#andrewhickeywriter

[doctornolonger]

In @thebrakespearevoyage-blog​ review of Head of State, he says

The identity of the shift despite there being no explicit statement … risks over-exciting some readers in a way that could draw the attention from what the novel is doing towards a discussion of other things which are strictly peripheral to Faction Paradox.

This confused me, since I hadn’t noticed any hints or even heard any speculation regarding the Shift’s identity. So I reread all the Shift’s chapters and pulled out everything that counted as a clue.

In an earlier draft, it was the hero of the story.

“But anyway, I was an agent for one side or another, and I was, I flatter myself to think, a rather decent one. Certainly, I was someone you’d consider a ‘goodie’. I stopped unnecessary tampering with history, I tried to stop people getting hurt unless history required it…I did my best.”

“I’ve spent a little time on Earth in the past”

My first guess was that this character is a Cwej. Agent of the Great Houses: check. Spent a little time on Earth: check. Hero of the story? Sure! Case closed. I was pretty happy with this theory, and I was enjoying my reread of Head of State, so I decided to jump in and read the Scheherazade chapters as well, and there I stumbled upon this particular excerpt from a story about Allah and the djinn:

But there was one in those times who was neither angel nor djinn, and whose name is known by none but Allah. ... The one said unto Allah, “Lord, if thou hidest the cauldron from the djinn, and protect it from them, then they will no longer attack thy angels.”

And Allah, a million praises unto him, saw that he was right, and he took the cauldron, and around it he formed the Earth, and on the Earth he placed Man, to guard the Earth and the cauldron it contained.

The translator of the story, Richard Francis Burton, makes some notes about how this defies Islamic tradition, since the only four types of being are angel, djinn, man, and Allah, so there shouldn’t be something else; and in the actual story of the (first) War in Heaven, Iblis only rebels after man is created. The whole account is pretty clearly a metaphor for Rassilon’s Eternal War against the Yssgaroth, with the Yssgaroth being the djinn and Rassilon being Allah. Just as Rassilon and Omega plugged a caldera with the Earth in Interference, Allah plugs the caldera with the Earth in Head of State.

But in the story about Allah and the cauldron, the Shift interrupts:

IT DIDN’T REALLY HAPPEN QUITE LIKE THAT. I MEAN, I CAN SEE WHAT THEY’RE GETTING AT, BUT I WAS THERE AND I’M PRETTY SURE IT WASN’T ALLAH I WAS TALKING TO…

And that seriously complicates things! If this Shift was around in the time of Rassilon and Omega, that pretty much eliminates the Cwej idea; it’s a pretty big wink wink hint hint in the direction of the Other aka Doctor. (Which I’m sure is what SBJ was thinking of in his review.) This gives us two interesting things to think about:

(1) As Burton notes, the Other-Shift is neither djinn nor angel. Djinn are Yssgaroth, and angels are either casts ... or Time Lords. So if it’s neither of those, and he’s not Rassilon, might he be ... a man? Or am I reading this wrong, the angels are casts, and the Other (like Allah) is a Time Lord?

(2) If the Shift is the Doctor, then what the hell was he doing monitoring Earth for one of the major powers so late in the War? In Alien Bodies, we see him die on Dronid at the very start of the War while working for the Time Lords. Had he faked his death and started working for the Enemy, which is why his corpse (which should’ve been easily detectable for its power) was found so many years after the battle, as if planted on the planet? Or has you-know-who just been screwing up time that majorly?

[nakedpersimmon]

Many thanks to @andrewhickeywriter for shouting out to NP on Facebook, in a thread asking, “If you were to pick your ideal interviewer for the Monkees, who would you have sit down with them for a real interview?” To say the least, it would be, well...interesting...if we at Naked Persimmon interviewed any of the Monkees. Haha.

What do you guys think? If NP did interview the Monkees, what would you want us to ask?

[andrewhickey500songs]

First Post Here

I deleted my old Tumblr andrewhickeywriter a few years back. I’ve set up this new one because of Musk buying Twitter. Add me and that.

[davidmann95]

Doctor Who's "official" capacity includes the entire breadth of fiction (bar arguably the mythology of Enid Blyton's Noddy) as well as fan fiction (thanks in no small part to Paul Cornell "canonizing" his). Which is to say, "Yes, Dr. Doctor Who has probably at one point said "Have a heart or two."" Though I should also mention that you should refer to them as just "Doctor Who" since they're not a real doctor (but they like to play the drums).

I saw you got responses from the Doctor Who wiki and Doctor Who novelist and unofficial history-writer Lance Parkin inquiring after my train of thought, and I appreciated it! I have to ask though: I think I’ve seen before a mention that Doctor Who encompasses literally everything but Noddy before in @andrewhickeywriter‘s work, but looking it up…uh, why not that one particular series of kid’s books? Checking on the wiki I see the Doctor referred to Noddy as not being real, but I understand he was perplexed by the idea of Superman and he still crossed over with the Legion of Superheroes.

Also, I looked it up to make sure referring them as Dr. The Doctor would be accurate, and apparently they got their doctorate in 1888.

[elsandifer]

Where did you get this factoid (in the value-neutral sense of the term) about neuroatypical people understanding eachother better than neurotypical people and vice versa? I've never heard of it before and it sounds like something you read somewhere or heard from someone rather than an inpression formed from experience.

I’m pretty sure I just cribbed it from @andrewhickeywriter

[childofthefireandthestorm]

Calling the Faction Paradox fandom

So. I’m planning a series of contributor’s posts on the Vietnamese Doctor Who Facebook fanpage on Faction Paradox - something along the line of a general intro explain what Faction Paradox is first, followed by a series of reviews of selected individual stories. Any suggestion on what I should include?

What would you guys say is the best way to introduce Faction Paradox to people - what arguments should I make to convince them that “this thing is worthwhile and you might be interested to check it out”? And which FP stories should I recommend to, specifically, a bunch of Vietnamese fans who are probably most familiar with DW in its RTD/Moffat incarnations than anything?

@hollowspectacular @andrewhickeywriter @unnounblr @doctornolonger @livchenka @cousinjustine @big-finish-sketches

[deathchrist2000]

A Review of @andrewhickeywriter‘s The Basilisk Murders

[rooftopharry]

From Andrew Hickey’s excellent review of The Beach Boys Love You.

[mergist]

andrewhickeywriter replied to your post “jonpertwee replied to your post “How It All Went Down: a 2-Hour...”

Nothing sensible I can say, but if there's anything I can do, I'm here...

Thank you.

[brightcoat]

this is a pledge to avoid refering to Doctor Who as a "franchise" whenever possible.

[davidmann95]

Well thank you for answering my questions! I don't normally ask questions to strangers on the internet, but your analysis has been insightful on a bunch of stuff, and I'd love for you to take a deep dive into Seven Soldiers analysis one day.

Glad my answers worked for you! That’s a hell of a series to do said deep dive on, but I’m sure I will someday. Until then, I’d certainly recommend @andrewhickeywriter‘s An Incomprehensible Condition: An Unauthorized Guide to Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers.

[reddragdiva]

how should i structure a blog patreon?

so here’s a question: i need money. i do actually quality work on my blog about bitcoins, blockchains and related bs. what’s a good way to do a patreon for a blog?

i want to do something that will make people chucking in a few quid feel they’re getting the good stuff.

but i need to not make a rod for my own back. “oh no I can’t keep up with the patrons i’ve got!” is a phrase meaning you failed to scale.

i spent six hours today researching fresh new stuff, sending out questions and so forth. i’m doing actual informed journalism here dammit.

(a lotta this stuff dates unpredictably too, so if i get something really good i can’t sit on it for three days really.)

requests are an obvious idea, but any req would be several hours’ pursuit just to get basics down. a middling informative post like this was 6 hrs’ work. 

so! are there any guides to doing this stuff? how do i structure it? i have NO IDEA.

ping @philsandifer @cypheroftyr @andrewhickeywriter

[davidmann95]

Have you read The Metropolitan Man? I don't know what's your policy on fanfiction but it's a "realistic" take on Superman arriving in the 30s.

Haven’t read that one - looking over it briefly it seems pretty damn depressing, though I suppose that’s kind of the point. I’ll probably check it out sometime.

I’m definitely down for fanfiction, but there’s precious little with Superman I’m into - when I occasionally think of Superman fanfic I hope “cool, maybe there’s finally some cool cosmic adventure stuff in here given the comics so rarely go there, or some really insightful character observations of the kind writers too sparsely touch on!” and then it ends up being 7000 pages on a powerless high-school aged Clark’s torrid affair with Jason Todd behind Congorilla’s back or something. But keeping my eyes open, there’ve definitely been some over the years that worked for me:

* Superboy: A great little moment of growth for a young Clark Kent in a short animated comic by @jordangibson.

* All In A Day’s Work: Good chance you saw this floating around on Tumblr awhile back, this is another really great little short comic by Tom Gimlin and Marcellis Wentz, on the weight of the job.

* Superman’s Story: Opposite Number: An excellent short piece by @spectralspices based on an idea he was nice enough to bounce off me, as Superman goes up against a pair of challenges unusual even for him - one comedic, one very much not.

* Pop-Drama: Superman: I don’t know how much this really qualifies as fanfic in the traditional sense - it’s a broad story proposal by @andrewhickeywriter on an ‘end point’ for Superman - but it’s damn fun and satisfying. There’s also a follow-up article where he elaborates on a major plot point.

* Superman Lives: Another short comic, this time by Joe Otis Costello and Des Taylor, where the Superman of 1938 is beamed in a fight with Brainiac into the world of 2014, and Lois Lane naturally gets the exclusive interview with the returned hero, the story being presented in magazine format. The characterizations may or may not work for you - parts do for me, others not - but it’s an interesting exercise nonetheless, and Des Taylor’s work is absolutely gorgeous.

* @ck1blogs: Clark Kent’s reasonably infamous Twitter account. He is not good at the internet, or humans.

* @filmcriticsuperman: Less well-known than its cousin ck1, which is a shame; unlike most “Film Critic X” feeds, it’s actually…well, really good, courtesy of @charlotteofoz. It maintains the voice throughout and perfectly, and while half the feed is indeed movie reviews - always through the filter of Superman - the other half is just Superman talking about his day, and while it was coming out it was probably the best ongoing Superman material of the last several years. If starting at the beginning of the feed to get a feel for it seems too ominous, worth it though it may be, a good sample would be the more traditional short story she did connected to it, a Superman Halloween spooktacular by the name of Yellowfire.

* Kosmograd Blues: A short story by The Quantum Thief and Invisible Planets author Hannu Rajaniemi focused on a Russian Superman analog, it’s a beautifully written, somber story of a superman who’s long since lost what made his own life worthwhile, but knows he still has a job to do. This was to be one part of a series of superhero short stories set in a larger world he had built - he wrote a little more about the details of it once - but to my knowledge this was all that ever came out of it.

* Kahlil: An ongoing webcomic by Kumail Rizvi in which the last son of Krypton landed in Karachi; it’s been awhile since I last checked in on it, but I recall it being very good, with some spectacular artwork making the few moments thus far of super-ness really pop.

* Superman vs. The Universe: A spiritual cousin to Joe Keatinge’s Strange Visitor, this is the story of an all-powerful Superman at the end of time looking back on his existence as he prepares for his last duty; the prose is stilted in places, but there are enough great ideas and emotional moments in here to make it more than worth your time.

* Repairing The World: I’ll admit some bias up front since the author’s a friend of mine, but starlightify’s DCU series of fanfics - largely centered around Superman and Batman - are a lot of fun, very funny and heartfelt. Some good samplers with Superman would be Salutation and Canidae.

* Silver Age Superman: I’ve never gotten my hands on this semi-legendary bootleg 1990 comic by Ed Pinsent and Mark Robinson, but the likes of Al Ewing and phenomenal comics critic Colin Smith have both declared this comic - starring by my understanding perhaps the most alienated version of its title character ever - among their absolute favorite Superman stories, and their word is more than good enough for me; if you see it out in the wild, I’d absolutely say pick it up. And grab a copy for me, would ya?

* Luthor’s Gift/Starwinds Howl: Bizarre as it is to list any Superman work of Elliot S! Maggin’s as fanfiction when he’s one of the characters’ most beloved writers, I suppose that is what these two stories count as given that they’ve only ever been published online and maybe in a fanzine or two to my knowledge rather than with DC’s official sanction, and they’re absolutely of a piece with his novels Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday. The latter is his take on how Krypto arrived on Earth; the former shows how Superman finally left Earth around the end of the 21st century the way he often hinted at in his other works.

* Tales of Smallville: Near as I can tell, I’m the only person on the face of the Earth - other than maybe Elliot Maggin, who endorsed these stories himself - who’s aware that on the site supermanthrutheages, Samuel Hawkins posted a series of 4 Superboy stories; him revealing himself to the world, his first big adventure with the Legion of Superheroes, a memorable dinner with a guest, and Martha Kent on her deathbed. On these stories, I know two things. 1. Posterity will unquestionably not validate him. It’s a handful of Silver/Bronze-Age Superboy fanfics on an out-of-the-way fansite, no one will remember them. And 2. He is a Morrison/Ennis/Maggin-tier Superman writer. If I have ever written anything in my life on Superman that you’ve agreed on, for the love of god at least read Martha’s Story, it might honestly be my favorite Superman story other than All-Star.

So along with those recommendations, I do have to throw a request on top: I vaguely recall having once read a short story somewhere online years ago about a Superman-type hero found in a field as an infant by farmers - one’s an alcoholic and one sleeps around, but they clean up their acts for the sake of the kid. He grows up to become a superhero and occasionally fights a Lex Luthorish scientist with an appropriately alliterative name who accuses him of impeding societal progress. Eventually, the hero flies off into space once everyone he knows dies, returning occasionally to Earth as he feels drawn back, to defend it, or rule it, or just wander it in obscurity; his longest and last stay is when he falls in love with a woman who he meets at a restaurant, when she’s the first in all those thousands of years to make apple pie as good as his mother’s. Eventually, he lives to the end of the universe, where he finds himself rocketing back through time and de-aging, crash-landing in a field and completing the time-loop. If anyone could point me in a direction towards it, it’d be very much appreciated; I don’t even recall if it’s any good, but I’ve been trying to find it for years and it’s the principle of the thing at this point.

[reddragdiva]

my post about the present fuckery. i’ll probably be fine, but others, e.g. @andrewhickeywriter who i link here, will be hit hard by this.

it turns out monopsony has a number of practical problems.

[reddragdiva]

My attempts to implement this full emulation of a specific human brain, in half-understood BASIC, on an Acorn Electron with 32k of memory, ran into some minor technical problems that I hadn’t fully foreseen.

@andrewhickeywriter (here)

[reddragdiva]

“Fuck, suck and fight/ Till the beginning of broad daylight …”

cc @andrewhickeywriter