for thinking people
January 2, 2018
It is said that if you drop a frog into a pot with boiling water, it will naturally jump out, trying to escape. Conversely, if you place it in one with lukewarm water which you are heating gradually, the frog will remain there until it boils to death, oblivious of the situation. I don’t know if this is actually the case, but the boiling frog problem is a stunningly accurate metaphor for the state of affairs in the world today.
January 1, 2018
“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.
December 31, 2017
I remember it very vividly: when I was a kid, it really felt there was a threshold between me and the grownups; a curtain, separating me from, presumably, all my hopes, dreams, and desires. I characteristically remember thinking that there would come one day when I would be a grownup. But there is a paradox awaiting there, which I will refer to as the grownup paradox.
