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@derek@sunbeam.city"When the #LewisChessmen were carved, the queen moved one space. per turn, and only on the diagonal, or “aslant,” as a thirteenth-century sermon explains, because “women are so greedy that they will take. nothing except by rapine and injustice.” The queen was the weakest piece on the board, even weaker than the king, and Western #chess players had no clue what to do with her. Mostly they kept her close to her king, ready to block a check by a rook."
@Argus@mastodon.technology
It turns out our modern version of #chess, with a "mad" queen that can move any number of spaces in any direction, only came about 500 years ago.
"Not until 1497, when Isabella of Castile ruled Spain and its new world colonies, does a chess treatise recognize the queen as the strongest piece on the board."
Next book is Monica Byrne's "The Actual Star", featuring three timelines across 2,000 years. It's beautiful, so far.
I finished "The Actual Star" and I can't stress enough how much my mind is blown.
It is beautiful. I inhaled it. But i'm going to need some time to process it.
You know how you can go through books and give out five star reviews here and there, and then you encounter a beautiful, poignant, delicious story and realize that *this* is what you should have saved the five stars for?
Becky Chambers "A Psalm for the Wild Built" is beautiful, and made me happy. A true five-star-ass five-star of a novella.
Currently on "The Immortal Game: A History of #Chess" by David Shenk
Next book is "Cities of Light" - a collection of #solarpunk fiction from #ArizonaStateUniversity.
#Ebook available for free! http://imaginationasu.wpengine.com/books/cities-of-light/
Stories by: Paolo Bacigalupi, S.B. Divya, Andrew Dana Hudson, Deji Bryce Olukotun
Essays by: Angel L. Echevarria, Robert Ferry, Max Gabriele, Chris Gearhart, Madeline Gilleran, Lauren Withycombe Keeler, Clark A. Miller, Elizabeth Monoian, Yíamar Rivera-Matos, Patricia Romero-Lankao, Joshua Sperling, Alāna Wilson
"Build Your House Around My Body" by Violet Kupersmith is unexpectedly a ghost story.