the laurels of old poets, new writers to the reputation of their forefathers.
One of the reasons I aspired to the laurels of Eragon was that it was imminently accessible: it was written by someone who was my age when he wrote it! I took Paolini as my model. Alas, there are many Paolini-haters on the web. I will defend him this far: he had to finish a series he started when he was quite young, his powers as an author limited by lack of experience. (The ending of Inheritance did not impress me, however.)
I claim it was important to take Paolini as a guide through the first primitive years of my writing career. It was important to have something to aspire to, someone accessible. If he could do this at his age, I thought, then I can do it at mine! I now take Guy Gavriel Kay, Neil Gaiman, and the great poets of the Canadian tradition–all mature, accomplished and duly lauded authors–as my new models.
These new models are sublime, to inspire me to reach the highest boughs of Apollo's laurel tree. And if I miss, I shall land upon the stars!
13. If you set your mind to something, anything is possible.
At base, I am still proud of Battles of Rofp. Not because it will win me the Giller Prize, or a Hugo. It's because I wrote a 470-page epic fantasy novel by the time I left high school. Who else can claim to have done that? If you set your mind on something, then it doesn't matter what, or who, gets in your way. Social life, family time, breathing, sleeping: none of it matters, if you have the heart to pursue your dreams. But seriously folks, balance in life is crucial. If you can play the trick, stick to your dreams while supporting our livelihood, you will have battled a fierce dragon indeed.
Now because balance in life is important and I'm afraid I've written another monster post, I must retire. Fare thee well! See thee in the New Year MMXIV!
My map. Home drawn. For inspiration as to pencil technique, I looked closely at Paolini's map from Eragon. I actually first drew the land in 2003, long before I read that book. Feel free to explore this secondary world!
Eternal Guarantee
On October 11, 2013 January 28, 2018 By matthewrettinoIn Short Stories, Unpublished WorkLeave a comment
Every once in a while, two events in your life happen simultaneously and in their juxtaposition, a humorous situation appears in your imagination. I had just finished reading Guy Gavriel Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry and started a job as a salesman. Anyone familiar with the myth of King Arthur, especially as retold by Kay, and the cliches of the sales pitch will find the following short story's concept amusing.
The Nine Worthies of Medieval Legend: Hector of Troy, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Joshua, David, Judas Maccabeus, King Arthur, Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouillon. Part of Avalon Enterprises' Premiere Set of Heroes. Customers can also buy individual warriors.
"We'll sell you a High King, and if he is ever damaged or killed in battle, just send him back to Avalon, and we'll return him. That's our eternal guarantee."
Morgan le Fay of Camlann Marketing, the sales branch of Avalon Enterprises, smiled with her pearl teeth at the customer, a prophet with a white beard by the name of Merlynn. They were sitting at a stone table in the middle of her grove, while she spun her webs and charms.
"I see," said Merlynn, arching his eyebrows. "And when would that be?"
"There will be a prophecy in the end. He'll wait on the island for when he is needed once again. Now," she said, opening her illuminated codex. "Let me show you the wide variety of saviours Avalon Enterprises has in its collection of Worthies."
Merlynn nodded and pressed his forefinger above his eye, to furrow his brow. Morgan le Fay was always troublesome, but when she'd asked for him to listen to her presentation, for the sake of the nation he could not have refused. Uther was dead and Wales needed a king. He listened to her litany of saviours, as she pointed to a picture of a warrior in bronze armour.
"Hector of Troy," she said. "Customers like him, because he is strong, agile, and versatile for mostly every occasion. However, he is not stronger than Achilles. He's perfect as a strongman, but his temper makes him poor for politics, which means you might want King David. He killed the giant Goliath with a slingshot when he was only a young man, and thereafter ruled as a great king. However, he was not resistant to the sin of adultery with Bathsheba, which means you might need Godfrey of Bouillon. A French crusader sworn to the ideals of chivalry, he took Jerusalem from the Saracens and ruled as king, although he refused the title. However, though a virtuous knight, he was not the ruler of a kingdom that endured, which means you might need Frederick Barbarossa …"
"The German makes are never quite as good," said Merlynn, shaking his head sadly. "And I don't see this country moving in that direction."
"That's all right," said Morgan le Fay, lending him another pearl smile. "Besides, maybe what this land needs is another sort of king. Not an Alexander the Great, but perhaps a Christ, a Buddha, or a Gandhi?"
"Gandhi?" asked Merlynn. He closed his eyes and focused on the name. Threads of time, centuries of civilization, wove themselves through his synapses and he tasted the future. "Not the violent type of man, I see. But it's my impression that all these saviours have some fatal defect or another. Either that, or they die a martyr."
"There is always a price," said Morgan le Fay, sounding concerned. "But if the weight of that knowledge sounds like too much at once, you can make three equal payments. And if you find you don't like him, you can return him during our free-trial period."
"A free hero does not sound like much of one," said Merlynn, folding his arms. "But what about the payments?"
"Your saviour will endure an even amount of grief over his or her lifetime," she said. "You might be interested in Hercules, perhaps: that's a twelve payment plan."
Merlynn sighed with such a deep longing that he could not encompass just how much he wished for the world to be different. But the earth was still there, in so much need. "You know … I don't think Wales can pay such a hefty price for a saviour. In this age, after all, who needs a hero who causes so much more grief? Sure, these heroes legends, but I really don't think Wales is ready for this investment."
Morgan le Fay nodded and smiled. "That's why we have our free-trial period. If you are in any way dissatisfied, we can return your hero to Avalon for a full refund."
Merlynn cursed himself for a fool. He wanted heroes to lead Wales as they had in the days of old, but time had moved on and the every year brought a steeper decline in glory. He supposed it was simply not possible in this age, for heroes to be born the way they used to be. Ever since the goddesses had formed Avalon, their corporate machine had experienced unprecedented successes, selling high-quality heroes to lands bereft of them. This was the way of the future, and the past was done.
He grumbled from behind his white beard, a throaty old-man sound. When had he gotten so old?
"Him," he said, pointing to an illumination in Morgan le Fay's codex. A golden crown rested heavily on a man's bearded head, a silver sword sheathed by his side and a red-tipped spear in his hand.
"That is the dux bellorum, lord of battles," said Morgan le Fay. "He is expensive, but it's worth it, because he comes with Caliburn, his famous sword, Ron, his great spear, and a host of eight other gallant knights. Is this who you want?"
"I'm on the verge," said Merlynn, nodding, and trying not to think of the cost. "But I cannot justify saturating this world with so many heroes. There could be glory in it, but evil as well."
Morgan le Fay squeezed her lip together. "I can give you a deal. If you agree to rid the world of one or two of your more common heroes, I can give you the Knights of the Round Table—which, by the way, includes the world's greatest knight, Lancelot du Lac."
Merlynn wondered what her game was, but there was no doubting that she was giving him an excellent deal. He thought he would surely weep later, if he passed up the chance for such a bargain.
He smiled. The promise of future glory, the shortcut history could take towards remaking the social cohesion of the pax romana, was too tempting. It was an investment in the future. He owed his decision to succeeding generations.
"He will be called Arthur Pendragon," he said, and signed by Avalon's wax seal.
Morgan le Fay: http://www.howarddavidjohnson.com/arthurian.htm
Nine Worthies: http://www.scotiana.com/the-nine-worthies-on-the-oak-heads-medallions-at-stirling-castle/
Salesguy: http://www.zerotimeselling.com/confuse-activity-with-selling/
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The Denver Art Museum
To enrich the lives of present and future generations through the acquisition, presentation, and preservation of works of art, supported by exemplary scholarship and public programs related to both its permanent collections and to temporary exhibitions presented by the Museum.
While our commitment to our core mission remains unchanged, our work and plans are guided every day in our vision to enrich lives by sparking creative thinking and expression.
We believe creativity:
is a powerful force that introduces us to new experiences, broadens our thinking, recognizes the uniqueness in each of us, and illustrates the things we share.
is vital to all ages and all stages of life and that it is an essential element for lifelong satisfaction and well-being.
inspires communities, conversations, and connections.
Founded in 1893 as the Denver Artist's Club, the Denver Art Museum today is one of the largest art museums between Chicago and the West Coast. The museum's global art collections represent cultures around the world, with more than 70,000 works of art in 12 collections, including African art, architecture and design, art of the ancient Americas, Asian art, European and American art before 1900, Latin American art, Oceanic art, modern and contemporary art, photography, textile art and fashion, Indigenous arts of North America, and western American art. The museum's global collections also reflect work by artists from Denver and the Rocky Mountain region—and provide invaluable ways for the community to learn about the world.
Throughout its history, the Denver Art Museum has had a number of temporary homes, including the public library, a downtown mansion, and a portion of the Denver City and County Building. In 1949, the museum opened its own galleries on 14th Avenue Parkway. In 1954, the museum opened the Bach wing – with additional gallery spaces and a center for children's art activities.
In 1971, the museum opened the North Building, now known as the Martin Building, designed by renowned Italian modernist Gio Ponti in collaboration with James Sudler Associates of Denver. Ponti's signature contributions to the museum's design are immediately apparent in features that break up the massive appearance of the vertical structure and add to its sculptural richness. A thin exterior wall, with 28 vertical surfaces of varying planes and changing dimension, wraps the entire building. More than one million reflective warm-gray glass tiles, developed especially for this building by Corning Glass Works, cover the exterior. The tiles create constantly shifting patterns of light and shadow depending on the time of day. Windows of various sizes and shapes—square, rectangular, and lozenge—are arranged in a seemingly random pattern but intentionally frame views of the mountains and reveal interesting cityscapes. When the North Building opened, it was viewed as a "forerunner in the worldwide transformation of the temple-style museum into a proliferation of unprecedented and startling architectural forms."
This bold tradition continued in 2000, with the selection of Daniel Libeskind for a visionary take on an expansion of the museum campus. Opening to the public in October 2006, the resulting 146,000-square-foot Frederic C. Hamilton Building is situated directly south of the Martin Building. The complex geometric design of the Hamilton Building consists of 20 sloping planes, and is clad in 230,000 square feet of titanium panels. The Reiman Bridge links the Hamilton Building to the north side of the campus. The Hamilton Building includes the museum's major exhibition spaces for special presentations and traveling art shows, as well as significant art storage and conservation spaces.
In 2015, following efforts to focus on equal access to the arts and art education for young people, the Denver Art Museum announced its groundbreaking Free for Kids program, underwriting admission for all youth ages 18 and under. The program was created with leadership and support from museum trustee Scott Reiman, and additional support from corporate sponsors.
Following several years of increased attendance growth as well as a change in how the museum serves the wider community, the Denver Art Museum in 2016 announced a significant renovation and expansion of the North end of the campus. Launched with a $25 million lead gift from museum board chairman Lanny Martin and his wife, Sharon, the project included the complete renovation of the nearly 50-year-old Ponti-designed building, as well as the new 210,000-square-foot Anna and John J. Sie Welcome Center, housing guest services and two dining options.
The new spaces include brand new collection gallery space for the museum's Architecture and Design collection, as well as expanded gallery space for Western American art. A new 7th floor public space will offer sweeping views of downtown and the surrounding Rocky Mountain landscape. Slated to reopen by the Martin Building's 50th anniversary at the end of 2021, the new spaces bring the museum's world-renowned museum education programming for all ages to the center of the campus.
The Anna and John J. Sie Welcome Center and Martin Building. Photo by Jeff Wells.
In 1971, the museum opened what is now known as the Martin Building (formerly the North Building), designed by Italian architect Gio Ponti and Denver-based James Sudler Associates. The eight-story, 210,000-square-foot building allowed the museum to display its collections under one roof for the first time. This architectural icon remains the only completed project in the United States by this important Italian master of modern design.
The Martin Building was an innovative move away from traditional, temple-style museum architecture. More than a million reflective glass tiles and 28 vertical surfaces of varying planes on the building's exterior complement the dramatic windows and pierced roofline of the building's castle-like facade. "Art is a treasure, and these thin but jealous walls defend it," said Gio Ponti of the building design.
Martin Building Project
With construction completed in 2019 and the campus scheduled to be reopened in its entirety by the end of 2021, the Martin Building renovation, including the new Anna and John J. Sie Welcome Center expansion will increase the museum's ability to serve its average of 800,000 visitors per year. The completed project brings the museum's world-renowned arts education programming to the center of the campus with the Bartlit Learning and Engagement Center welcoming visitors of all ages. Expanded and renovated gallery spaces will provide more public access and art display. When reopened, the campus will enable the museum to better welcome the community and Denver visitors, as well as preserve and present priceless works of art from cultures around the world and throughout history for generations to come.
Learn MoreMedia Kit
Photo by Kevin Hester
Frederic C. Hamilton Building
Continuing a legacy of bold architecture, the museum commissioned architect Daniel Libeskind to design an expansion that would accommodate growing collections and programs. The 146,000-square-foot Hamilton Building opened to the public October 7, 2006.
Linking to the Sie Welcome Center on the north side of the campus via the Reiman Bridge across 13th Avenue, the Hamilton Building's design recalls the peaks of the Rocky Mountains and geometric rock
crystals found in the foothills near Denver. "I was inspired by the light and the geology of the Rockies, but most of all by the wide-open faces of the people of Denver," Libeskind said. The building is covered in 9,000 titanium panels that reflect the Colorado sunshine.
Bannock Administration Building
The 50,000-square-foot structure is located immediately west of the museum's Hamilton Building and directly south of the Clyfford Still Museum. The building opened in April 2014, bringing more than 100 museum employees to the museum campus, including administrative staff, curators, and educators that formerly were in office space five blocks away at 14th Street and Tremont. The privately funded project also contains the Frederick R. Mayer Library and 9,000 square feet of collection storage.
Denver-based Roth Sheppard Architects and Saunders Construction, Inc., were selected to design and construct the building, which features glass and light-colored stone on the exterior to complement neighboring structures, and an open floor plan with various brainstorming zones that provide optimal working and meeting spaces to inspire creativity.
Jordan Casteel Fatima, 2018 Oil on canvas 90 x 78 in. Denver Art Museum: Purchased with funds from Vicki and Kent Logan; Craig Ponzio; Bryon Adinoff and Trish Holland; Devon Dikeou and Fernando Troya; Suzanne Farver and Clint Van Zee; Baryn, Daniel, and Jonathan Futa; Andrea and William Hankinson; Amy Harmon; Lu and Chris Law; Sharon and J. Landis Martin; Amanda J. Precourt; Judy and Ken Robins; Annalee and Wagner Schorr; Judith Zee Steinberg and Paul Hoenmans; Ellen and Morris Susman; and Margaret and Glen Wood. 2019.21 © Jordan Casteel
Denver Art Museum Annual Report 2018 - 2019
In fiscal year 2019, exhibitions at the Denver Art Museum reflected local and global perspectives. We displayed art from across time and genres.
Download Current ReportPast Annual Reports
The DAM is a member of: American Alliance of Museums, Association of Art Museum Directors, Association of North Front Range Museums, Colorado-Wyoming Association of Museums, Contemporary Art Colorado, French Regional and American Museums Exchange, Mountain-Plains Museum Association, Smithsonian Affiliate

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Episode 185: We Believe in a Thing Called Love: Tyler starts off the episode by discussing the new season of Last Man on Earth. Pat shares his thoughts on the HBO documentary Andre the Giant. The Nerds then move on to their weekly comic book spotlight; Tyler: Crude/Pat: Domino. Tyler leads the discussion of the latest Nerd News. The Nerds then review the new film Rampage! They end this episode with a Nerd Favorite...favorite moment from The Darkness concert?


I did submit a support ticket at http://support.gizmo5.com/ but this got nowhere. However it is still possible to install Gizmo 5 by running the installer in Compatibility Mode.
Download and save the installer (saving to your Desktop will do just fine).
Right-click on the installer (it is named WinGizmoInstall.exe by default) and click on Properties.
Select the Compatibility tab on the Properties dialog.
Check the Run this program in compatibility mode for and select Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) on the drop-down below.
Click on OK and run the installer.
The Gizmo team will update their installer but in the meantime this is a good workaround. Note that if you upgraded your machine to Windows 7 and Gizmo 5 was already installed then you do not need to do anything.
I recently fixed an issue that had been plaguing one of my development machines. The issue appeared after installing a service pack for Windows 2008. The range of symptoms was quite wide so it took me a while to realized that they were all linked to the same configuration problem.
Visual Studio development web server (cassini) could not be accessed. This was forcing me to use IIS for web development.


January 05, 2018 16:15 ET | Source: Russell Breweries Inc.
Russell Breweries Inc. (NEX BOARD: RB.H) ("Russell" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that following receipt of certain final payments contemplated by the sales of all or substantially all of its assets related to its two former operating business in two separate transactions completed on December 2, 2016 and December 17, 2016 (the "Asset Sales"), the board of directors of the Company has fixed the amount and record date for the second cash distribution by way of a return of capital (the "Return of Capital"). The shareholders of the Company previously approved such return of capital at the Company's annual general and special meeting held on November 28, 2016, as more particularly described in the management information circular of the Company dated October 26, 2016. An initial distribution was paid to shareholders of the Company upon completion of the Asset Sales as previously announced on March 27, 2017.
The Return of Capital will be in the amount of CAD$0.035 per Russell common share (the "Russell Shares"), subject to any withholding tax, if any, to be paid to all registered shareholders of record at the close of business on January 17, 2018. The aggregate amount to be paid to the shareholders of the Company will be approximately CAD$3,047,932.58 and the payment will be made on January 26, 2018 (the "Payment Date").
The Return of Capital will be made in accordance with the "due bill" trading procedures of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV"). The purpose is to have traded shares carry the value of the Return of Capital until it is paid. A due bill will notionally represent the Return of Capital of CAD$0.035 per Russell Share a holder of a Russell Share is entitled to receive. A due bill will attach to each Russell Share traded from the trading day before the record date for the Return of Capital until the Payment Date, being the date the Return of Capital is paid. During this due bill trading period, any trade of Russell Shares on the NEX board of the TSX Venture Exchange will trade on a "due bill basis", meaning a seller of Russell Shares will also sell to the purchaser the entitlement to the Return of Capital (which is represented by the due bill attached to each Russell Share sold). The due bill period for the Return of Capital will be January 16, 2018 to January 26, 2018. Anyone acquiring the Russell Shares up to and including January 26, 2018 will be entitled to receive the Return of Capital. The Russell Shares will commence trading on an ex-distribution basis (without an attached "due bill" entitlement) effective from the opening of trading on January 29, 2018, the next trading day following the Payment Date. The due bill redemption date will be January 30, 2018 (the second trading day after the ex-distribution date, when all trades with due bills attached have settled).
The Company is currently evaluation various alternatives for the Company following the "Return of Capital", including a possible voluntary dissolution of the Company.
Russell Breweries Inc. was a leading Western Canadian brewer that brewed, marketed, sold and distributed a diverse portfolio of award winning beers which has now sold substantially all of assets and does not have any current operations. Russell Breweries Inc. is publicly listed on the NEX board of the TSX Venture Exchange (NEX BOARD: RB.H).
This release includes certain statements that, to the extent they are not statements of historical fact, constitute forward-looking information and forward-looking statements which reflect the current view of Russell with respect to the Company's objectives, plans, goals, strategies, future growth, results of operations, financial and operating performance and business prospects and opportunities.
Wherever used, the words "may", "will", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "estimate", "plan", "believe" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information should not be read as guarantees of future events, performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether, or the times at which, such events, performance or results will be achieved. All of the statements and information in this release containing forward-looking statements or forward-looking information are qualified by these cautionary statements. These forward-looking statements and information include statements regarding the amount and timing of the Return of Capital, possible future alternatives for the Company, including a potential voluntary dissolution, and the due bills process.
Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information are based on information available at the time they are made, underlying estimates and assumptions made by management and management's good faith belief with respect to future events, performance and results, and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations generally. Actual results and developments are likely to differ, and may differ materially, from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and forward-looking information contained in this release. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, any future alternatives of the Company, including a possible voluntary dissolution, , any regulatory or legal approvals required for the Return of Capital, the due bills process of the TSXV, the estimated future expenses of the Company, government regulation of the Company's business, state of the public markets, and global economic conditions, and dependence of key personnel, hazards and liability risks faced by all brewers, among other things.
Russell cautions readers that this list of factors is not exhaustive and that should certain risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying estimates or assumptions prove incorrect, actual events, performance and results may vary significantly from those expected. There can be no assurance that the actual results, performance, events or activities anticipated by the Company will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company. Readers are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating forward-looking information and forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information or forward-looking statements.
The forward-looking statements and forward-looking information are made as of the date hereof, and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any such factors or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements and forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments. You should also carefully consider the matters discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's management's discussion and analysis filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.


How many times have you told someone everything is fine when you are really at your wit's end? As caregivers, we often have issues asking for and accepting help. We feel it's our responsibility to do everything. We feel guilty for asking for help, even when we desperately need it. Some of us even think asking for help is a personal failure.
It's not. Everyone needs help now and again, and caregivers can use all the help they can get.
Help can come from anywhere, and you will be surprised at how many resources you actually have available. You have access to family, friends, your community and professionals like those at Affinity Hospice Care.
If you need help, just ask, and do it before you are worn down and at your wit's end. Remember, reaching out for help is nothing to be ashamed of. It's a sign of personal strength!
That said, people often have trouble asking for help.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when asking for help.
Keep the person's skills and interests in mind when asking for help. If you have a friend that loves to cook, ask them to help out with a meal one night a week. If they love to shop, ask if they wouldn't mind picking up a few things at the store the next time they make a trip. You're much more likely to get help from someone if the task is something they already enjoy.
Don't ask the same person for help too often. People are willing to help to a point. Recognize their limits and don't call on them too often.
Timing is everything. Make sure the person you will ask for help is available and capable. If they are stressed out from work, it's not a good time to ask.
Have a list of tasks friends or family can help out with prepared beforehand. You can probably reel of a laundry list of things you need done. Go ahead and do it. Have it prepared when you approach someone and give them options.
Be okay with people saying,"No." Sometimes people are unable or unwilling to help. You have to accept that. Don't allow yourself to become upset when someone responds to a request with," I just don't have time." They might not have time. It's okay. Move on to the next one.
See, asking for help isn't that hard, especially when you have people like the professionals at Affinity Hospice Care to call on. We're here to help and make your life easier. Just tell us how we can help you best.


text:
Q: Why does my Fortify Restoration potion also improve Enchanting and Alchemy? Why does a Fortify Restoration potion also augment seemingly unrelated skills that aren't mentioned in the name?

A: The answer to your question is multi-faceted but most likely due to a mixture of UI decisions.
Easily found, is the Fandom Wikia regarding Skyrim potions. If you research this page you find that potions and ingredients have up to four effects. This is also experienced in playing when eating ingredients and learning one of its effects each time.
How this may be a UI decision is the space taken to display effects beyond secondary takes much visual real-estate wherefore many players want to get the basic info and move on.
Additionally, players who are interested in deep lore to include alchemic properties will likely take their own notes (The fandom Wikia lends credit to this in that it exists from player input and collected notes.)
There are at least four other first and second page search results on potions and what happens when, why, and how within Skyrim.
Please also note this is an answer to the main title and body question, not the OP self-answered theory.

A: No, there isn't; it's just a bug related to how buff potions behave.

A: Based on answer here
What is the Math Formula on Fortify Restoration Potion Improves Fortify Other Skills
The way it works is that fortify X counts as a restoration effect.
That is exactly the problem.
Also equipping fortify X is seen as applying a restoration effect that is improved by fortify restoration alchemy.
So no, it's not a bug. It's the way it's supposed to work.
I saw this post
http://skyrimforums.org/sf/threads/infinite-fortify-restoration-exploit.3116/
The way I understand it, is the following.
It has something to do with removing clothes and putting them back on again.
If that's true, that explains why the PC have to put off the clothes and put it back again. Just drinking fortify restoration while wearing the clothes won't work.
That is, the effect of fortify alchemy must be added while the user is under the effect of fortify restoration.
The fortify restoration does not improves alchemy or enchanting directly. Drinking fortify restoration and then putting fortify alchemy causes it.
In other words, it's not a bug. The fortify restoration works as intended, magnifying the beneficial effect.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
IBT is addressing urgent medical needs in the premature infant
5-10% of the smallest premature infants develop necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a potentially lethal disorder in which portions of the bowel undergo tissue death. A key goal in the treatment of preterm infants is achievement of full enteral feeding as early as possible to optimize growth (and to improve longer term clinical outcomes.
Necrotizing enterocolitis and feeding tolerance
Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a serious inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal system of the premature infant in which portions of the bowel undergo tissue death (necrosis). It has an unpredictable, acute onset and today operative resection of the affected intestinal segments is the only specific treatment.
NEC is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among premature infants in neonatal intensive care units. Approximately 3,700 and 1,500 infants in Europe and in the US, respectively die every year from the complications of NEC.
NEC almost exclusively affects premature infants and the most significant risk factor for its development is the degree of prematurity of the infant; the lower the birth weight and gestational age at birth are, the higher risk for NEC becomes.
The figure below shows the proportion of newborn babies in different age groups (estimated week of gestational age) developing NEC requiring supportive medical treatment only (Medical NEC) and those where abdominal operation (Surgical NEC) becomes necessary (from Clark et al. 2012).
Not only is the risk of developing NEC higher for the smallest premature infants, but the risk of dying from NEC also is the highest for the smallest and most premature babies.
The figure below shows the proportion of babies that died from NEC in relation to their estimated gestational age at birth. Numbers in parentheses describe the total number of investigated babies within each gestational age group (from Clark et al. 2012).
The longer-term consequences for premature infants developing NEC vary from none to short bowel syndrome, abnormal growth, and impaired neurodevelopment including cerebral palsy, cognitive impairment, visual impairment, and hearing impairment.
Treatment and Prevention of NEC
Despite decades of research, there is still no definitive therapy available today to prevent NEC from happening. There is no well-recognized cause for the development of NEC besides the risk factors of immaturity of the premature bowel with respect to e.g. innervation, immunologic capability, motility and bacterial colonization. Current medical interventions are supportive and aimed at limiting ventilatory, circulatory, infectious and other complications of the bowel necrosis. Such strategies currently include e.g. early entry of oral feeding, especially with human milk, abdominal massage and attempts to limit the use of antibiotics, none of which has a consistently proven effect.
Thus, prophylaxis for NEC represents a true unmet medical need. Given that NEC predominantly affects the most vulnerable premature infants, the development of preventive NEC strategies are highly prioritized.
The neonatal intensive care environment favours the growth of pathogenic, potentially dangerous bacteria in the developing gastrointestinal tract, which may elevate the risk of contracting not only NEC, but also potentially lethal infections. Blooms of such pathogenic bacteria have been seen in the gut of preterm infants in the days before they get NEC. This has led to the hypothesis and clinical testing of the concept of providing live, beneficial (i.e. probiotic) bacteria into the preterm infant gut early in life might prevent growth of such harmful bacteria and thereby limit the risk of developing NEC.
Despite years of research, there is still currently no medical drug formulation of live bacteria that has undergone medical agency approved, rigorous pharmaceutical production and clinical risk and benefit-testing, all of which are mandatory for any substance or agent that is to be used to cure, mitigate, treat or prevent disease. IBT is alone in such a development with its drug candidate IBP-9414 for the prevention of NEC.
Feeding Tolerance
The first weeks of nutrition have important implications for the development of prematurely born infants. The goal of achieving early and adequate enteral nutrition in these infants is to facilitate recovery or catch up growth, to achieve normal body composition, whilst minimizing undesirable effects of nutritional imbalances (e.g. hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, etc.). Improved feeding tolerance and achievement of full enteral feeding as early as possible is expected to optimize growth. Evidence-based guidelines for nutrition of the VLBW infant (Murgas-Torrazza, 2013), recommend starting parenteral nutrition within the first hours postnatally as the immature gastrointestinal tract is not ready to accept full enteral feedings in these infants directly after birth. However, prolonged parenteral (intravenous) nutrition (particularly with lipids) is associated with complications (intrahepatic cholestasis, increased risk of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, worsening of pulmonary vascular resistance, intravenous line-mediated infections and sepsis.
The enteral route is the most physiological and natural way of administering nutrients to the neonate. The introduction of enteral feeding is therefore recommended as soon as possible, and ideally on day 1 with the goal of reaching full volume feedings at 120 ml/kg/day to support growth as quickly as clinically feasible. This not only minimizes the need for parenteral nutrition and the associated risks of complications, but also the administration of enteral feed in the developing gut has long been known to combat intestinal atrophy. Establishing sustained enteral feeding, associated with the discontinuation of parenteral nutrition is thus one of the most important goals, especially in VLBW and ELBW infants. Reducing the time to reach this goal, even with only 1 or 2 days less, is considered to be clinically important in the development of the preterm infant.
During the first 14 days of life, measured body weight can be very variable in premature infants and can be influenced by oedema and multiple morbidities. However, after the first 2 weeks, true weight gain is reflected by body weight. Steady growth is expected from the time full enteral feeding is established and until the infant can leave the hospital. Thus, achieving sustained feeding tolerance with full enteral feeding, together with the associated benefit of the permanent discontinuation of parenteral nutrition and steady growth when treated with IBP-9414 would be a major beneficial contribution to a favourable clinical outcome in preterm infants.


text:
William Hudson may refer to:

Science and medicine
William Hudson (botanist) (1730–1793), British botanist
William Hudson (engineer) (1896–1978), New Zealand-born head of Snowy Mountains Scheme in Australia
William Henry Hudson (1841–1922), Anglo-Argentine writer and naturalist

Sports
Bill Hudson (rugby league), rugby league footballer of the 1940s and 1950s for Great Britain, Yorkshire, England, Batley, Wigan, and Wakefield Trinity
William Hudson (footballer) (1928–2014), British footballer
Frank Hudson (baseball) (William Henry Hudson), American baseball player in the 1940s

Others

William Hudson (actor) (1919–1974), American actor
William Hudson (conductor) (1933–2022), American conductor
William L. Hudson (1794–1862), United States Navy officer
William Parker Hudson (1841–1912), Ontario businessman and political figure
William Wilson Hudson (1808–1859), president of the University of Missouri
William Hudson (Philadelphia), mayor of Philadelphia, 1725–1726
Private William Hudson, a character in the 1986 film Aliens, played by Bill Paxton

See also
Bill Hudson (disambiguation)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
a chair for dogs?
Secretlab shows off Titan XXS gaming chair, and this time it's not a joke
The Secretlab Titan XXS started as a joke but will be available to order this holiday season.
Source: Secretlab
Secretlab will sell a Titan XXS gaming chair in limited quantities
The Titan XXS is a 1:2 scale version of Secretlab's XL version of the Titan Evo 2022.
The small gaming chair can fit people or pets up to 155lbs.
Secretlab makes several of the best gaming chairs, including the supersized Secretlab Titan XL. Now, the company is going in a different direction with the Secretlab Titan XXS. The diminutive gaming chair started as an April Fools' Day joke in 2021 but will be available to order in limited quantities. The Titan XXS is available for order now starting at $299. Some color options are only available for preorder at this time.
The Secretlab Titan XXS may be inspired by a joke, but it is a fully functional gaming chair. It has a height-adjustable seat base and armrests and supports people (or pets) up to 155lbs (70.3kg). Gamers up to 5'3" (160cm) will fit into the Titan XXS. It's a 1:2 model of Secretlab's XL version of the Titan Evo 2022.
The April Fools' Day post about the Titan XXS featured dogs sitting on the chair. While that's certainly a use case for the product, it could also be used as a gaming chair for anyone under 5'3".
The Secretlab Titan XXS will be available in several colors, including Stealth (black), Frost Blue, and Plush Pink.
Secretlab Titan XXS
This tiny gaming chair started as a joke but is now a reality. It's half the size of a Titan XL, providing a perfect seat for a pet, child, or shorter person.
From $299 at Secretlab
Game in comfort
You don't need to spend a lot of money on a gaming chair
Gaming chairs can often be expensive, but there are affordable options out there. Here's a list of what we think are the best of them.