I was looking for a theme that could bind an African, Caucasian, Indian, Chinese and Inuit man in a coherent group. A such I was playing with the word quintet till I remembered the Black Tower Saga by Stephen King.
An Author’s Thoughts about Literary Criticism.
I just take sometimes offence at some critics who base their weighting of a novel on a very narrowly defined scale and sometimes these scales are provided by academics whose job it is to provide an informed opinion about them and not some biased fodder.
Struggling with The Stream of Consciousness.
In our contemporary culture is an active resistance to difficulty in all its aesthetic manifestations, accompanied by a sense of grievance that conflates it with political elitism.
The Novel as a Source of Knowledge.
Novels, while not in the business of stating truths about the world, tell a human story very often universal in scope and present them back to us as concrete forms of human engagement. A novel has the capacity to give shape, form, and structure, to the range of values, concerns, and experiences that define human reality.
The Novel as an Infinite Literary Jest.
“Fiction’s about what it is to be a fucking human being.” One who gets lost in life and takes all those tales literally, can forget that novelist very often lie in order to explain some truth.
Why do people always want to read about misery?
The simple answer? Because it makes them feel fortunate.
When Order vs. Chaos doesn’t equal Good vs. Bad.
The main purpose of this novel is to entertain the reader with a historical fantasy: a spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy and absolute power, set against the canvas of North America, Europe and Asia during World War 1 and the ensuing great depression.
Literary Hoaxes: when fun turns into irritation.
So what sets the literary hoax separate from the rest of fiction?
Can we use fewer acronyms? Please?
If you don't have time to communicate while using whole sentences, better don't
The Decline of Reading
Those who read own the world, and those who watch television lose it.
Monomania and Literature.
The most common monomaniacal behavior associated with the literary field is of a very mundane nature: the obsession of writers with writing and that of the readers with reading.
The Moral Crusaders and Literary Criticism.
Once an artist releases a product, it stands on its own and must be judged as such. The only views and opinions that count, are those ventilated or provoked by the artistic creation itself.
The Reader as a Protagonist in Modern Literature.
A post about books that allow readers to become protagonists.
Writers Writing for Writers.
The sheer abundance of writing, editing, publishing and promotion manuals for authors make me sometimes roll my eyes.
Pseudo-intellectualism in Modern Literature.
People who presume, not-entirely-unreasonable, that "literary fiction" represents a value judgment, fail to understand that "literary fiction" is just a marketing category (coined in the 1970's by publishing and book retailers) characterized by slower pacing, stylized prose, introspection and a focus on interior life over exterior action, a focus on character over plot. What they are not, though, are inherent markers of quality.
The Anatomy of a Best-Selling Book.
The average length of a best seller is 375 pages, set inside the USA and the protagonist is a female lawyer or detective. Romance is an upcoming segment: from 5 % of the sales in 1994 to 40 % on Amazon today and it has been demonstrated that men have a slight preference for a male main protagonist.
Poetry, Code and Literature.
In today’s literary criticism arises the concept that no general method for the solution of questions can be established which does not explicitly recognize, not only the special numerical bases of the science, but also those universal laws of thought which are the basis of all reasoning, and which, whatever they may be as to their essence, are at least mathematical as to their form.
Human Couples as an Amalgam of Projects.
It’s my conviction that where an understanding of the three pillars (money, addiction and sex) are the fundamentals whereupon each long lasting relation rests, the common projects that allow each individual in a relation to grow, is the cement that holds the structure together.
My first five days of holidays in 20 years.
We’re a couple of digital nomads. I’m a writer and my wife is a photographer. In many fields we’re complementary and have a lot of common interests. We are both travelers since twenty years and like what we’re doing. Sometimes we joked that going home for a couple of weeks every year was our way … Continue reading My first five days of holidays in 20 years.
Traveling and the Search for the Elusive Self.
If traveling does fundamentally change you, it’s only because you’ve done some important self-work while you were there. But it’s work you can do anywhere, and very few people actually get around to it when there’s a new city to explore and world to get lost in.
The Maharajagar 