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The Other Side of Dreams (New Literary Fiction Novel)

March 19, 2018

OK, picture this: you’ve just won the lottery. Imagine the feeling of unreality pervading you, the surreal knowledge that your wildest dreams are becoming true. Now, what if I told you that no fate is worse than seeing your dreams come true? Welcome to The Other Side of Dreams, my newest literary fiction novel.

The Other Side of Dreams is a book following my tradition of literary fiction novels that focus on the individual. If you take a look at my Goodreads profile, you will see that my work revolves around the themes of the repressed past, the impossibility of choices, flawed men and determined women. That was the blueprint for To Cross an Ocean: Apognosis and it is for The Other Side of Dreams as well. Furthermore, although this newest novel can be read completely independently from Apognosis, the reader will encounter some familiar faces and settings.

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Resisting Fate (excerpts from To Cross an Ocean: Apognosis)

February 7, 2018

Fiction

book, destiny, experience, fate, fiction

The other day, as I was writing the article on fate versus chance in Frankenstein, I realized something: the trope of resisting fate forms the backbone of many great tragedies and stories in general. Defying destiny, resisting fate, is perhaps the ultimate insolence humans can display.

As such, there is something immensely powerful in it. At first I began to write an article on the topic, until I realized that I… have already. An entire chapter of my novel To Cross an Ocean: Apognosis basically talks about the protagonist’s struggle regarding destiny, kismet, resisting fate or surrendering to it.

Is it better to submit to it and avoid further heartache, or should one attack it fiercely, be the result what may? Or, just perhaps, is the concept of fate nothing but a man-made illusion?

What follows is a word-for-word copy of the novel’s 15th chapter. I have only added the headlines, to make the text more suitable for the purposes of this blog.

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Despair or Apognosis (excerpts from To Cross an Ocean)

January 1, 2018

Fiction

action, book, despair, experience, fiction, Greece, knowledge, trauma

“Apognosis” – besides forming part of the title of To Cross an Ocean: Apognosis – means something very unique. As you might guess, it is a Greek work (Απόγνωσις), fairly common in Greek. It basically means “despair”, but its etymology is revealing. Apognosis literally means to willingly abandon knowledge. Although I didn’t coin the original word, I would claim its first usage in the English language.

But what does the phrase “to willingly abandon knowledge” could possibly refer to? How can you pretend not to know something? Instead of offering a long philosophical diatribe on the matter, I’ll have two of the characters of the novel do the hard work. That’s one of the roles of fiction, anyway: to make complex issues accessible and relatable.

Despair, apognosis — Come home, all is forgiven…

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