Reading in the Dark is a novel by Seamus Deane in 1996. The title of the novel is taken from a section in which the boy is alone and struggling to read in the dark set against the violence of Northern Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s. The boy narrator grows up haunted by a … Continue reading Reading in the Dark
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.
Resurrection as a Literary Device.
Resurrection isn’t anymore the monopoly of theologians, priests and other religious leaders, but has become also a recurring subject of intense research and speculation among artists and scientists.
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.
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.
Historical Backgrounds of the Qi’tet Members.
In my post of November 19th (Climbing and Jumping the Black Tower) I’ve been expanding upon the theme of how the five main protagonist of the Maharajagar are personifications of the Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata and how the Dark Tower series of Stephen King inspired me to bring these characters together in a multiracial … Continue reading Historical Backgrounds of the Qi’tet Members.
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.
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.
The Decline of Reading
Those who read own the world, and those who watch television lose it.
Shaharee Vyaas 