Daily Archives: May 7, 2024

Top Tens – Miscellany: Top 10 Youtube (Special Mention) (18) Spectrum

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Youtube channel banner as at 7 May 2024

 

(18) SPECTRUM (PORTUGAL 2018)

 

“I do Rome vids mostly”

You have to respect that Youtube channel bio – it doesn’t get much more to the point than that.

Yes – it’s another Youtube history channel. And yes – it does indeed “do Rome vids mostly”.

A personal highlight for me was its ranking of Roman emperors, apparently his most popular video, hence prompting videos for the Byzantine emperors (and the emperors of the western empire before its fall) – and beyond to Portuguese kings (not surprisingly given his country of origin), Spanish kings, Russian tsars, English monarchs, French kings, and Ottoman sultans.

And of course my other personal highlights are its top ten lists – ten underrated Roman emperors, ten worst Roman defeats, and ten reasons the Roman Empire fell – and tier rankings for the performance of combatant nations in both world wars.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Mancy (Special Mention) (18) Technomancy

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Cover art from 2016 video game The Technomancer developed by French video game company Spiders for Playstation

 

(18) TECHNOMANCY

 

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”

Technomancy is an odd chimera of a beast, given that technology sort of goes against the whole point of magic – technology is functional magic that actually works.

As such, technomancy tends not to be used as divination but a form of magic or other ability that pops up in certain works of fantasy, usually contemporary or urban fantasy in settings with technology, or occasional SF.

Sometimes it is styled as technopathy (or to a lesser extent machine empathy) – “someone who can control machines and bend them to the user’s will, either through a physical or mental interface link. In some cases, this power also allows them to ‘hear’ what a machine is ‘thinking’ and establish a direct line of communication with the machine”.

It could also be used for magic from technology in SF– where technology is used to replicate magic, occasionally in ways unknown to or forgotten by the people using it – or potentially for where magic is used to power what otherwise appears as technology in certain fantasy settings.

Still, there is fun fantasy potential in combining technology with magic. I’d like to imagine it as a form of magic in a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting using relics from a technological past – or flipping it on its head with an anti-technopath, for someone (or something) that is magically destructive to technology.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
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Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Mythologies (Special Mention) (18) Urban Legends

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The Vanishing Hitchhiker – promotional art for Nintendo Switch, one of many variations or adaptations of the urban legend

 

(18) URBAN LEGENDS

 

The modern folklore par excellence – “a genre of folklore comprising stories circulated as true, especially as having happened to a ‘friend of a friend'”. And yes – worthy of their own top ten.

Apparently the term urban legend as used by folklorists has been in print since the 1960s, but is best known – particularly to me – through their most prolific popularizer, Jan Harold Brunvand, in a series of books from The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends & Their Meanings onwards.

“Many urban legends are framed as complete stories with plot and characters. The compelling appeal of a typical urban legend is its elements of mystery, horror, fear, or humor. Often they serve as cautionary tales. Some urban legends are morality tales that depict someone acting in a disagreeable manner, only to wind up in trouble, hurt, or dead.”

“Urban legends will often try to invoke a feeling of disgust in the reader which tends to make these stories more memorable and potent. Elements of shock value can be found in almost every form of urban legend and are partially what makes these tales so impactful. An urban legend may include elements of the supernatural or paranormal”.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
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Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Books (Special Mention) (18) Folk Horror Revival

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X-Twitter profile banner as at 7 May 2024 showcasing books available through their Folk Horror Revival website and Wyld Harvest online bookstore

 

(18) FOLK HORROR REVIVAL

 

“From the forest, from the furrows, from the field…and further”

Now we come to the first of my wild-tier special mentions for an X-Twitter account – hence wild-tier special mention for what is, after all, my top ten for mythology books. However, it does have a connection to books – it’s the account for the Folk Horror Revival website and the Wyld Harvest online bookstore.

“Welcome to the online store for Wyrd Harvest Press books exploring the landscapes of Folk Horror and related realms in film, tv, books, art, music, events and other media and also psychogeography, hauntology, urban wyrd, folklore, cultural rituals and costume, earth mysteries, archaic history, hauntings. southern gothic, ‘landscapism / visionary naturalism & geography’, backwoods horror, murder ballads, carnivalia, dark psychedelia, wyrd forteana and other strange edges.”

That pretty much sums it up really. While folk horror is a sub-genre of fiction – for which my personal archetype is The Wicker Man, albeit a non-supernatural example (or is it?) – it often has an origin in (or ambience of) folklore or mythology, and this account is a handy compendium for folklore or mythology, shared by itself or from other accounts.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
X-TIER (WILD TIER)