history – Wis[s]e Words

World War III fanfiction

Published on June 4, 2023Leave a comment

If, like me, you were obsessed with Tom Clancy’s Red Storm Rising as a child growing up during the late Cold War, then Third World War 1987 is the site for you:

I intend to take a multifaceted approach with this blog. Primarily, I want to construct a detailed narrative, and timeline centered on a US/NATO-Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact conflict set in 1987. Attached to that will be a comprehensive account of the global military picture as it was in 1987.

Of course it lacks some of the frisson of Clancy’s original, as a superpower confrontation like this is now firmly in the realms of alternative history rather than a plausible what-if, but it’s still an earnest, in-depth look at what could’ve been. The actual story starts with an NBC news broadcast on April 18, 1987 and you can continue it by clicking on the next post link at the bottom of the page. It’s a bit awkward to navigate as the links are listed below the comments, while related posts show up above it. That minor quibble aside, this is an enjoyable read if you’re a bit of a grognard. World War III fanfic, if you like.

As for how likely such a conflict was during those last years of the Cold War, MILITARY PLANNING FOR EUROPEAN THEATRE CONFLICT DURING THE COLD WAR AN ORAL HISTORY ROUNDTABLE STOCKHOLM, 24– 25 APRIL 2006 (PDF) is essential. Basically a gathering of various NATO and Warsaw Pact military commanders reminiscing about the Cold War, reading it makes clear nobody took the idea of a war actually breaking out between the two seriously at the time. Reading through the testimonies it’s clear that they all took the idea of war seriously and endlessly prepared for it, but never expected it to really happen, as it didn’t. Reassuring to read, even retrospectively.

Historical queerness

Published on September 15, 2019Leave a comment

When the socalled “lovers of Modena” turned to both have male teeth immediately alternate explenations were sought for why they were holding hands:

Some of the suggestions for the link between the two skeletons are that they are siblings, cousins or soldiers who died together in battle, study author Federico Lugli told Italy’s Rai news site

Because what we can blithly assert for a presumed straight skeleton couple, we apparantly cannot do for one that looks a bit gay. As James Lórien MacDonald put it on Twitter in a thread explaining why putting modern labels on ancient relationships is a bit dodgy:

So. It was assumed that these people had been lovers because they were holding hands, and that they were male and female because they were assumed to be lovers. Perhaps there are other reasons to be buried holding hands, and maybe we’ll learn more about those relationships.

Again, this is something we do without thinking when it comes to what we assume are straight couples. None of that “well, they might be cousins” namby-pambyness then. Of course other civilisations had different ideas about sexuality and gender than our own, but if this is only an objection when it comes to queer people it all feels rather hypocritical. Personally I don’t see the harm in claiming these skeletons for the gay camp when the opposite happens daily without anybody noticing or complaining. The specialists can argue over what those two skeletons really were.

Go0d Night Tokyo

Published on April 18, 2019Leave a comment

This is a beautiful bit of early HD footage of Tokyo shot in 1992.

Your Happening World (Kingsday is bogus edition)

Published on April 26, 2017Leave a comment

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Fujoshi: Fujoshi, which literally means “rotten girl,” refers to a type of anime fan who is especially interested in imagining male homoerotic subtext in her favorite media. But while the term “fujoshi” was only coined in 2001, rotten girls and their male counterparts, “fudanshi,” have been around since the Edo period. In “The Forgotten History of Fujoshi,” Keith and Mari Minton—two self-professed fujoshi—shared some of the fascinating origins of a subculture that is typically somewhat misunderstood.
The Ostrogothic Military: Whether the Ostrogoths themselves were an army, the nature of the army’s settlement and salary in Italy, and ethnic identity’s role in the formation of the army are all discussed. The army itself has rarely been studied as a separate institution, which may be because, throughout the Ostrogothic kingdom’s short life, the military was inextricably bound up with the nature and the fate of that polity.
Alternate Futurescape: The Bubblegum Crisis We Never Got: Where Bubblegum Crisis’ Knight Sabers were a mercenary team that’d take any job for the right price, FutureScape’s “Night Saviors” were advertised as “Four girls who will accept no money in their never ending battle against the Boomers!“ Fans familiar with Bubblegum Crisis and the Knight Saber mercenary group that were mostly motivated by revenge would probably have been a little more than shocked to see them instead portrayed as a super-heroine team fighting for “freedom and justice” under the new name of “The Night Saviors”.
X-Force by Cory J Walker: Great, 90s nostalgia drawings of various X-Force characters.
Your audience doesn’t think you suck: To make your audience happy, you don’t need to be the most talented person. You don’t need to invest tons of cash into a project to make it watchable. You need an idea that you believe in and the enthusiasm to power through and put it out into the world.
The Left’s Long History Of Transphobia: Trans people generally lean left because we feel that we have to, but we’re also aware that liberalism won’t protect us when the chips are down. It’s easy to oppose an enemy that is consistently hateful, and at the end of the day trans people know where Republicans stand on whether or not we should exist.

History is hokum

Published on October 23, 2015Leave a comment

scenes from the Emu War as drawn by Korwin Briggs

The Emu War, Headless Folk of the French Revolution, Norse God Family Tree, how Voltaire broke the lottery, Mummy Brown and other Historical Colors and the Management Secrets of Genghis Khan are just some of the Veritable Hokum dregded up from history and served in comic form by Korwin Briggs. I discovered this by accident, following an ant’s trail of links after somebody had stolen that Mummy brown comic for their own site. Glad I did, because Korwin’s artwork is charming and he has a knack for finding interesting historical tidbits.