History, and later, for no apparent reason, discovers Way Cool Mind Second Foundation, discoverers first of the predictive science of The first of many ideas to be taken behind the woodshed is Asimov's psychohistory. Something of a variation, or even a rebuttal, to certain science fictionĪuthor’s ideas with which I disagree, or which, at the least, I thinkĪs a word of warning, those adverse to spoilers should not read further, either in this article or Wright's own.

THE HERMETIC MILLENNIA is deliberately intended by the author to be That one solitary reader for whom I write this article can rest assured: Wright's blog notes for his own turn at the Great Conversation provides a rare opportunity, not just for seeing into the mind of a writer, but to see how canon is relevant to the story teller. What readers don't usually get to see is the author's intent. A well read reader can recognize these allusions first hand, while those working to remedy their ignorance of great swathes of the conversation, like myself, rely on the works of critics to clarify particular exchanges. Likewise Farmer and Moorcock both conversed with Dent who took his own inspirations from Burroughs. This one conversation of authors alluding and building off of their predecessors lasted over 100 years, and is still going, once you factor in such upstarts as Gaiman, Butcher, Correia, and even Scooby Doo. In Appendix N, Zelazny conversed, for lack of a better term, with Kuttner, who conversed with Lovecraft, who in turn was part of a tradition of authors building on foundations created decades earlier by Ambrose Bierce.

While the Great Conversation is thought to encompass the entire body of Western literature, similar conversations can be seen in weird fiction. This process is characterized by authors in the Western canon making comparisons and allusions to the works of earlier authors.' Thinkers referencing, building on, and refining the work of their Per Wikipedia, 'The Great Conversation is the ongoing process of writers and

The hermetic millennia by john c wright