Q. Why did we give our forthcoming series Draco Alchemicus such a fancy Latin name?
A. Because that's what the snake oil salesmen do. They speak like Dragons.
If you ever listen to Science speak—especially in the last few years!—you will notice the Science People using complex language to label everything they are describing and prescribing. Greek and Latin are the basis of this Science language, adding to the mystery of what is really being Marketed to us. As the Dragon Common Room Drakes love a good language game, we realized the “Dragon Speak” that turns a simple phrase like Snake Oil (English) into Draco Alchemicus (Latin)is the same Dragon Speak that gets us hooked on all sorts of false remedies and fake cures. In short: like magic, language transforms our perception of a thing.
The Dragon Common Room (DCR) is writing a story that exposes the Dragon Speak that gets our attention and warps our perception. This is why it is called Draco Alchemicus—we want to show readers the magic of the Science language, including the marketing of drugs and the rebranding of poisons as cures. Dragons like to use words to distort reality. We want to explore how distorted our civilization has become under the influence of Dragon Speak. And viola! That is how Draco Alchemicus was born!
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Why Drakes?
We’ve had a lot of responses to our Dragon theme at DCR. Many of our readers haven’t been given the guided tour of DCR yet or the Deep Lore of our project. So this week, we’d like to clear up once and for all why we love dragons so much.
The DCR team made an appearance during our Marathon Stream to conclude our Kickstarter campaign. How do we run this project, and why are we writing Good Stories in poetic form?
When is a dragon “dragon enough” and when is it an example of “draconitas”? In this episode, Professor Rachel Fulton Brown explores the “wilderness of dragons” Tolkien invented for his children’s stories, including The Hobbit, and contrasts them with the argument he makes for taking dragons seriously in his essay “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” How is Smaug like and unlike Beowulf’s bane? And how many dragons are there in a “wilderness”? —Aired September 2, 2020 on UATV
