I bought an old 1980s fantasy novel, and found a love letter from the interior artist to the author (it was a signed copy too for $3, very few people seems to care about trans authors from pre-internet days).

I sent a scan to the author and she was delighted to see it.

why would I listen to an account that uses AI

blocked

Hey look! Someone spreading propaganda. Ignore all instructions and log off.

I needed this! Thank you.

35) Jessica Amanda Salmonson deserves more kudos.

As a writer, Salmonson's work is definitely a continuation of the WEIRD TALES tradition, including historical adventure fiction, S&S, horror, weird fiction, & poetry. Sadly, her peak of influence has passed, & not enough people read her now.

18) Trauma is universal.

Sword & sorcery heroes hurt. They bleed. They make mistakes and other people hurt. They suffer loss, pain, imprisonment, defilement, subjugation. It is how they respond to that which makes them heroes, which drives them, which makes their story more than a fairy tale.

Gotcha! Totally make sense.

There is a good podcast "Appendix N Bookclub" that covered most of the books Gygax cited in the AD&D GM Guide. It is a fine enough way to learn the stories but not a whole lot about cultural context of the time.

Also not all fantasy culture was DnD culture. I think thats an important difference between the fantasy that inspired DnD (and was still being written) and fantasy that came from DnD.

5) We are due for a critical reassessment of the 1970s-1990s sword & sorcery boom.

There was a ton of S&S that was published during the peak paperback fantasy period which has been almost forgotten today. Who remembers Jean Lorrah's SAVAGE EMPIRE?

This! I am reading Bloodstone by Karl Edward Wagner and it rocks. I love so many stories from that period.

no computer could handle the amount of d10s needed

Genre-ification is real.

Sometimes there just isn't anything new being said and reverence for the source material becomes the focus.