A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry

[swan_tower]

I have a new blog crush. And if the phrase A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry makes you perk up, you just might find it interesting, too.

I can’t remember who I saw linking to this guy’s analysis of the Siege of Gondor, but it’s an entertaining read — all six parts of it. And in the course of reading it, I noted that he linked to various other posts he’s written, many of which sounded interesting. But the nail in the coffin of me walking away was realizing he had a link at the top titled Resources for World-Builders.

*_*

Bret Devereaux turns out to be a military historian specializing in the Roman Republic, but with interests ranging around the ancient Mediterranean and into medieval Europe, plus at least some awareness of other parts of the world like India and China. His seven-part takedown of Sparta is gloriously scathing, and has single-handedly ensured that if some unknown force ever tells me I have to choose where and when in history I’m going to be sent back to, Sparta’s going to be at the rock bottom of my list. Or the three essays tearing apart the claim that Game of Thrones is a “realistic” representation of medievalism — with bonus essays like “The Preposterous Logistics of the Loot Train Battle” (tl;dr: Dany could have saved herself the trouble of attacking, because Jaime’s entire force would have starved to death even after eating all the food they were supposedly transporting to King’s Landing). But what really sealed the deal for me was probably the Practical Polytheism series, which digs into how Mediterranean polytheism worked, and how it’s different from the kinds of assumptions we tend to make today.

It’s a new enough blog that if you don’t mind falling down a rabbit hole for a while, it’s not that difficult to read the entirety of the archives. (I know because I’ve, uh, done it.) As the Practical Polytheism essays and the two most recent posts on ancient writers show, the focus is not entirely on military matters — in part because, being an Actual Historian of these things, he’s well aware that you can’t properly discuss armies without paying attention to things like agriculture or religion. The two Lonely Cities essays crossed my screen just in time to influence the current New Worlds Patreon topic, and I’ll definitely be swinging back to some of his military writing when I get around to that subject myself. So I highly recommend the blog to anybody who’s interested in worldbuilding or military history . . . and I know there’s at least a few people around these parts who fit that label. 🙂

Comments

[sovay]

I can’t remember who I saw linking to this guy’s analysis of the Siege of Gondor, but it’s an entertaining read — all six parts of it.

I recommended it earlier this month, but I would not be surprised if it's all over the place, because the blog is just that good.

I'm glad to hear about Practical Polytheism; it's one of the post series I held off on because classical religions are very, very often misrepresented and I had recently run into a misrepresenting post with a lot of people in comments talking about how insightful and useful it was and I didn't want to feel burned so soon after having enjoyed his Tolkien scholarship.

[swan_tower]

You may very well be the one I got it from, then! Thank you -- I have had a great deal of fun reading everything, and have now added it to my RSS feed. :-D

I can't absolutely swear that the Practical Polytheism posts are correct, but they rung true with both what I remember of classical religious practices and what I know generally of anthropology. His basic points are 1) always assume that most people believed in their own religion rather than just going through the motions because reasons, 2) for most people who weren't philosophers, the religion was eminently practical and aimed at achieving concrete results in their lives, 3) the major underlying principle was do ut des, 4) the execution of do ut des often followed very legalistic shapes as people specified what they wanted and what they were giving in return, 5) there's kind of a spectrum of divine power from the big gods down to the little gods down to famous heroes and so forth, and 6) that last aspect helps to explain imperial cultus, because frankly, "I offer up X if you agree to do Y for me" said to a figure who is distant but also part of your community and has the power to make things happen with a nod can describe both a god and the emperor.

That's obviously a very short summation, and I'm missing nuances, but if nothing in it rings alarm bells, you might safely read those posts. (And if something in it does ring alarm bells, let me know, because I'd like to correct my own understanding.)

[marycatelli]

Nothing in that rings alarm bells.

[dhampyresa]

I look forward to archive diving! Thank you for the rec!

[sovay]

That's obviously a very short summation, and I'm missing nuances, but if nothing in it rings alarm bells, you might safely read those posts.

Nothing rings alarm bells. He sounds as though he is specifically describing Roman rather than classical Greek or, say, Carthaginian religion, but he doesn't sound inaccurate about it. I'd like to see what he says about the spectrum of divine power, because I don't necessarily think of it as a directly graded continuum, but I do agree that Greek cult heroes are different from the Capitoline Triad. The practicalities of exchange are important, and it is immensely important not to believe Cicero when he says that nobody actually believes in the gods.

[swan_tower]

He is very up-front about the fact that he's drawing primarily on his understanding of Roman religion, and that the further you get away from that, the less his points may apply -- some of it is relevant to Greece (and he discusses some examples from there), but he actively solicited feedback from, say, Hindus, because they may have a different take on things entirely.

[swan_tower]

Enjoy!

[sovay]

but he actively solicited feedback from, say, Hindus, because they may have a different take on things entirely.

Cool!

I'll check the series out.

[daidoji_gisei]

I've just read the first 4 of the Gondor articles and they are making me so, so happy. And vindicated, because back when I was writing for Old5R I once had to write a story where the fortress of Kyuden Hida, which everyone playing L5R knew was so well-built and -defended as to be unconquerable, had to be taken and destroyed. This was going to make a lot of people unhappy, so I needed to come up with a very good plan. While taking a long hot bath and rereading The Return of the King it suddenly occurred to me that the Witch-King of Angamar had already solved this problem and all I needed to do was adapt his plan for attacking Minas Tirith to Shadowlands technology. It worked perfectly.

(I'm also pleased that the blogger shares my opinions about the film version of Denethor, which I find to be the second-most irritating thing about the movie adaption. )

[swan_tower]

which everyone playing L5R knew was so well-built and -defended as to be unconquerable

And nerds can be very bad at understanding that "unconquerable" actually just means "has never yet been conquered," not that it is 100% impossible. :-P But woot for having a solution on hand!

(I'm also pleased that the blogger shares my opinions about the film version of Denethor, which I find to be the second-most irritating thing about the movie adaption.)

That's legit. I do appreciate that Devereaux isn't the kind of pedant who doesn't take into account the requirements of the medium -- he acknowledges in many places that the alterations and elisions are necessary to compress the material or make it comprehensible in a visual format -- but yes, I can see how that particular change would grate.