Hello, world!
That makes two references now: one to
my programming background and another to
one of the most interesting books I have read.
This is my D&D blog specifically for my work relating to D&D, whether it be my work on my world, discussions of experiences playing, long-winded responses to other blogs, comments on D&D in general or attempts to develop some time-saving apps and programs for my D&D work (whether on Excel or Android).
The decision to name the blog after Northrop Frye's book on literary criticism of the Bible stems from a few factors, including the months that I have spent reading another very important blog -- now, in fact, the only blog I regularly read -- run by the talented and eloquent Alexis Smolensk,
The Tao of D&D. The blog has been around for many years now, and just reached (two weeks before this post) a million all-time pageviews. It is this blog which inspired me to put my D&D online, where I can examine it, show it to my players and discuss it with the Internet. (That being said, I will moderate the discussions in the interest of keeping things from getting too libertarian.)
Frye's book examines the role of the Bible on Western literature, looking at language, myth, metaphor and typology. It's a dense read, but there are many critical gems which I ruminated on after a summer's day reading and thinking about the book.
The Tao was, in some form,
The Great Code of AD&D for me. I still have yet to read the complete Bible, though I know Genesis reasonably well and little bits here and there.
The Great Code, however, guided me through the fascinating influence of the Bible on literature with which I am familiar and enlightened me on its continued power. The most powerful point I took away from the book was the absurdity of literality when interpreting such a metaphorical text as the Bible, where
literary style has led to clear and defined use of metaphor, types and language to suggest deeper meanings.
The Tao of D&D takes first edition AD&D and deconstructs it. Alexis rewrites vague rules and discusses weaknesses of the original system -- perhaps, being temporally closer to the original AD&D rules than Frye was to the Bible, he has a greater opportunity to edit -- along with examining the logic behind running good D&D games. What did the book try to suggest, but was incapable of expressing?
Obviously, the DM's Guide to AD&D cannot ever stand up as a literary construct compared to the Bible. The analogy fails me there.
The Tao of D&D more often trashes the original rules when
The Great Code would have drawn out an intriguing metaphor for the soul or pastoral life. But both are concerned with taking their influence and analyzing it. Criticism is central to both. The use of historical, literary and psychological examples is found in both. And both will open up the reader's mind to consider the deeper implications of everything they read, watch, listen to or experience. That's high praise but it's well deserved. Welcome to The Great Code of D&D.
