There is a poem by one of the most interationally famous Greek poets, Konstantinos Kavafis, called Waiting for the Barbarians. I invite you to give it a read (I've linked its translation) but here's the gist in a nutshell: It's about the Romans waiting for the Barbarians ...

What Will Happen Without the Barbarians?
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Feb. 8, 2025A Fair Playing Field
Gunwallace at 12:00AM, Feb. 6, 2025
Picture credit: Interaction Institute for Social Change | Artist: Angus Maguire
Today (Thursday 6th February) is Waitangi Day in New Zealand, although due to the nature of time zones you will probably be reading this after the day if over for us.
Waitangi is a place in NZ, the name meaning ...
How Long is a Piece of String?
Gunwallace at 12:00AM, Jan. 30, 2025
Banes is taking a short break for the Thursday post, so I'll be filling in for a some unspecified number of posts. How many exactly? Well, how long is a piece of string? How long is the coastline of Britain? That was an academic paper ('How Long Is the ...
FEATURED COMIC --> Rebellion the monster inside us
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Jan. 29, 2025
Rush has become a monster, savage, driven by animal instinct for survival, by fear, and dominance. His power is immeasurable, unaccountable, unstoppable! Born a poor slave, the lowest of the low, he faced terrible abuse and trauma beyond imagining. Escaping to the wilderness, left alone with the horrors and monsters ...
This and That (the power of contrast)
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 23, 2025
One of the main drivers of story is the principle of CONTRAST.
A character in a traditional story arc begins one way and ends up in a very different state of being - the underdog to the victorious hero, or the innocent, unaware victim to the final survivor, or the selfish ...
Quackcast 723 - Changing tech and design
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Jan. 21, 2025 LISTEN on our player!
Or TuneinRadio - https://tunein.com/podcasts/Books–Literature/Drunkduck-Quackcast-p1150194/
We're talking about how technology and design changes so much over the years and how that can change things with plot in story and it can also help pinpoint the date of something sometimes better than ...
Preventable Deaths
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 18, 2025
There's nothing more frustrating when a character dies from a situation that had no reason occuring except perhaps that the writers wanted to be edgy and make the story have more gravitas with a random death that's forced into the plot.
I've talked often over the years ...
Character Deep Dive: Vladimir Chekhov
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Dec. 28, 2024
It’s time for another Character Deep Dive, this within the amazing political war thriller The Second Crimean War by the awesome and proliferate The Doodler!
The Second Crimean War is an alternate history webcomic, of a different 1995 where, after the collapse of the USSR, the emerging, independent Ukraine ...