for thinking people
December 17, 2017
The ideas explicated in the following text might to an extent be embarrassingly obvious to many fans of zombie narratives or experienced literature students and academics. But allow me to speculate that there is a significant number of people who have not considered these ideas. It is for their benefit I offer the following short analysis of what zombies can stand for.
December 12, 2017
Literature – and the Gothic in particular – is my field of expertise. Facebook and social media might be yours. But to the question “what is common between a Gothic double and Facebook”, you might think: “Nothing”. Then, you might start wondering whether I’m referring to some cat photo. After all, doesn’t that account for probably half of all Facebook photos posted?
In actual fact, I’m having something far more intricate in mind.
December 6, 2017
The big question: How do you define success? But of course, by measuring it, right?
You might think that the need to quantify everything is innate in humans. After all, when our ancestors lived in caves and had to hunt every day for their survival, 4 wild boars versus 3 could make the difference between life and death.
Fast-forward to the present day (Space Odyssey style) and the obsession with counting is more intense than ever. We live in the digital revolution era (with all its problems). Is your camera 12 or 24 megapixels? How many GB of RAM is your computer, your phone, your tablet? How tall are you? What’s your shoe size? Will it be a small, medium, or large coke?
You could argue – and you wouldn’t be wrong – that there is nothing sinister with measuring in that way. We need to be able to organize our life, after all.
The problems begin when you begin to overexpand measuring in adjacent areas. How many megapixels soon becomes “my camera is better than yours”, and, worse still, “I can take better photos than you”. The size of your clothes becomes a synonym of your value as a person. The size of your breasts a way to define you as a sexual being.
Sooner or later, we reach to the most absurd measurement of them all: the size of your bank account as a sign of your success.
