Home For Fiction – Blog

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capitalism

Individuality and Capitalism: Lessons From Remaking my Website

November 13, 2023

Home For Fiction, Programming, Society

capitalism, home for fiction, programming, society

For a long time I’ve been meaning to revamp Home for Fiction. When I put it together back in 2017, I was in the middle of defending my doctoral dissertation, and I had no time or energy for coding, so I simply picked a ready template. Recently, I finally decided to modify it, and the process was thoroughly revealing. From all things, it also taught me a thing or two about individuality, capitalism, and how society is becoming increasingly more dysfunctional.

Yeah, I know; all this from putting together some web pages?

But, in the end, that’s why we need to be experiencing the world around us before we write: in order to discover the connections that lie there unnoticed.

So, in this post, I’ll briefly explain my motivation in changing some things and, above all, what it taught me about individuality and capitalism. And we’ll begin precisely from this point.

individuality and capitalism – cartoon of Punning Walrus in front of computer
This image holds meta- value, because the inclusion of my Punning Walrus cartoon was one of the motivating factors behind modifying the Home for Fiction website
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Why I Hate Victorian Literature

September 11, 2023

Literature, Society

capitalism, criticism, literature, social masses, society

I hate Victorian Literature. Actually, allow me to rephrase this: I hate Victorian literature with a passion. This isn’t very useful to you, but why I hate it can be. And the connection between why I think Victorian literature sucks and our present time, even more so.

I’ve been exposed to enough Victorian literature during my university years to have developed a pretty solid opinion of it. In other words, I’ve read enough abandoned enough texts of such authors as Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, to know I hate them and the rest of their lot.

This is a subjective opinion, to be sure, but I think Victorian literature was a disaster for art. The repercussions are still with us ever since, and they boil down to one critical element: making money.

hate Victorian literature
I hate Victorian literature, but I also recognize it’s responsible for much of our contemporary culture – from aesthetics such as steampunk (notice the pink Gothic element) to much deeper theoretical frameworks in areas such as the economy or temporality
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Embrace Failing, or How to Live Free

March 6, 2023

Experiencing, Society

capitalism, experience, experiencing, mediocrity, social masses, society

I’m deliberately provocative, I fully admit. I’m asking you to embrace failing, supposedly promising you this will let you live free. Though the title isn’t a clickbait (in the sense, I really do mean it and I will argue for it), there is more nuance involved.

If you’re a thinking reader, you should first and foremost identify the ambiguity involved in this title. “Embrace failing” doesn’t quite reveal anything, in the sense that it doesn’t communicate what “failure” really is. Just think of how difficult success is to define, and you’ll see why. “Live free” contains similar problems.

I’ll try to unpack all this, but here’s a word of warning: In a truly meta- kind of way, it’s likely that I’ll fail in my attempt. That is, I don’t feel I’ll be able in this post to properly explain why you should embrace failing, let alone why it should help you live more freely.

Why I still go along with it is part of the lesson, of course.

embrace failing
“I again failed to stay awake today. I’ll embrace my failing and enjoy my dreaming”
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