CW Religion/Religious themes

Thinking about the fact that it's a gameplay mechanic to pray to Hylia and wondering if that makes Link some kind of fantasy world equivalent of catholic and then the possible strangeness/spiritual conflict that could come with that when Zelda is basically god herself and what it means to communicate with Hylia when Zelda is a dragon, what it means to have lost the most important person to you for the sake of a holy weapon to use in a war between gods

When you put aside the stuff that's just fun adventure romps (which I'm not dissing, that's most of what I read) it's interesting to look at how 'high-substance' sci-fi and fantasy tend to operate. Not just in the trappings of whether a knight is fighting orcs with a sword or a a commando is fighting aliens with a laser rifle, I mean in terms of the philosophy behind the narrative

Fantasy works tend to examine man's relationship to nature, the divine, and purpose in life. Magic augments how a character interacts with the world more than the world itself, and grand-scale issues and conflicts tend to be outgrowths of baser, more personal and fundamental conflicts, not just depicting good vs. evil or law vs. chaos, but examining what that means to the characters and the author. As you might expect, the prime archetype here is indeed Lord of The Rings

Sci-fi, by contrast, tends to be much larger in scope with what it tackles. The focus is more likely to be on societies as a whole, the nature and purpose of government, how religion is among the factors shaping both individual thought and the cultural zeitgeist, and more fringe topics like the effects ecology and planetology have when shaping a people's philosophy and mindset. And, of course, how new factors like new technological paradigms, the dispersal of civilization across multiple planets, contact with non-human sapience, and even the removal of certain factors ranging from computers to senescence affect all of the above. As you probably predicted, the poster child for this is Dune.

Where it gets interesting for me is when a work of one genre seems to be written with the mindset of its counterpart. The Hyperion Cantos is a sci-fi series to the hilt, but its focus and mindset trend much more towards fantasy, with different characters going through crises of faith and being forced to confront their understanding of their place in the universe as they encounter strange factors outside their conceptions of what was possible. Conversely, The Prince of Nothing is a fantasy series, but a huge amount of focus is given to how various characters' cultural and religious backgrounds shape their thinking, and as the series progresses it examines the way a new government forms and the methods and reasoning that shape it. As a more surface-level detail, the way it handles plot-important magical devices is a lot closer to how sci-fi handles precursor artifacts and LosTech than how fantasy tends to handle magical relics and wondrous items.

Certain books are likewise a more even mix of the two. Book of the New Sun has examinations on both personal, spiritual topics and the nature of society in an exhausted, ancient world facing none-too-distant extinction, while Sun Eater explores both the personal internal strife of its protagonist and the oppressive, alien nature of a society that in the story's context is a pretty believable evolution of our own. These are actually perhaps unsurprising, since the author of the former is on record as saying "all novels are fantasies, some are just more honest than others" the author of the latter is an outspoken advocate of a no-more-brother-wars attitude among what he calls 'weird fiction'.

Though where it gets confusing again is that, despite what I said at the start, all of these books do indeed play with the trappings of the respective genres as well, with quasi-magical elements in Hyperion, Not-Angband being a crashed alien starship in Prince of Nothing, and Book of the New Sun having strange, time-breaking quasi-divine intervention in a primitive feudal world where a castle's towers might be derelict rockets and a knight's mount might be a bioengineered war-alien

Thursday Thoughts: How fanfiction helped me to reconnect with my identity as a writer

A little under three months ago (and after nearly one year of consuming fanfiction late at night, when my kids were asleep, and on incognito tabs on my mobile Chrome browser), I decided to take the plunge and enter the world of fanfic as a (GASP!) writer.

First, a little storytime...

I've been writing for as long as I can remember. I viscerally remember receiving a Bugs Bunny diary when I was maybe five or six years old and faithfully recording my thoughts, observations, and daily happenings. Every. Single. Night.

I took special care to hide my diary key someplace safe so that my parents couldn't unlock that tiny journal and read my childish musings (which, when I think about it, were probably misspelled descriptions of my kindergarten crush or complaints about my siblings).

From there, I eventually graduated to managing blogs (specifically, and to date myself, a Xanga), scribbling poetry in the margins of my textbooks, and attempting to write my own stories — original fiction and, yes, fanfiction (Harry Potter and LOTR, to be exact).

Throughout my childhood and adolescence, writing was not just a hobby; it was the most useful tool at my disposal to process what was happening in my life. Especially since I was one of four children, growing up in a very religious household, and I didn't have many outlets or spaces outside of my family, my school, and my little hometown to explore. To question. To articulate the multitude of thoughts that plagued my mind.

I was very sheltered. And not always seen or heard because, simply put, there just wasn't enough quiet or space for my voice to cut through all the chaos. So writing was my outlet. Writing allowed me to condense really convoluted and complex thoughts into something discernible — and, finally, people heard me. They understood me.

And I loved it.

And I was good at it.

So good that, when the time came for me to go to college, I decided to enroll as an English Literature and Communications double major. And I decided to use my four years in university to study and hone my craft. I declared emphases in Creative Writing and Literary Journalism. I wrote stories for my campus literary journal. I served as editor for two sections of our campus newspaper. I was a teaching assistant for creative writing and journalism classes. I got internships for external publications. I had ambitions to work for a magazine after I graduated and/or write long-form, special interest pieces as a freelance journalist.

... But then I got really depressed. For a multitude of reasons. But some big ones were:

Feeling marginalized on a predominantly white and very affluent campus, while my family was dealing with very serious socioeconomic problems back at home (another topic for another Thursday Thoughts blog post, I think...); and

Approaching graduation in the middle of an economic recession — and questioning my decision to pursue a fucking English degree when I needed to think about how I was going to support myself.

Sadly, this led to my (conscious or subconscious, I'm not really sure) decision to abandon my ambitions of writing professionally. And I got a job in Human Resources once I entered the workforce.

And I did not seriously write again for over a decade.

Fast forward to today...

Amidst a multi-year, global pandemic and an ongoing global social justice movement, I experienced another serious depressive episode and a major case of burnout. It caused me to take medical leave for half a year. I started antidepressants to cope with the extreme emotions I experience daily.

And it also forced me to start to do a lot of self-reflection (with full support from my partner and a licensed therapist).

For the first time in over a decade, I had time to pause. To remove myself from the capitalist grind of producing and working and never resting. And I asked myself: Who am I as a person? What is important to me? As I continue to live my life — and particularly now that I'm a mother and someone whose professional life is so grounded in taking care of others — how can I continue to take care of myself? And model what it means to live unapologetically and authentically?

Now, I'm sure you're probably thinking: "What the hell does this have to do with writing porny stories about cartoons?"

And this is my whole point: when I started writing fanfiction a few months ago, it helped me remember that part of who I am — part of who I've always been — is a writer.

And I had lost sight of that part of me when I, unfortunately, abandoned my plans to pursue a writing career.

As a space, fanfiction was easily accessible to me. I didn't have to worry about any barriers to entry, like finding an editor, or a publisher, or a distributor to share my stories.

I could just write. And post it online, regardless of whether or not it was "good enough" or "perfect."

So that's what I did.

I started to write a little fic about a young woman who was mourning the loss of one of the most important relationships in her life (it was really my excuse to channel my own grief of lost relationships).

And people started reading what I wrote. And they started conversing with me. And they began to share how much my writing meant to them, how I was able to make them feel things.

And then they asked for more. So I wrote a sequel about a young man who was dealing with major depression — and who needed to reconcile the mistakes he made and learn how to make amends with those he had hurt (truly, an excuse for me to write about my own experiences with depression and feelings of inadequacy and regret and wasted potential).

And people kept responding. And then I eventually started connecting with other fic writers — who quickly became sources of inspiration and help and shared commiseration. Who, above all, became friends.

And it reminded me of why I loved writing in the first place: because it helped me to feel seen. And it helped me to show other people - I see you too.

Writing has been the best way for me to make sense of the world. Writing has been the easiest way for me to connect with others. Writing has always helped me to understand myself better.

And, in a really silly yet beautiful way, writing fanfiction helped me to rediscover that part of me — the part who is a writer. The part that I thought I had completely lost sight of when I, unfortunately, abandoned my plans to pursue a writing career. The part that I thought I would never be able to find again.

Now, I feel very inspired. I feel connected. I feel creative. And, most importantly, I'm having fun.

I feel like myself. And if continuing to write little stories about cartoon characters is going to continue to help me feel this way...

Then goddammit, I will keep writing little stories about cartoon characters.

You know what I think is bullshit?

Creationism as a REPLACEMENT for evolution. Not as a beginning-of-the-world-theory, not as a religious, christian belief... but as a 'scientific' replacement.

Now, I know this topic has been a dead horse beaten 15 times over, but I just need to ramble about it, because I'm just mad. And that's fine, because goddamnit I think I deserve to be.

Warning: LONG post from an ex-christian and anthropology major who's just. Guh. Kind of angry and kind of sad

I was brought up in the church as a kid. Classic church kid, knew all the verses, studied the Bible. And I was brought up to believe that the world was about 6-8,000 years old, if that. Of course, things changed a little as time went on, but I was brought up to believe that the earth could not POSSIBLY be that old, and that everything was god's plan. I was even taught that scientists were liars, that they made up geological, archaeological and paleontological evidence, that they wanted to 'trick us into thinking god wasn't real'. I was taught, even through high school, that while we might have the fossil record, it's too disjointed to ever be believed.

And then in senior year, we were shown a debate between Ken Ham, a creationist who was touted across my entire school as a creationist genius, and Bill Nye. We were told before the presentation even started that Bill was 'fumbling for answers, clearly trying to refute the immutable fact that Ham was right.'

And then I watched in awe as Bill Nye proceeded to absolutely destroy Ken Ham's rebuttals with physical, biological, tangible evidence. Ham couldn't hold a candle to what Nye was saying, the evidence he pulled out.

To my memory, all Ken Ham had to say was, "but the BIBLE says," over and over and over.

I tried to ask my teacher about the evolutionary theory. I wanted more, I wanted to KNOW more past what I had been told.

"Oh, we don't teach that here. That's a religion in and of itself. It's not true." She wouldn't answer any of my questions. That, along with several other defining factors, was the final nail in the coffin of the vestiges of my hope in Christianity.

And I thought I would never get the answers I was seeking- until I switched to the Anthropology courses at college for a new major, at least 7 years later. I learned about the evidence of Neanderthals and their complex societies past the 'caveman' stereotype. I learned about evidence of grave goods, dating techniques, how people studied in the PAST can reflect people here in the PRESENT. I learned was evolution actually MEANS.

And I am pissed that any such 'replacement' for Evolution could be taught in the United States. I'm so fucking angry because there was so much wonderful, amazing things I was learning about now that I missed out on, that I'm passionate about. When the mountain of evidence, PHYSICAL evidence, social and cultural evidence, is presented, I can see why they immediately try to discredit it to keep their own narrative going.

Yes, you can believe in creationism as a religious belief. Sure. I won't stop anyone from that. But I feel robbed that I was taught for so long not to even EXPLORE the possibility because of how fucking flimsy the idea of creationism as an immutable, irrefutable truth was. I feel robbed of discovery, of the chance to think for myself as a child, as a teen, as a young person coming up into the world. I feel robbed of the fact that now I'm so fucking interested in these beautiful, wonderful pasts of ours and I could have found that years ago.

Can you imagine how many potential anthropologists, paleontologists, archaeologists, geologists, have been wiped out by the virtue of "but we get to teach what we want" in the christian world? Can you imagine how many brilliant minds are out there, people who could contribute, and aren't because a hypothesis that, and I say this point fucking blank, does not hold water against all the scientific evidence we have?

I'm just so angry I was robbed of the experience of wonder, of speculation, because all my christian parents, teachers and pastors could say was, "Well, the BIBLE says..."

It's one thing to teach religion. It's another to teach scientific misinformation, and I'm pissed that some of us never had a choice in that.

Final Evaluation

To conclude, this project was aimed to better my visual communication skills in the textiles format through my designs and techniques. My personal project was based around my religious practice as a pagan and the connection that it has with nature and natural recourses. By utilizing the workshops and machinery, I took to different textile techniques and processes in order to convey my personal relationship between myself, nature and my deities that I worship in my practice. I did this successfully through my samples, sketchbook and a final vision board with my blog on Tumblr being a platform for recording my efforts, evaluating my work and researching various artists with a similar vision as me or worked with different styles or techniques that I wanted to explore.  

I used both primary and secondary recourses in order to successfully explore my narrative properly. I chose some of my favourite artists such as Sally Pointer, Jenny Dean and Deb Cooper to aid in the continuation of this project, whilst also researching new artists I hadn’t heard of before such as Ann Kyyro Quinn, Matt Peers and Tom Cherry to name a few. I decided to choose a variety of artists with different skills in order to fully develop my work and experiment with techniques that I might not have otherwise thought about or used. A good example is when I researched Ann Kyyro Quinn and learnt the basics of her fabric manipulation techniques to create interest 3D effects with felt and tough fabrics. It turned out that this technique was not suited for this project and its aims, so I decided not to continue working off her style which was perfectly fine because, although it wasn’t used, this was not a waste of my time and was valuable when thinking about what exactly I wanted to portray in my final outcomes and how I wanted to do that, Ann’s work just wasn’t suited for it. In contrast to my research on Sally Pointer for example, I learnt her techniques for creating natural cordage out of dandelion stems and decided to use it in my final outcomes because it related heavily to my narrative and worked well when visually communicating this idea of nature being twisted and ingrained in my spiritual practice. Both instances were valuable time spent well as they both allowed me to refine and think about my project and how I wanted to portray it.  

In terms of Primary research, I used collated images from over the years of my walks and exploration with my family and friends. I took my favourite ones which portrayed the best texture, shape and colour and played with them in collage, print, mark making and hand stitching to further communicate my narrative. These would become the basis for my mark making with various mediums and those basic shapes would then be turned into different print techniques, weaving, hand stitching and so forth to create my samples and final outcomes. Without the right amount and variety of primary photographs, I would not have been able to work as hard as I did with the project, nor get this far in the process because I would not have had something as valuable and personal to work from. The primary photography also allowed me to visually communicate what I see in my head when analysing and appreciating nature (being it a central part of my narrative), the hand stitching and collage in particular allowed others to view what I see when I'm practicing or working with spirits in natural areas which I think is very important.  

Naturally, I gravitated towards particular techniques compared to others, preferring weaving and normal machine stitch (applique techniques) to printing and knitting for example. This does not mean I did not work with those processes in my sketchbook or final pieces, I just believe that weaving and simple stitching is a very good way to enhance my project and best visually communicate my narrative in this project. I think I did have strengths when it came to the printing workshops, most notably with screen printing and disperse dyes because it relied heavily on my mark making and use of simple iconography skills of which I think I did well in this project, however, I found most of the printing process long and tiring compared to the final outcome not particularly being worth the amount of time I spent on it. This does not mean to say that I didn’t appreciate the backgrounds and beginnings of samples that I created in the print workshops, I just believe that it was too unpredictable for what it was worth in the end. I do appreciate how much I could do to work back into and improve those samples on a later date with various techniques, because it made the end result just that little bit more high level and revised. My most preferred technique was ultimately using the domestic dobby looms in the weaving workshop because weaving is probably the most controlled technique out of all that I tried in this project. I love the repetition involved and the control that you have over every line you weave. I was able to switch styles, wool, material easily and I had the freedom to experiment with different loom patterns, materials and weaving styles at my choice. I love how I incorporated my dandelion cordage inspired by Sally Pointer and my naturally dyed fabrics inspired by Jenny Dean’s work. Ultimately, I do understand that at first, my weaving samples were not the best, the colours I chose were slightly too much out of this project’s aesthetic and my work was very basic at first. However, I believe my final sample came out marvelously as it combined all my favourite aspects of my not-so great samples previously and incorporated new experiments like the brown ribbon in the middle in which I have pulled out too much of it along the weft, leaving raised pieces which work nicely with the texture of the final sample. To improve it I think I would perhaps leave out the white parts in the sample as it creates a slight contrast between the bright white and the more natural colours that I have included, plus I might have tried to use a different loom with a different weft pattern, because although I kind of like the golden stripes in the piece, It might have looked slightly better without them seeing as though I have not used much gold colour in this project. 

I think with my applique sample It could have been highly improved before becoming one of my final pieces, this is purely because there are lots of blank spaces of fabrics which I think would look better if embellished with some kind of stitch or added constructed textiles like a small crochet sample which I also added onto my print final sample. The overall technique itself is okay, I feel like I could have progressed more if I had experimented with reverse applique and other such techniques apart from the standard version, I used with a simple zigzag stitch on my sewing machine. I also think I could have improved here by researching more artists to work from like Alice Fox for example, who uses found objects and rust dyeing with simple stitches to make it look very rustic and old. I think something like this rust dyeing technique could have been used to elevate this final product to add variety in materials that I used and the texture of the overall piece. 

At first, I struggled with collage techniques purely because I have not done enough collage to become familiar with it. The idea of cutting up my primary photos and mixing them up with other ones seemed like an impossible task if I wanted to do it right and as highly developed as some of the artist examples we were shown like Melinda Tidwell and Anastasia Savinova who use different kinds of collage to their desired effect. After a few attempts at basic block collage in one workshop (later refining them with machine stitch and hand stitching) I took my knowledge and practice into the digital printing workshop. Here I made collages which I much preferred due to the fact that they were highly developed, using dynamic shape and familiar silhouettes that I played around with during my mark making process (and have since been carried throughout my developmental journey) which made the final products more familiar and better linked into my project on their own, not relying on the cover of heavy machine stitch for example. I used these samples as a firm inspiration for another one of my final pieces in which I took my favourite aspects of my previous collages and combined them with some hand stitching to create a piece I am overall happy with. 

With my circular weave final piece, I feel like it wasn’t as elevated as it could have been. Personally, I really liked my very first circular weave sample, as it looked like a sawn mossy log with a pentagram in the middle, wholly created a pentacle as the weave itself was almost like the circle around the star which makes it a pentacle. Upon reflection, I didn’t feel like the first circular weave was defined enough to be one of my final pieces because it felt like there was something missing from it. So, when creating this final piece design, I tried to incorporate the aspects that I liked from my first and second circular weave samples and inspiration from a collection called ‘The Pagan In Me’ by Katheryn Sanders and Bonnie Saland, which used classic deity iconography to express their spiritual practice. From my second, larger weave I made, I liked the addition of the heavy curtain trims which created a unique texture and stuck out to make it feel more defined as a sample. So, when including this element into my final piece design, it didn’t leave enough space for the pentacle hand stitch that I liked so much in the first place. It was frustrating because I understand now that it was due to the fact that this weave piece was too small so therefore, the trimming encapsulated the whole piece. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I do appreciate how this final piece came out, it's just that it didn’t come out half as developed as it could have been. If I were to do this sample again, I would have made it inside a larger hoop in order to create that space that it needed. Overall, however, this sample did help link some of my other pieces together to create a more cohesive story on my presentation board, so I am not totally dissatisfied with the end result.  

In conclusion, despite its flaws, I am very pleased with this project and how I had to overcome some mistakes and learn new processes in order to successfully visually communicate my narrative about my spiritual practice and my relationship with nature. In the beginning, I would have loved if I could have immediately found a way to connect the strings between the nature and the religious aspect of my project in order to send some more time refining that side and making the final outcome more obvious in terms of my full narrative to the normal person, however I feel content on how I managed to reflect this eventually. This project has helped me expand my knowledge and experience in many different techniques and opened my eyes to new designers and artists who will continue to inspire me in my projects to come.  

I hope this doesn't come off as argumentative because I'm genuinely just trying to learn (though it's ofc not your responsibility to teach me so I understand if you ignore this ask!). I know v little about St. Patrick as well as judaism in practice (theologically, I know quite a bit about judaism) but why is it wrong to put Ben on St. Patrick's merch? my understanding is that nowadays hes more associated with Ireland and Irish pride than christianity? Sorry if this is dumb, just trying to learn!

Okay, so it turns out you can still by this shirt! I’m not suggesting anyone does, but for the sake of transparency, here’s the link to it at Kohl’s. And here’s the shirt!

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A kelly green shirt featuring a lighter green screenprint of Ben “the Thing” Grimm from Marvel Comics. He has his fists raised and is surrounded by a shamrock banner.] 

I think this is an interesting ask, and thank you for sending it, because it demonstrates that a lot of holidays with Christian roots have very much moved into this kind of “secular grey area”, particularly but not solely within the United States, where I really don’t think they belong. St Patrick’s Day especially has a reputation within the US as being less about the saint himself or even Ireland or Irish pride and more about a bunch of people having an official day where it’s slightly more socially acceptable to be drunk in public. So there’s a market for St Patrick’s Day merchandise because if you’re going to get drunk in public like that you might want to wear something that says It’s Okay, I’m Celebrating! And hence the “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” shirts and hats (worn often by people who are not Irish) and the above Shamrock Thing shirt. I’m not Irish for the record -- a little Scottish on my dad’s side -- but I think the history of Irish immigrants in the US is very interesting, and that there’s parallels to explore there between Ben being from a family of Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side with the experiences of Irish immigrants in New York, but I don’t think putting Ben Grimm on a shamrock shirt sold at Kohl’s for $20 is the way to get into that. But St. Patrick’s Day is a Catholic holiday, and no amount of secularly getting drunk in public erases that, so it’s very weird for me to see a Jewish character front and center on holiday merchandise for a holiday that he has no cultural connections to -- and for a holiday that originates with a group responsible for a good deal of the oppression and antisemitism Jewish people face. It’s an erasure of Ben as a Jewish character because Marvel would rather have some quick holiday merchandise cash and personally I do find it pretty offensive. Ben is also not Irish, to briefly remove religion from it altogether, so he’s a weird choice of character clearly chosen due to overall popularity and recognizability rather than any sort of representation approach. Peter Parker, who is likely half-Irish on his mother’s side (and I think believe May canonically comes from a family of Irish immigrants) belongs on a St. Patrick’s shirt before Ben does.

Also I think this is potentially a weird orange joke? Because Ben is orange, but he’s colored green on this green St. Patrick’s Day shirt. Here’s a quick article here about the history of wearing green vs orange on St. Patrick’s day -- suffice to say, it is ALL very Christian, and Ben is not Christian. (ETA: see @majorgenerally‘s comments in the notes for more information.) The fact of the matter is that in the US -- which I’m addressing not only because I live in the US but because Marvel Comics are based in the US and because Ben, in canon, lives in New York City -- we do live in a Christian culture, no matter how much that’s denied, and it’s very alienating for anyone who doesn’t practice or come from that culture. Any fictional figures unless otherwise noted are considered Christian by default -- suggest Peter Parker is Jewish on Twitter and sit back and wait for the inevitable vitriolic pushback -- and even our canonically Jewish figures, like Ben, get appropriated and put on Christian holiday merchandise. A Christian holiday can’t evolve fully beyond its religious roots because the religion is all around us in the US especially, steeped deeply into the culture. Ben Grimm doesn’t belong on a St. Patrick’s Day shirt just as much as he doesn’t belong on Christmas sweater -- and it’s erroneous to suggest that there are no religious implications to that merchandise just because some people celebrate the holiday separated from the religion. 

If Marvel wanted to put him on a shirt for a holiday about getting extremely drunk, Ben belongs on a Purim shirt, a Jewish holiday where you’re supposed to get so drunk you can’t tell the heroine of the story from the villain. We have holidays where a lot of people get drunk too! Like a whole lot of them! Give me Ben on a Passover shirt! I’m tired of the few canonically Jewish characters we have being appropriated for Christian holiday merchandise simply because it’s profitable. 

hey i'm one of those aforementioned "only-heard-blake-shelton" people - do you have any recs for better country music? i like finding new music but country is hard cause i don't really know where to start

I think the best way to explore any genre is to abandon the feeling that you’re obligated to develop an academic-level base of knowledge in the different foundations and aspects of it. If that’s something that actually interests you then by all means go for it, but despite how pretentious and rude people can get about music, it is at its heart just a form of expression - and while knowing which specific sounds might have influenced others can enhance the listening experience for some people, it’s not like there’s a prerequisite course load you need to take before you can start telling people you like country music at parties. 

Anyway, that point aside, here’s some basics: country itself is a really broad concept, and was initially defined more by its ideology and source than any specific structural musical qualities that it tended toward (although its creation was most heavily influenced by Irish, Mexican, and African musical traditions). The common use of instruments like guitars, banjos, and fiddles is more to do with the ease of accessibility and portability for poorer Americans of the late 1800s, who - especially in the West - tended to be at least somewhat nomadic. Thematically speaking, it was most often centered around the experiences of blue-collar workers, including but not limited to cowboys. Subsequently, it has suffered under the combined efforts of corporations and politicians to market a parody of rural America’s own culture right back at them, and that’s why - especially if you’re only in your 20’s or younger - it’s very possible your knowledge of it is defined by commercialized Bro Country (which in my opinion is almost always antithetical to the actual spirit of country music itself, and also from a musical perspective tends to be uninteresting bullshit). 

As far as subgenres go, the ideas quickly become so vague that it’s really up to the listener to decide how they want to categorize their music. Region and era can influence sound quite a bit, so that’s one way. Subject matter is another. Actual musical structure is a further one. I’m not going to bother and try to give you a comprehensive idea of all the options, because that’s impossible to do in anything shorter than an essay. Instead I’ll just fill you in on some of my favorites, and some song suggestions to go with them: 

Country Music You’ve Been Listening to This Whole Time Without Knowing It: this is an easy one to start with. Lots of folk music is also country music, whether you were aware of it or not. James Taylor, John Prine, John Denver, Bob Dylan…. You’ve been here this whole time. 

Outlaw Country: Tends to be either dark or mournful, but regardless it’s dramatic and fun. Usually framed around some fictional crime the singer has committed, which they have either been sentenced for or are on the run from. Good examples are Kate McCannon by Colter Wall, Mama Tried by Merle Haggard, Late July by Shakey Graves, Gallows Pole by Willie Watson, and Hell’s Canyon by Lost Dog Street Band

Spirituals: I’m definitely not going to tell you how to feel about religion itself - but given that music has been such a deeply rooted part of spiritual expression for as long as we’ve recorded history, and has very often evolved in tandem with or in response to religious movements, I think you’re really cutting yourself off from some good tunes if you try to ignore it entirely. Johnny Cash’s later stuff, especially, has the same dark overtones of his earlier Outlaw music but with the addition of gospel stylings and a religious severity that comes together in a way that’s honestly just straight up sexy to listen to. Ain’t No Grave and Redemption Day are probably the best two examples of this. On the other side, there’s the simplistic and heartfelt kind of spiritual country found in stuff like Hank Williams’ I Saw the Light, or I’ll Fly Away as performed by Gillian Welch, which I find really moving. 

Honky Tonk: On the subject of Hank Williams, honky tonk is really fun music, and I deeply resent the fact that it’s been incorporated into the classist caricature of rural stupidity. At its heart, honky tonk was just designed to be a good time, and the vocal techniques it employs are actually really difficult to master, so it deserves a lot more respect. Hank Williams, in particular, also tends to use it to get right at the heart of subjects I really enjoy (although don’t confuse him with his son Hank Williams Jr, who writes Bro Country and unfortunately seems to be a terrible person). Anyway, Mind Your Own Business is one of his (and one of my favorite personal anthems), and Wealth Won’t Save Your Soul is a powerful one too. Regarding more modern honky tonk, my favorite up-and-coming musician is named Nick Shoulders, and I’d recommend his songs Rather Low and Snakes and Waterfalls. 

Nice Comfortable Country Music Sung By Ladies: this is definitely a genre specific to just me, but it’s a type of music I grew up listening to a lot as a kid and I really love it. Like the title says, it’s just country songs by various very talented women who make you feel like you’re warm and at home. I Have a Need for Solitude by the great Mary Chapin Carpenter, Across the Great Divide by Nanci Griffith, Traveling Alone by Tift Merritt, Angel from Montgomery by Bonnie Raitt, Hammer and a Nail by The Indigo Girls

Poor Boy Blues: again, not a definitive stylistic subgenre so much as it is an opportunity to show off a few different songs of a few different styles that all follow a common and relatable theme, specifically one that is important to the overall genre itself. Dead End Street by Blake Mills, Crop Comes In by Chatham County Line, Thirteen Silver Dollars by Colter Wall, My Rifle My Pony and Me by Dean Martin, Cowpoke by Dave Stamey, Automobile by KALEO

Love And Heartbreak: have you really lived if you haven’t rocked out to Cowboy Take Me Away by the Dixie Chicks? No, you haven’t. You’ll also be happy to hear that I recall a poll that listed Cowboy Take Me Away as being the number one song every cowboy will sing along to on full blast whenever he’s alone. Anyway, there’s also Buddy by Willie Nelson, Crossing Muddy Waters by John Hiatt, Morning by Jim Ed Brown, Every Time I Hear That Song by Brandi Carlile, Gentle on My Mind by Glen Campbell, Kathleen by Townes Van Zandt. 

Experimental: if you’d like to get a little weird with it, I’d recommend The Gold is Deep by The Dead Tongues (which uses some really ambient reverb and a small church organ for a more psychedelic sound), or Familiarity by The Punch Brothers (which compositionally borrows a lot from modern classical chamber music with its rhythmic systems and pacing). 

There’s lots more we could get into here, like bluegrass, slow dancing music, spaghetti western soundtracks, and the fact that not all country pop-rock is bad, but I’ll stop myself here…. If you’re looking for a more general source for a lot of country all at once, here’s my favorite of my country playlists. Hope that was helpful! 

I just came across your blog. It's awesome. I love it. I was hoping you could point me in the direction of more info on Catherine of Aragon? I don't know if you've written more about her, I'm still scrolling, but if not, could you speak on the accuracy of the constant princess? I was obsessed with that novel and found the rest of Gregory's characterizations of Henry's wives didn't compare. I have a feeling it might be because it's more fiction than fact. Thanks either way!

The thing I liked about the Constant Princess was that it depicted Katharine of Aragon’s iron will and utter conviction that she was the rightful Queen of England.

The question of whether Katharine and Arthur consummated their marriage has been one debated by historians for centuries. What I liked in the novel was that Gregory depicted a very sweet and respectful relationship between Arthur and Katharine - that much I believe is true. Arthur seems to have been a very thoughtful and kind person, and I believe he treated his young wife as well as he could. He had an excellent role model in his own father and how he treated Elizabeth of York.

However, I don’t think the marriage was consummated. Katharine was a deeply religious woman, and whatever her feelings about her destiny to be queen, I don’t believe she would have lied. That said, it is interesting that during the last few days of her life, she didn’t swear on the host she’d come to Henry’s bed a virgin as had been planned. In the last moments of her life, did it not seem to matter? Was she too far gone? Or, as some have said, she didn’t want to meet her God with a lie on her lips? I believe it to be one of the former.

If you’ve been reading my blog (and thanks for your kind words!) you know that I don’t agree with Gregory’s characterization of Anne Boleyn. I don’t think the historical record agrees with it, either. She was not an angel, but she wasn’t a shrill, disagreeable termagant, either. 

I love historical fiction, and I write it myself. The problem, I feel, is when writers assert that they’re sticking to the highest standard of historical accuracy when they’re not. Fiction is great! It lets us explore possibilities and imagine people’s motives, filling in the gaps in the record, but when we make claims like that, we can lead readers to accept fiction as history, and that’s rather dangerous.