Home For Fiction - Blog - Page 39 of 149

No Ads, no Corporate Masters

September 5, 2022

art, capitalism, home for fiction, knowledge, society

The phrase of the title, “No Ads, no Corporate Masters”, is of course a wordplay on “No Gods, no Masters”. It’s also a phrase I use on Home for Fiction, for example whenever you try to access any of the apps (we’ll talk about this more in a moment) .

It’s a way for me to remind you that Home for Fiction displays no ads, and it’s controlled by nobody.

But why all this? Why do I refuse to put ads on Home for Fiction? The short answer is, for the same reason I’ve refused corporate masters (and as you’ll discover in this post, I’ve had many such… suitors): Because I can’t compromise on what Home for Fiction is – in terms of content as well as aesthetics.

The longer answer is something I decided to write this post about.

Note: Years have passed, and certain things have changed regarding Home for Fiction. I’ve tried really hard to make things my way, moving in an increasingly more artistic and less materialistic direction. For instance, I tried various ways of keeping the Home for Fiction apps free, but people abused the offers. I am officially defeated. My idea of keeping them free turned out to be naive, and I simply can’t afford to pay for the server resources required. I only wanted to make apps I liked, that’s it.

Everything below this point should be seen as a snapshot of history and might not reflect current reality.

no ads no corporate masters — “No ads, no corporate masters” can be both lonely and liberating. There are no shortcuts – you can be either free or content; being both is impossible

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What Is Metatextuality: Examples and Purpose

August 29, 2022

Literature

book, creativity, fiction, literature, writing

“What is metatextuality?” There’s a question many students of literature ask. “How about intertextuality vs metatextuality?” is another valid question. Though some definitions can be offered, they are unnecessarily complicated, as we’ll see. Inevitably, the hapless student then comes back with a timid suggestion: “Can you just give me some metatextuality examples?”

This is precisely what I’ll be doing in this post. Funnily enough, I recently realized with some trepidation that metatextuality is a topic I haven’t properly examined in all these years Home for Fiction has been online. Except for one post on metatextuality in Dracula, there hasn’t been a proper analysis of this fascinating topic.

So let’s see what metatextuality is – with examples – what literary purpose it serves, and overall why we need to care, as readers and writers. Here’s a warning, however: As I often do, I will mention “official definitions” only to disregard them; I will present the established way of doing things, only to place it on the sacrificial pyre. After all, it’s about understanding metatextuality in practical terms, rather than repeating vague academic words.

metatextuality examples — Each novel exists not in a vacuum but as part of a larger ecosystem of words, ideas, and culture. Metatextuality is the way all these connect to one another.
(Image made with Mandelbulber; based on the Krzysztof Marczak collection – CC BY 4.0)

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“Everything Is Evil”: Why Life Is Necessarily Flawed

August 22, 2022

Philosophy

life, philosophy, reality, time, truth

Unlike what you might think, the expression “everything is evil” is not an ethical assessment. Rather, it’s an existential one. This becomes apparent if we incorporate a bit more of the context: “Everything is evil. That is to say everything that is, is evil”.

These words belong to Giacomo Leopardi, an Italian poet of the 19th century – a literary giant with whom English-speaking audiences are not too familiar. One reason is that translating his poetry is considered notoriously difficult. Indeed, nobody dared to even attempt it until almost a century after his death.

At this point, I should make it clear: I’m not, by any stretch of the imagination, an authority on Leopardi’s poetry. Not even remotely. What I’m doing in this post is literally taking one of Leopardi’s most (in)famous passages out of context, to discuss why “everything is evil”. That is, why life is necessarily flawed.

“There is no other good except nonbeing”, wrote Giacomo Leopardi. If everything is evil, life is **necessarily** flawed.

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