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Ophelia’s Secret: Agency and Conceptual Cohesion in Art

August 7, 2023

art, experiencing, literature, music, Shakespeare, writing

The title seems very opaque and ambiguous, I’m sure (welcome to my world). “Ophelia’s secret? What secret? Ophelia who?” I hear you ask. “And what on earth do you mean by ‘agency and conceptual cohesion’?”

First things first: With apologies to non-fictional Ophelias (and any secret they might have) out there, there is only one Ophelia: Shakespeare’s Ophelia.

Ophelia is a character in William Shakespeare’s drama Hamlet (1599-1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet, who, due to Hamlet’s actions, ends up in a state of madness that ultimately leads to her drowning.
Wikipedia

So, what is Ophelia’s secret, and what does it have to do with agency and cohesion in art? To explore thisLike hell! Rather, I first began composing the album and then, along the way, I discovered the lessons., I composed a music album titled Ophelia’s Secret.

Ophelia's Secret album art — Album cover of *Ophelia’s Secret*, designed with the help of Bing Image Creator

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Review of Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki

July 24, 2023

Book Review, Criticism

art, book, Japan, literature, review, science fiction, short story, society, symbolism

Terminal Boredom, by Izumi Suzuki, is a collection of science fiction short stories. It includes seven stories in total, and should be possible to finish in one afternoon, should the reader wish to do that. The stories are entirely independent plot-wise, and there is no specific affect-based benefit in reading them all at once.

In other words, the reader doesn’t need to enter any specific reading mood to get the best out of these short stories, which means, whether you read all seven in quick succession or take your time, the result will be basically the same.

You might already be tempted to decipher what I may imply by all this, so let me make it explicit: The stories in Terminal Boredom are an interesting example of a narrative that basically somewhat relies on plot, while at the same time it somewhat presents some intriguing symbolism.

I think the best description I can offer for Terminal Boredom is that it includes plenty of allusions and meanings, but the reader must work hard for them.

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AI Tools for Writers: Make Your Life Easier, Keep Your Art Intact

May 29, 2023

Writing

affect, art, creativity, fiction, literature, programming, society, writing

The popularization of artificial intelligence (AI) tools is arguably one of the most important things to have happened in terms of the internet and IT in recent years. We’ve already seen how AI can help programmers, and we’ve also seen the pitfalls of improper AI use. So let’s make it specific for writers and see what kinds of AI tools writers can use – and this will be a case of “it’s not what you think”.

You might recall a post where I explained how AI can write really well but it’s utterly lousy at producing art. This is a crucial detail to keep in mind here: AI can’t do your job for you. AI can’t produce art; currently it can barely produce something emulating it (though this might change in the near future).

In any case, if your goal is to write fiction that actually has something to express, completely eradicate from your mind the idea that you can delegate this job to AI. You can’t rely on AI for anything that is “client-facing”. In other words, you can’t rely on AI for writing.

Instead, I will focus on ways and AI tools writers can use to make their life easier, tickle their imagination, and produce literature that is affective.

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