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When My First Book Was Rejected

August 21, 2023

Experiencing, Fiction

book, experiencing, fiction, society, writing

Recently, searching through boxes containing ancient paperwork, I found the manuscript of my very first novel! Unsurprisingly, it was also my first book to be rejected.

Though this was ages ago – we’re talking late 90s – I still remember plenty of things about that experience. Perhaps some factual details are a bit different (memory is a tricky thing when it comes to that), but I certainly remember the “how it felt” part very well. In any case, I certainly don’t intend to read such a super-cringe old thing.

So join me in this hilarious trip of recollection, where the road to literary hell was paved with good intentions, and let’s make fun of my naïveté!

donkey; book rejected
“What do you mean, ‘book rejected?’ There must be some mistake!”
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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.

Terminal Boredom
The worlds in Terminal Boredom are distinctly Japanese, and this view of Tokyo helps the reader understand why
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Expectations vs Reality, Writer-Style

April 17, 2023

Writing

book, creativity, fiction, literature, social masses, society, writing

So, you too want to “become a writer”, right? You’re in good company! You and another 5 billion people apparently want the same. But this, too, is a club where expectations and reality don’t quite match.

Inspiration for this post came when Alicia, a friend of the blog, shared with me a map that shows what is the dream job of people by location. As you have perhaps guessed it, people from Finland to Algeria and from India to Trinidad & Tobago answered that their dream job is writer. Other popular choices were “pilot” and “influencer” or “youtuber”.

As someone who has experience of… one and a half of those professions, I feel it’s important to talk a bit about the “expectations vs reality” factor of our choices.

The key takeaway here is, we are very often attracted to certain activities and we’d like to make money out of them. That we enjoy doing them is precisely the reason why we should never attempt to bring money into the picture – or, in any case, not so before we fully realize the repercussions of such an action.

expectations vs reality
“You are special, just like everybody else”
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