“Being simple is the most complicated thing nowadays.” -Ramana Pemmaraju The principle of simplicity or parsimony—broadly, is the idea that simpler explanations of observations should be preferred to more complex ones—is conventionally attributed to William of Occam, after whom it is traditionally referred to as Occam's razor. This does not mean that there will be … Continue reading The Complexity of Simplicity
Audio Books: Listening vs Reading.
My main motivation to turn to audio books was that I’m spending so much time of the day staring at a screen, that in the evening my eyes are too tired to read any further.
The US Literary Universe.
Since US literature, as represented by the US Library of Congress, has the whole universe as a subject, one could assume that this system is also governed by the same mechanisms that it describes. In the following two paragraphs I would like to outline some analogies between what most people consider as two disciplines who … Continue reading The US Literary Universe.
Bots on the Social Media and in Literature
Bots can be extremely sophisticated such as (i) generating pseudo posts which look like human generated to interact with humans on a social network, (ii) reposting post, photographs or status of the others, and (iii) adding comments or likes to posts, (iv) building connections with other accounts.
Conspiracy Theories, Social Entropy and Literature.
We live in a time where conspiracy theories are rampant and slowly start to realize how this disinformation is contributing to a logarithmic growing degree of social entropy. There is a whole section of literature dedicated to it and I like to call it confabulated history books presented as nonfiction.
About Promotion Burnout.
Marketing is the bane of my existence as a writer. It distracts me from what I really want to be doing: writing. It forces me to enter into the uncivilized world of advertising, where strident ads claw their way into the consumer’s consciousness, convincing the public to buy what they don’t want, can’t use, but must have.
A Collage of First Lines from Novels.
I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.[1] If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.[2] I’m pretty much f*cked. [3] No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences … Continue reading A Collage of First Lines from Novels.
Writing in Times of Pestilence
Now that society is struggling to deal with a devastating flu pandemic, I found the time ripe to give this subject some thoughts in a literary context. The first plague writings emerged around 1665 and resulted in innovative dialogues on a long endured illness. While the collective memory of the plague as an affliction was … Continue reading Writing in Times of Pestilence
How the Rainbow Serpent and a Ghost Ship sneaked into my Manuscript.
Even a hardcore plotter can sometimes be surprised how, by adding or changing some little detail into the narrative while typing out a manuscript, can give a completely different dynamic to the plot of a novel.
Fun TBR list
For those still looking for a 2020 reading resolution,
Chaos Dynamics in Modern Literature.
In both contemporary literature and science, chaos has been conceptualized as extremely complex information rather than an absence of order. As a result, textuality is conceived in new ways within critical theory and literature, and new kinds of phenomena are coming to the fore within an emerging field known as the science of chaos. The … Continue reading Chaos Dynamics in Modern Literature.
Serial Series Yes. Serialized Novels NO.
Lately I’ve out of frustration canceled my Kindle Unlimited account about this issue. Too many authors don’t seem to grasp what’s the difference between a serialized novel and a serial series. Put simply: a series is a collection of books that all belong to the same “franchise” but can be read in any order (because they’re … Continue reading Serial Series Yes. Serialized Novels NO.
Islands and Literature.
I’ve relocated recently from Barcelona to Utila, a little rock in the Caribbean with 6,000 habitants. It’s a writer’s paradise since islands have always occupied a powerful place and have been a source of fascination in the literary imagination. From the discovery of the Americas to the period of decolonization, European writers and artists translating … Continue reading Islands and Literature.
The Egg in Dali’s Work and in Literature.
The egg is ubiquitous in Dalí: he draws and sculpts it in all the possible shapes and sizes, and I came spontaneously to wonder; why can the eggs be found everywhere in Dali’s works?
The Golden Section in Dali’s Work and in Literature.
Mathematics can be, in addition to a good technical support for artists, also an exceptional creative stimulus.
The Lovecraftian Universe as a Cornerstone of The Maharajagar.
Howard Philips Lovecraft created an alternate universe populated by malevolent sea-creatures and gods whereupon multiple artists have been expanding. Although he died in poverty, Lovecraft is now heralded as one of the greatest horror and fantasy writers of his time. In modern fiction and art, his work is frequently referred to as “The Cthulhu Mythos,” … Continue reading The Lovecraftian Universe as a Cornerstone of The Maharajagar.
Climbing and Jumping The Dark Tower.
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.
Shaharee Vyaas 