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Conscientious Workers: Meaning of a Dying Breed

June 17, 2024

capitalism, experiencing, ignorance, society

What’s the first word coming to mind when you hear conscientious? Though it might be objector (an interesting topic for another day), in this post I’m focusing on conscientious workers and why, as a concept, it’s highly revealing of the rapid societal transformation we’re experiencing.

Inspiration for this post came from a remarkable interview the French-Greek philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis gave in 1991. Castoriadis is not very well known in the Anglophone world – he wrote in French – but his societal analyses are remarkably prescient. If you haven’t done so, take a look at my post on the collapse of criteria – based on this very interview I’ll be examining today, too.

In a nutshell, Castoriadis makes an intriguing argument regarding conscientious workers as a dying breed. According to him, to work conscientiously is meaningless in capitalism from a systemic point of view. Capitalism relies on conscientious workers, but does not produce them; they are remnants of older societies.

It goes without saying that the repercussions are monumental – and dystopian.

conscientious workers; image of woman packaging — When you have to work long hours at relentless speed (and with the threat of being fired if you don’t), quality becomes a meaningless sidethought

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Review of South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

June 10, 2024

Book Review, Criticism

criticism, Japan, literature, review

I have a love-hate relationship with Haruki Murakami’s fiction. Well, alright, it’s much closer to love than hate, but I’ve been critical of his fiction before. However, South of the Border, West of the Sun must be my favorite Murakami novel – and I’ve read plenty.

Whether we like or not something can boil down to personal preferences. Nonetheless, the reason why I liked South of the Border, West of the Sun so much can be very revealing in terms of writing – and reading – in a self-aware manner.

In a nutshell, I’d say in this novel Murakami succeeded in understanding the critical connection between depth and width more than in any other.

south of the border, west of the sun. image of nighttime Tokyo — There are various small details in the novel that seem insignificant, such as the use (or not) of umbrellas. But just as the protagonist cannot be certain about his observations, the reader can’t ignore the subtle symbolism lurking in these (only apparently minor) details

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Understanding Depth in Fiction

June 3, 2024

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

creativity, fiction, literature, reality, writing

For most people, depth in fiction sounds like a good thing, right? Just as we conflate vivid descriptions or rich vocabulary with high-quality writing, having a deep narrative must be a great thing, right? Right?

The thing is, there are so many fluid variables in the statement “Depth in fiction is a good thing” that it’s impossible to answer that in any sense-making manner before we truly focus on what it is we’re talking about.

That’s what I’m planning to do in this post.

I’ll first offer some definitions and reflection points on what constitutes depth in fiction and whether it’s always a good thing (sneak preview: it ain’t), and then I’ll list some ways that could add depth to your narrative – if you decide you need it.

depth in fiction. image of woman looking at the sea — This might seem just like a random stock photo to convey the concept of (visual) “depth”, however there is a subtle element crucial to my argument on depth in fiction. Namely, the balance between **depth and width**. If the camera angle was wide (imagine a drone image, high above the person), we wouldn’t quite get the same sense of depth as we do here.

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