Home For Fiction – Blog

for thinking people

Self Versus Self: My Unpublished Project

August 29, 2018

Fiction

book, experimental, self versus self, unpublished, writing

Last spring I was quite busy with a project which I didn’t specify. Among other articles, those days I wrote about poetry and ambition. Well, I can now reveal that these two combined to make the Self Versus Self project.

Self Versus Self is the name I’ve given to this latest literary work of mine. It consists of two volumes, one narrative poem (Self Versus) and one novel (Versus Self). Both works essentially narrate the same plot and can be read independently. However, they have been written as complementary to each other.

Self Versus Self
(more…)

Used Item Journeys: Musings of Interconnectivity

August 21, 2018

Experiencing

experience, idealism, meaning, musings

I once bought a Nikon EM film camera from eBay. I did it just for fun, out of curiosity, whatever you wanna call it. My plan was to try it for a while, then sell it again to someone. On its bottom there was a metal plate reading “Department of Corrections, Facility no:….” (I don’t remember the exact wording). This made me realize that used item journeys is a fascinating thing to ponder on.

Imagine, all the things your used lens has seen, all the experiences around it, all the places it’s been. Someone with a prosaic outlook on life might say “well, hang on! These are mere items, they don’t experience anything! And the people using them aren’t the ones journeying around.”

Although prosaic, this argument is valid. Indeed, used item journeys are not experienced by their users. They are not experienced by the items themselves either, since (as our prosaic imaginary friend mentioned) inanimate objects do not experience. So, what’s going on?

used item journeys
You haven’t gone there, but your camera has. But does this offer you some level of experiencing?
(more…)

Memory and Subjective Reality in Dracula

August 13, 2018

Criticism

academia, criticism, Gothic

Note: the following article on memory and subjective reality in Dracula is a modified excerpt (pp. 155-158) from my doctoral dissertation, “Time is Everything with Him”: The Concept of the Eternal Now in Nineteenth-Century Gothic, which can be downloaded (for free) from the Tampere University Press pages. For a list of my other academic publications, see the related page of my website.

The importance of memory in Dracula is an issue receiving explicit attention. Mina mentions to Lucy that “with a little practice, one can remember all that goes on or that one hears said during the day” (D 62), an ability that is proven vital later on.

The occasions of memory loss begin early on for the characters. Jonathan, arriving at Dracula’s castle, suffers what appears to be a severe case of amnesia, as he claims “I must have been asleep, for certainly if I had been fully awake I must have noticed the approach to such a remarkable place” (D 21). Not only is Jonathan unsure of whether he noticed the approach or not, but his words imply that he is unsure of whether this was a result of dreaming or memory loss – hence his words “fully awake”.

Memory and Subjective Reality in Dracula
Memory and Subjective Reality in Dracula
(more…)