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

June 10, 2024

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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Thucydides and Linux: a Free or a Peaceful OS?

May 27, 2024

Society

computer, ignorance, society, technology

You’ve got to admit, seeing Thucydides and Linux together in the same sentence isn’t something ordinary. “Linux” and “free” is far more common, for obvious reasons. But whether Linux is free is one discussion; whether it’s a peaceful operating system yet another.

So where does Thucydides, the ancient Greek historian, enter the picture?

You might recall from some previous posts – for instance, the concluding section of writing academic theses – that Cornelius Castoriadis, drawing on Thucydides, puts forward an apt suggestion: We can be free or we can be peaceful, but being both is impossible.

In our time – when to some/many/most/[pick depending on your neighbors] people to be free means to own guns – understanding the repercussions of freedom becomes more pressing than ever.

And yes, this includes your operating system! However, I should make one thing clear here: The role of this post is not to glorify one OS and snub others. It’s not even about computers and technology – not primarily at least. The post is about society.

Linux free, not peaceful; AI render of Thucydides using a computer on Acropolis — As if combining Thucydides and Linux wasn’t wild enough, I thought to reach the utmost of absurdity and use AI to generate this image

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