#the book of the world

[theinwardlight]

Image: Live Oak Friends meetinghouse, Houston, Texas 

Text: Psalm 19:1-4

[doctornolonger]

The Library at the End of the Universe: A Comprehensive History

In mid-2017 a friend asked me if I could submit a story to a fan anthology he was putting together. I was busy with "Cobweb and Ivory" and "A Farewell to Arms", so I just sent him a drabble from my notes. It's an interquel set between an unproduced story and an unwritten one, and it features the Thirteenth Doctor when her intro video was all I had to go off of. It might still be relevant one day…

Beyond the end of this universe and before the start of the next, there lies a gigantic bubble, and between this universe and that bubble, there lies a much smaller bubble. This is the Library, and its collections have been cultivated by the Bookkeepers since before the beginning of time.

“… no, that’s not quite right.”

Beyond the end of this universe and before the start of the next, there lies a gigantic bubble, and between this universe and that bubble, there lies a much smaller bubble. This is the Library, and its collections have been cultivated by the Bookkeepers since they arrived fifteen billion years ago.

“Well, that’s a bit closer, I suppose.”

Beyond the end of this univerSe and before the start of the neXT; THERE L1ES A GIGAN71C 8U8873 3ND 3OKVSTMBCXKW0S8SKCC0K8 O0GGOC KOKKKG4G8K8G WGOWG88SG8GSWCKS4KCW 84G0O44 S8K

“A fun interpretation, though the spacing is a bit strange. Next!”

On top of the universe there lie many realms where time flows differently and the laws of physics slide parallel to ours. One of these realms is the Library, and its collections have been cultivated by the Bookkeepers since they discovered it fifteen years ago.

“Ooh, now that’s very interesting.”

On top of the universe there lie many realms where time flows differently and the laws of physics slide parallel to ours. One of these realms is the Library, and its infinite collections have existed without change since its interminably-ancient creation. However, upon being discovered by the Bookkeepers seven million years ago …

… its infinite collections have existed without change since its interminably-ancient creation. However, upon being discovered by the Plume Coteries twenty-five seconds ago, the Library was introduced to the concepts of change and entropy. Since then, trillions of books have been uploaded to a …

… upon being discovered and colonized by the former Plume Coteries fifteen years ago, the Library was introduced to the concepts of change and entropy. Since then, trillions of books have been organized into categories, with the Coteries, now called the Bookkeepers, fueling their civilization by combusting the volumes of untranslatable gibberish.

“Finally!”

Callum looked down from the ladder, excited. “We found it?”

“Oh, no, of course not,” the Doctor said from the floor, dropping the book into an increasingly mountainous discard pile. “Something still doesn’t feel quite right. But at least it has a more interesting beginning!”

Callum sighed and handed down a new volume from the shelf. “Well, what specifically was wrong about it?”

The Doctor grabbed the book from Callum’s hand. “I don’t know. Blame Eldritch. I just know I’ll recognize the true history when I see it.”

“Look, Doctor, I think this is a waste of my time. I don’t have your magic truth-guessing superpowers, and I’m sure you’d be able to handle the ladder by yourself. I’m going to find my way back to my people.”

“Nonsense,” the Doctor said while absentmindedly skimming the book. “You’re my companion, Callum; you have to stick around. I need your fresh perspective on the universe.”

“What universe?!?” Callum threw his arms in the air; a few books fell off the lower rungs of the teetering ladder. “You promised me all of space and time, and all we’ve done for the last month is coop ourselves up on the world I grew up in!”

“It’s not a world, Callum. It’s something much, much stranger.” The Doctor picked up one of the scattered books and shook it pointedly at the boy. “Besides, it’s true: I need you here. The Library is in your biodata. You were born and raised here, outside of your ancestors’ native time.”

“But why? I don’t see what this has anything to do with the ‘lost Earth’ situation.”

The Doctor stared up at Callum with unexpected intensity, her eyes bugging out at him. “It has everything to do with the lost Earth situation. History has been broken. The most important person in all of time and space was killed before their time, and they’ll be coming through here any day.” She dropped the book into the discard pile. “I need to make sure you’re ready.”

“That I’m ready?” Callum stepped down a rung. “Where will you be?!”

“Oh, I’ll be around,” the Doctor said, plucking another book from the floor. “But there are other things I need to be doing.”

“What – What could possibly be more important than the most important person in time and space? And what do you honestly expect –”

The Doctor made a frantic shushing noise. She had become completely still, and Callum similarly froze into a ready crouch, listening hard for any disturbance. There was nothing except the whispering of the shelves.

“What did you hear?” he eventually whispered.

“Nothing,” admitted the Doctor at full volume, slamming her book down onto the pile. “But somewhere out in the universe, there’s a soul crying for help in an empty room. I need to be that help.”

“Hullo,” Callum said, “calling for help right here, thank you.”

“Oh, I have faith in you! You’re a smart lad; you can figure it out. Whereas I strongly doubt that the universe will be able to beat off mammoths or mind viruses by themselves, hmm?”

Callum scowled and pulled another book from the shelf. “Well let’s get on with it, then, so you can go battle your bloody mammoths.”

“Wooly mammoths,” the Doctor corrected gently.

On top of the universe there lie many realms where time flows differently and the laws of physics slide parallel to ours. One of these realms is the Library, and its infinite collections have existed without change since its interminably-ancient creation. However, upon being discovered and colonized by the former Plume Coteries fifteen years ago, the Library was introduced to the concepts of change and entropy. Since then, trillions of books have been organized into categories, with the Coteries, now called the Bookkeepers, fueling their civilization by burning any volumes they deem too difficult to understand or too inconsistent with their beliefs. To verify unreliable records, they use time ladle technology in their extraction chambers to interview notable lifeforms from the universe at the moment of their death …

[cryptocism]

"just as I did, in 1983."

you'd never know my favourite parts of the show are the fucked up insane bits when my first instinct is to draw the cheesiest thing imaginable

[starii-void]

going to chb must be crazy like imagine sharing a camp with

-one of the strongest demigods ever who's saved the world like at least 3 times, fought multiple gods & titans and WON (and is a tartarus survivor)

-the literal main architect of OLYMPUS who's also saved the world multiple times (also tartarus survivor)

-THE lord of the wild who's also close friends with the first two (and has helped save the world multiple times)

-an emo kid from the 1930s who again helped save the world and is also a tartarus survivor (TWICE)

-a son of apollo who survived tartarus with nothing but cargo shorts and sheer will (pun intended)

-the main designer and builder for the argo II, also the first hephaestus kid to have fire powers since hundreds of years ago (did i mention killed gaea? no? yeah he did that too)

-a girl who somehow charmspeak-ed gaea into falling back asleep (also side note daughter of super famous actor because why not)

-pretty much everybody is a two-time war veteran

-THE GOD APOLLO who just sometimes comes down to visit in the form of a teenage boy

-did i mention dionysus, god of wine madness and theatre

-also chiron, trainer of pretty much every greek hero ever

[maxgicalgirl]

Being a “Fun Fact !” kind of autistic is all fun and games until you get halfway through sharing an interesting tidbit and realize that it probably wasn’t appropriate to share in polite company and now you have to deal with the consequences :(

[gigizetz]

unfinished Circe drawing that I'll probably never finish

[greensapphic]

It was at that moment he knew he fucked up

[scentednerdkingdom]

[a-book-of-creatures]

When I return a library book, I make sure to walk there holding it in my hands instead of in my bag. This is enrichment before it gets returned to the cold limbo of the stacks

[32girassoisdevangogh]

''I have let you know me, see me. I gave you a rare gift, but you didn't want it.''

Close ups

[yellowraincoat]

Listen it wasn’t the most baffling thing in the world when Netflix canceled Lockwood and co even tho it performed well bc let’s be real, Netflix will basically cancel a show if it breathes wrong…

But do you think that Netflix actually canceled Lockwood and co bc around the time it aired they’d aquired the rights to dead boy detectives (a show with a competingly similar premise to Lockwood and co that has Neil Gaiman attached who’s had two very successful shows in the last few years with Netflix and Amazon prime)… because I do.

Like to me that’s the missing puzzle piece of what happened there

[zarla-s]

THIS EXPLAINS SO MUCH

[aethersea]

another thing fantasy writers should keep track of is how much of their worldbuilding is aesthetic-based. it's not unlike the sci-fi hardness scale, which measures how closely a story holds to known, real principles of science. The Martian is extremely hard sci-fi, with nearly every detail being grounded in realistic fact as we know it; Star Trek is extremely soft sci-fi, with a vaguely plausible "space travel and no resource scarcity" premise used as a foundation for the wildest ideas the writers' room could come up with. and much as Star Trek fuckin rules, there's nothing wrong with aesthetic-based fantasy worldbuilding!

(sidenote we're not calling this 'soft fantasy' bc there's already a hard/soft divide in fantasy: hard magic follows consistent rules, like "earthbenders can always and only bend earth", and soft magic follows vague rules that often just ~feel right~, like the Force. this frankly kinda maps, but I'm not talking about just the magic, I'm talking about the worldbuilding as a whole.

actually for the purposes of this post we're calling it grounded vs airy fantasy, bc that's succinct and sounds cool.)

a great example of grounded fantasy is Dungeon Meshi: the dungeon ecosystem is meticulously thought out, the plot is driven by the very realistic need to eat well while adventuring, the story touches on both social and psychological effects of the whole 'no one dies forever down here' situation, the list goes on. the worldbuilding wants to be engaged with on a mechanical level and it rewards that engagement.

deliberately airy fantasy is less common, because in a funny way it's much harder to do. people tend to like explanations. it takes skill to pull off "the world is this way because I said so." Narnia manages: these kids fall into a magic world through the back of a wardrobe, befriend talking beavers who drink tea, get weapons from Santa Claus, dance with Bacchus and his maenads, and sail to the edge of the world, without ever breaking suspension of disbelief. it works because every new thing that happens fits the vibes. it's all just vibes! engaging with the worldbuilding on a mechanical level wouldn't just be futile, it'd be missing the point entirely.

the reason I started off calling this aesthetic-based is that an airy story will usually lean hard on an existing aesthetic, ideally one that's widely known by the target audience. Lewis was drawing on fables, fairy tales, myths, children's stories, and the vague idea of ~medieval europe~ that is to this day our most generic fantasy setting. when a prince falls in love with a fallen star, when there are giants who welcome lost children warmly and fatten them up for the feast, it all fits because these are things we'd expect to find in this story. none of this jars against what we've already seen.

and the point of it is to be wondrous and whimsical, to set the tone for the story Lewis wants to tell. and it does a great job! the airy worldbuilding serves the purposes of the story, and it's no less elegant than Ryōko Kui's elaborately grounded dungeon. neither kind of worldbuilding is better than the other.

however.

you do have to know which one you're doing.

the whole reason I'm writing this is that I saw yet another long, entertaining post dragging GRRM for absolute filth. asoiaf is a fun one because on some axes it's pretty grounded (political fuck-around-and-find-out, rumors spread farther than fact, fastest way to lose a war is to let your people starve, etc), but on others it's entirely airy (some people have magic Just Cause, the various peoples are each based on an aesthetic/stereotype/cliché with no real thought to how they influence each other as neighbors, the super-long seasons have no effect on ecology, etc).

and again! none of this is actually bad! (well ok some of those stereotypes are quite bigoted. but other than that this isn't bad.) there's nothing wrong with the season thing being there to highlight how the nobles are focused on short-sighted wars for power instead of storing up resources for the extremely dangerous and inevitable winter, that's a nice allegory, and the looming threat of many harsh years set the narrative tone. and you can always mix and match airy and grounded worldbuilding – everyone does it, frankly it's a necessity, because sooner or later the answer to every worldbuilding question is "because the author wanted it to be that way." the only completely grounded writing is nonfiction.

the problem is when you pretend that your entirely airy worldbuilding is actually super duper grounded. like, for instance, claiming that your vibes-based depiction of Medieval Europe (Gritty Edition) is completely historical, and then never even showing anyone spinning. or sniffing dismissively at Tolkien for not detailing Aragorn's tax policy, and then never addressing how a pre-industrial grain-based agricultural society is going years without harvesting any crops. (stored grain goes bad! you can't even mouse-proof your silos, how are you going to deal with mold?) and the list goes on.

the man went up on national television and invited us to engage with his worldbuilding mechanically, and then if you actually do that, it shatters like spun sugar under the pressure. doesn't he realize that's not the part of the story that's load-bearing! he should've directed our focus to the political machinations and extensive trope deconstruction, not the handwavey bit.

point is, as a fantasy writer there will always be some amount of your worldbuilding that boils down to 'because I said so,' and there's nothing wrong with that. nor is there anything wrong with making that your whole thing – airy worldbuilding can be beautiful and inspiring. but you have to be aware of what you're doing, because if you ask your readers to engage with the worldbuilding in gritty mechanical detail, you had better have some actual mechanics to show them.

[ruegarding]

i never understood ppl claiming percy has never suffered the consequences of his loyalty. you're talking about percy "i know the prophecy said my friend would betray me but these are my friends they wouldn't betray me" jackson, who walked into a remote part of the forest with luke and almost died in book one. you're talking about percy "kronos told me point-blank there was a traitor but i can't imagine any of these ppl betraying me" jackson, who decided to stop looking for the traitor and moved on. you're talking about percy "nico is acting suspicious and very clearly hiding something from me but he's my friend and i trust him" jackson, who walked into nico's very obvious set up and almost got himself held hostage during the titan war. percy is so loyal that he cannot fathom betrayal until it's happening, and it has nearly killed him multiple times.

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

50 Character Personality Traits + Meanings (For writers, worldbuilders, and artists) Part 1

Adventurous - Enjoys trying new experiences and exploring the unknown.

Ambitious - Driven to succeed and achieve their goals.

Analytical - Tends to think critically and examine things in-depth.

Artistic - Highly creative and expresses themselves through artistic mediums.

Assertive - Confident in expressing their thoughts and feelings.

Caring - Shows compassion and concern for the well-being of others.

Charismatic - Has a natural charm and appeal that draws people in.

Clever - Able to come up with creative solutions and make astute observations.

Compassionate - Displays empathy and a desire to help those in need.

Confident - Believes in their own abilities and is self-assured.

Conscientious - Reliable, responsible, and attentive to detail.

Curious - Eager to learn new things and explore the world around them.

Cynical - Tends to be skeptical and distrustful of others' motives.

Dependable - Can be counted on to follow through on their commitments.

Determined - Persistent in pursuing their goals and overcoming challenges.

Diplomatic - Skilled at navigating social situations and resolving conflicts.

Eccentric - Displays unconventional or unusual behaviors and interests.

Empathetic - Able to understand and share the feelings of others.

Ethical - Guided by a strong moral compass and a sense of right and wrong.

Extraverted - Enjoys being around people and draws energy from social interactions.

Flexible - Adaptable to changes and open to trying new approaches.

Forgiving - Willing to let go of past hurts and give people second chances.

Friendly - Approachable and enjoys building positive relationships with others.

Grounded - Practical, down-to-earth, and focused on the present.

Hardworking - Diligent and dedicated in their efforts to achieve their goals.

Honest - Values truthfulness and integrity in their words and actions.

Idealistic - Driven by a vision of how the world should be and a desire to make a difference.

Imaginative - Possesses a rich inner world and creative problem-solving abilities.

Independent - Prefers to think and act for themselves without relying on others.

Indecisive - Struggles with making decisions and often second-guesses themselves.

Introverted - Finds energy and fulfillment in solitary activities and introspection.

Jealous - Experiences feelings of resentment or insecurity towards others.

Kind - Gentle, considerate, and thoughtful in their treatment of others.

Leaders - Able to inspire and guide others towards a common goal.

Logical - Approaches problems and decisions through a rational, analytical lens.

Materialistic - Highly values the acquisition of possessions and wealth.

Organized - Maintains order and efficiency in their personal and professional life.

Perfectionistic - Strives for flawlessness and can be overly critical of themselves and others.

Pessimistic - Tends to focus on the negative aspects of situations and expect the worst.

Resilient - Able to bounce back from setbacks and adapt to changes.

Risk-taker - Willing to take chances and step outside of their comfort zone.

Sarcastic - Uses irony and witty remarks to convey their thoughts and feelings.

Sensitive - Deeply affected by the emotions and experiences of themselves and others.

Stubborn - Unwilling to change their mind or compromise on their beliefs and opinions.

Suspicious - Inclined to doubt the motives and intentions of others.

Thoughtful - Considerate of the impact their words and actions have on others.

Timid - Shy, reserved, and hesitant to take risks or assert themselves.

Trustworthy - Reliable, honest, and worthy of confidence.

Unpredictable - Displays an element of surprise and spontaneity in their behavior.

Witty - Possesses a quick, clever, and humorous way of expressing themselves.

Hey fellow writers! I'm super excited to share that I've just launched a Tumblr community. I'm inviting all of you to join my community. All you have to do is fill out this Google form, and I'll personally send you an invitation to join the Write Right Society on Tumblr! Can't wait to see your posts!

[kcrabb88]

It's truly wild to me how many people out there don't understand that the Star Wars prequels are a tragedy or how tragedies work.

Posts like "these are the Jedi failed movies" truly just make me shake my head. They're actually the "fascism wears a smile until it strikes you down and then it's too late" movies. They're the "the senate became corrupt and clapped in the face of genocide" movies. They're the "make people scared enough of war until they accept authoritarianism" movies. They're the "fear and possessiveness will tear you up on the inside" movies. The Jedi were the heroes of lore, people loved and looked up to them, looked to them for safety, and then too much got put on their shoulders on purpose by Palpatine, and also by a senate that didn't want to act (not you Padme and Bail and Mon, you're perfect). They were drafted and used and scapegoated, which is, you know, a tenet of the vast majority of authoritarian governments (Hitler and Stalin, for instance, might be on different ends of the political spectrum, but they sure both did scapegoat specific groups and commit mass murder, just differently).

When some people say "these movies are about the fall of the Jedi" what they mean is "the Jedi failed" but that's not what "the fall of the Jedi means." It means they were wiped the fuck OUT. Like, Jesus, in Rogue One Tarkin is talking about burning out the final MEMORY of the Jedi by blowing up the holy city in Jedha. Palpatine had to get rid of the Jedi because to get rid of the Jedi was to get rid of the final people standing in his way after he had already worn them out. His intention was not only to kill them, but to alter the galaxy's entire perception of them. To rip away hope. People are always looking for the Jedi to be Bad or nitpick their mistakes (because while other people are allowed to make mistakes, the Jedi never are). Palpatine made himself look like a benevolent grandpa who would keep everyone safe. And that, more than anything, is what gave him SO much power. He stole the narrative.

It's just like. Of course WE know what was going to happen! We know from watching the OT that the PT can only end in tragedy. But the characters don't know that! They don't have all the info! That's how a tragic story structure works. We see it coming and they can't.

Anyway. The Jedi are laser-sword wielding monks with psychic powers who just wanted to do what they could to help. The world would be better if more folks remembered that.