Dunwich, Anno Domini 1988!
OK, tonight’s Ars Magica roleplaying game session revolved around the Siege of Dunwich, Suffolk in 1173. I then remembered all the work I put in to this . I was writing for my Mage the Awakening campaign, and I wanted a setting outside of my current home county of Gloucestershire, but in the UK. I finally decided I would use a fictional setting. While this can be restrictive to players, I felt that could be overcome by allowing the players to help me create and imagine the setting.
Being very fond of my home county of Suffolk I toyed with the idea of a Suffolk setting. Unfortunately Suffolk has few large towns – really only Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds and Felixstowe. I had used Bury St Edmunds for my Changeling Chronicle “Three Crowns” and in several Ars Magica sagas, so I wanted something different. Also I lived in Bury St Edmunds in the time the game is set, and I wanted to avoid running a game which used my friend and old rpg group as NPCs. It was fun in Changeling but I wanted Mage to feel different.
Then I thought of Dunwich. Dunwich is still remembered in the titles of the local diocese, and in the 13th century was a major town, prospering at a time when Ipswich was in recession. The Great Storm of 1287 silted up the harbour, and the town went in to a terminal decline. Then as the years passed, the coastal defences were not maintained, and the town was lost to the sea as the cliffs eroded.
There is practically nothing left of the old town of Dunwich today, just a gravestone from the last Church to vanish. The village of Dunwich still exists a little inland as I recall, and I took the Student Parapsychology Society to the site of Dunwich a few years back, but there is really little to see.
However, as well inspiring the name of Lovecraft’s fictional Dunwich, Massachusetts (which gives the name an eerie and gothic tone immediately) Dunwich has become home to all kinds of legends and stories. While marine archaeologists and historians deny it was ever the great city with fifty churches one reads about in romantic Victorian books, it certainly was a major town, and if it had not been for the gret storm of 1287 would today be a major East Anglian port and cathedral city.
In my World of Darkness, that is exactly what happened. I have set about recreating Dunwich for the game, but Dunwich as it might have been, in 1988! I am not sure what use a fictional history of a lost town is anyone, but if anyone wants to join in by creating more places, personalities, or lift some of it for a game they are running feel free. The yuppie-era Vampire game exploring Thatcherism from the bloodsuckers perspective may happen yet – and this might amuse anyone who has ever tried to create a fictional town!
Central Dunwich as-it-never-was; in 1987 or at any other time!
A History of (fictional) Dunwich
In which CJ makes a very peculiar blend of truth and fiction for the setting of his Vampire game – bet you can’t work out which is which!!! Dunwich (pronounced Dun-Itch) is a seaport and seaside resort in the county of Suffolk in England, with a natural harbour formed by the mouths of the River Blyth and the River Dunwich. Dunwich is today one of the largest ports in eastern England, with a population of around 53,000 (1988), though it is less important as an international port than nearby Harwich and Felixstowe. Initially settled by the Romans who built a now lost fort here called Sitomagus here (“the place of the Magi”), Dunwich grew large because its position as a convenient harbour on the North Sea made it attractive to Saxon settlers, who had founded a town here by 600AD. Further down the coast is the site where the Sutton Hoo treasure was found, and the area is rich in finds of Anglo-Saxon artefacts. In the Norman period the town continued to prosper, and an entry exists in the 1086 Domesday Book.
The twelfth century saw the construction of the great walls of Dunwich, some of which still stand to this day, by Hugh de Burgh. Tragically 1191 saw a shameful episode when following a blood libel, (claims they sacrificed Christian boy named Guy whose body was found in a well) there was a massacre of forty citizens, despite the best effort of Bishop Grace to prevent the massacre. This followed similar pogroms against the Jews at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, and King’s Lynn, Norfolk. Following the revolt of Hugh de Burgh against the King the small motte and bailey castle was slighted, and it was never to be rebuilt, though the impressive earth mound Castle Hill still towers over the estuary and town, surmounted by a small wood and Girsham’s Folly, an eighteenth century mock ruined tower built by a minor member of the Hellfire Club in 1775.
King John granted Dunwich its Charter in 1208, which provided for the Thursday Market, and in the next four centuries it made most of its wealth trading Suffolk woollen cloth with the Continent, while maintaining a strong fishing fleet which rivalled those of Ipswich and Great Yarmouth. Other main exports were grain, and the main imports were fish, furs and timber from Iceland and the Baltic region, cloth from the Netherlands, and wine from France.
During the Middle Ages the cathedral was a popular pilgrimage destination, and attracted a number of royal pilgrims. Bishop Reginald Catchpole, the son of a wealthy local lawyer, was born in Dunwich about 1479. One of Henry VIII’s court, he founded the college of St Bartholomew in the town in 1528, which is now known as St Bartholomew’s, Dunwich, a co-educational boarding school which stands in beautiful early Victorian gothic revival buildings to this day . He remains one of the town’s most famed figures and a statue of Bishop Catchpole can be seen in the Elizabethan Thursday Market. Following Catchpole’s fall from grace he was beheaded at Tower Hill, London, on May 12th, 1535. Henry VIII was also responsible for the closure of both the Greyfriar’s Priory and the Blackfriars Priory and St. Anna’s convent, and dispersal of the monks during the Reformation. The King’s men were extremely vindictive: they even burned the last Prior of Blackfriars, Richard Grey,in the Monday Market, while accusing the monks of “gross blasphemy.foul sorceries and heathenish rites”.
The Thursday Market was also the site of the burning of the five Dunwich Martyrs in 1555, who suffered the stake for their Protestant beliefs and who are commemorated by the market cross which marks the location of this grisly event. 1645 saw the hanging of 12 women accused of Witchcraft here during the reign of terror of the notorious Matthew Hopkins, following the Dunwich Assize. Hopkins is said to have cursed the town as a “sinful bed of fornicators, wytches and braggarts, which should have fallen in to the sea.” Many occult and ghostly legends cluster around Dunwich.
In the 17th century Dunwich was a major centre for emigration to New England. This was organised by the Town Lecturer, Obadiah Whateley. Another resident, born in born in 1805 was Nathaniel Ward –Phillips, a prominent New England minister who is best known for his work Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New-England Canaan. The 17th and 18th century also saw the rise of Smuggling in the town,and there are continued rumours of a system of hidden smugglers tunnels linking churches, old inns and the caves which mark th cliffs dating from this period. The painters John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough both visited and painted scenes around Dunwich in the 18th century, and other famous sometime residents include Horatio Nelson and the novelist H Rider-Haggard. Short story writer MR James, noted for his supernatural fiction, was also a frequent visitor to Dunwich – scholars dispute whether Dunwich or nearby Aldeburgh was the inspiration for the fictional town of Seaburgh in his short story Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad and A Warning to the Curious.
Modern Dunwich
An attractive East Anglian port city, best known for it’s historic Cathedral, Dunwich is still a popular seaside resort in season, and a commercially successful harbour town, returning an MP and a Euro MP in Dunwich (sometimes referred to as Coastal Suffolk) constituency. In 1988 the post is held by Arthur Murray-Fforbes, who represents the Conservative Party and was elected by a majority of 12,000. The Town Council represent 12 wards in the Borough, with 7 Conservatives, 3 Labour, one Liberal and an Independent councillor. The current mayor is Councillor Geraldine Mournley (Con). Dunwich Centre contains a mix of architectural styles, from well preserved medieval buildings like St. Crispin’s Guildhouse to Elizabethan black and white timbered buildings, through to the modern concrete glass and gleaming metal of the office buildings, bus station and mall. Much of the town centre architecture is Georgian, though the outlying housing tends to be Victorian as are the houses which overlook the front on Cliffview Road, many of which are today boarding houses catering to the tourist industry. The whole town is dominated by the towering Gothic Cathedral, one of the finest examples of medieval Gothic in Britain, the exterior largely untouched except fo r the Victorian Gotchic extension to the Nave, which fortunately complements the existing building. The second oldest building in Dunwich is St.Werburgha’s the current structure dating from 1077, and the medieval St. Crispin’s Guildhouse, which dates to 1421.
Dunwich has undergone an extensive gentrification programme in recent years, principally centred around the waterfront. This has turned a run-down dock area into an emerging residential and commercial centre, with Cafe bars, restaurants, speciality shopping and many pubs and night clubs.
Industry
Dunwich is still a flourishing port today, handling just under a million tonnes of cargo each year. It is the site of three breweries, belonging to Tolly Cobbold,Greene King and Adnams, which are major employers, as is the Dunwich Sugar Beet Factory, whose concrete silos dominate the skyline. The pumping of treated waste from this factory in to the North Sea by the concrete encased outflow pipe remains controversial, but the “White Pier” can be walked some two hundred yards in to the North Sea by the foolhardy who risk being washed away by surging waves. The outflow pipe was built in 1974 following complaints from locals about the smell of sugar beet waste.Industry around Dunwich has had a strong agricultural bias with the sugar beet factory and with Gartons (manufacturers of combine harvesters and specialist agricultural machinery) still a major employer, and the cattle market held in the Monday Market as it has been for centuries. There are light industrial units in the two trading estates which lie to the south and east of Dunwich proper.
Sport
Dunwich has never had much luck with its football team, Dunwich City Football Club. Established in 1898, the team enjoyed little success, with a history of Third and Fourth Division success at best. Playing in green, grey and White striped shirts at the London Road Stadium, their main rivals are Norwich City F.C. and Ipswich Town F.C, both notably better teams. Dunwich has a more successful Speedway team, the Dunwich Devils, who are based at their Catchpole Stadium track, on the outskirts of Dunwich, for over 50 years. Greyhound Racing also takes place at the Catchpole Stadium, and is often better attended.
Dunwich Heath, a gorse covered sandy area just to the west of the town filled with small woods proves a popular recreational area, both for locals and tourists. It is popularly said to be haunted by the spirit of an executed 18th century soldier, the drummer “Black Toby”, and by “Black Shuck”, the folkloric hell hound of East Anglia. The remains of the gibbet mentioned by James in his travelogue may have led rise to such stories.
Ghosts of Dunwich
DUNWICH: A lost city, Dunwich was one of the major ports of medieval England. The usual phantom monks prowl the ruins of Greyfriar’s monastery.
On the beach you may well see a young man clad in the bright clothing of an Elizabethan sailor. Don’t hail him; he is another of Dunwich’s many ghosts…
Inland of modern Dunwich lie Dunwich Heath and the woods. If you go down to these woods tonight you could be in for a very big surprise, for they are roamed by not one but two ghosts! The first has a pretty story attached. In life he was the brother of the Lord of the manor who wished for nothing more than to be allowed to marry his true love. Sadly this was not allowed for she was a mere serving maid and his brother expressly forbade them to marry. Furthermore he was never allowed to see the girl again. In despair he took to wandering the path that leads through the woods hoping for a glimpse of her, but alas this was not to be. One day he could stand it no longer and dropped dead of a broken heart. So the story goes; I personally suspect pneumonia caught from the biting cold wind off the sea more than a heavy heart as the reason for this romantic heroes demise! At least today he has more company of equal social stature, for the other apparition is that of a Victorian squire galloping through the woods on a fine Arab horse, doubtless off to evict some poor widow into the snow or tie an innocent hearted maid to a railway track, moustache twiddling as he does. Well it’s a nice idea anyway…
No ghost book is complete without a shaggy dog story and Old Shuck, eyes as big as saucers pads his way down to Dunwich headland to scare to death those unfortunate enough to see him cross their path. )Adapted from my Suffolk Ghost Book, Spectral Suffolk)
Libraries & Research in (fictional) Dunwich
It is likely the players will want to grub around and look stuff up. This means they need to consider access to the various libraries, newspapers and museums of Dunwich. Unfortunately lots of documentation is distributed in different archives and collections, but dedicated effort can pay off…
Libraries
Newspapers
East Anglia in 1988 has two major regional daily newspapers…The East Anglian Daily Times, always called the EADT by locals which maintains a small Dunwich Office on the High Street above Clarks Shoe Shop, and the Eastern Daily Press referred to as the EDP which maintains a small office on the Thursday Market. The EDP has more of an East Suffolk and Norfolk emphasis to my mind, the EADT more inclined to reports from Essex and the west of the County, though it prints an East Suffolk edition for Dunwich, Ipswich and Lowestoft readers. (NB: in 2005 the EDP concentrates on Norfolk, the EADT on Suffolk and Essex).
The Eastern Daily Press dates back to October 10th, 1870, and the EADT to 1890. Both are fully archived at the Record Office in Keble Street.
A third regional newspaper, The Suffolk Free Press existed from 1850 to 1951, before closing. It’s local version, the Dunwich Free Press still comes out each Thursday, and is the primary newspaper read for local news by Dunwich folk who choose to buy a paper. A thick weekly almost anything happening in the Dunwich region is worthy of some attention, and the often sermonising editorials and deeply conservative columnists are often amusing to an outsider. Local headlines include such past classics as “Garden bonfire gets out of control”, “Frost killed Prize Marrow” and “Woman has Purse Stolen” (it subsequently turned up in her handbag). The large offices and Press are based on Walberswick Road, and the News Room welcome stories.
The DFP offices also publishes the Dunwich Gazette, a weekly freebie delivered on Mondays throughout the town and 90% advertising. The Gazette is rivalled by the Dunwich Eye published on Wednesdays, and distributed wherever paperboys do not throw it in the Estuary, by Pickman Group Papers of Ipswich.
The Historian may be interested in these newspapers available at Dunwich Record Office (and largely based on real newspapers)-
The following are (fictitious, based on Ipswich) past Dunwich papers…
The Nightlife of (fictional) Dunwich
Dunwich supports quite a varied night life, because of the student population (ok, only 1,570 but still more than most Suffolk towns), the large hinterland of villages, and the summer tourist population. While pubs predominate there are a few nightclubs, bars and restaurants.
Nightclubs of Dunwich
While Dunwich is not a major resort town, there are several small clubs.
Dancing In The Dark is a converted cinema on the High Street. The downstairs is today Anglian Windows, and the side door always flanked by bouncers leads to a steep staircase which winds up to the large bar space and dancefloor. The club is decorated in smoked black glass and polished metal, with russet furnishings. Comfortable, fairly spacious and with a sprung wood dancefloor the carpets are inevitably sticky from the traditional student drink of Snakebite and Black.
It’s open several nights, with Friday and Saturday traditionally townie nights, and students dominating Mondays and Wednesdays. The schedule is
Cowboy Joes Really just a bar with a late license, open Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Wild West decor, minute dance floor, and both types of music, Country and Western, washed down with generous helpings of rock n roll nostalgia on Saturday nights, and Elvis every night. The bouncers are from the family who own it, and brook absolutely no nonsense, and the average age is thirties and up. Students will probably not get through the door, unless with their parents.
Discotheque 1999 – on the Pier, this is really what it sounds like. Glitterballs,loads of ‘futuristic’ metallic foil, staff in “space age” foil uniforms. Closed n off season (from mid-September to April) so fairly irrelevant to the game, but horror stories are told of it. Caters exclusively to tourists of all ages, and often has minor TV celebrity guest dj’s. It look like a metal portacabin, and the sp[ace theme is done to death in a really tasteless fashion. If only it were summer you could enjoy the nightly wet tee shirt contests. Just thank your lucky stars karaoke is still to come to England!
Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!
Dunwich is a seaside resort town, albeit a small one. Since the 1970's and the advent of cheap package holidays and the fashion for holidaying abroad, the seafront has slipped in to decline, and its faded grandeur is in places, well tatty. The college year opens in late September, when the cutting wind off the North Sea and seasonal sea fog has driven all but the hardiest of tourists away, and as a result the Front is closed, shuttered and often partially deserted.
I shall describe a few of the landmarks of the Front here. Imagine them rainswept, grey and littered with the rubbish of the summer holidaymakers...
The Beach
The sandy beach at Dunwich is the reason for the tourism, and while it has not won any awards for cleanliness in years, and the water quality is dubious, some people do swim heres till. The currents can be treacherous, and the flag system is operated from May to October, warning when it is dangerous to go out. The beach is relatively wide, but the drop off under water is sudden, and summer bathing fatalities are not unknown. The council does make a dedicated effort to clean the beach of rubbish however, and litter pickers operate each evening at sunset, even off season, just as beachcombers greet each dawn all year round. Fishermen are not uncommon, using rod and line rather than the crab fishing one sees in the harbour.
The beach is never empty during the day except in rainstorms, or unless one walks up all the way to where it peters out among the cliffs. Great black groynes break it up,sticking in to the sea, and a line of tiny beach huts can provide shelter from the wind, flanked by the desolate shuttered ice cream and fish and chip sheds, closed for the winter. The eerie shrieks of circling seagulls resonate across the wintry sands; but then living in Dunwich, the crawk of the seagull is the soundtrack to dy to day life. Out at sea great passenger ferries bound for Scandinavia sail stately past, bound for or just out of Harwich, and on a clear night one can just about make out the flares of far away oil rigs on the Dogger Bank.
A strip of grass separates The Promenade from the beach, and it has a small Victorian public toilets, open all night, and a number of park benches set among attractive flowers dying with the frosts. Ten pence will allow use of the Telescope mounted at the viewpoint, which allows a wonderful look at the expanse of grey heaving icy water, and the freezing white foaming waves. If you are lucky you might see a porpoise or even a seal, but they are uncommon here now, and the seals never beach.
The smell of rotting seaweed, dead fish and salt water permeates everything. When the weather is poor, a beach out of season is a godforsaken, desolate place.
The Pier
The Victorian Pier projects from close to Bryant Bros. Amusement Park for a hundred and fifty yards out in to the North Sea. Few fall off it, owing to the iron fence which runs along the edge, but standing looking over the edge the twelve foot down in to the raging sea can be unnerving.
The entrance is a large gaudy wood and iron frontage, with two turnstiles, a locked fire exit gate, a small ticket office and a kitchen/toilet for staff. In winter the decrepit caretaker Herbert Wrongdon appears at dawn to unlock, and locks up again an hour after dusk, taking £3 from anglers for a days fishing from the end of the pier. At night security guards are paid to visit, and occasionally drive up, and more irregularly unlock and wander round with flashlights.
The Pier can be divided in to three sections.
The Bryant Bros. Amusements Park
Churches of (fictional) Dunwich
Churches
The Medieval Guilds of Dunwich (which persist to this day in the form of businessmens clubs and dominate the local Chamber of Commerce) derive their names from the major parish churches of Dunwich. The most important ecclesiastical building is clearly the Gothic Cathedral dedicated to Our Lady Stella Maris (Star of the Sea). The current Bishop of Dunwich is the Right Reverend Robert Curtaigne, who sits in the House of Lords, and the Dean is the Rev. Harold Wyke. The Cathedral was established by Saint Felix. The Bishop of Dunwich appointed by Sigebert, he met Sigebert in France. The Pope Honorius authorised Felix as Bishop of East Anglia. He is an obscure saint, but his cult was popular in Soham, Cambridgeshire, from where his remains were taken out of East Anglia during a relic raid by a rival monastery in the Middle Ages. A Native Burgundian his own copy of the gospel, written in Lombard characters, was held at Eye for centuries and oaths sworn upon it - it was known as the Red Book of Eye. His feast day is March 8th.
The Cathedral also contains the Shrine of St. Sigebert, King of East Anglia, who retired to the monastic life at Bury St Edmunds in 635. When the pagan King of the Mercians, Penda, invaded, he was forced against his will to lead the army. He chose to ride unarmed but for an ash wand, and was slain on the field of battle, a true and holy pacificistic martyr. His feast day is January 25th, and he is patron Saint of Dunwich.
The Cathedral is worthy of its own entry, which will follow when I find the time.
Other Churches.
King George Dock and North Quay District
The King George Dock was opened in 1923 because the Old Docks were no longer able to handle the increasing larger cargo ships. It can accommodate ships of 800ft in length, 100ft in breadth and with a maximum draught of 40ft. Large, four storey reinforced concrete warehouses - built in linear style - line the sides of the North Quay and there is a rail link between it and the King George Dock. There are also about a dozen rail mounted cranes, each 115ft tall and installed in the 1970's, alongside the Dock itself as well as the railway marshaling yard and turntable. These last two are located between the Dock and Quay as is the container yard that covers several acres.
The King George Dock was the scene of the Dunwich Explosion in 1942 when a munitions vessel, the S.S. Elsinore Castle, exploded killing 27 people.
There is a rail link from the marshaling yard to Dunwich, which crosses the entrance of the Dock via a steel lattice swing bridge. This was originally powered by diesel engines, but was converted to electic drive in 1952.
Marine Parade, which runs along the east side of North Quay, was built in 1921-23 and is incoporated into the elevated concrete and rock causeway forming the modern sea defences. This was built to not only provide vehicular access to the the ferry terminal at the the northern end of the Quay, but to improve on the cast-iron Victorian groynes, which were considered inadequate by the 1920's. The Art Deco ferry terminal was completed in 1925 and steamers ran a service from Dunwich to Copenhagen, Gothenburg and Rotterdam until 1963, when cheap foreign holidays finally forced it to close. It now houses the Dunwich Harbour Master's office and a local Customs & Excise office.
Two jetties jutting out on the seaward side of Marine Parade and adjacent to the ferry terminal, enabled ferries to tie up. These are now used by private craft such as yachts. Pleasure steamers could also dock at the Quay itself. Further down the coast is the pleasure pier built in 1896. As you'd expect for the period, it is a very ornate iron construction with wooden decking.
Business has declined since World War II, now the docks only handle 500,000 tons of cargo a year and Harwich has taken over the North Sea ferry traffic due to the relative remoteness of Dunwich.
At night the Docks and North Quay are almost deserted, though patrolled by pairs of security guards, and with a skeleton night staff. Most of the modern warehouses are 24 hour however, and if you looked inside you would find a scene of bustling activity, as betrayed by the occasional container lorry coming in and out. The whole area is guarded by barbed wire and chain link fence like a modern industrial estate, and some floodlights cover busy thoroughfares and the carparks.There are two entrance gates, though entry by boat, swimming or walking along the railroad tracks is an easy way round the fence.
Donovan's Burgers provides coffee and Burgers from 12 midnight till 2am, and from 8am to 2pm, and is a small caravan parked in the car park. Workers from different warehouses or busy unloading a night arrival in port sometimes gather here to fraternize. The Harbour Masters office is also open 24/7, with at least two staff, on duty, and usually two Dunwich pilots playing darts on standby as well. During the day heavy lorries, busy warehouse workers and gangs of dockers make this quite a busy area, and security is fairly lax.
Naseby House, Hall of Residence
A self catering hall of residence on King's Road, Dunwich. Home to 17 students and one member of staff, the warden Donald, who is a new lecturer in Cultural Studies. Relatiely expensive, and a good 15 minute walk from the main campus.
1988 Residents
Basement - Warden's Flat (Donald), Launderette, bathrooms, boiler room, cleaner's cupboard.
Ground floor
Ed - room 1 - 2nd year, from Farnborough,sports student.
Laura - ( 3rd year senior Student) - room 2, plays hockey and lacrosse. Verry attractive.
Kate - room 3 - 2nd year, new ager, irritable, indeed most say bitchy. Incense and her kimono her trademarks.
Frank - room 4, 2nd year from Ely, muscular, religion student. Handsome
They have the largest kitchen, and Laura's room has a en suite toilet and shower.
First Floor
Louis Clutterbuck- room 1 - mature student (back right)[Kev]
veronica Isabella Dee- room 2 (front right) [Luke]
Clovis Lockwood- room 3 – [DC] (front left)
Clare Mayfair- room 4 [Ben] (back left)
Has a kitchen and toilet.
Second Floor
The Sports student girls
Nessie- room 1 – sports student, leader of these ladies, from Macclesfield.
Evelyn- room 2 – sports student, sings along loudly to various awful bands.
- room 3
Dora – room 4 – sports student, very strong.
Liz – room 5 – sports student, friendly.
This floor has its own bathrooms and toilet as well as small kitchen.
Third Floor
The Christian Union Girls
Room 1 – Belinda, from Coventry, 2nd year Religion
Room 2 – Diane, from Aylesury, doing History/religion in 2nd year
Room 3 – Amy from Dartmouth doing geography. Very pretty. 2nd year.
Room 4 – Clare from Birmingham doing 2nd year religion.
Room 5 – Severina Harris in theory, 2nd year religion student. rarely if ever sleeps in halls though, but pays the fees.
There is a toilet at top of stairs, and a reasonable kitchen.
The Attic
Off limits to students, and heavily locked, the door is on the front left of the third floor.
That’s as far as I got in the background rather than plot and NPC. Thought might amuse somebody!
cj x
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Tags: Ars Magica, Changeling, CJ's games, Dunwich, fictional towns, Mage the Awakening, roleplaying games, RPG, rpg settings, Student Parapsychology Society, Suffolk, World of Darkness
The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) are probably known to many readers of this blog: I first joined back in 1992, was a member for a couple of years, and after a fifteen year hiatus have recently once again become an Associate member. Some of you may still be storing SPR Journals and Proceedings for me – if so thanks! Perhaps some readers would consider joining up?
Founded in 1882 the SPR are still Britain’s (if not the world’s) leading parapsychological organisation, and hold regular monthly meetings in London as well as occasional Study Days which are always worth the effort. The London based nature of most events makes me an irregular attendee – London is about as accessible to the Moon for me with no car and no money, and Becky is based in Derby so it’s not much easier for her — but the excellent Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (JSPR), and a popular magazine The Paranormal Review arrive in the post four times a year and are never devoid of interest. (There are also irregular occasional Proceedings (PSPR). In fact these form much of the basis for my reading in what is going on in contemporary parapsychology, along with the excellent Journal of European Parapsychology (not an SPR publication). On top of these benefits, SPR members also receive a generous download provision from another independent project, LEXSCIEN, the online parapsychology library -- where one can search through, read or print as needed 150 years worth of peer reviewed psychical research and parapsychological literature. Unfortunately I had already joined LEXSCIEN before rejoining the SPR, but it really is a huge plus to SPR membership for anyone interested in the subject – you can take a look at Abstracts and a few bits and pieces for free anyway.
The SPR logo: the symbol is psi, the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet.
Of course the greatest benefit is the other members: I have been privileged to have the opportunity to meet so many people, from the late John Beloff, Manfred Cassirer, Maurice Grosse and Andrew Mackenzie through to the many wonderful people I have learned a great deal from and whose work I knew, such as Tony Cornell, Tom Ruffles, Alan Gauld, Mary Rose Barrington, Archie Roy, David Luke, Tricia Robertson, Terry White, Guy Lyon Playfair, John Randall and Eleanor O’ Keeffe and many many more interesting people through the SPR’s events. And we should not forget the offices and library in London where members can find a wealth or research materials and assistance!
Ghosthunters & The SPR
Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in “spontaneous cases”: that is non-experimental psychical research. (Mrs Sidgwick seems to have originated that distinction and the phrase “spontaneous cases” in the Report on the Census of Hallucinations in PSPR, vol 10, 1894 I noted yesterday!) So now we have ghost groups, often deeply committed and sometimes very efficiently run, all over the country. These “local groups” like Cheltenham’s PARASOC however always maintain a distance from the SPR, I suspect more through ignorance of what the Society has to offer than by design. Some people are just in to the subject for “legend tripping” – they enjoy a spooky night in a haunted house, but want little more from their hobby. Many are put off I suspect by the dry prose of psychical research literature, especially some of the papers which feature quantitative methodologies and page after page of statistics, or just by the fact that articles are very technical. Yet the Paranormal Review rarely features such papers, and even if one is not willing to fire up SPSS (a stats computer program) to check the stats for oneself, the peer reviewed nature of the JSPR means one can always learn something from an article and have faith that the numbers mean what the author states!
So why don’t ghosthunters from local groups join the SPR? You don’t have to be a brilliant academic with a brain like the Mekon – you can be a normal person, and don’t have to speak like you swallowed a thesaurus.
You don't have to look like the Mekon to join the SPR: evil geniuses are still welcome, but normal folks join too!
The SPR is far less stuffy than many similar academic groups, warm and accepting. From the earliest days the membership ranged from the brilliant and famous (and many were) through the mighty and powerful (Balfour was Secretary of the SPR while Prime Minister, and on some old Proceedings the address for correspondence is given as 10 Downing Street, London!) through the scandalous and eccentric (George Sand) to the humble – chambermaids, undermaids and grocer’s assistants appear in the lists of members. Nothing has changed (except you can’t send mail to number 10 any more!).
Who ya gonna call?: Not no. 10 -- Sadly since former SPR Secretary Balfour's Prime Ministerial career ended in 1905 this is no longer a useful address if you see a ghost!
Now the SPR is not, and never has been cheap, compared with joining your local ghost group. What it does do however is you bring you in to the mainstream and give you access to what has gone before in psychical research, and give you a chance to contribute insights and research to the wider parapsychological community. Long term readers of this blog may recall my piece on “types of ghosthunters” where each category I jokingly discussed ended “and never publish their results.” Of course many groups do publish newsletters, or decent websites where they chronicle their findings, but if you don’t publish in a mainstream publication, and I suspect some of the cases people have studied would make great Paranormal Review articles at least, how can you say you are doing scientific work? Scientists publish their results, and share with each other. While the peer reviewed JSPR may prove daunting to many with a non-academic background to write for, that is the aim. (they were kind enough to publish something of mine, and I’m not brilliant!). Even if you don’t want to write up articles , you can file your reports with the SPR library, and providing they are readable I am sure the SPR will be willing to store them for future researchers.
On top of all this the SPR has a number of members with a huge amount of experience in investigating spontaneous cases, and a Spontaneous Cases Committee who can usually help you, and put you in touch with a local member who will provide valuable knowledge and experience in your investigation if you so desire. How else will you be able to say as Venkman did “Symmetrical book stacking. Just like the Philadelphia mass turbulence of 1947?”, if you don’t know the literature?
If this is what you want to do in life, you need to join the SPR and know the parapsychological literature!
The SPR has been doing this research for 150 years, so why do so many groups stand apart? They do NOT affiliate with local groups, by long term principle, but they will still give you as a member all kinds of valuable ideas and information you can bring to bear on your own research efforts, and provide a forum to discuss and meet with genuine experts in the field. The new SPR updated website has for the first time an online payment form – current annual membership prices are (January 2010) £60/ £40 unwaged/ £30 student, but honestly, you would pay more for a lot of psychical research related books and events out there.
I’m sure many of us have signed up to a local group only to later find they have a secret mission – in the case of the old Cheltenham group (CPRG) taking over the world, but in the case of many groups simply finding the Holy Grail or defeating the evil minions of some dire satanic cult, like the Inland Revenue – anyway another reason people hesistate to join psychic research groups is in case they are thought to be committing to belief in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis, without even a steady paycheck to compensate. This is not an issue with the SPR owing to a very important rule -the SPR as a body has no corporate opinions on the phenomena it studies, all members owning their own beliefs. So even if you are completely sceptical of all alleged paranormal phenomena, you will find SPR members who share your beliefs. There are actually a few important guidelines for SPR members – you can’t use membership in the Society to promote yourself or product (blast there goes my psychic phone line – “Madame CJ speaks the future, only £20 a minute!”), ad so forth. You can read them here.
Anyway what occasioned these brief thoughts is that the SPR website at www.spr.ac.uk – note the ac.uk domain, I was always impressed they got that! – has just undergone a major overhaul, with a lot of new material. There is a guest essay, a form to report your experiences, links to some members research (hopefully as soon as Becky has her ethics approval through she can get listed) and a listing of recent books on parapsychology and related topics, as well as extensive revisions throughout. So stop reading this, go have a look!
Hope to see you at an event one day, and if you join do comment.
cj x
Filed under: Fun forthcoming events, Paranormal | 5 Comments
Tags: 10 Downing Street, Andrew Mackenzie, Balfour, Becky Smith, Chris Jensen Romer, cj.23, CPRG, EJP, ESP, Ghost Hunters, Ghostbusters quotes, ghosthunters, ghosts, John Beloff, Journal of European Parapsychology, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, JSPR, LEXSCIEN, Manfred Cassirer, Paranormal, paranormal investigation, parapsychological community., parapsychology, Parasoc, peer reviewed parapsychology journals, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, psi, PSPR, Psychic Research, psychical research, Psychical Research Society, S.P.R, Society for Psychical Research, Spontaneous Cases Committee, SPR Journal, SPR Research, The Paranormal Review, www.spr.ac.uk
Act on CO2? Why?
What’s with “People Acting On CO2″? Wouldn’t it just make the poor actors drowsy??? Theatre on N2O (Nitrous Oxide) – now that might be entertaining?
Filed under: Dreadful attempts at humour | Leave a Comment
Tags: Act on CO2
A Gloucester Road Ghost
A Gloucestershire Road Ghost? A CJ case from 1996
In late autumn 1969 a young couple were driving down the Cheltenham road through Longlevens (a suburb of Gloucester, UK), when a girl appeared in front of the windscreen. The time was approximately 11.30pm and they were coming from Oxstalls in Gloucester and heading to Churchdown were the young lady lived, a distance of less than 5 miles. The two were courting and he was driving her home. For the sake of this report we will call them Mr Black and Miss White.
As they drove the short distance to her home, a journey they had made many times before they appeared to run down a child of about 12 years old. They had passed Anderson’s garage (now the BP Garage) and at the same time as the Miss White screamed Mr Black slammed on the brakes. However, it was too late, and they felt themselves drive over the body.
Miss White continued to scream “you’ve killed her” and the poor Mr Black got out of the car to find the body, and call an ambulance. Both were extremely shaken and deeply upset about having run into this child and when they couldn’t find the body they panicked. Mr Black looked at the front of the car to examine whereabouts he had run into her, and yet there were no marks, broken lights or dents anywhere on the car. However both had seen her and both had felt as if they had driven over her. He went to look a second time for the body; perhaps she had ended up further away? Still he could not find her.
The couple eventually married but never satisfactorily resolved what had happened on that night.
Such experiences are of course not uncommonly reported; they are often described as “road-ghosts.” Recent investigations have shown that in February 1963 a woman was killed on the exact spot where the apparitional experience occurred, which is incidentally some 500m from the nearest surface fault line, too far for us to consider this as relevant. There is no particular reason to connect the two incidents at this time, though work continues.
Often “road-ghost” experiences occur to drivers who are severely fatigued or have driven long distances. In this case neither applies. Another common factor is that the anomalous experience occurs in a rural area; in this case it occurred in a busy suburb, with considerable traffic and in a residential area. There was no feeling of disruption of normal consciousness before or during the experience.
The length of road in question is straight (unlike many road ghosts which appear after a sharp bend), and was in 1969 as today well lit. The modern garage has moved about 20m along the road towards Cheltenham, but the original site of Anderson’s Garage is apparent if the area is inspected.
There is one last factor which may be relevant. While researching we spoke with local children who claimed to have seen a “ghost lady wearing blue” walk through the wall of a burnt out building situated in an alley immediately opposite where the experience occurred. On walking around to the other side of this wall we found an electricity sub-station, which presumably emits a powerful electrical field. We have not been able to trace if this was here in 1969, but it is about 10 meters from the spot where the road ghost appeared.
The children who witnessed the apparition of the “blue lady” were habitual substance abusers, sniffing glue and lighter fluid. We did not pursue their sighting further as their testimony is highly unreliable, but the original Mr & Mrs Black were as far as we could tell reliable witnesses.
Filed under: Paranormal, Uninteresting to others whitterings about my life | 7 Comments
Tags: cases CJ investigated., Gloucester, Gloucestershire ghosts, Longlevens, road ghosts, roadghost
Boots for the Glory of Russia!
OK, a long, long time ago Anne Lay said that fantasy was the only interesting genre in gaming. I disagreed, and wrote a game set in a St. Petersburg Boot Factory, during the Russian Revolution. There are no great historical or ethical lessons to be learned – the history may well be rubbish – but it’s a fairly simple game you can play with 9 friends over for dinner and a bottle of vodka. Steve Hatherley of UK Freeforms made a pdf, which is free to download, so you can print it out and play it if you want to. The GM is the Gamesmaster – the host – they should have read all the character sheets, and be familiar with the whole print out, and make up any answrs to rules questions not covered by the game. Everyone else just gets some game cards, a character sheet for the person they are playing, and the briefing documents — anyway email me at chrisjensenromer@hotmail.com if you have questions.
A boot!
It’s not my best game, but I’m trying to mention my gaming hobby more on my blog this year, and it may amuse. The original version included a points scoring system to determine a winner: Steve deleted it to make it more of a freeform, but if Axel still has the files I sent him I can make that available as well if any one wants it. Have a read see what you think!
cj x
Filed under: Games | 5 Comments
Tags: Anne Lay, Axel Johnston, Boots for the Glory of Russia, cj.23, Fallcon 2000, Freeform GAmes, games set in Revolutionary Russia, LARP Scenarios, Murder Mystery Games, Steve Hatherley, UK Freeforms
In the prevailing icy conditions, it seems only to apt to add to my blog this review, written last year when the weather was rather more clement! This review is “Adventures in running indie games with hard core war gamers and power gamers with a strong gamist tendency.” If that premise amuses you, read on.
Polaris: Chivalric Tragedy at the Utmost North
In this review I will discuss Ben Lehman’s Polaris: Chivalric Tragedy at the Utmost North. The cover suggests 3-5 players aged 14 and up, and the game is really designed with four players in mind, though rules for three and five player variants are included. As one of my players said, “in some ways this resembles a board game”, and the requirement to have 3-5 and ideally four players immediately shows you some of the similarities. Nonetheless, Polaris is very much an rpg, and a beautiful example of how far the medium can be taken away from the D&D inspired conventions we think of when we here the words “roleplaying game.”
This is a very unusual game – but don’t let that put you off. You might well read a few paragraphs and think – hey, this is a Forge inspired indie game, it’s not for me – but stick with the review and see how I fared. Lets start with the stuff I found intimidating, and why it’s taken 3 years for me to run the game…
Polaris has no GM. Of all the heresies you can commit, this must be one of the most blatant. I’m a simulationist. I like to play against a written plot, and solve puzzles. My player group likewise. So collaborative storytelling? It reeks of campfires, folk music and real ale – three things I like, but I mean this in a bad way. The story is driven entirely by the players, responding to a beautifully written background, and the conventions of romantic tragedy and heroic knightly adventure. I half expected the players who turned up to walk out the door, as a previous group (who were Heroquest players – I was trying the Ars Magica/AD&D types this time) I had tried to get interested had, but after a minute of stunned silence they said, “sure, let’s try it…”
Secondly, Polaris is beautifully written. – which can be a bad thing! I have a few friends who were willing to try Nobilis, but were put off by the beautiful writing, especially the little epigrams, declared the game “pretentious” and never bothered to learn. I thought this could happen with my player group for Polaris. John is a hard core wargamer who loves tactical problems and avoiding conflict by careful planning, Tom I have only ever played once with, and Ed loves character generation and careful design, as in Ars Magica. I decided to read them a few pages of the background, then summarise more of it to give them the feel for the setting. About ten minutes of reading, answering questions about the background, and we were off. On seeing the character sheet they were intrigued enough to want to play.
So what is the background? It reminds me a bit of some of HP Lovecraft’s fantasy pieces, like The White Ship, Polaris, etc. In fact it reminds me even more of Robert Chambers, Oscar Wilde, and a few of the other Decadent/Celtic Twilight/Romantic authors, if that means anything to you. It’s a haunting fairy story about a land in the ultimate north, with a beautiful people who were destroyed in Arthurian style tragedy, and the players play the knights who have survived the death of the King and Queen, and the destruction of the capital in “The Mistake”. Whether the people are made of ice, human, fairy or something other I do not know – the nature of the tragedy is ambiguous, but deals with the rising of the sun, the dawn, and the coming of day to destroy the endless blissful night. It could be an allegory for many things, but even read literally all kinds of possible meanings and explanations arise from the beautifully written (if you like late 19th century/Edwardian prose, as I do) opening account. There are 28 pages of this, which despite the superb use of ambiguity which gives the players great scope to tell the story in many ways, is actually quite detailed in others.
The King and Queen are gone, lost with the destruction of the capital (though I can’t help wondering about the enemy knight Solaris and the Frost Maiden, but hey!) and the players play members of the Order of the Stars, a knightly order armed with Starlight Blades who guard the four remaining outposts of the people from the demons who pour from the Mistake where the capital was, and against corruption from within.
Here we have potential problem number 3. Your character is doomed. The world is ending, and the story is a tragedy. Tragedy however is not always depressing – and the game is written in a way that gives you considerable leeway in how that tragedy plays out. Ultimately you will be corrupted or killed – but is not the same true of Call of Cthulhu? The important thing is that you choose how the game will end for your character, and you are architect at least partially of your own downfall. In fact, despite the sombre tragic tone of the game, my group had a blast with it – there was more laughter and smiles than I have seen in a long time. We found Polaris great fun, and i wish to stress this. While we played seriously, the way the game works led to much clever negotiation to screw over each others characters, yet there was no recrimination or hostility, as I have even seen creep in to Paranoia (a game I have never managed to run successfully) – instead there was a strong competitive element I have not seen work well before in any rpg.
So potential problem 4 play was essentially competitive. Your character sheet has your Heart (your character, called the protagonist): the player who sits opposite you is your Mistaken, and plays your adversary and in play tries to complicate and make difficult your characters life; the player to the left is your New Moon, and plays characters with whom you have a formal relationship, such as other knights, the Judge, an Archivist, the Head of your City Council, or whatever – and to your right the Full Moon, you plays all the characters who you have an emotional and important relationship with. You also have four sets of Themes – Blessings, Offices, etc – which are effectively Virtues, Abilities, Backgrounds, call them what you like.
Before I describe how play works, if you are interested you can download the pdf character sheet here here Have a quick look, and you will quickly grasp how it works. You sit around a table, and the positions dictate the role of the other players with regards to your character. I was Tom’s Mistaken – he was mine. Ed was John’s and vice versa. Ed was my New Moon – he got to play a Royal Clerk who I worked for, and John as my Full Moon played the Goat Twins, two sisters I was torn between. You choose at least one character for each section of your sheet, the NPC’s important to you. the other players can play them, and from time to time one is removed from the story and crossed out, or a new one added. It works very well indeed.
We took it in turns to launch a scent each. You don’t have to, but for a first game it works pretty well, and I recommend it. A scene can involve your character, or the person sitting opposite you, and you have to be far more assertive than in many games. Instead of “I chop at the demon with my sword” you can say “The demonic legion falls upon me: for an afternoon I know no rest, but as my blade flashes in the night I slay relentless, till the ground for yards around is piled high with the melting corpses and rancid ashes of the demons. At last the army falls back, and I cut a path to the city, having slain three score demons…” Yes – very heroic – but you can bet it will go wrong. My Mistaken (Tom) is not going to let me get away with that! There is a formalized set of phrases which dictate how conflicts are resolved. Tom might respond “but only if… your beloved believing you lost to the army rides out alone to try and save you, or dies along side you, and is captured by the demonic horde…” I now have to either accept that, or use a phrase to undo it, or continue the story with an appropriate keyword phrase “but only if…. I here her pitiful screams, and spur my faithful horse as I ride after them…”
You have to be sensible here. It would be easy to push real world buttons, or be an arse. Don’t. Polaris demands maturity and trust. Do do not describe squicky, morally repugnant or deeply emotive scenes unless the other players can handle that I guess. The game demands maturity, and a certain ability to detach from the horrors and tragedy.
Right, so how do these key phrases which run the conflict mechanism work? Polaris is not freeform. There are very definite rules and game mechanisms, and you need to learn them, though from my experience this is best done in play. Polaris feels like a GAME, not a storytelling contest, though it is both. OK, again the best way to get the idea is to download the following useful files – Key Phrases Reference and Conflict Flowchart. We printed these off and kept them close to hand throughout play. They are invaluable.
I never thought my players would get the hang of this, and I thought I wouldn’t. You grasp it quicker with experience, and within a fairly short time we were all entering in to it fully, and resolving long and complex scenes. You certainly aren’t going to forget the game mechanics and go for full immersion – the mechanics are MORE blatant than dice, and negotiating scenes to an resolution requires quick thinking, wit, sensitivity and is very creative – but the game mechanics are extremely important. If you forgot them and just described what happened, it would cease to be a game, and Polaris is a skillful game. A single d6 is used, fairly infrequently, but the structure of the narrative through key phrases makes this game quite rules heavy compared to some I have played – and is better for it. The mechanic is pretty much unique to Polaris as far as I know, and unlike say Inspectres I would not want to borrow it for another game – but for this one it works beautifully.
So in essence, Polaris is a beautifully written, highly original and very unusual rpg, but it is a game, with solid well thought out mechanics that reflect the characters corruption and loss of faith, and well reflect the theme of the tragedy. My players loved it, because they are gamist – they could tell stories, but just as importantly they could use the mechanics to make each others character lives difficult, and while sometimes scenes involved our own characters, often we started scenes about our “Mistakens” character just to watch them squirm as we put them in horrible or emotionally charged situations. Most importantly, we laughed, swore, and had a great time!
The game would shine in campaign play – I would have thought 5 sessions would work well, though Ed’s cynical betrayal of the Knights and the People led to him falling pretty fast towards weariness and ultimate doom in our game – he reached a Zeal of 1 from 4 in a single session, but that was with unlucky dice rolls and repeatedly cynical self-serving choices. We have all agreed we will play again, though getting the same player group together owing to work and distance issues will be difficult. For three years I had owned this game and thought it an interesting piece of indie game design – having played it I can now say it’s an interesting and highly playable game which will appeal to gamers of a wide variety of interests.
The game is available from indiegamesrevolution in the US, or Leisuregames in the UK, and I expect other stockists. A well bound but small paperback book, £13.99 is a little pricey for the indie production values – I’d have though £10 would be fair – but the quality of the writing, the game and the art taken from Boris Artzybasheff’s work is so high I can rate it no less than 5 for style. For substance I gave 4 – I can see me playing this many times, but the setting is ultimately limited to what it does, and does very well.
If you are a mature traditional roleplayer looking for an interesting and revolutionary piece of rpg design ,and playing with exactly four players is to a problem to you, I really recommend this game. Get your friends to sit down and start playing, and be willing as we did to sacrifice tragic poetry to competitive gamesmanship and clever storytelling, and be willing to have fun with it – and the game will work just as well as if you are a group seeking catharsis and epic emotional drama.
Superb.
cj x
Filed under: Games, Reviews and Past Events | Leave a Comment
Tags: Ben Lehman, Boris Artzybasheff, Ed Woods, game reviews, indie rpg, indiegamesrevolution, John Bull, Leisuregames, Polaris, roleplayer, RPG, rpg reviews, Tom Nowell
There are very few things less enticing to the British public than the sight of CJ in the bath. While occasionally Marmalade the lunatic kitten comes to balance precariously on the edge of the bath tub, and watch the great pink hippo wallowing in the foaming waters, human beings seem to find the mere prospect revolting. So I apologise in advance for calling this scene to your minds, and hope you have not recently eaten.
It was Wednesday evening: I was sitting in the bath, reading a book on Biblical Archaeology, and rather wishing I wasn’t, when I began to ponder what to write about for the RD.net Science Writing contest. And then – Eureka! I leapt foaming from the bath, hurtled excitedly out in to the kitchen, skidded across the lino and hearing someone in the living room frantically hid my modesty behind a bemused Cuddles-cat. Not an easy task, I can assure you…
The Bathtub Fallacy
And in that moment of inspiration in deciding what to write about, I perfectly illustrate the first of the perils of myth-making in the writing of History of Science; what I shall call the Bathtub Fallacy. I am sure many readers have heard of Archimedes supposed moment of revelation inthe bathtub, how he leapt out cying Eureka, and excitedly solved a problem. Reading the history of Science mere mortals like I can feel inspired – will I dream of a snake eating it’s tail, and work out the structure of Benzene tonight? (bit late!) Perhaps in a flash I will work out an elegant solution to the world’s energy needs? And this is the Bathtub Fallacy – the belief perpetuated by the anecdotes by which we make the process of discovery and science understandable, the human interest bits, that genius and a moment of sudden insight alone solves scientific problems. If it did we would spend all out time in the baths. I could of course have called this the Apple Concussion Fallacy - the well known story about Newton and a n apple falling on his head, but as my street is singularly lacking in apples, and I have never been nearly brained by anything heavier than a stray conker from a tree, I didn’t, and you all have to live with the thought of me in the bath instead.
Me in the bath with the maddest hair yet: for the sake of your sanity I have my shirt on!
The danger of the Bathtub Fallacy is that there is an element of truth to it: yes, insights do arrive like this. What is often not made plain by historians is the vast struggle, the endless hard work, and the single minded devotion to the problem which occupied the genius for maybe months or years before the answer came in a creative flash. Trust me, I have spent many years laying on my bed, sitting in the bath or staring blankly out of the window waiting for my Nobel Prize winning insight. Sadly, it seems you need more – work, dedication, study, and perhaps a little obsession. The bathtub fallacy is not a myth as such: these things happen– but the inference pure luck, the will of the gods, or sitting in the bathtub is what counts is very dangerous to the would be scientist, and I think when reading the history of science one should not emphasize these serendipitous moments, but concentrate more on how the heroine or hero prepared for their ‘revelation from on high’.
The Persecution Complex
My title, aimed at a little free controversy, was Damning Darwin. Why? Have I suddenly become a member of the Buttplugg, Arizona, First Church of Flanders, and adopted Young Earth Creationism? Nope. Long term readers of this forum will know that I have argued passionately that the response of many 19th century Christians to Darwin’s work was one of polite interest, enthusiasm, or overwhelming support. (You can say the same about Copernicus actually.)
Evolution was pioneered in America by the devout Evangelical Asa Grey, writing Darwinia (1876) which reconciles his Evangelical beliefs with orthodox Darwinism, and indeed being the only non-British member of the Darwin circle who saw Origin of the Species (1859) prior to publication. He dedicated much of his life to publicising and popularising Darwinian Evolution. A large number of Evangelicals were already evolutionist and many of the objections raised to Darwin’s ideas (like those of Soapy Sam Wilberforce) were primarily scientific not theological. The Evangelicals response was extremely positive. John Van Wyhe (Historian of Science, Cambridge University, leader of the Darwin Online Project) published a very interesting article in BBC History magazine — January 2009 – Volume 10 in which he exposes ye olde myth.
Charles Darwin
Now, who accepted evolution in those first years? It’s a who’s who of Evangelicals — BB Warfierld, AH Strong, Van Dyke, Landey Patton, AA Hodge, WT Shedd, James McCosh — all hard core Evangelical leaders. Let us not forget Frederick Farrar, James Orr, Charles Kingsley and Henry Drummond, who Henry Morris castigates for misleading Christians – the father of YEC loudly denounced the dreadful treachery of his Evangelical forebears in accepting Darwinism or other forms of Evolutionary theory. These Evangelicals critique the science from time to time, but accepted fully its theological compatibility with their Evangelical beliefs. Others like Rev.Macloskie, JD Dana, GF Wright, JW Hulke etc were evangelicals who fought hard for the scientific NOT just the theological acceptance of evolution – one could go on, but many historians of science and religion have already surveyed this territory and found that on both sides of the Atlantic works in favour of Darwin in Christian circles far outnumbered the minority opposition of Darwin. So who damned Darwin? It was not the Church of his day. One of those famous stories everybody know is the debate between Bishop Soapy Sam and TH Huxley – which of course is nothing like what people believe it was. The myths were already building fast even by then, indeed before the end of the 19th century, one of the most famous being about the debate between Huxley and Wilberforce over the On the Origin of the Species. There is a superb essay on the history of this by JR Lucas here, — http://users.ox.ac.uk/~jrlucas/legend.html
So why this conflict myth, which I will dub the Persecution Complex? It was not actually created by the Fundies, the nut-jobs and the loonies. It was created by serious historians of science with an axe to grind. The fact it is a steaming pile of poodle jism has done nothing to stop it becoming accepted uncritically, and the myth has inevitably created a backlash of Christian fundies who think they are defending Biblical Truth, and who are managing to actually be far less theologically sophisticated than their 19th century forebears. Henry Morris created a lot if it in the 1960’s — and we all have to live with it today, but the myth started long before.. Two men gave us it — John William Draper wrote the History of the Conflict Between Science and Religion (1874), the second Andrew Dickson White, with The Warfare of Science (1876) and A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896). Draper was alarmed by the declaration of Papal Infallibility in 1875; White was responding to the criticism he received from conservative Christians on his secular appointment to a University position. Neither condemned all religion – Draper was concerned only with Roman Catholicism, White’s target was Protestant fundamentalists, but this is often overlooked. The books were dismissed by scholars as flawed and filled with canards, but a myth had been born. This one is more dangerous than most – it gave us YEC…
Ya Canna’ Change the Laws of Physics!
Darwin of course attracted a lot of sympathy and support for his brilliant work right from the start: geology had already demonstrated the Earth to be many millions of years old (though limited by Kelvin’s calculations on the sun which gave the Earth an age of not more than 25 million years – which led to his and many other physicists rejection of Darwin’s idea of Natural Selection as physically impossible. The debate between physicists and geologists over the age of the Earth was ongoing, until the understanding of the actual processes involved in the sun (fusion not combustion) showed the geologists were right. Physicists however probably were greater opponents of Darwinism in the early years (as pseudo-science that defied our understanding of physical law) than Evangelicals. I think we can call this the Wicked Stupid Opponents fallacy, where people who raised objections to the ideas of the genius are seen as mere muppets who were just being awkward for the sake of it. I fear Thomas Kuhn’s idea of paradigm shift has made this even more of a threat – those who resist fringe scientific ideas today are seen as hidebound reactionaries, like the men who laughed at Einstein. Unless that is the new scientific ideas resisted involve little grey men having abducting rural farmers for a quick probing session: then you are OK to doubt, and I’m with you as it happens.
Lord Kelvin, critic of Darwin
Yet time and time again we are reminded of the sad story Alfred Wegener and Continental Drift, and how his ideas were rejected by a hidebound geological establishment. Sure they were, ‘cos until the 1950’s or 1960’s other theories explained the data just as well if not better! There is no ’sin’ in doubting some new radical claim (or an old one) and we should respect Kelvin for his common sense objections, not belittle him (Darwin wasn’t keen on him – he refers to him as “that pale spectre”.) The historians of science often work in a world where ‘history is written by the winners’ – watch out for this…
The Myth of the Lone Gunman
And this I think brings me back to my problem with last year’s celebrations of Darwin. No look, I’m a fan. I own several standard lives, Darwin’s books, have read through the Darwin Correspondence archive and have enthusiastically supported a number of Darwin related projects. Yet increasingly I find myself frustrated that Darwin is misunderstood, misrepresented, or just a caricature. And really, I think the ultimate problem is that Darwin is not all that important.
If I asked someone on the street in Britain why Charles Darwin was important they might well say “he discovered Evolution”, completely oblivious to the fact that Evolution was widely known, and to some extent accepted, before Charles. I could point to Lamarck, Buffon, Charles’s grandfather Erasmus or probably the greatest popularizer of the theory, the Scottish writer Robert Chambers.
A few people might say more accurately “he invented the idea of Natural Selection” – except of course he did not, and the idea can be found back as far as the Ancient Greeks, and especially in some of the pre-Socratics. He did however introduce the phrase, retaining it too the 5th edition where he uses Spencer’s “survival of the fittest.” A curious circle here: from the political economics of Thomas Malthus, who inspired Darwin, to Darwin to Herbert Spencer and his “social Darwinism” of political economics again.
What Darwin did, and his importance, is that alongside Alfred Russel Wallace he collected so much evidence for the idea of Natural Selection that it, in spite of grave objections from the physicists of the day – for it was in violation of the known natural laws of physics which dictated a younger Earth, but so was Uniformitarianism in Geology, so something had to give – anyway what he did was make the first reputable evidentially solid case for the hypothesis of Evolution by Natural Selection. That was clearly a work of great importance, and worthy of our respect.
Much Darwin believed was wrong – his notion of how inheritance worked was nonsensical, and not to my mind really that far from Lamarck’s, though Lamarck gets a bad press, why I know not really – sure I know about the tragedy of Lysenkoism, but it may be more understandable than those unfamiliar with plant breeding believe – anyway – Darwin’s & Wallace’s idea would have gone nowhere without Mendel’s breakthrough – genetics.
So what is the fallacy of the Lone Gunman? Simple – the over-praising of Darwin obscures the actual history of the idea, and how a scientific hypothesis was refined, developed across a number of research communities, and slowly advanced against a series of seemingly fatal objections; how an idea, Evolution by Natural Selection, that was very ancient –and fairly obvious. If you could not infer something of the sort from animal husbandry and breeding stock, well poor old Johnny Ray and the Linnean system had pretty much classified the Animal Kingdom in a way that shouted “look, lifeforms are diversifying”.
We have lost sight of the history of Evolution as an idea, have allowed myths about a supposed widespread conflict between religion and science to obscure the actual truth of what happened back then, and all too often imposed our own ideological nonsense on the history of science. We have made it all one man, elevating him to a saintly role, and creating pious hagiographies, that espouse the myth of the Eureka moment, of a man who revolutionized science – and ignoring the quiet dedicated work of the many who worked before, were contemporary with, or the tens of thousands who have developed our knowledge of morphology and evolutionary biology since.
Darwin is Dead - Science Lives!
We need a poster of Darwin with a safety pin through the nose, Sex Pistol’s cover style. We need to metaphorically defecate on his grave, to drag him from the ridiculous pedestal where he stands taunted by Creationists, who unfairly understand Evolution =Darwin: because we implied it was so! We need more New Scientist headlines saying “Darwin Was Wrong!” not less, more real understanding of the history of science, and more realization that science is a progress done by women and men, not just bearded geniuses of another age. No lone gunman, no bearded genius from a far away country gave us modern science: it was built on the work of thousands of anonymous hardworking men and women, and geniuses are justthe pop stars of the science worlkd – the ones who we all remember. Maybe next time you pick up a history of Science book, and get very excited by the hero’s amazing successes and triumph over adversity, it is worth remebering that for that one great thinker, a thousand more dedicated researchers worked quietly building the framework for thei rbreakthrough.
We all stand upon the shoulders of giants: but we see further when we are supported by a human pyramid of dedicated scientists we never get to read books about too: it’s good to be reminded of that fact. The Hollywood Myth of the maverick who takes on the system and wins is endearing and sells books; but in the end the mountains of journal articles, the decades collecting specimens, and the humble assistance of the millions who selflessly dedicate their lives to increasing human knowledge counts for more.
Richard Dawkins Forum Science Writing Contest damns Darwin! 
Filed under: Debunking myths, History, Science | 6 Comments
Tags: A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, Alfed Russel Wallace, Alfred Wegener, Andrew Dickson White, Asa Grey, Bathtub Fallacy, Charles Darwin, conflict myth, Damning Darwin: Mythmaking in the History of Science, Damning Darwin: The perils of Myth-making in the History of Science, Darwin Online Project, Henry Morris, history of science, John Van Wyhe, John William Draper, JR Lucas, Lord Kelvin, Lysenkoism, Persecution Complex, RichardDawkins.net, Samuel Wilberfore, Science writing, Science Writing Competition, TH Huxley, Wicked Stupid Opponents Fallacy
OK, so it snowed, and for a few days now people have seemed to think the world is ending. It might be, but a few inches of snow hardly constitutes a cause for alarm and widespread panic!
Here is the view from my bedroom window yesterday - least interesting photo ever?
OK, so my photo is dull, but by now you have seen a million dramatic photos of people in the snow doing heroic or exciting things. I am to photography what Pooter was to diaries. 
Another not enthralling shot from my bedroom window!
OK, look it’s probably more interesting than anything that happens INSIDE my bedroom, ok? Unless you find people reading Ars Magica 5th Edition arousing, in which case seek help (or join the Berkllist, the Ars Magica mailing list.) Actually I could tell a couple of amusing stories about that, but I won’t…
Cheltenham High Street, 3pm today: snow. I bet you predicted this one would have snow in didn't you?
Does not look at all bad in this photo; actually it was pretty unpleasant, the roads were a mushy mess, and the pavements treacherous. Gets better as you get in to the Town centre. Drivers get roads gritted, but pedestrians are left to die in droves*, Hugh says possibly because if they salt the pavements and mess up you get more injury claims?
(* OK, a slight exaggeration. Cheltenham High Street was devoid of corpses when I walked down it: no carnage ensued, and only two people fell over while I was in town. It was hardly Massacre-on-Ice — but with everyone over excited about a sprinkling of snow I thought I could be a bit dramatic. )
How fare the brave inhabitants of Normal Terrace in this icy wilderness? Well none of the cats in the street seem keen on going out, but otherwise business as usual…
The Abominable Postman (Ben?) leaves his track sinb the not so pristine wilderness!
Yeah, we did not get any post for one day, and the bins were not emptied, but bravely we struggle on, displaying that British stiff upper life (and in my case Anglo-Danish sagging belly)
Er, yeah, you guessed it - more snow.
Are you still reading this? Google returns 3,290 hits for “hot babes in bikinis” and you are still reading this? Oh I see – well 6,170,000 hits for hot men in underwear? Or even 531,000 hits for for improving sermons.?
OK you like pictures of snow. I get it..
Well it was sunny today. But yes, there is some snow for you too
Shame I have no talent as a photographer. Or as an ice sculptor come to that. I felt snowmen were sexist,and snow women sound bit dodgy, so I made a snow cat…
Yes, it's a cat, honest! Well more interesting than a snowman. CJ made this, and was quite proud of it!
OK, even I can stand this little longer. Another shot of Normal Terrace…
Chris my neighbour has lived in the street all her life,a nd even she would be bored by yet another photo of our road in the snow
Hey it beats Google Earth! Who wants to look at satellite pictures when you can see Cheltenham back street s in the snow? Well pretty much every one I guess. Let’s go nocturnal…
A bin in the snow. Cheltenham as you never saw it, and never wanted to!
I had a stalker once, many, many years ago, but even she gave up on me because I was so dull. Shame really, she should have just read my blog rather than standing around in the chemist shop doorway across the road from my old flat.
Googling "goats in leather underwear" only gives one hit, and that is my blog. This fact is possibly slightly more interesting than my photo.
Yes, I know you are bored with photos of Normal Terrace in the snow. Here is the next street over, St. Paul’s Street South. It’s not any more interesting though…
St. Paul's open air ice skating rink, brought to you courtesy so fthe weather and Cheltenham Borough Council, featuring lovely lollards - sorry bollards...
And finally a shoggoth eating a car. Oh sorry, not Lovecraft’s horrors from the Mountains of Madness: it’s a bush in Normal Terrace! (You guessed it – in the snow!)
Tekeli-li! Tekeli- li! (and if you get that you are... erudite?)
Well there you go. It’s probably not MUCH more boring than many of my other blog posts, but hey, I think it may possibly be of use to insomniacs, masochists with a taste for people’s holiday photos, and people who like to laugh at the British overreaction to snow. If you read this far, please do comment, if only so I know to turn the lights off and lie on the floor when you come round, as clearly you are dangerously deranged. Anyway, keep warm, keep safe, and enjoy the snow while it lasts!
cj x
Filed under: Dreadful attempts at humour, Unclassifiable!, Uninteresting to others whitterings about my life | Leave a Comment
Tags: Ars Magica 5th Edition, Berklist, Cheltenham, Cheltenham High Street, Cheltenham in snow, lots of pictures of dull scenes of snow, Normal Terrace, pictures of public toilets and kebab shops in snow, pictures of wheelie bins in snow, snow cat, snow in Cheltenham, St. Paul's Cheltenham in Snow, very dull pictures of car parks in the snow, what really goes on in CJ's bedroom exclusively revealed
OK, so this year for Christmas I took a huge risk and bought Becky a boardgame Ticket To Ride Europe. I am happy to say this proved to be an excellent choice! If you enjoy games, whether a hard-core gamer, or are just someone who likes to play something with friends other than Chess or Bridge or Strip Poker from time to time, I’d seriously consider buying this game. Even if you normally don’t like games, give it a go! And do read the review – because I include details on how you can try it out from the comfort of your own pc for free…
Ticket to Ride Europe: the components
How do you explain TTR? It’s a family boardgame, which anyone aged over twelve should be able to understand the rules of an play, and intelligent kids from ten up should handle it – hell I was playing Avalon Hill’s Diplomacy at that age! It is certainly not Snakes and Ladders, but actually I think it is much less complicated than say Monopoly, and to me many many times more absorbing. I’m not a fan of long drawn out boardgames, and I quite like the mission cards in Risk which let the game end earlier if you meet your objectives — and yes, this game is easier to learn and more enjoyable to my mind than Risk. In fact I think it may be my favourite boardgame ever — and an avid Diplomacy fan like me has to admit that I may even prefer it to that great game. I’ll come back to that at the end of the review. Well this game can be played with 2 to 5 players, with the 2 player game being as good as the 3, 4, or 5 – just faster – and all of thm can be played in under an hour once everyone knows the rules, and maybe less.
So how does it work?
Ticket to Ride Europe is an amazingly simple but elegant design. You start with a game board (fairly large, will fit on a coffee table though- normal boardgame size I guess) depicting a map of Europe in 1901 (Spring 1901 perhaps?). Place names are generally rendered in the local language – Vienna is Wien, and so on. The map is fairly geographically accurate, with a few places positions nudged a few miles to fit better on the board, but t will certainly teach you geography, and may actually be useful in that respect. The map is attractive, and covered in pretty coloured railway lines – well potential railway lines, waiting to be built.
Ticket to Ride Europe: the game board
These routes are then built on by the players taking it in turns to lay their little plastic train carriages, to connect cities. It sounds deadly dull, but it isn’t. It’s utterly fascinating! To build a line you have to play cards, and you on each turn can either take two cards, from a face up selection, or from the deck for a random choice, to add to your hand. Alternatively you can play cards from your hand in sets to build lines (there is a third and fourth option mentioned below). So from London to Edinburgh can be built by playing a set of four orange cards, you have collected, or four blacks. Once someone has built a line that’s it : the route is claimed, and other players can’t build there, with the exception of double tracks, which you can build anyway – like London to Edinburgh – if you have the other colour. In the two player game only one set of double tracks can be built on. Lines do not have to be contigous: you can build anywhere on the baord you have the cards to play. Grey routes are wild, any coloured set of the relevant size can be played to complete them, but having the longest track does give you extra points and aid greatly in winning.
As well as the pink, white, green, yellow, orange, red and black cards their are also locomotive cards which are wild and can be played anywhere. They can also prove useful for building tunnels: I won’t explain tunnels and ferries here, but the rules are simple and elegant. The full rules can be downloaded here if you are interested, but it’s much easier to understand them if you have the map and pieces in front of you: neither Becky nor I were very excited when we first read the rules before we tried to play. (In fact she said it looked like “a game for trainspotters”). Now we are both addicted to this game! New features over the original Ticket to Ride (itself avery fun game, set in the USA 1901) are Tunnels, Ferries and Stations which add a little complexity but are enjoyable.
Building lines earns you points: byut the game is far more than this, and there is a nother vital deck of cards I have not yet touched upon – the Tickets. Tickets are destinations, and come in to two types – long routes and other routes. There are only six long routes in the original game, and this is perhaps the only weakness of the game as sold – you soon (after the maybe forty odd games I have now played – I told you it was addictive) -get to know all the long routes off by heart. There is an expansion pack which gives morte destination cards including 9 more long routes, but we have not bought it yet, as the game is very playable without it. These Ticket cards are at the heart of the game: you start with one long route and three short routes, randomly drawn, and get points for connecting these cities. You cn reject a couple if you want, and take a risk and draw more in the game (drawing three of which you must keep one is the third play option on a turn.
The final option is building a station – these allow you to run a service along a short stretch of a rival’s line, say Essen to Kobenhavn (Copenhagen for the Danish impaired among you, and I mean the language not my friends!). This costs you four points at the end of the game, but can be well worth it. There is an excellent tutorial and guide here on the publisher’s website, with loads of photos, a fun video which will show you the basics, , and all kinds of other great stuff.
We played all Christmas...
Winning the Game
The player with the most points at the end wins, and you gain points by laying “track” – for example 1 point for a one stretch, 7 points for a four piece track and 21 points for the 8 piece tunnel between Stockholm and Petrograd (presumably actually a mix of tunnels and ferries, doubt anyone would try and bridge or tunnel under the Baltic there in reality, probably a line through Finalmnd off the top of the map?). Completing tickets earns you more points, and your long route is worth 21 or 20 alone – but if you manage a route from Kobenhavn to Erzurzum in Turkey, Palermo to Moscow, Athens to Edinburgh or Brest to Petrograd to give just three possibilities then you deserve it! Actually these long routes nearly always get completed – if you don’t complete a route, you LOSE the points instead of adding them, so you will lose 40 or 42 points from what you would have had if you made it.
The final source of points if for the longest continual stretch of of track built: ten points. Final scores range from about 150 (by me) to the lowest score I have ever seen, 30, achieved by Ed, though I think Becky managed that on an USA 1901 online game last night!
We have played this game a lot now... Ed and Becky during a New Year game at mine
Gameplay
Fast and absorbing, especially in the 2 player game. Even in the 5 player you are usually busy planning your next move till your turn comes round again, though if another player is absorbed in an interminable text message conversation with a girlfriend on their turn or are a bit slow of understanding owing to being absorbed in something else like say cooking, it can be annoying to have to prompt them – but it’s the same with anything, and such people should be banished from civilisation (to Buxton, I know Ed never reads my blog so he won’t notice this!) anyway.
There is a lot of room for tactics and a large degree of skill, but also with the drawing of cards plenty of room for dumb luck and of the best laid plan to fall through. Careful play can usually mitigate this: Becky still wins most games, but we have all won a few, and DC won his very first game, which may have been through skill. The game is however quite low on interaction: you don’t trade cards, and the only real interaction comes in blocking each other routes by building where someone else needs to go. Experienced players see opportunities to do this more: they know the routes and important bits of track — (hint: the two piece green routes from Frankfurt to Essen and Rostov to Kharkhov are usually worth grabbing fast) — but even if you realise that Bob is building from Athens to Edinburgh, it is not really worth trying to block him, except possibly in 2 player game. You only have 45 pieces of track — and you will need all of them. In online play deliberately blocking someone is considered unsporting by many players anyway: wasting track messing about with your opponents planned routes is rarely worth it anyway, as you are more likely to win by going for your own destinations. I tend to like highly interactive games like Diplomacy: I still love TTR.
How Can I Try It Out for Free?
Go to the publishers website, Days of Wonder. Make sure you have read the rules – I put the link above. If you register on the Days of Wonder site you can play online free, I think four free games, which usually take about twenty to thirty minutes each to complete – online play seems much faster. You should be able to work it out quite quickly, and so long as you understand tunnels and ferries and stations (to play a station online drag and drop a card over the city you want to build on, and hit ok when it asks you: to play track drag and drop card on the route, and to take tickets double click on the Ticket cards.) Look for a game called For Beginners – and remeber that Ticket to Ride USA is the easiest to learn and play (no tunnels stations or ferries to worry about) so start with that. If you like it you can buy the online versions – owning a Days of Wonder boardgame gives you a ten per cent discount, and buying from the US store in dollars it was less than a tenner to buy Ticket to Ride and Ticket to Ride Europe online versions. It might take you a little while to work out how to join a game etc, but the tutorials are excellent and you are made to play a solo game against robot players (bots) first to make sure you get the hang of it when you register. So why not try it? I’m registered as CJ23 on the site, so do add me to your buddies when you join and I’ll play you if we are online at the same time.
a game in progress
Fast, addictive, plenty of strategy and a lot of fun – go play trains!
cj x
Filed under: Games, Reviews and Past Events, Uninteresting to others whitterings about my life | 1 Comment
Tags: Becky Smith, board games, boardgame reviews, boardgamers, Christian Jensen Romer, CJ23, David Curtin, Days of Wonder, Diplomacy, Ed Woods, educational games, eurogames, Europe in 1901, family games, game reviews, online board games, online TTR, railway games, reviews, Risk, things that look incredibly boring but are very addictive to play, Ticket to Ride, Ticket to Ride Europe, train games, wholesome family fun
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