new Ressler course on Great Courses Plus
Woo hoo!
I see a new course has popped up by lecturer Stephen Ressler, Understanding the Marvels of Medieval Technology. Just buzzed through lecture one. It looks to be well up to the quality of all his prior series, with even better visual aids and models.
I highly rec all of Ressler's lectures on the Great Courses; for writers, in all genres, interested in doing better worldbuilding, and for pretty much everyone else who wants to better understand how the world they actually live in really works.
I sign up by the year, which makes the per-month cost quite low. And I get my money's worth most every month, one way or another. I believe the courses may also be accessed through some other platforms, though I've not yet needed to explore them myself.
In an only thematically related idle thought...
A little burst of podcasts this past couple of years discussing my books has led me to muse on how the shifting of the generations, especially across the pre- and post-internet divide, has changed the way some readers parse my stories, or fail to. (Not that futurism has ever been my main focus.) There is a certain amount of patronizing, "Well, she couldn't know, back then..." some of which is justified, some not. Stuff I Got Wrong naturally gets the most attention. But I only just realized how much of the stuff I got right -- passes invisibly.
Example in point, the passages from chapters 6 and 7 ofThe Warrior's Apprentice, written in 1984, where Miles is using the Betan internet "right from his grandmother's apartment" to outfit his new, well, used, RG freighter. Perfectly normal, anyone would do it that way...
1984. Just sayin'.
Ta, L.
Later: am a bit over halfway through. So many questions answered! From "what the hell is twill" to "how did they shoot crossbows?" to "how did mills/windmills work?" I've read so much about this stuff, and been baffled by the descriptions and 2-D pictures, figuring it was too complicated or I was too stupid, but Ressler's models and step-by-step explanations really show, not just tell.
Good teachers make you feel they're smart. Great teachers make you feel you're smart.
L.
I see a new course has popped up by lecturer Stephen Ressler, Understanding the Marvels of Medieval Technology. Just buzzed through lecture one. It looks to be well up to the quality of all his prior series, with even better visual aids and models.
I highly rec all of Ressler's lectures on the Great Courses; for writers, in all genres, interested in doing better worldbuilding, and for pretty much everyone else who wants to better understand how the world they actually live in really works.
I sign up by the year, which makes the per-month cost quite low. And I get my money's worth most every month, one way or another. I believe the courses may also be accessed through some other platforms, though I've not yet needed to explore them myself.
In an only thematically related idle thought...
A little burst of podcasts this past couple of years discussing my books has led me to muse on how the shifting of the generations, especially across the pre- and post-internet divide, has changed the way some readers parse my stories, or fail to. (Not that futurism has ever been my main focus.) There is a certain amount of patronizing, "Well, she couldn't know, back then..." some of which is justified, some not. Stuff I Got Wrong naturally gets the most attention. But I only just realized how much of the stuff I got right -- passes invisibly.
Example in point, the passages from chapters 6 and 7 ofThe Warrior's Apprentice, written in 1984, where Miles is using the Betan internet "right from his grandmother's apartment" to outfit his new, well, used, RG freighter. Perfectly normal, anyone would do it that way...
1984. Just sayin'.
Ta, L.
Later: am a bit over halfway through. So many questions answered! From "what the hell is twill" to "how did they shoot crossbows?" to "how did mills/windmills work?" I've read so much about this stuff, and been baffled by the descriptions and 2-D pictures, figuring it was too complicated or I was too stupid, but Ressler's models and step-by-step explanations really show, not just tell.
Good teachers make you feel they're smart. Great teachers make you feel you're smart.
L.
date
newest »
newest »
That is an excellent point. I should have noticed, given that I remember cp/m and WordStar.You should definitely compile a list of all your clever stuff you totally got right before it even existed, maybe even crowdsource thingspotting to your fans.
JuaSaysHi wrote: "That is an excellent point. I should have noticed, given that I remember cp/m and WordStar.You should definitely compile a list of all your clever stuff you totally got right before it even existe..."
I don't have the energy or the stamina, but if anyone wants to throw in another example, feel free.
I do remember, back when, some earnest person objecting strenuously to the haut ladies' bubble ID DNA test -- because of course anyone who knew anything about science would realize it would take a large laboratory, scads of money, and weeks of bench work to do anything of a sort.
Meanwhile, 2025, not even 3025, I have a dirt-cheap Covid test kit sitting in my medicine cabinet...
Ta, L.
Congratulations. It may even be a general principle that something that can be done with much time and effort now will be done quickly and easily at some indefinite time in the future.
Until then I will just have to content myself with the Mesopotamia series I just started.