I have yet to meet a writer who hasn’t at some point wondered “What’s the genre of my book?” so let’s tackle this question and see why (if?) it matters.
The genre of a book is an issue that plagues writers, readers, librarians, publishers, and generally everyone dealing with books and literature.
In today’s post we’ll see how you can define the genre of your book. But here’s a twist in the plot: I’ll also inspire you to ask yourself whether determining the genre of your book is something you actually need to care about at all.
Determining genre – such as “Romance”, “Fantasy”, or “Romantic Fantasy” – is a marketing decision. The issue is, to which extent should it affect the creative process?(more…)
In philosophy, the burden of proof refers to the obligation of someone to provide evidence for an argument. In simple terms, when you and I have a philosophical disagreement, the burden of proof dictates whether it’s me or you who has to prove their position.
Now, this might sound a bit odd. “Surely”, you might say, “we both need to prove our point, isn’t that how philosophy works?”
Not quite.
Recall the post on the only game in town fallacy. If our philosophical argument is whether there are invisible, undetectable pink unicorns flying over the house (as, let’s assume, you might argue), it makes a heck of a difference whether it’s you who has to prove there are or me who has to prove there aren’t.
The burden of proof is basically the philosophical rules of engagement. The burden of proof decides who has to prove what in such arguments. Of course, as it becomes apparent, things get complex (and ugly) quickly, because there is often disagreement as to who has the burden of proof.
The burden of proof in philosophy is, in simple terms, the rules of engagement in a philosophical argument(more…)
Note: the following article on spatio-temporal ambiguities in John Richardson’s Wacousta is a modified excerpt from the article “The ‘New World’ Gothic Monster: Spatio-Temporal Ambiguities, Male Bonding, and Nation in John Richardson’s Wacousta”, co-authored with Matti Savolainen. Savolainen, Matti & Mehtonen, Päivi (ed & intr.). Gothic Topographies – Language, Nation Building and Race. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2013
For a list of my other academic publications, see here.
Scholarly work on Canadian literature has drawn attention to the Canadian landscape, and rightfully so. With the vast icy emptiness of the north and the depressing isolation of its individual settlements, it functions as a peculiar Gothic villain.
Here, nature itself becomes a monster (Atwood 3, 19, 35, 88); an “Other”, that in its sublime characteristics inspires both terror and awe, and at the same time serves the purpose of self-definition by instigating the individual’s assessing their place in this new world. This process occurs on an unconscious level, and it is here that the Gothic, as a mode, can be detected at its greatest uniqueness.
Canadian wilderness achieves character status in John Richardson’s novel(more…)
