Nick is being obscure. (I would not have known about the book had Nick not been raving about it during his recent visit to Austin.) Heldon is from Norman Spinrad's novel "The Iron Dream." Here's the idea: Adolph Hitler, due to turmoil in the early National Socialist Party, moves to New York in the 1920's and becomes a science-fiction writer. The Soviet Union takes over Europe. Hitler writes a novel, "The Lord of the Swastika," which describes the rise of state of Heldon (Weimar Germany), the last refuge of genotypically pure humans, against the mutant post-apocalyptic state of Zind (the USSR). The book is full of torchlight rallies, over-the-top phallic imagery, and other stuff too unspeakable to go into. It is sick, it is twisted, and it is disturbingly engaging. In the English terminology, it "takes the piss out of" high fantasy. The ISBN is 0-553-25289-5.
In V2 #218 Joerg asserts:
> Gaiseron believes that he, as every Loskalmi, was born a farmer
> (quoting David Gadbois from the Leicester HtWW1 run, and while most
> likely not actual history, true to him - I think Nick agreed upon
> this later that evening).
I was indeed lying. Gaiseron is the son of a bishop and enjoyed the comforts thereof. Of course, he is so addled that he probably believes his own propaganda, or at least believes in the necessity of that belief. On the other hand, after 200 years, no one around remembers the way things were to call him on his version of history.
In V2 #220, the antipodean Peter makes an amusing misclassification:
>>the KoW doesn't really worship the War Machine IMO, it _is_ the War
>>Machine, or at the very least the War Machine made manifest.
>
>Oh for Gods Sake! I don't particularly care for the Famous Flying
>French Philosopher's School of Thought and neither does Most of
>Glorantha
Actually, the distinction is rather Heideggerian. The Being of Being being Being, and all that.
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