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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

A&A The Official Jason Fry Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Havac , Oct 4, 2012.

  1. AdmiralNick22

    AdmiralNick22 Retired Fleet Admiral star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 28, 2003
    Yeah, now that you mention it, Anaxes does have a certain Greek look and sound to it. Ditto for Axum.

    --Adm. Nick
     
  2. The Loyal Imperial

    The Loyal Imperial Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2007
    Looking over the map, I'd say it was a success. Haven't had a chance to examine it before now, but there's more of a sense of diversity and history to them than I'm accustomed to seeing: particularly those that are more than just a one-word name. Immerian Outback, Great Agash, Harron Marches, Montitian Grant, etc.
     
    jasonfry likes this.
  3. King of Alsakan

    King of Alsakan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2007
    Though thankfully for the people of the Core, and to the detriment of Europe, monarchs and nobles seem to be a lot more involved in their governments than being only symbolic in nature.;)

    Plus having prime ministers and a parliament does not necessarily imply a democratic government where the majority of the populace can participate in government. In Europe nobles held on to some form of power even after their monarchs had diminished in power during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
     
  4. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Old, vaguely Greek? I approve.

    He says a king doesn't mean a monarchy, then he talks about democracies like the UK -- a constitutional monarchy.

    He says this to refute a person who agrees with -- and quotes -- part of a post wherein I say that Anaxes should be a constitutional monarchy like the UK.

    edit: The point being that even a "mostly symbolic" monarchy is still a monarchy. These things have degrees, and as I noted -- and as Nick's observation about the UK should take into account -- monarchy and democracy aren't exactly mutually exclusive terms. The UK's a monarchy -- but it's long been called a democracy, too.


    edit2: Maybe we should move this discussion back to the Core Worlds thread, since that's what we're talking about now.
     
  5. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2004
    Great short story in the current Insider Jason :) especially love the local militia and how they don’t actually trust the idea of the Grand Army all that much.
     
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  6. The Loyal Imperial

    The Loyal Imperial Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Nov 19, 2007
    Quite appropriate Greek, too, it seems.
     
  7. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

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    Nov 28, 2000
    Huh. I was literally unaware that the word even existed. Witness the problems of a learning merely Attic: inadequate appreciation of archaism. I mean, Attic itself is pretty archaic in most of the works written in the dialect, but Homeric is older yet. I'd actually have preferred learning Homeric, since my literary bent is epic and elegiac rather than prose (which is so pedestrian).

    But yeah, given the monarchy discussion just now, that's just priceless.
     
  8. AdmiralNick22

    AdmiralNick22 Retired Fleet Admiral star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    May 28, 2003
    What is the story about?

    --Adm. Nick
     
  9. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

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    Oct 23, 2004
    Captain Rex and a few Clone Troopers work together with 2 militia officers of Lorrdian (the humans with kinetic communication who’s ancestors were enslaved during the Kanz Disorder) descent to free captured clone and militia troops from the Seps.
    http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Speaking_Silently
     
  10. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    May 25, 2002
    Yeah, I liked that story as well. Pretty good!
     
  11. MercenaryAce

    MercenaryAce Chosen One star 6

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    Aug 10, 2005
    Though I have to admit I am getting kind of annoyed at the number of unrelated vaguely Greek cultures out there.

    How about a vaguely Vedic Indian or vaguely Hawaiian culture some time?
     
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  12. The Loyal Imperial

    The Loyal Imperial Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Nov 19, 2007
    Because they're usually poorly done and vaguely offensive due to a lack of familiarity? Better a well-rounded Greek reference than another Epicanthix incident.
     
  13. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

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    Nov 28, 2000


    Mainline Republic/Imperial culture (as represented by the primary Core Worlds) has always been rather Greco-Roman though, from the Latin/Greek designations for ships seen in the films (Lambda-class, Imperator/Venator/etc) to the EU (Greek mythology oriented naming conventions for Imperial ships in Rebellion, Greek letter designations for Imperial squadrons in TIE, etc).

    So given that Anaxes is THE Navy world, it makes perfect sense.

    Would it be nice to see other cultures used for different IU cultures? Sure, but as LI notes it's often done badly. Remember all the East Asian "species" out there? Since Octavian Grant looks kinda Asian, it'd be cool if House Mecetti (or even smaller families within the house) just happened to be Asian looking while still being human and without having some sort of absurd orientalist stereotype being placed on them.
     
  14. MercenaryAce

    MercenaryAce Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 10, 2005
    True. But better to put some research in and make good portrayals than ignore them entirely.

    Hair enough. Thinking again, I suppose it is fairly likely that Coursicant, or at least part of it, was Greek and that all human Greek worlds, even the Tionese, are descended from that culture. And the Muuns could have been influenced by them I suppose.


    ....Though I would argue there are Asian influences in mainstream Galactic culture as well - most notably in the Jedi Order, but elsewhere as well - Vader's outfit is as much samurai as it is German stormtrooper, and he was based (loosely) on a character from a samurai movie.
     
  15. jasonfry

    jasonfry VIP star 4 VIP

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    Nov 11, 2003
    Ris_jSarek, Cronal and Barriss_Coffee like this.
  16. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

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    Jun 29, 2003
    Hey now. It certainly doesn't have to be that way. Ignoring them because the Classics just happen to be more popular in our uber-Westernized society isn't going to help a darned thing.
     
  17. The Loyal Imperial

    The Loyal Imperial Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Nov 19, 2007
    Genealogy, eh? I'd be interested in reading that.
    Doesn't have to be that way, but we find ourselves in a situation where we have very few (if any) writers who I'd consider suitable for the task. Until we have writers who are, or are able to reallocate our best accordingly, I'd much rather they wait and focus on what they do know.
     
  18. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2003
    Then those writers need to read more books, darnit!:p

    (Jason that doesn't apply to you -- I know from your blog alone you're definitely not a writer with parochial interests...)
     
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  19. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
    Jason, I'd love to see a post like that about freelancers deal with taxes. I remember reading a long time ago that Brian Michael Bendis had incorporated himself, but I have no clue when that's applicable, or even allowable, in other situations. I made a little freelance money last year--only $1000 or so--and it doubled my tax work because I had to declare myself, apparently, as a small business. In exchange for such a post I will gladly pay you in free Lit publicity. :p
     
  20. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    May 25, 2002
    Jason - I reposted your link over in the Fan Fic Resource forum - thought some of them might be interested.
     
  21. jasonfry

    jasonfry VIP star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Nov 11, 2003
    Thanks for doing that. Good idea!

    Coop, I'm not an accountant, so tax advice from me is dangerous -- please pick up that boulder of salt over there. Got it? Good. OK, now that we're caveat'ed I don't see a reason to declare yourself as a small business. (I'm not one.) It sounds like you're freelancing on the side, in which case your situation shouldn't be too complicated tax-wise. You should be OK if you just fill out a Schedule C to account for the various 1099s you got freelancing and a Schedule SE in addition to your regular paperwork. I never bothered paying quarterly estimated tax until I became a full-time writer -- if you're freelancing on the side, the penalties are small enough that IMHO it's not worth the headache.

    Hope that's some help. Feel free to hit me with a message if you have other questions.
     
  22. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000

    Eh. Like I said to Mechalich back in the Diversity thread, I don't think it's a matter of authorial knowledge. It's not like EU authors are all classical scholars (trust me, it's clear they're not :p). It's rather that familiarity breeds comfort, and therefore it's less risky than pushing the envelope. The problem is, of course, when we have Otherization or Orientalism going on: knowingly exoticizing cultures in order to make them seem exotic in the GFFA as well. So basically you need both: a willingness to go beyond one's comfort zone, but then also the requisite creativity and finesse in order to avoid making it ham-fisted. I'm not necessarily against such a thing -- but I think mainline Core culture (at least, the culture that emanates from Coruscant/Notron) makes sense as Greco-Roman inspired because it has long been designed that way. But seeing as we've got different cultural groups that are emphatically not in the Coruscanti sphere, even within the Core but certainly in other regions, then there's plenty of room for creativity

    So basically -- Anaxes works well as a Western-influenced world because it was designed to be culturally close to Coruscant and the other worlds of the Arrowhead, but there's plenty of room for different worlds to be different. I'd love to see a culture whose basic assumptions about society differed fundamentally from the Old Republic, but still managed to integrate into galactic culture despite those tensions because they weren't treated as some sort of nefariously villainous Other (like say the Vong or the Yevetha).


    We could start with those fungal colony worlds that we've gotta get established somehow! :p
     
  23. jasonfry

    jasonfry VIP star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Nov 11, 2003
    /blows cobwebs off old thread

    Hey folks, the paperwork's done so I can now announce that I'll be signing books at Star Wars Weekends May 24-26, including the new Clone Wars Episode Guide, which DK arranged to get ahead of its official street date. Details here on my Tumblr, which you of course want to follow, even though right now it's mostly Mets stuff. (Ahem.) Hope some of you can make it out -- would love to talk Star Wars, and SWW is really fun.
     
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  24. RC-1991

    RC-1991 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 2, 2009
    Hmm, I'm going to be at Disney around that time. Forget if I'll be at MGM that weekend, though. Better bring my copies of the Atlas and Warfare, just in case :p
     
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  25. LelalMekha

    LelalMekha Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 29, 2012
    If you could try and a mention of the future Imperial General Otto, that goofy character from Star Wars: Demolition, that would be marvelous. After all, that guy was already 41 when the Clone Wars started, so he must have been a veteran of that conflict. You also wonder how such a delusional, spice-addicted, incompetent maniac was ever allowed to become a general in the first place. :D