May | 2024 | Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
1 post published by nathangoldwag during May 2024| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
1 post published by nathangoldwag during May 2024| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
2 posts published by nathangoldwag during August 2025| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
TITLE: The Last Unicorn AUTHOR: Peter S. Beagle PUBLISHER: Viking Press DATE: 1968 It’s hard to talk about The Last Unicorn. There’s a beauty to it, a haunting sense of splendor that li…| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
Today I want to talk about how magic works in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and associated legendarium, as well as how systems of morality and values function in his world–as the two are fundamentally linked in a way that cannot really be discussed separately. This isn’t an original topic to myself, and … Continue reading Intention Matters: The Magic of Middle-earth| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
Professor Golon WagGalactic University of CoruscantCoruscantNew RepublicComparative Politics of Modern Galactic History: Chapter IV297 ABY In 19 BBY, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Re…| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (Source) Here is a story that is probably not true: In c. 520 BCE, the Persian King of Kings Darius I led his armies into the Hindu Kush, and subjugated the Indus Riv…| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
It will likely be no surprise for you to hear that I think Andor is probably the best Star Wars content ever made, certainly since the original movies. This has become conventional wisdom among fans of a certain nature (elderly millennial nerds with left-wing politics), and it’s true; Andor is an extraordinarily complex and nuanced … Continue reading Stars Wars and the Difference Between Reverence and Respect| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
Zhang Xueliang and Chiang Kai-shek, 1930 In 2001, a man named Zhang Xueliang passed away of pneumonia in a Honolulu hospital at the age of one hundred. He was a man most famously known as “th…| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
Following my longstanding tradition of getting around to media many years after everybody else did, I watched Frozen (2013) this weekend, mainly because I’ve been trying to actually use my Disney+ subscription. It was pretty good! I enjoyed it! But I did find myself a little bit confused by it, specifically in the ways that … Continue reading Frozen’s Missing Middle| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
Are we having a moment for anime deconstructions of classic fantasy? I mean, probably not, people have been taking apart the logic of D&D since the 1980s, and there’s so much content gett…| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
TITLES: The Tainted Cup, A Drop of Corruption AUTHOR: Robert Jackson Bennett SERIES: The Shadow of the Leviathan PUBLISHER: Del Rey DATES: 2024-2025 What does it mean to fight for a civilization? W…| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
The Lend-lease Debate in Cartoon Form No. What, you wanted details? Ugh, fine. If you insist. If you’ve spent a lot of time in left-wing political discussion spaces online, this is an argumen…| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that maps and history are two of my favorite things. I love history because I love learning about the vast panoply of the human …| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
I feel like I tend to encounter every cultural phenomenon at least a few years late? Which is my way of saying that I only now got around to watching the 2013-2019 Cartoon Network show Steven Unive…| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
The Augustus of Prima Porta, (c. 14-29 CE), Vatican Museums In 30 BCE, the armies of Octavian decisively defeated Mark Anthony at the Battle of Actium. By the end of the year, both Anthony and his …| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that maps and history are two of my favorite things. I love history because I love learning about the vast panoply of the human …| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
Who paid for this? There’s a certain meme that I see making the rounds on Facebook every so often about the bucolic nature of life in the Shire, from Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord o…| Goldwag's Journal on Civilization
