Monday, September 30, 2024
Sunday, September 29, 2024
Friday, September 27, 2024
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Looming Soviet Stock Shortage Could Hamper Russia's Offensive: Report
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| https://www.newsweek.com/russia-soviet-union-stockpiles-tanks-armored-vehicles-artillery-ukraine-1926869 |
Russia's once-extensive Soviet-era stockpile, which has propped up its war effort in Ukraine, is dwindling, and could affect Moscow's ability to continue advancing in the east of the country, according to a new report.
The Kremlin has relied heavily on Soviet reserves of tanks, armored vehicles and weapons to push forward with its offensives across the hundreds of miles of front lines in Ukraine.
Slews of more advanced equipment, like newer main battle tanks, were destroyed, damaged or captured in the initial phases of the war after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia has hiked its defense spending to expand tank and vehicle production, and turned to thousands of mothballed vehicles in storage to fill the gaps.
Reserves of tanks and armored vehicles are key for fighting the battles going on in eastern and northeastern Ukraine, as are supplies of artillery systems.
But experts told The Economist in an article published on Tuesday that by mid to late 2025, Russia's ability to use vehicles that have long sat in storage will have reached a "critical point of exhaustion." Many of Russia's T-72 tanks have reportedly been exposed to the elements since the fall of the Soviet Union in late December 1991, and have likely suffered for it.
Russian forces may have to fight a more defensive battle in Ukraine by the end of the year, Michael Gjerstad, an analyst with the U.K.-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think tank, told the outlet.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
The IISS think tank said in February 2024 that Russia has been able to replenish its extensive tank and vehicle losses in Ukraine, but much of the hardware heading for the front lines are "not new." Moscow is often sacrificing quality for quantity, the think tank added.
According to Ukraine's count, Russia has lost well over 8,000 tanks. This estimate comes in higher than many Western intelligence figures, which typically sit at under roughly half of this tally. Dutch open-source intelligence outlet, Oryx, has visually verified 3,243 Russian tank losses, but stresses the true number is likely to be higher.
The IISS estimated in February that Russia had lost at least 3,000 tanks, adding at the time: "To put that in perspective, Russia's battlefield tank losses are greater than the number it had when it launched its offensive in 2022."
Moscow is also contending with having to replace the barrels of artillery systems like howitzers that are in constant use, according to Tuesday's report. The barrels in artillery pieces littered along the hotspots of fighting need replacing as frequently as every few months, the outlet said, with Russia taking barrels from old, towed artillery pieces to fix onto self-propelled howitzers for the battlefield.
Ukraine has lost a significant number of its own vehicles and artillery pieces, although it is hard to discern the extend of the losses. According to Russia's figures, Kyiv has lost a collective total of over 16,602 tanks and armored vehicles and more than 12,000 artillery pieces. Oryx puts the tank and armored vehicle losses at just shy of 3,500.
Monday, September 23, 2024
The Haunted Ruins of Khara Khoto, The Black City of Mongolia
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| https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-asia/khara-khoto-0014063#google_vignette |
Khara Khoto is an ancient city located in the western part of Inner Mongolia. It was once a thriving city, thanks to its location on the famous Silk Road. But a devastating massacre left the city in ruins and, until recently, many locals refused to approach the ruins of Khara Khoto, for fear of its ancient ghosts.
This contributed to the discovery of the city’s ruins at the beginning of the 20th century. Excavations at Khara Khoto have uncovered thousands of manuscripts in the Tangut language, arguably one of the site’s most impressive finds. These were preserved by the area’s dry climate and spared from looters due to the remoteness of the ruins.
The name ‘Khara Khoto’ literally means ‘Black City’ in the Mongolian language. This is also seen in the name given to the city by the Chinese, i.e. Heicheng. As for the Tanguts, who founded the city, they knew it as Yijinai.
Interestingly, Khara Khoto is believed to have been mentioned by the famous Venetian traveler, Marco Polo. It has been identified (by the archaeologist Aurel Stein) as Etzina (also spelled as Ezina) in The Travels of Marco Polo. The description of the city by Marco Polo is as follows:
“Leaving this city of Kampion, and travelling for twelve days in a northerly direction, you come to a city named Ezina, at the commencement of the sandy desert, and within the province of Tanguth. The inhabitants are idolaters. They have camels, and much cattle of various sorts. Here you find lanner-falcons and many excellent sakers. The fruits of the soil and the flesh of the cattle supply the wants of the people, and they do not concern themselves with trade. Travellers passing through this city lay in a store of provisions for forty days, because, upon their leaving it to proceed northwards, that space of time is employed in traversing a desert, where there is not any appearance of dwelling, nor are there any inhabitants excepting a few during the summer, among the mountains and in some of the valleys.”
As mentioned by Marco Polo, Khara Khoto is situated on the edge of the ‘sandy desert’, i.e. the Gobi Desert. Although the city lies on the Silk Road, its inhabitants were not involved in trade and commerce. Instead, they made a living by supplying provisions to those who were making the journey into the desert.
When Marco Polo wrote his work about his travels to Asia during the 13th century, Khara Khoto had already existed for several centuries. It is often claimed that the city was established in 1032 by the Tanguts.
The Tanguts, known also as the Xia, were an important ethnic group in northwestern China. They were mentioned in Chinese sources as early as the 6th and 7th centuries AD. During that time, the Tanguts were invited by the Chinese to settle in what is today the provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai, and Gansu.
The Chinese were hoping that the Tanguts would act as a buffer zone between them and the Tibetans. Although the Tanguts occasionally joined the Tibetans in attacking the Chinese, on the whole, they served their purpose well. This is seen, for instance, when Emperor Taizong, the second ruler of the Tang Dynasty, bestowed his family’s surname, Li, on the family of the Tangut chief during the 630s AD.
By the 11th century, however, the Chinese, who were now under the Song Dynasty, were forced to turn their attention to the east. This was due to the fact that the they were in conflict with the Khitans, who had founded the Liao Dynasty shortly after the collapse of the Tang Dynasty at the beginning of the 10th century.
As a consequence, the Chinese had little time to focus on the western borders of their empire, and the Tanguts seized this opportunity to establish their own state, Xi Xia, or Western Xia, in 1038. This state flourished for about two centuries, until it was conquered by the Mongols in 1227. The Tanguts were in control of such a powerful state that It took the Mongols about 20 years to subdue them.
Khara Khoto was only captured in 1226, a year before the Tanguts surrendered to the Mongols. According to a popular misconception, the city went into decline once it became part of the Mongol Empire. In reality, however, Khara Khoto continued to prosper.
As a matter of fact, one of the positive effects of the Mongol conquests was the re-establishment of the Silk Road, which would have resulted in more traders passing through Khara Khoto. The city’s prosperity, however, came to an end not long after the fall of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty.
In 1368, the Yuan Dynasty was overthrown by the Ming Dynasty, and the Mongols expelled from China. Many of the surviving Mongols are said to have fled to Khara Khoto. They were allowed to settle there by its inhabitants. As the immediate concern of the Ming Dynasty at the time was to impose law and order on their newly gained territories, they were not really bothered about pursuing the fleeing Mongols. By 1372, however, there were so many soldiers at Khara Khoto that the Mongols were able to entertain the idea of launching an invasion on China, in order to retake it from the Ming Dynasty.
When news of the Mongols’ plans reached the ears of the Chinese, they were alarmed. By this time, the Ming Dynasty had consolidated their rule over China, which meant that they were able to address the Mongol threat more forcefully. Therefore, in 1372, the Chinese sent an army to attack the Mongols at Khara Khoto.
This military expedition is mentioned briefly in the historical records of the Ming Dynasty. According to these records, the Mongols of Khara Khoto, who were led by Buyan Temur, surrendered to Feng Sheng, a Chinese general, when he arrived at the city. Feng Sheng’s army was in fact part of a much larger expedition by the Ming Dynasty to destroy the Northern Yuan Dynasty, which the surviving Mongols established.
The Chinese military expedition was a force of 150,000 men, and was divided into three divisions, each advancing to the north of the Gobi Desert via a different route. The western division was led by Feng Sheng, while the eastern and central divisions were led by Li Wenzhong and Xu Da respectively. Despite the strength of their army, the Chinese were defeated by the Mongols. In the centuries that followed, the Mongols continued to menace the Ming Dynasty, until they were conquered by the Later Jin Dynasty (the precursor of the Qing Dynasty) in 1635.
While the fall of Khara Khoto is a small episode in the military expedition of 1372, more details about the event can be found in local legend. According to this legend, the leader of the Mongols at Khara Khoto is said to have been a general named Khara Bator (meaning ‘Black Hero’). The legend also states that the fortifications of the city were so strong that the Chinese were unable to take it by force.
Therefore, they laid siege to the city. In order to increase the pressure on the defenders, the Chinese diverted the Ejin River, which flowed outside the city, and was its only/main source of water. As a consequence, Khara Khoto’s wells soon dried up, and the defenders were forced to choose between dying of thirst or dying in battle against the besiegers.
In one version of the legend, Khara Bator lost his mind due to this dilemma, and murdered his family before committing suicide. Another version of the legend has the Mongol general escape from the city through a breach he made in the northwestern corner of the city walls. Apparently, a hole in the walls large enough for a rider to pass through can still be seen at Khara Khoto.
The remaining Mongol soldiers waited in the city until the Chinese finally launched their final assault on Khara Khoto. The defenders were mercilessly slaughtered, leading to rumors in the present day that the city’s ruins are still haunted by the ghosts of the fallen Mongol soldiers. Until recently, many locals refused to approach the ruins of Khara Khoto, for fear of these ancient ghosts.
Unlike the Mongols, who preserved Khara Khoto when they captured it from the Tanguts, the Chinese did not bother to maintain this city on the edge of the Gobi Desert. As a result, it was abandoned. It has been speculated that one of the reasons for the abandonment of Khara Khoto was the shortage of water.
In the centuries that followed, Khara Khoto fell into ruin. But it was not completely forgotten, as rumors of its existence continued to circulate. In fact, it was in the early 20th century that these rumors led to the rediscovery of the city’s ruins.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the Russians were conducting scientific expeditions in northern China and Mongolia. Two of the explorers, Grigory Potanin and Vladimir Obruchev, heard rumors about a lost ancient city somewhere downstream along the Ejin River. Back in Russia, these rumors attracted the attention of the Asiatic Museum in Saint Petersburg (today part of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences). A Mongol-Sichuan expedition under Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov was launched in 1907.
Within a year, Kozlov had discovered the location of Khara Khoto. In May 1908, Kozlov obtained permission to excavate the site from Dashi Beile, a local Torghut chief. In return for his permission to excavate the site, Kozlov gave Dashi Beile a free dinner and a gramophone.
The expedition’s most remarkable discovery at the ruins was a large quantity of texts, including manuscripts, books, and scrolls. These were written in the Tangut language, and were preserved thanks to the dry conditions of the surrounding desert. By the time the first expedition ended, Kozlov had sent 10 chests of artifacts back to Saint Petersburg.
In addition to over 2000 Tangut texts, the chests also contained Buddhist objects. In 1909, Kozlov returned to Khara Khoto, and more manuscripts were unearthed. The artifacts remain in Saint Petersburg to this day, though they have been published as the Russian Collection of Khara-Khoto Manuscripts.
In the decades that followed, other expeditions to Khara Khoto were undertaken by various explorers. In 1917, for instance, Aurel Stein visited Khara Khoto on his third Central Asian expedition, and surveyed the site for eight days. Other archaeologists, such as the American Langdon Warner, and the Swedish Folke Bergman, also visited the ancient city, the former in 1925, and the latter in 1927 and 1929. On his second visit, Bergman stayed at Khara Khoto for a year and a half, surveying and making maps of the area.
The Chinese also took interest in the site. Between 1927 and 1931, for example, a Sino-Swedish expedition, led by Sven Hedin and Xu Bingchang, carried out excavations at the site. Additionally, between 1983 and 1934, Li Yiyou, from the Inner Mongolian Institute of Archaeology, carried out excavations at Khara Khoro, unearthing another 3000 manuscripts.
The remains of the buildings at Khara Khoto have received much less attention than the manuscripts. These structures include the city’s ramparts, which are 9 meters (29.5 ft) high, 4 meter (13.1 ft) thick outer walls, a 12 meter (39 ft) high pagoda, and crumbling mud houses. In addition, there is a building that may be a mosque outside the city walls. It has been speculated that this building would have been used by Muslim traders who stopped at the city.
Considering the fact that Khara Khoto is not easily accessed, due to the surrounding desert, the ruins have not been developed into a tourist attraction. While this means that the site does not reap the benefits brought about by tourism, it also does not suffer from the damages caused by receiving numerous tourists. This may help to preserve the ruins for the future.
Saturday, September 21, 2024
[News Clip: 1966 Miss American Pageant Winner]
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1482958/m1/
This video is part of the collection entitled: KXAS-NBC 5 News Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries Special Collections.
PS2 Review - 'Final Fantasy XII'
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| https://worthplaying.com/article/2006/11/21/reviews/37911-ps2-review-final-fantasy-xii/ |
Final Fantasy XII shakes the series to its core with the introduction of a unique new combat system, while still honoring the franchise's reputation for epic storytelling, incredible spectacle, and compelling characters.
In the time between my preview and this review, seemingly no generalized perception of Final Fantasy XII has developed. I was expecting this to be an extremely polarizing entry in the series, eclipsing FFXI as a subject of controversy (because really, even the lower-level gaming drones easily wrote that game off as "Final Fantasy Online" and left the bulk of the arguing to the MMO crowd). Just thinking of how radical a departure FFXII truly is, I'm surprised I'm not writing this overwhelmingly positive review from behind a riot shield.
Then again, maybe I'm not giving Square Enix enough credit. This game could have ripped its battle system straight out of Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, and it would still rate as one of the most epic, gorgeous games of all time, and most of us would have bought the game anyway. FFXII is far beyond any expectations I ever had for it; I should note here that I am not a FF fanboy by any means - not by a long shot. I'll also take this opportunity to note that, in my eyes, the cut-scene-heavy FFX was a blemish on the creative path of Japanese RPGs. Yet it is a cut scene - an amalgamation of cut scenes, at that! - that elevated FFXII beyond the fancy departure from the world which was introduced in the Dragon Quest pack-in demo. As soon as the beautiful orchestration comes rumbling in and those great, dramatic scenes rhythmically follow it, it's hard not to have a chill swing down your spine.
The upcoming DS spin-off notwithstanding, it's a shame that producer/director Yasumi Matsuno, who dropped off FFXII toward the end of development for as-yet undisclosed reasons, is no longer a Square Enix employee. Ivalice, the world of FFXII as well as the Final Fantasy Tactics series, seems to have just come to fruition with this game. The city-state of Dalmasca, both the setting and the main subject of contention, is rendered beyond compare, and begs to be seen again once the game is through. Without Matsuno, a FFXII-2 seems very unlikely; but perhaps I am getting ahead of myself here.
Very early on, an important character is revealed to be a completely different person than originally presented, so it shouldn't be surprising that the story will evolve into a daunting, multi-faceted beast. Granted, if you've paid any attention to the press this game has received over the past few years, you'll see right through this early deception, but it's indicative of the type of storytelling FFXII offers. Whether you expect it or not, things get much more interesting as the story moves forward. Nothing is content to remain exactly as it seems, and nothing plays out as console RPG conventions dictate.
In a Dragon Quest-like move, without actually going too far in that direction, the fight for Dalmasca is primarily seen through the eyes of a young street urchin named Vaan, who is undoubtedly intertwined in the events of the story, yet not in the same way most FF leads are. The main characters in the series have been the center of the storytelling for just about every entry since FFIV, but Vaan serves mostly as a vehicle to pull players through the political and action-driven twists and turns that more involved players take him through. If this seems counter-intuitive, just think of famous silent characters like Chrono, or even, to take this example into a slightly different genre, Link from The Legend of Zelda. Their silence serves to subconsciously pull the player closer to the adventure at hand.
By giving Vaan a speaking role, the cut scenes and sprawling dialogue are unhampered by an awkwardly silent character; yet, in many cases, Vaan is decidedly quiet, simply because certain conversations are not his business, and he knows it. This is a brilliant interactive storytelling device, and while it isn't unique, I hope FFXII will prove the impetus for developers to use this method more often.
FFXII isn't packed with high-concept allegories like Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga, but it's got similar meta-thinking behind it, if you look between the high polygon count and ultra-sharp, beautifully detailed cut scenes. There's a wonderful charm to meta-gaming, and I'd never want to play a Metal Gear Solid game where Snake doesn't ramble on about pressing the 'Circle' button, but maybe this is the proper way it should be done. At the risk of sounding like a pretentious charlatan: FFXII doesn't knock down the fourth wall, but installs a small window instead.
I promise I won't mention the words "meta" or "fourth-wall" in a game review ever again. I'm just far too excited to play an AAA game that actually takes the fact that it is a video game into account. The fact that I can't immediately compare Vaan's character to any counterparts within the medium is incredibly exciting. Better yet is the fact that Nick Carraway (The Great Gatsby) is the name that keeps popping into my head whenever I think of how Vaan is used. Perhaps a couple decades after Matsuno's death, FFXII will have a sudden second wind and become required high school curriculum, as well.
Disclaimer: I'm joking.
While noting FFXII as a status-quo shifting trigger, now is probably the right time to delve into the battle system. If you haven't read about it hundreds of times already, I am pleased to inform you that the traditional turn-based and Active Time Battle systems have been left behind. This may prove to be the anomaly in the series, especially with Matsuno out of the picture, but I can't help but hope that a great change will take place in the Japanese RPG landscape. With so many Japanese games going for fast-moving, non-traditional takes on traditional RPG gameplay - Devil Summoner and Contact being the most notable recent examples - it does seem as though a widespread change is occurring.
FFXII takes the concept far beyond what would be expected from this title, or any console RPG not developed by Bioware or Bethesda: The battles, along with the entire world, are completely seamless. Oh, yeah, and in case you didn't hear, a menu isn't going to pop up and ask you to press "attack" every single time your character's turn comes up. It does it for you, and with the Gambit system, so you'll have unprecedented control over what your characters decide to do, even if you aren't directly telling them to do it every single time.
This is without a doubt the most radical moment Final Fantasy has ever had, besides the 11th iteration being a slow-moving MMORPG. FF games have always been about very obvious seams, with many different ways to manipulate the characters, or not manipulate them at all, depending. The very existence of FFXII seems to be to dismantle that precedent. The old standard requires six layers of presentation: world map exploration, city/town exploration, battle mode, menu tweaking, dramatic cut scenes, and text-based dialogue sequences. The former three are now a single unit, with only a minor change when in a town, where attacking is usually not possible. This means that monsters and even NPC allies unrelated to the story progression roam Dalmasca freely. They will run away on-sight if they are so inclined. They will cast protective spells on each other before even considering attacking your party. They will attack each other, and become so wrapped up in their battle that they won't bother to pursue you.
If a certain amount of an enemy is defeated, a few extra pages of information on the creature, as well as general FFXII knowledge, are unlocked in the profile. I'm so wrapped up in this game that I actually sit and read each and every creature's profile, and go out of my way to unlock the extra content for each one. It's like getting DVD extras for performing well, and I love the idea. There is also a clan record trophy section, which gives avid players little hand-drawn rewards for things like using a spell 100 times and 50+ combo.
Instead of dropping directly useful items or cash - and really, what were Bombs and Cacutars doing with straight-up cash in the first place? - enemies sometimes drop Loot. These are items that monsters might actually carry with them, and if you focus your rage on a single genus of enemies, you'll get greater bonuses depending on how many have been killed in a row up to that point. So, once you've killed 70 wolf-related creatures, you'll be getting much better Loot, including some that cast positive status-effects on your party. This is all the more reason to go back to dungeons that were hastily run through, even if the experience points aren't entirely worth it.
However, the License Points are pretty much always worth it, making almost any run a good idea in FFXII. LP is more important than EXP itself, which is usually the driving force of console RPGs. These points are spent on the License Board, a modified (and better!) version of the Sphere Grid from FFX, if it could even be called that. The main similarity between the two systems is that they both offer complete customizability for all party members, with the single limitation of their base stats. Balthier (who has the best voice actor out of the entire exceptionally talented cast) starts off with a pistol, and his partner, Fran (who has the most annoying voice out of the bunch, although the actress still comes off as a professional), with a bow; a few hours later, these characters could specialize in Great Swords and Hammers, respectively, and still retain their long-range skills when the need comes up.
The License Board is also where specialized skills are obtained. Many of the skills, spells included, are present on all of the characters' Boards, but have to be purchased in shops to be used. To use Steal, you must have purchased the skill, as well as unlock it on the Board. The same goes for Cure, Fire, and so on. The upside to this is that a skill only needs to be purchased once for all characters to be able to utilize it.
Mist Knacks are the FFXII equivalent of the limit break system. In this case, they can be used as long as MP is at 100%, and in the end, it will always result in magic being fully drained. Mist attacks appear on all party members' Boards, but each individual attack can only be assigned to one character. It took me a few tries to fully grasp the Mist system, but it had more to do with not being prepared for such a twitch-based method than anything. Simply, a bar appears and quickly drains, and the button that flashes on-screen has to be pressed before time runs out. If pressed on time, it either repeats what just occurred with a different button and moves on to any other Mist-ready character, thus adding their attack into the combo. This continues until a mistake is made, or there are no more phases of the Mist available for any of the characters performing the attack.
A simple strategy for tough boss fights is to keep a full reserve party (that's three characters, by the way) Mist-ready, and switch them out mid-battle in case things look dire for the first-stringers. Unleash the Mist flurry, and in some cases, you'll quickly be given the upper hand. Some bosses will shrug off these attacks like nothing more than an insect, though, so be careful not to rely completely on this system. This is where my biggest complaint comes in; many of the battles I've had trouble with have been fixed with a single three-character Mist assault, and while the aforementioned safety against Mist-reliance is there, it isn't used often enough. Of course, if I managed my MP a little less closely, I wouldn't have Mist attacks ready most of the time!
The final, and probably least important implement is the new Summon (or Esper) system. There are many summons in the game, although you won't run into a single one until at least 12 hours into it. Instead of having single attacks and running off into nothingness like a traditional FF summon, these Espers will stay with your party and pummel enemies for a limited time, then run off into nothingness. They are useful and will probably save your party a handful of times, but mostly, they don't have the power to really change the tide of a battle. Any help is good help, and anything to make running through swaths of enemies move quicker is a good concept, in my book.
So, with all of these complex systems in place, how does it all happen? Without a menu slavishly popping up between every turn, how do all these skills and Mists and spells and summons come into play?
The easy answer is Wait Mode. A familiar battle-menu pops up and freezes the screen on command, lets you make your choice, and immediately enacts your decision.
The real answer is Gambits.
A warning: when FFXII was first shown to the world - and I mean really shown, not a bunch of worthless CGI-only trailers - the word "Gambit" echoed through the console gaming community with not a little thunder behind it. The topic has been discussed so much in so many different mediums (magazines, television, forums, etc.) that you might not want to read even more about it here. Frankly, almost every time it's brought up in the media, it's explained entirely from point A all the way to point Z, and as tired as I am of seeing the FFXII manual reprinted every single time the game is brought up, it would be an injustice to the ingenuity of the system to avoid explaining it in great detail here for the minority that hasn't heard much about it. If you're one of the few that glossed over the details every time it was brought up, take the time to read it this time around, because hopefully it's the last time it shows up on a major gaming website (yes, we're tooting our own horn with that line).
A Gambit is a pre-made command that tells your character how to react in a given situation. Think of Gambits as the programming language of FFXII. If you've ever used a program that touted itself as "the easy way to make your own videogames without programming know-how!" you know exactly how Gambits work, because there is more to them than throwing as many of them as possible on each character. They must be in a logical order, as well, which may take a great deal of trial-and-error to perfect.
Also, each character has a limited number of Gambit slots (more are unlockable on the License Board), so which Gambits are used must be thought out very carefully. Finally, Gambits can be turned off without being deleted, so if a specific enemy is too weak to fire, the Gambit "Cast Blizzard ' Party Leader's Target" should be turned off, and "Cast Fira ' Party Leader's Target" should be flipped on. However, changing that Gambit setup would be futile if the "Attack Party Leader's Target" Gambit were at the top of the list, because it would take precedence over the spell-casting directives below it.
This sounds complex, and really, there is a lot more to it than the usual FF menu-tweaking; it stops just short of fighting your battles on a management screen. Think of how much time is saved when you aren't plugging in the same commands to fight the same enemies ad infinitum. Also, you can always press X and get the traditional menu to pop up at any time to make up for what your Gambits aren't set up to do, and with Active Mode switched off, as previously mentioned, you can freeze the game while you make your decision, which is incredibly useful for boss fights, which often demand a constantly changing strategy.
When all of these features and concepts come together, it's obvious that the team behind FFXII- most of whom never worked on a flagship Final Fantasy title before - was trying to change the status quo of the franchise, as well as the genre. They've succeeded. This is a nearly seamless world that feels so much more alive than the mechanical settings and story development and gameplay that we've been used to for so long. Ivalice is more alive than any other setting in Square Enix history, and in FFXII, it's taken to an entirely new level. FFXII is widescreen capable, too, so it'll look pretty good on that expensive new television or monitor you just committed insurance fraud to buy.
FFXII has my vote for Game of the Year for 2006, and I'd even go as far as to call it my personal Game of the Generation. When it comes to recognizing the true quality of a game - it does what it does better than any other game - I know that I'm going to be coming back to this game for years to come.
Final Fantasy XII, if it does not become an unpredictable phenomenon, will probably end up with a fate like FFVIII. The general fan base will buy it, and might be disgusted by it at first, but after years of analysis, I guarantee the integrity of this game will hold up quite solidly. I'm proud to be on the side that recognizes this the first time through.
Thursday, September 19, 2024
A biased affection for Halo 4 makes me like it more than Halo
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| A still from Halo 4 (2012), directed by Josh Holmes |
I recently finished reading issue #89 of NGC magazine from January of 2004. The only reason why I downloaded this issue from https://archive.org/ is because it features a review of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (2003). It's the first Fire Emblem game that I managed to complete, and this happened in the summer of 2020. I played this game on my Wii U console. It's one of several dozen Game Boy Advance games that I downloaded before Nintendo shut down the Nintendo eShop for the Wii U. Fortunately, there's a quick save button for GBA games on the Wii U, and this helped a lot when I was playing The Blazing Blade because it's not an easy game, though I like strategy games. Looking back, I think that I should have played The Blazing Blade on a handheld console, but playing it on my Wii U still turned out to be a very good experience. This issue of NGC features a review of what Nintendo was up to in 2003. There are short articles about which video games the editors of the magazine were looking forward to in 2004. Among these games is Resident Evil 4. There's a long review of 1080° Avalanche, which got a rating of 90/100 from the magazine. Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death got a rating of 84/100. The screenshots in the review actually made me really interested in this game. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga got a rating of 94/100 from the magazine. Superstar Saga isn't a game that I enjoyed playing much. This RPG was clearly made for children, and some people seem to like many aspects of this game, but not much appealed to me here, though I understand why some people really like this game because it's overall solid and fun. Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade got a rating of 92/100 from the magazine. I'd say that The Blazing Blade is one of the most memorable and enjoyable games that I've played. NGC rated it highly and considered it to be superior to Final Fantasy Tactics (1997). I don't agree that it's better than Final Fantasy Tactics, but it's still a fantastic game. Pokemon Colosseum got a rating of 84/100 from the magazine and a lengthy review. Other than a few reviews, there's little that interested me in this issue of NGC. I haven't played many GameCube games so far, and, although I have no love for Nintendo, I don't think of the GameCube as a bad console because dozens of good games got released for it. There's no doubt that enough innovation was still taking place in the video game industry during the sixth-generation. Many of the video games that got released in the 2000s are the games that got me interested in gaming. I mean, Resident Evil 4 and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker are still perhaps the most memorable and most enjoyable games that I've played, and, strangely enough, both of them got made for the GameCube. Some people are now complaining about the fact that the ninth-generation is pretty much a wasteland when it comes to new games. What they mean is that few new games got released for the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X. I don't have much to say about this because I don't own a ninth-generation video game console, but I can say that none of the games that got released on the PS5 so far interest me. The only PS5 game that I kind of want to play is God of War Ragnarok, and that's only because it's a sequel to God of War (2018), which is one of the most enjoyable games that I've played in the last few years. But God of War Ragnarok is available on the PS4 too, though its $80 price tag has so far prevented me from purchasing it. The ninth-generation is certainly short on console exclusives, especially on good console exclusives. I'd say that it's also short on variety and new original games. Many new big budget video game releases nowadays are either remakes or sequels. I especially don't think fondly of the remakes and remasters that got made in the last decade and a half. But is this a problem for me? Of course not. Even if I had a PS5 or a Series X, the shortage of console exclusives and of different genres of games wouldn't have bothered me much because I don't play video games every day. But what has caused this "stagnation" in the industry? Well, perhaps one of the most important factors that has brought the industry to this point is the fact that the industry is now dominated by monopolies or near monopolies, which are more concerned about making games that have big budget cutscenes than about making a variety of good original games. Interestingly enough, even with all of their resources, these giants of the industry end up making few games and certainly few, if any, great games. Instead of making something new and original, they make poorly thought out remakes and remasters such as Demon's Souls (2020) or Persona 3 Reload (2024). So, obviously, I haven't played Persona 3 Reload, but I have played Persona 3 for the PS2, which turned out to be one of the best video games that I've played. Persona 4 is even better than Persona 3, in my opinion. I don't like the "enhanced version" that's called Persona 4 Golden for the PlayStation Vita, but Persona 4 for the PS2 is one of my favorite games. The latest Persona game that I've completed is Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (2009) for the PSP. This game is not on my favorite list of the best video games ever, which is the one on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_considered_the_best), but this didn't deter me from playing this "PlayStation classic". Unless you're a pro at playing the PS1 Persona games, this first Persona game won't be easy to finish. I had to spend hours on earning more experience for my team of characters and their personas in order to defeat the last boss of the game. But was this game worth playing? Well, it was worth it for me. Just like Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (2007) and Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (2010), this port looks lovely on the screen of a PlayStation Portable. The port's cutscenes are quality works that I was glad to watch. In short, playing this game is like playing a SNES RPG. There are plenty of random battles in dull, labyrinthine dungeons. But there's no denying that the game's setting, locations, characters, and personas are well-designed. The game's good soundtrack certainly makes it easier to play. I got enjoyment from playing this game from time to time simply because it's a PSP game, but this may not be an attraction for everyone. When it comes to Halo 4 (2012), which is another game that I managed to complete recently, I think that I won't beat around the bush. I'll just say that I love Halo 4. I still remember playing the first three Halo games a few years back very well. These games turned me into somewhat of a fan of the Halo franchise. The shooter genre in video games is far from my favorite genre, and, therefore, the things that drew me in were the stories and the graphics of the Halo games. Halo 4 is up to the standards of the first three games. The story and the graphics are just as appealing, though I would say that they're better in Halo 4 because they're more polished. The title screen of this video game, with its music, instantly became a favorite of mine. Halo 4 cost a lot of money to make, but the cost was well worth it because, for example, the game's cutscenes are well-designed, detailed, and even awe-inspiring. I played Halo 4 by using my Xbox 360, but this game is also available on Steam for PC. When it comes to the topic of whether or not video games can be considered art, I personally don't think that video games are art. But I don't need for something to be a piece of art in order for me to respect it and like it. The problem here is that video games are interactive. They are, like other types of games, something that you have to play and interact with. You don't just look at video games in order to get enjoyment from them. But, if you're someone who thinks that almost anything that's attractive is art, you can certainly think of video games as art. For example, you can think of a good-looking car as art. Or you can think of a piece of furniture as art. Or you can think of a building as art. People certainly love and admire buildings. Or you can think of a board game like Monopoly as art, if it's beautifully designed. It's the same with video games, in my opinion. The thing is that people usually try to make whatever it is that they're creating look beautiful. But parts of video games (in-game cinematics, music, levels, etc.) can certainly be thought of as art. One thing that I can say about video games is that they are usually more immersive than any art form, such as film, music, or paintings. In just a few decades, the video game industry has grown to become larger than all of film, music, and television combined. People certainly love their video games. Most people grow up playing video games now. This isn't the case with me because I wasn't allowed to play video games when I was growing up, but I'm still very fond of video games. If I could, I'd spend most of my time on playing video games, but there's also the fact that I like reading or watching films and television in my free time too. But who am I to talk about this? If anyone should be asked about the topic of video games as art, it should be the preeminent modern philosopher Sir Rich Evans, who's the greatest mind of our time. Just don't ask for the opinion of two unoriginal and uninventive old dudes called Mike and Jay.
I can say that I listened to 'Pericles and Athens' (1966) by Andrew Burn for the second time recently. Listening to the audiobook again was a breeze for me not only because the book isn't thick but also because it's well-written. It was a pleasure to listen to the audiobook of 'Pericles and Athens' on Audible. I even bought a copy of the book in paperback form recently on eBay because of the useful information that it contains and because it's one of the most memorable books that I've read (listened to). The following is what Burn had to say about the government of Athens in the book. "This brings us to a second, a modern misconception, which arises from equating Pericles' position with that of a modern prime minister or American president. The difference lies between the "direct democracy" of the Athenian city-state and representative democracy, which an Athenian would not have considered a democracy at all. Athens did not elect a parliament or president or a government of any kind. It elected or chose by lot sundry committees and officials, some of them very important; but in addition to calling them to account at the end of their year, the Sovereign People itself directed them on all major issues, at meetings of the Assembly held at least four times in every five weeks, in addition to special meetings as required. The whole body of citizens, or such as chose to attend - great and small landed proprietors, merchants, shopkeepers, employers of labour, and an increasing majority of plain manual workers - formed at once the Athenian legislature and the supreme deliberative and policy-making body. The Athenian people did not choose but was its own government." Another audiobook that I enjoyed listening to recently is 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' (1865) by Lewis Carroll. It's narrated by Scarlett Johansson. I was able to get it for free on Audible, and, when I began listening to it, I got through it quite quickly because of the good narration. 'Dune' (1965) by Frank Herbert is another audiobook that I listened to for the second time a while ago. 'Dune' isn't one of my favorite novels. It's not even one of my favorite science-fiction novels, but the audiobook is a pleasure to listen to and I wanted to listen to it again because when I listened to it for the first time I didn't listen to it attentively. When I listen to an audiobook, I don't do anything else because I don't want to get distracted. The other science-fiction novels that I enjoyed listening to so far because of their narrations on Audible are '2001: A Space Odyssey' by Arthur C. Clarke, 'Alien: Out of the Shadows' by Tim Lebbon, 'Alien: Sea of Sorrows' by James A. Moore, 'Alien: River of Pain' by Christopher Golden, 'Alien III' by William Gibson, and 'Jurassic Park' by Michael Crichton. 'Carnival Row: Tangle in the Dark' (2019) by Stephanie K. Smith is an audiobook that I had no interest in before I began listening to it. I got it for free on Audible because of my account benefits, but the narration by Karla Crome is superb. This is easily one of the best audiobooks that I've listened to. Another favorite of mine on Audible is 'Cosmos: A Personal Voyage' (1980) by Carl Sagan. I already mentioned in an earlier post that I bought a hardcover copy of 'Cosmos' at a used book store after listening to the audiobook because it contains many excellent photographs. Now I'm slowly watching the 1980 Cosmos television series for the second time, having seen it for the first time several years ago. Cosmos is a memorable and well-made show, and it was the most widely watched series in the history of American public television until The Civil War (1990). One of the most interesting books that I'm reading now is 'The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil' (1900) by Paul Carus. It's a tantalizing trove of facts and lore on the philosophy and practice of evil down through the ages and around the world. I haven't yet finished reading the book, but I will include just one of the many quotes from the book that I've highlighted. "We know that the Babylonians possessed several legends which have been received into the Old Testament, the most striking ones being the legend of the deluge, of the tower of Babel, of the destruction of corrupt cities by a rain of fire (reminding us of Sodom and Gomorrah), of the babyhood adventures of King Sargon I. (reminding us of Moses), and of the creation of the world. In the legend of the destruction of the cities there occur several names which indicate an Accadian source. The legend of the deluge agrees in all important details with the analogous story in Genesis. It is the eleventh part of a larger epic celebrating Izdubar, a sun-hero and an Assyrian Hercules, who goes through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, the eleventh being Aquarius, corresponding to the eleventh month of the Accadians called "the rainy." About Sargon I., king of Agade, who, according to a tablet of King Nabonidus, lived 3754 B.C. and built a temple to Sanias, Mr. E. A. Wallis Budge says in his Babylonian Life and History, p. 40: "A curious legend is extant respecting this king, to the effect that he was born in a city on the banks of the Euphrates, that his mother conceived him in secret and brought him forth in a humble place; that she placed him in an ark of rushes and closed it with pitch; that she cast him upon the river in the water-tight ark; that the river carried him along; that he was rescued by a man called Akki, who brought him up to his own trade; and that from this position the goddess Istar made him king." The derivation of the biblical account of Creation from Assyrian sources can as little be doubted as that of other legends, not only because of its agreement in several important features, and in many unimportant ones, but also because sometimes the very words used in Genesis are the same as in the Assyrian inscriptions. We find in both records such coincidences as the creation of woman from the rib of man and the sending out of birds from the ark to ascertain whether the waters had subsided. First the birds returned at once, then they returned, according to the cuneiform tablet-inscriptions of the Assyrians, with their feet covered with mud; at last they returned no more. Our excavations have not as yet found a report of the fall of man and of the serpent that seduced Adam and Eve to taste the fruit of the tree of life. There is, however, a great probability that some similar legend existed, as we are in possession of pictures which represent two persons seated under a tree and a serpent near by. The tree of life is an idea which must have been very popular among the Assyrians and Babylonians, for their artists do not tire of depicting it in every form. It may date back to that remote period when the fruits of trees constituted an important part of the food by which human life was sustained."
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Historic Centre of Florence
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| https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/174 |
Built on the site of an Etruscan settlement, Florence, the symbol of the Renaissance, rose to economic and cultural pre-eminence under the Medici in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its 600 years of extraordinary artistic activity can be seen above all in the 13th-century cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore), the Church of Santa Croce, the Uffizi and the Pitti Palace, the work of great masters such as Giotto, Brunelleschi, Botticelli and Michelangelo.
Brief synthesis
Florence was built on the site of an Etruscan settlement and the later ancient Roman colony of Florentia (founded in 59 BC). This Tuscan city became a symbol of the Renaissance during the early Medici period (between the 15th and the 16th centuries), reaching extraordinary levels of economic and cultural development. The present historic centre covers 505 ha and is bounded by the remains of the city’s 14th-century walls. These walls are represented by surviving gates, towers, and the two Medici strongholds: that of Saint John the Baptist in the north, popularly known as “da Basso”, and the Fort of San Giorgio del Belvedere located amongst the hills of the south side. The Arno River runs east and west through the city and a series of bridges connects its two banks including Ponte Vecchio and Ponte Santa Trinita.
Seven hundred years of cultural and artistic blooming are tangible today in the 14th-century Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Church of Santa Croce, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi gallery, and the Palazzo Pitti. The city’s history is further evident in the artistic works of great masters such as Giotto, Brunelleschi, Botticelli and Michelangelo.
The Historic Centre of Florence can be perceived as a unique social and urban achievement, the result of persistent and long-lasting creativity, which includes museums, churches, buildings and artworks of immeasurable worth. Florence had an overwhelming influence on the development of architecture and the fine arts, first in Italy, and then in Europe. It is within the context of Florence that the concept of the Renaissance came to be. This heritage bestows upon Florence unique historical and aesthetic qualities.
Criterion (i): The urban complex of Florence is in itself a unique artistic realization, an absolute chef-d’œuvre, the fruit of continuous creation over more than six centuries. In addition to its museums (the Archaeological Museum, Uffizi, Bargello, Pitti, Galleria dell’Accademia), the greatest concentration of universally renowned works of art in the world is found here – the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Baptistery and the Campanile of Giotto, Piazza della Signoria dominated by Palazzo Vecchio and the Palazzo Uffizi, San Lorenzo, Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce and the Pazzi chapel, Santo Spirito, San Miniato, and the Convent of San Marco which houses paintings of Fra Angelico.
Criterion (ii): Since the Quattrocento, Florence has exerted a predominant influence on the development of architecture and the monumental arts – first in Italy, and throughout Europe: the artistic principles of the Renaissance were defined there from the beginning of the 15th century by Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio. It was in the Florentine milieu that two universal geniuses of the arts – Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo – were formed and asserted.
Criterion (iii): The Historic Centre of Florence attests in an exceptional manner, and by its unique coherence, to its power as a merchant-city of the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance. From its past, Florence had preserved entire streets, fortified palaces (Palazzo Spini, Palazzo del Podestà, Palazzo della Signoria), lodges (Loggia del Bigallo, Loggia dei Lanzi, Loggia degli Innocenti and del Mercato Nuovo), fountains, a marvellous 14th-century bridge lined with shops, the Ponte Vecchio. Various trades, organized into prosperous arts have left several monuments such as the Or San Michele.
Criterion (iv): Florence, a first-rate economic and political power in Europe from the 14th to the 17th century, was covered during that period with prestigious buildings which translated the munificence of the bankers and the princes: Palazzo Rucellai, Palazzo Strozzi, Palazzo Gondi, Palazzo Riccardi-Medici, Palazzo Pandolfini, Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens – as well as the sacristy of San Lorenzo, the funerary chapel of the Medicis, and the Biblioteca Laurenziana and others.
Criterion (vi): Florence is materially associated with events of universal importance. It was in the milieu of the Neo-Platonic Academia that the concept of the Renaissance was forged. Florence is the birthplace of modern humanism inspired by Landino, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola and others.
Integrity
The Historic Centre of Florence comprises all the elements necessary to express its Outstanding Universal Value. Surrounded by Arnolfian walls that date to the 14th century, the city includes the “quadrilatero romano,” which is made up of the present Piazza della Repubblica, the narrow, cobblestone streets of the medieval city, and the Renaissance city.
The urban environment of the historic centre remains almost untouched and the surrounding hills provide a perfect harmonious backdrop. This landscape maintains its Tuscan features, adding to its value.
Many of the threats to the historic centre relate to the impact of mass tourism, such as urban traffic air pollution, and of the decreasing number of residents. Natural disasters, specifically the risk of floods, have been identified as a threat to the cultural heritage and landscape. The 2006 Management Plan addresses this concern by defining emergency measures to be taken in the case of flooding.
Authenticity
The setting of Florence, surrounded by the Tuscan hills and bisected by the Arno River, has remained unchanged throughout the centuries. Florentines, aware of their own architectural past, have been able to preserve original building techniques with traditional building materials such as “pietra forte”, “pietra serena”, plasterwork, and frescoes. The Historic Centre of Florence has safeguarded its distinguishing characteristics, both in terms of building volume and decorations. The city has respected its medieval roots such as its urban form with narrow alleyways, and its Renaissance identity, exemplified by Palazzo Pitti’s imposing structure. These values are still appreciable within the historic centre, notwithstanding the 19th-century transformations undertaken during the period in which Florence served as the capital of Italy.
Unique Florentine handicraft and traditional shops in the historic centre are a concrete testimonial to the local past. Thus, they guarantee continuity for an outstanding tradition perpetuating the historical image of the city.
Protection and management requirements
The components of the property within its 532 ha boundary are under various private, religious, and public ownership and subject to a number of measures for their protection. National provisions provide for the protection and preservation of cultural heritage (D.lgs 42/2004), which regulates on behalf of the “Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo” all actions that may affect the cultural heritage of the site.
Since 2006, the Historic Centre of Florence has a Management Plan in place naming the Municipality of Florence as the party responsible for the World Heritage property.
Moreover, within the city’s Master Plan, Florence has put in place a tool for urban planning which identifies the historic centre as a place of cultural and environmental concern. In this area, only conservation and restoration practices are put into action. In particular the Structural Plan outlines the strategies and innovations identified for the city’s future: it foresees an improvement to living conditions for residents, improvements to tourism, and initiatives to increase awareness of the historic centre as a World Heritage property. Associated with this initiative is a building policy which controls activities in the historic centre.
The Municipality, as the party responsible for the site, has created an ad hoc office responsible for the Management Plan and to carry out tasks for the site’s conservation and development. The office identifies and develops the guidelines with other managing parties, plans the shared actions, and supervises the progress of the projects.
The Management Plan works to safeguard and conserve the urban structure and to maintain and increase the relationship between the traditional social-economic practices and the cultural heritage of the city.
Monday, September 16, 2024
Friday, September 13, 2024
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (1824-1863)
The U.S. Confederate soldier Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was born in Clarksburg, Virginia (which is now in West Virginia), on January 21, 1824, the third child of Jonathan Jackson, an attorney, and Julia Beckwith Neale. He was educated at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1846, at which time he fought in the Mexican War. Due to ill health, he resigned from the army and lectured on military matters, but he entered the Confederate army on the outbreak of war in 1861. He soon earned his nickname, at the First Battle of Bull Run. As General Barnard E. Bee tried to rally his beleaguered men, he shouted to them: “Look! There is Jackson’s brigade standing behind you like a stone wall!” (Douglas, 1940, p. 10).
Jackson showed himself to be a brilliant military strategist, often against larger Union armies. For example, his Stonewall Brigade distinguished itself in the Shenandoah Valley and at Richmond, the Second Battle of Bull Run, Harper's Ferry, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. At Chancellorsville he was accidentally shot by his own men; he died eight days later, on May 10, 1863.
Jackson studied war and military matters all his life, and was probably one of the greatest generals who ever commanded an American army. He was described as “a bold leader, probably the boldest the war produced” (Douglas, 1940, p. 62). Indeed, it was this boldness in unnecessarily visiting the front that led him to receive his fatal wound: an event that may well have lost the war for the southern states (Bevin, 1996). He was entirely indifferent to shells and bullets flying around him.
It appears that Stonewall Jackson meets the criteria for Asperger Syndrome, with clear evidence of a qualitative impairment in social interaction and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. Although individuals with Asperger Syndrome demonstrate major problems in social relationships, many are capable of great creativity because of their ability to focus on a single topic — in this case, on the field of battle and in military affairs. Jackson had “no moments of deplorable indecision and no occasion to lament the loss of golden opportunities” (Douglas, 1940, p. 62).
Family and Childhood
In 1826, Jackson’s sister Elizabeth and his father died of typhoid; Julia Jackson gave birth to her fourth child, Laura, the day after her husband died. The family slid into poverty. Julia remarried; her new husband disliked the children and they were sent to live with relatives. Julia died in childbirth in 1831. Thomas’s brother, Warren, died of tuberculosis in 1841.
Social Behavior
Jackson meets the criterion of a qualitative impairment in social relationships (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). He failed to develop peer relationships, and showed a lack of spontaneously seeking to share enjoyment and interests with other people, and of emotional reciprocity (Henry, 1979).
At school he was “shy and unsociable, retaining much ... awkwardness” (Henry, 1979, p. 581). However, on the battlefield, he was extremely brave and disregarded his own safety; indeed, he was promoted on the battlefield for heroism.
After his first sight of Jackson at law school, Henry Kyd Douglas (author of I Rode with Stonewall; 1940) remarked to a classmate that Jackson was “such an oddity!” The classmate replied that “Old Jack is a character, genius, or just a little crazy. He lives quietly and don’t meddle. He’s as systematic as a multiplication table and as full of military as an arsenal. Stiff, you see, never laughs, but as kind hearted as a woman’ (p. 233). (“Old Jack” was just 36 years of age at the time.)
Henry (1979) describes Jackson as “a withdrawn, morose, isolated personality of eccentric habits and with a hypochondriacal preoccupation which bordered on the bizarre” (p. 580). (Other individuals thought to have shown Asperger Syndrome, such as Newton and the Austrian mathematician Kurt Gédel, were also hypochondriacal.) During the Civil War, there were rumors that he was “mad,” and some fellow officers resented his aloof, high-handed way of conducting his campaigns: “Like many another great soldier, he was at first called ‘crazy,’ but it was soon found out that he was always sober and in his right mind” (Douglas, 1940, p. 237).
The people of Lexington considered Jackson to be one of their local eccentrics, but despite his shyness and odd ways he was respected by members of his church. People considered his appearance odd, “and this, combined with his reserve and awkwardness in company, made him the object of many jokes and derisive comments” (Henry, 1979, p- 581). He had a shy, introverted and secretive personality and it has been said that he rarely if ever laughed.
According to Douglas (1940), Jackson “was not always in pleasant accord with officers next in rank to him and was apt to judge them harshly” (this is reminiscent of Viscount Montgomery); “The general always kept himself very much apart and, although he was uniformly polite to all persons who came to see him, he did not encourage social calls” (p. 39).
Jackson never discussed his plans, and didn’t offer advice to his superiors, nor ask it of his subordinates. He is reported to have said, “If my coat knew what I intended to do, I'd take it off and throw it away” (Douglas, 1940, p. 235). “This ignoring of the officers next in rank to him detracted much from his personal popularity with them, especially as he had no individual magnetism to attract them” (p. 47). Nonetheless, his army “had unbounded confidence in their leader and he in them” (p. 70), and “Never in the history of warfare has an army shown more devotion to duty and the wishes of one man” (p. 135). Jackson judged himself more harshly than anyone else did.
Narrow Interests/Obsessiveness
Jackson was an avid reader of military history and studied Napoleon’s campaigns intensively. He was capable of very intense, focused concentration. This extreme focus on a single topic can have enormous benefits, and it is probably impossible for anyone to produce work of true genius without it.
Henry (1979) pointed out that Jackson was “hard working, personally brave and absolutely honest. He was also grim and humorless and was noted for a remarkably single-minded, inflexible ... persistence in any task he undertook” (p. 580). He “was not thought by those who knew him best to be a good judge of character generally, yet his opinion of the generals opposing him was always wonderfully correct” (Douglas, 1940, p. 62). He was a brilliant strategist, described by an experienced federal officer as the “supremest flanker and rearer” the world had ever seen (Douglas, 1940, p. 220). In particular, he had a great ability to mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy (Bevin, 1996).
Jackson was also preoccupied with religion and became a devotedly committed Christian of the stern, puritanical, biblical type. His difficulty with superiors was seen in 1850 when he was posted to Fort Meade in Florida. Before long, he was involved in an extraordinary and unpleasant dispute with his commanding officer, Major French. When Jackson accused French of immoral behavior, French counter-accused Jackson of insubordination. Here Jackson showed his “implacable and vindictive characteristics,” and indeed his attack on French was “pitiless, narrow minded and legalistic” (Henry, 1979, p. 581).
Routines/Control
According to Douglas (1940), Jackson “seldom, if ever, complained, and never uselessly and apologetically to those under him, nor to those above him. Determined to deserve good fortune, he never quailed before disaster; but trusting in God, himself, and his army he always commanded success” (p. 34). Douglas continued, “He regulated his conduct, personal and military, in accordance with his own ideas of right and wrong; he acknowledged accountability to no one but God and his superior officers” (p. 35). He was incorrigible in disregarding his own ease and comfort.
A servant said that he “could always tell the military atmosphere by Jackson’s devotions: that he didn’t mind his daily prayers, but when he got up in the night to pray, “Then I began to cook rations and pack up for there will be hell to pay in the morning” (Douglas, 1940, p. 155). Douglas (1940) also noted that Jackson “read newspapers only for the facts they contained, when he read them at all. Their criticisms upon his movements or those of his associates he ignored. After a while he stopped reading them altogether” (p. 35).
Jackson remained “aloof and secretive and drove his soldiers mercilessly; and his discipline was almost inhuman but the troops marched and fought and died for him with remarkable devotion” (Henry, 1979, p. 584). His need for control was sometimes evident when he clashed with other officers, such as General Charles S. Winder.
Jackson could get by on five minutes of sleep snatched here and there: “He could sleep in any position, in a chair, under fire, or on horseback” (Douglas, 1940, p. 234).
Language/Humor
Jackson rarely laughed and talked very little. As we have seen, he was described as grim and humorless. We do not know whether he showed idiosyncratic use of words or repetitive patterns of speech.
Lack of Empathy
Douglas (1940) noted that General Jackson was always as hard as nails in the performance of a duty. Although he had a kind heart, he was inexorable in the execution of the law, and was never known to temper justice with mercy. Also, he always wanted to get rid of inefficient officers.
In one case early in the war, he did not allow an officer a short furlough to visit his dying wife, despite the man’s impassioned appeal: “In cold, merciless tones, he replied, ‘Man, man, do you love your wife more than your country? and turned away. The wife died and that soldier never forgave Stonewall Jackson” (Douglas, 1940, p. 235).
At the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Jackson was a very bad teacher and extremely unpopular with his students. The cadets considered him a strange character: grim, aloof, unable to communicate with them in or outside the classroom, who subjected them to petty and relentless discipline (Henry, 1979). The authorities made an unsuccessful attempt to remove him from the job.
The general “had the least possible knowledge of music” (Douglas, 1940, p. 121). Henry (1979) reported an embarrassing incident when Jackson and his staff, as guests in a house, were being entertained by a young lady at the piano. Jackson asked her to play Dixie, saying that he thought it was very beautiful, whereupon the young lady replied that she had sung it just a few minutes earlier.
Naivety/Childishness
There does not appear to be much specific evidence for these traits in Jackson, but a few instances apply. He was shot at Chancellorsville after what Douglas (1940) described as an unnecessary visit to the front with a small number of his staff to investigate enemy movements — this would appear to be naive behavior. In another example, he also showed reckless courage that even General Robert E. Lee thought excessive.
Nonverbal Communication
Jackson appears to have shown limited facial expression. He was “the worst-dressed, worst mounted, most faded and dingy-looking general” that anyone had ever surrendered to (Douglas, 1940, p. 162).
Douglas (1940) described Jackson’s expression as “thoughtful, and, as a result I fancy of his long ill health ... generally clouded with an air of fatigue ... With high, broad, forehead, small sharp nose, thin, pallid lips generally tightly shut, deep-set eyes, dark, rusty beard, he was certainly not a handsome man” (p. 234).
While under fire, Jackson “rode along quietly, with his chin thrown out as usual and his cap close over his eyes, in apparent unconcern. I was wondering if this unconsciousness of the ‘deadly imminent’ shot flying through the air was simply indifference to danger, or the action of nerve and will-power; and this may have caused me, involuntarily, to imitate his bearing” (Douglas, 1940, p. 58).
Motor Skills
Jackson was ungainly: “in all his movements from riding a horse to handling a pen, the most awkward man in the army ... He rode boldly and well, but not with ease or grace ... He was not a man of style” (Douglas, 1940, p. 234).
Conclusion
There is no doubt that Stonewall Jackson met the criteria for Asperger Syndrome, which presents enormous challenges in terms of social relating and empathizing with others but can be hugely beneficial for a leader, as shown in this case. Stonewall Jackson was better prepared for the American Civil War than any other general.
- Michael Fitzgerald, Former Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
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