Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Hobson-Jobson

Sir Henry Yule was a Scottish gentleman and an army man who – among other things – translated in English Il Milione, Marco Polo’s travelogue and indispensable Silk Road narrative.
Arthur Coke Burnell (yes, his middle name was really Coke) was an expert in the Sanskrit language, but he was also handy with Tibetan, Arabic, Kawi, Javanese and Coptic.5746976-M A well-rounded scholar, so to speak.

These two fine gentlemen got together and in 1886 published a wonderful book which is called Hobson-Jobson or, to be more precise and wonderfully Victorian, Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive.
And no kidding.

So, yes, the Hobson-Jobson had nothing to do with any gentleman ever named Hobson, or, for that matter, Jobson.
Sure, a guy called William Crooke also did some later work on it, but no Jobsons, or Hobsons, at all.
What gives? Continue reading →


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A world of popular mechanics

GSPinup002A few nights back I was talking about dieselpunk with a friend.
Now, I’m getting rather tired of the -punk subgenres – which are certainly effective commercially, but often are just new names for well-established fare.
And dieselpunk is in this sense a heavy offender, as basically an awful lot (if not all) dieselpunk is just pulp adventure with the number plates changed.

Anyway, we were discussing dieselpunk, and one thing led to another, and talk turned to baroque esthetics, brass fittings, engines as objecct d’art, 1940s style pinups, black scary uniforms and Soviet architechture, and a lot of other stuff, all of which, to me, is not indispensable in defining dieselpunk as literature – it might define dieselpunk as an aesthetics, but not as a narrative genre.

So, what does?
Even better, what, in the dieselpunk subgenre, allows me to write stories I could not write in any other subgenre? Continue reading →


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Writing as Sleight of Hand

Cover of "Royal Road to Card Magic"

Cover of Royal Road to Card Magic

I often say that writing – no matter if it’s stories, academical articles, blog posts – is a practice akin to sleight of hand.

Writers are illusionists, doing verbal prestidigitation.
We have an audience, and we must impress and entertain this audience not only with our contents, but with our presentation skills.

And here I am tonight (it’s a little past midnight, Saturday night, as I write this), and in Hugard & Braué’s indispensable 1947 book, The Royal Road to Card Magic, I find the following: Continue reading →


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Behind the Scenes at Dark Adventure Radio Theatre

Yes, I’m still toying with the idea of creating an audio drama of sorts.
Who knows, by 2025…

As I was collecting resources and information about production and stuff, I stumbled on this behind-the-scenes from the fine guys producing the Dark Adventure Radio Theatre audio-dramas.

The last time I listened tpo one of their works as I was driving, I missed my exit and drove about 150 extra kms.
Yes, they are that good.

Enjoy!

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