France Has Always And I Mean ALWAYS Had A History Of Islamophobiabut, For Those Of You Who Dont Know

France has always and I mean ALWAYS had a history of Islamophobia…but, for those of you who don’t know what’s going on right now:

They’re trying to ban the slaughter of Halal chicken, citing animal cruelty and claiming Halal (I believe they also discussed Kosher) methods of slaughter are unethical compared to the European practice of stunning the animal (the Halal way of slaughter would be a cut to the jugular vein so that the animal feels no pain).

They then proceeded to ban the wearing of the Hijab (the Muslim headscarf) for girls under 18 in public places.

They also banned Hijabi mothers (women who wear the Hijab) from accompanying their child on school field trips.

Furthermore, they banned the Burkini (a swimsuit that a lot of Muslim women wear) at public swimming pools.

These restrictions (I have definitely not covered a lot of them) fall under France’s Separatism Bill which still needs to be passed by the National Assembly. France maintains that these actions are to uphold secularism (the separation of religion and state).

However, these targeted laws and the statements accompanying them…

The Hijab ban was the “prohibition in the public space of any conspicuous religious sign by minors and of any dress or clothing which would signify an interiorization of women over men.” This is a commonly used trope about Islam and Muslim men; that they are oppressive of women which is absolutely not true…take it from a Muslim woman! 🧕🏽

Emmanuel Macron said that Hijab is “not in accordance with French ideals”. This again alludes to the misconception that Hijab is oppressive and that by taking it away, we are liberating women. I don’t deny that there are women who had Hijab forced upon them, but what France is not acknowledging is that the forcing of any religious action upon people is completely the opposite of Islamic teachings and that there are actually women out there who can make decisions about what they want to wear…Surprise! It may come as a bit of a shock to them…

…just showcase how deeply rooted these laws are in Islamophobia and how France is maximizing restrictions on daily Muslim life just to…be a white saviour?

There are five million Muslims in France right now and they are all being affected by this.

Dueling Magic Systems

In our very first lesson (find it here), I pointed out that readers of fantasy crave tales with a strong sense of wonder. That’s why many editors seek stories that have a high level of magic. In short, magic happens frequently. But you might notice that if you only have one magic system in a story, one way of creating wonder, the level of wonder in the story will begin to wane, and as your single magic system becomes better understood by the reader, it might begin to feel … stale—not quite as wondrous as it did when you began. So authors very often juggle multiple magic systems in a single story. Making better magic systems is difficult, but how do you juggle more than one?

For example, if you look at J.K. Rowling’s books, every few pages she introduces a new spell or new type of magic. Is her magic cast only with wands? No. She has some places where a simple spell might be cast using only an incantation, without the amplifying power of a wand. In other places, magic is cast using potions or enchanted objects. In other places, we have various creatures that have their own magical abilities.

A similar thing happens in Lord of the Rings, where each race seems to have its own magical gifts. Sauron’s magic seems to be his alone, and Gandalf with his wizardry and the elves with their own lore seem unable to withstand his powers. Only Tom Bombadil, with his own innate magic, seems unaffected by Sauron’s will. But in a parallel similar to Rowling, we see various manifestations of magic in herbal lore, enchanted items, and magical creatures. Indeed, when Gandalf confronts the Balrog and claims to be the wielder of the “secret fire,” the flame of Anor, to the Balrog he warns, “The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn.” Thus he claims to be a servant to a higher power, not just a power in himself.

We can of course go back to classic tales and find similar uses of multiple magic systems in a high-magic tale. We can see it in things like Homer’s The Odyssey, or in the Mayan Popol Vuh,

Not only do some tales have high magic levels where there is a great deal of magic and low magic levels where there is practically no magic at all, there are magic systems that are “hard” or “soft.”

A hard-magic system is one where the magic system is concrete, well developed, and has defined rules and limits, as in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series. A soft magic system is one where the rules are nebulous and unclear, perhaps even to the author.

Now, even a low-magic system can induce a sense of wonder, and some great works make use of this. For example, let’s go back to what Gandalf was saying. As a servant of the secret fire, what exactly were his powers? I’m not sure that even Tolkien really knew. He never tells us the rules of this magic system, how it was used or mastered. Thus, Tolkien made good use of nebulous magic systems, and even Galadriel seems unsure of what humans call magic.

In fact, we don’t often see novels where two or more hard magic systems are put in competition, where wizards from different schools of magic for example find themselves at odds. I played with this in my Runelords series by having Gaborn torn between the rune magic used by his forefathers and the far older “earth magic” used by wizards in his world, but I have to admit that the rules of earth magic in my system aren’t as “hard” as those found in the rune system. After all, the earth grants powers to those who serve it, and those powers seem to differ based upon the wizard’s calling and needs.

Instead of multiple hard magic systems, a lot of authors will develop one magic system well—the one that the protagonist must master—but will have various other magical wonders sprinkled throughout. Thus we see Harry Potter struggling to master wand magic, but at the same time we see him visit a haunted loo, deal with magical artifacts like talking photographs, while dueling against other softer magics.

Why are some magics soft? Usually because the protagonist has no firsthand knowledge of the system. Frodo doesn’t understand how the dwarves create their magical implements. Do dwarvish swords not rust or grow dull because of incantations or is it simply that they have created new types of hardened metals that don’t suffer the fates of simple iron? I suspect that what Frodo perceives as magic, a metallurgist would see as science. Yet within the context of the story, dwarven blades still arouse a sense of wonder. And in much the same way, Galadriel doesn’t talk about her magical ropes as being “magic,” but calls the wonders “well made.”

So, how do you add new wonders to your story? In designing role-playing and video games, we see a lot of possibilities. For example, you can add wonder to a tale by creating “Points of Interest.” These can be places that have a fascinating history, but often which also have some sort of magic associated with them. Thus we have haunted swamps, powerful magical wards, healing pools, and so on.

The same kinds of wonders can be associated with various species of creatures. In a game, for example, we might give magical speed to a horse, or fire-breathing powers to a monster, or strength to a certain class of fighter, or the ability for a tree to make travelers fall asleep while its roots slowly entangle them.

And of course we might imbue various artifacts with similar magical powers.

As a writer of fantasy, one goal is to simply make the tale as fun as possible!

Enjoy your writing this week!

-David Farland

Good stuff.

The white male style of debate is to antagonize you until you snap. Then they win by default, because they make up their own rules in which being upset automatically invalidates your argument. The key is also to argue about things that they have no stake and experience in, so they dont snap first. Of course in the event that they do snap first, its of course passion, not anger…

White people are like little kids who make up new rules and obnoxious powers to keep themselves from losing….

At the end of it all, they are happy that you are so civil and can debate things rationally and clearly without getting upset. Everyone shakes hands and thanks everyone for being able to discuss “conflicting” viewpoints. Because after all everyone needs to hear the opposing side to truly be sophisticated. Even if you’ve heard that side all your life and it completely devalues you as a human being.

What i hear is that the mark of civilization to white people is being dehumanized and taking it like a champ. 

They also have little to no concept of power dynamics in these ‘sophisticated” discussions.

https://mamot.fr/@setthemfree/106014810050613790

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/google-testing-its-controversial-new-ad-targeting-tech-millions-browsers-heres

Writing Websites

1. a website with a list of superpowers and what they are

2. a website that generates random au ideas

3. a website that generates names, basic info and futures in a bunch of languages

4. a website that checks your grammar

5. website that lists types of execution in the states

6. a website with info on death certificates

7. a website with info on the four manners of death

8. a website with info on the black plague

9. website with information on depression

10. a website with info on the four types of suicide

11. website that lists famous quotes

12. website with different kinds of quotes

13. a website with info on food in every country

14. a website with a list of different colors

15. website with a list of medieval jobs

16. website with a list of fabrics

17. website with a list of flowers and pictures

18. website with a list of flowers and no pictures

19. website with a list of poisonous plants

20. website with a list of poisonous and non-poisonous plants

21. website with a list of things not to feed your animals

22. website with a list of poisons that can be used to kill people

23. website with info on the international date line

24. website with a list of food allergies

25. website with a list of climates

26. website with info on allergic reactions

27. website with info on fahrenheit and celsius 

28. website with info on color blindness

29. website with a list of medical equipment

30. website with a list of bugs

31. website with an alphabetic list of bugs and their scientific name

32. website with a list of eye colors

33. website (wikipedia sorry) with list of drinks

34. website with a list of religions

35. website with a list of different types of doctors and what they do

36. website (wikipedia again sorry) with a list of hair colors

37. website that generates fantasy names

38. website with a list of body language

39. website with a list of disabilities

40. website with an alphabetic list of disabilities