(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) One of the ways to think about the relationship between a made-up world and the real one is with the anthropological concept of a cultural sphere. The easiest way for … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Toward the end of last week’s essay on pets, I talked about people keeping highly dangerous animals around (often with tragic results). The more intelligent version of this involves keeping … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) I mentioned before that there’s a difference between domesticating an animal and taming one — you can theoretically tame a great many creatures that are not domesticated at all. One … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) The Industrial Revolution changed a lot of things, but one of the aspects I’ve least often seen commented on is the change in our relationship with working animals. You may … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Whether it’s chickens and sheep, fantasy animals, or alien creatures from another planet, characters in a novel are likely to depend on some kind of species for food — if … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Back in the first year of this Patreon, when we discussed money matters, I mentioned that carrying around large sums of metal coinage is generally undesirable. It’s inconveniently heavy, and … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) In the first year of this Patreon I devoted a number of essays to the topic of death. The time has come for us to turn to the other proverbial … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Full disclosure: I have not, as of writing this Patreon essay, read Debt: The First 5000 Years, by David Graeber. (It’s on my list, but it’s also a giant brick. … Continue reading
New Worlds, Year Three More Essays on the Art of Worldbuilding by Marie Brennan The boundless complexity of worldbuilding can create a daunting challenge for writers of science fiction and fantasy. In the third volume of the New Worlds series, … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) In an early essay for this Patreon, I made an offhand comment about how before we had monetary systems, the economies of early societies operated on the basis of barter. … Continue reading
