At Dungeons and Digressions, we have a post about pigeon towers. It's way cooler than it sounds. Put a pigeon tower in your fantasy/medieval village today!
Next, there's the classic speech from Philip K. Dick, "How to Build a Universe that Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later." It features several weird events and talks about the basic nature of reality. It's worth reading for philosophers or world-builders.
Finally, something I was contemplating: with all the vitriol on the internet, you'd think this is a modern phenomenon. It isn't. Modern scholars think Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was a subtle attack by the mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) on the increasing abstraction in mathematics. Wonderland runs on these principles, and that's why it's completely crazy. This article, this article, and this article all discuss it.
So there you have it. You, too, can turn your scathing complaint into a beloved work of literature.
I came across a list of truly vitriolic remarks, made by authors about fellow authors. I don't know if any flame wars developed other than that between Vidal and Capote (and that was a gorgeous one), but just imagine Mark Twain losing his temper on Twitter. Ouch.
ReplyDelete"It's way cooler than it sounds." lol! - thanks for the shoutout S.P. :)
ReplyDelete@Jedediah: Wow. Not only are those hilarious, but they're also pretty hilarious as all those authors are widely regarded as classic writers these days. Then again, admittedly, "classic" does not always equate to "good."
ReplyDelete@ze bulette: Pigeon towers are one of those historical things that might cause skepticism in a reader or listener if you just say, "Yeah, ba-bam, pigeon towers," but is actually a neat little detail that is cool from an historical perspective, an architectural perspective, and a game design perspective.