Remember my article on coffee and summer afternoons? This one is a bit like that. It’s just something spawning out of my head, without much thought, without any preparation. In a way, it serves a somewhat therapeutic function. Then again, isn’t all writing like that? Isn’t all writing a giant middle finger pointing upward, toward the cosmic joker? So, treat today’s article as the workings of the unconscious mind. Yes, it is about chess – and five reasons why I like chess – but deep down it’s just about me being frustrated with the world right now.
Chess. So captivating, so simple, so complex.(more…)
The word juxtaposition comes from the Latin juxta (meaning “next”) and the French poser (meaning “to place”). In other words, juxtaposition refers to the practice of arranging things next to each other. Now, in terms of writing and literature, juxtaposition refers to the way (usually) two elements are grouped in order to create a certain effect. In today’s article we’ll take a look at juxtaposition. Particularly, I’ll give you tips on how to use juxtaposition in fiction.
Juxtaposition in fiction is often about the unexpected(more…)
Speculative fiction is a genre dealing with what-ifs. In this context, Elleander Morning belongs to what one might rightfully (and whimsically) call “WW2-whatif-fiction”. We’ve had several stories dealing with an alternative world where Nazi Germany has won the Second World War. The Man in the High Castleby Philip K. Dick probably remains the point of reference, though in recent years Fatherlandby Robert Harris has also received quite a bit of attention.
Elleander Morning is indeed such a novel, with a sort of a twist: the Second World War has never happened. The reason? A young woman – Elleander Morning – travels to Vienna before the outbreak of the First World War and kills a mediocre artist called Adolf Hitler. Many decades later, in the early 1980s, Elleander Morning’s granddaughter, Lesley, discovers a book. It’s a complete history of World War Two, including marvelous photographs that cannot be dismissed as a forgery. Something odd is going on, but what? Well, that’s a damn good question. One that sadly not even the author, Jerry Yulsman, seems to have been able to answer.
What if Berlin was just another city, with no particular history?
