Arms and Armor: Let's Talk About Triremes

Apology/Preface: This is very late, and I am very sorry. I will try to have another post ready on time tomorrow! But now, on the what you're really here for: Triremes!

Possibly one of the most iconic Greek war assets was the Trireme: long, thin ships built for ramming. They had sails for cruising, but were actually operated in battle by 170 oarsmen – you heard me, 170 oarsmen - in three tiers. They had named ranks, with the thranites on top, zygians in the middle, and thalamians at the bottom. They sat on small seats, not benches, and were packed in so tightly that “Each seat was level with the shoulders of the oarsmen below” (31). The ships were fast, maneuverable, and equipped with a bronze-covered ram at the prow built specifically for breaching enemy hulls. The one pictured, on the reconstructed ship the Olympias, weighs 440lb (200kg).

As though that wasn’t a large number to accommodate already, there were also around thirty other crewmen, including marine hoplites (those fellows you see forming phalanxes, named for the shield they carry, which is round and called either an aspis or a hoplon) and archers, as well as a helmsman to work the tillers; there were two tillers, and they were normally operated by the same person. On triremes “There was room to carry only a few basic supplies and insufficient space for the whole crew to sleep on board” (30), so the solution to fitting all those people was simply to overcrowd them.

However, all the oarsmen were free citizens, people who had chosen the work and were compensated for it based on their seat. For example, the thranites had the toughest job because of the angle their oars entered the sea, so they enjoyed higher pay.

And it makes sense, in a way, for the free citizens of Greece to want to row for a trireme – Greece was famous for its navy, and it’s not difficult to understand why:

“In action, a trireme with a skilled helmsman and a disciplined crew could ram an enemy vessel or ride over its oars, then reverse and leave it crippled in the water. If its own hull was holed, a trireme would not sink because it was made from buoyant wood such as pine, poplar, or fir.” (30, emphasis added)

In short, the Greeks had a navy that could mess up your navy and sail away from it, even if they’d suffered what would, to other ships, be considered serious damage. And that is pretty badass.

I am currently reading Military History: The Definitive Visual Guide to the Objects of Warfare, with senior editor Gareth Jones and published by DK Publishing with the cooperation of the Smithsonian, ISBN 978-0-7566-9838-6. In case you wondered where this information was coming from. 

Photos of the Olympias found through Google at http://www.hellenicnavy.gr/images/history/triiris/TRIHR005.jpg
http://www.abc.se/~pa/bld/img/olympram.jpg

Some Thoughts on Ladies' Armor

Thinking about arms and armor a lot lately, as those are the topics I am beginning to research for my novels. These are a couple of resources on armor, specifically ladies' armor, that I found on Tumblr. I hope you enjoy, and maybe I'll have an original arms and armor post for you next week.

Cheers

Martwhim's "Why do you hate the shape of breasts in plate armor so much?"

"Since people often ask “Alright, well this is fantasy!  Why can’t we have boob shapes in plate armor?!”  I decided to make a post about it.  My frustration has nothing to do with historical inaccuracy and I’m all for imagination and freedom— but I’d like to (very quickly) illustrate this for you..."


And, along the same lines,


Emily Asher-Perrin's "It's time to Retire "Boob Plate" Armor. Because it Would Kill You."

"Never mind the chainmail bikinis—what about those awkward breast plates in armor that we see frequently in fantasy artwork and at the Ren Faire? Whenever women complain about this convention, they are usually shot down for trying to erase women’s true bodies, for insisting that women make themselves more “male” in order to appear strong and capable.

But here’s the thing: those shapely bits of armor would actually get you killed. So the complaint is entirely valid! Now, let’s talk about why..."

This is not to say that one cannot or should not envision armor this way. If you, for example, own some of said armor and feel fabulous in it, by all means! But when it comes to designing characters who are in need of physical protection it's typically a good idea to know the rules before you break them.

I Promised You a Schedule...

...and it's been over a month. Oh dear.

Since I am clearly not very good at this yet, I am going to start by proposing weekly updates: for now, provisionally, they will be on Saturdays!

As an outline, in these updates I will probably talk about what I am reading at the time of the post, what I'm writing, (some art if you're really lucky,) and any other writing related things I find amusing. Hopefully you will too.

I would also like to reinstate Observations as something that actually happens. Observations are daily (daily here being the ideal) writing exercises, in any format or genre, designed to keep the creative muscles limber. They're based on Kelly Magee's Finding Frequency Project, as I first learned about them and began writing them in a class she taught at Western Washington University. Perhaps Observations can coincide with use of a new app I've been looking at...

Anyway I wanted to post something new here just as a heads up, I will do my best to have material posted on Saturday and every Saturday henceforth! Cheers everybody, and have a couple fandom motivational posters for your time.

 (Yes, I overlaid the text. The images are screenshots from the Anime Princess Tutu that I found online and DO NOT BELONG TO ME, REPEAT, SOURCE MATERIAL DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. Thanks.)

Reclaiming the Dead, by James Patrick Brotherton

You could say that this book is an adventure story, following the tried and true ‘unsuspecting, ordinary person gets invited to be an adventurer, goes for it, becomes a badass’ plot. You could say that this is a book about vampires and vampire hunters. But really, this is an awakening story, one about an ordinary man who is shaken out of his stagnant life into motion and, ultimately, to a kind of enlightenment. This is not only a valuable theme, it’s a theme particularly relevant to our time: when technology has placed everything just a click away, what could possibly be more important than relearning to appreciate the “feast” that is life? It just so happens that the vehicle that brings the protagonist, Merton Daniels, to his enlightenment is the existence of vampires.

My favorite part about this book is the dark, deadpan humor that exists throughout it. Merton and his best-friend-turned-sidekick, Coaler, are in sharp contrast to each other, and their interactions create a dynamic that brings in the sort of absurd situations everyday life has to offer. Because of this, the world of Reclaiming the Dead is convincing – maybe uncomfortably so. The humor which arises because of this absurdity also prompted me to begin thinking of it in terms of film – if Reclaiming the Dead ever hit the silver screen it could be Shawn of the Dead’s wittier, indie cousin.

Another intriguing part of this novel is how it handles the myth of the vampire. While I can’t think of a concrete example of this theory being put forth in vampire literature or film, the concept of Judas Iscariot being the first vampire is a familiar notion. However, wedding this concept to, in some instances, the blood-sack baseness of folkloric vampires, the powers of Dracula, and the ability to retain fragments of his human consciousness create a very new spin. Perhaps because the story is primarily about enlightenment and awakening to the world, this book takes the myth of the vampire and makes it less about monsters and more about philosophy, about the nature of life and the universe.

In short, this little book is more than it seems, and it’s worth a read. Go and send James Brotherton some love at his website, jamesbrotherton.com. Reclaiming the Dead is available at Amazon.com.

I made a thing

inspired by the photoset I reblogged earlier.

Sadly, I cannot find the credit for the original photo (got in a fight with google image search). Sorry about that. I hope you enjoy anyway! 

A Reblog for Reasons of Delight

Found: Photoset entitled "Writing advice from writers handwritten on writer's hands" (say that five times fast).
Also found: Motivation.

Go forth and see them all!

Advice from Garth Nix, and one of my favorites because of the Magic Ring reference. 

William Hertling's Indie & Small Press Book Publishing: it's SuperEffective!

All joking aside, this book was extremely useful, arguably more useful than the textbook of my editing and publishing course (partly due to my teacher instilling mistrust in us as a class, but that's a different story).

Accessible, direct, and broken down into manageable sections, I&SPBM is a great how-to guide for marketing at any step of the publishing process. As I was reading I caught myself thinking such thoughts as "I'll have to read this again for my own marketing campaign," "why am I not taking notes?", and "...I can do that." I might have even committed the cardinal sin of dog-earing pages for future reference.

Beyond being a great breakdown of how to market a book conceptually, I&SPBM comes equipped with checklists, recommendations for software, a crash course on the math-ier side of advertising, examples of key items for the visually and example-oriented, and hyperlinks to other resources.

I&SPBM is worth it.