Privilege and reality alludes to a conflicting coexistence between what the world really is and what you think it is.
Whether you are an empiricist (“there is an ‘out-there’ reality”) or an idealist (“the only reality is within my mind”), there is a common element: your mind. Even if we accept the empiricist thesis, this “out-there” reality cannot be accessed but through our senses. And hence, this leaves us vulnerable to delusion.
Let’s now ponder on this in terms of society, privilege, and class.
Privilege and reality will always be in conflict
It is often said, correctly, that the very rich and powerful are entirely disconnected from the masses. The 1% don’t know how the 99% live, how they feel and think, how they cope. The problem is (and yes, it is a problem), you don’t know either.
I am a writer – a writer in the age of treason. That’s the word I would choose if I had to pick only one to best describe me professionally (whatever that means nowadays). I write novels of all kinds or genres, from speculative science fiction to supernatural horror and from soul-searching literary fiction to (yes, once even that) romantic dramas.
I am also an academic, specializing in Gothic and horror fiction (parenthetically, it is incredible how much more effortless it is to write 250 pages of fiction compared to the same number of a doctoral dissertation; don’t try this at home, kids). So, writing has “always” been something I’ve been drawn to.
Hence, writing here is really nothing different than what I am already doing, but perhaps in a more stream-of-consciousness, flexible kind of way. To a certain extent, fictional writing can be free (particularly if we’re talking about literary fiction). But it also has certain constraints which I am trying to bypass here. There is more, however.
Writing. Creating worlds.
The Age of Treason: Stupid Loudmouths and Intelligent Sufferers
The title of this first post is The Age of Treason. Forgive the shamelessly obvious pun, but sometimes I can’t help but feel that something is rotten in our world, now, in the year 2017.
No, no, I’m not talking about the usual aspects – there have always been wars, suffering, injustice, and pain. Furthermore, there have always been stupid loudmouths and intelligent but, alas, silent sufferers. What bothers me the most is how the stupid have become even louder and the wise even more marginalized. How is that connected to writing, you will ask.
