You might recall that some time ago I completely revamped the main site of Home for Fiction. In the same post I mentioned how one day, if I’d only find the motivation and energy, I’d completely redo the blog, too. Turns out, anger is great motivation. You’re reading a brand new Home for Fiction blog.
Where the anger (and motivation) came from? Before I tell you, know this: The whole process took about a week. It would’ve likely taken even less if it hadn’t happened during the holidays. That’s right; it took me about a week to go from “fuck this shit!” to coding my blog from scratch. Here’s how – and why anger, with certain constraints, can be useful.
This is the image that greets you on the front page of the Home for Fiction blog. Albert Camus’s quotation below it is also relevant to a discussion on anger and motivation: “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”(more…)
As I’ve mentioned often, memory is an important asset for a writer – and artists in general. Perhaps we can’t rely on memory for factual accuracy, but its connection with affective impact is undeniable. Moreover, precisely because of their emotive undertones, old memories can be impulsive, subjective, and come unannounced and unexplained. Remembering an old teacher of mine definitely falls under this category.
Like most of us, I’ve had many teachers in my lifetime. Teachers in elementary school, high school, university, and all sorts of other places. Some of them I remember very vaguely, likely because they were forgettable as teachers. Others I remember well for negative reasons – indeed, you can read about a recent example in my post on teaching literature.
Hell, I remember well one of those teachers because once he got some sort of nervous breakdown, took an object out of his bag – which was later revealed to be brass knuckles – and hit me and another dozen students with it, then proceeded to teach physics.
Obviously enough, I also remember many of my old teachers because they were good teachers, supporting my learning and making me feel positive about the overall experience.
But there is one specific teacher whom I remember well, and positively, though I was at his class only once. Remembering an old teacher who only taught you once isn’t very common, and the fact that this memory came out of nowhere these days felt interesting enough to write a post about.
The memory of that old teacher came suddenly, almost subconsciously. The idea to use an AI render of an anime classroom was as impulsive, and so it felt suitably random(more…)
You might remember a post on the concept of the pink Gothic I once wrote. You might also remember it was inspired by the animated series The Owl House. There are many lessons in this series – pertaining, among others, to identity, one’s place in the world, and ethics – and in this post I decided to focus on a pivotal moment, perhaps the key lesson The Owl House has to offer.
In the penultimate episode of The Owl House, called “For The Future”, Luz, the protagonist, has an epiphanic experience. After all her adventures, all the things she’s experienced, all the dreams, wishes, disappointments and mistakes, she finally realizes something: “The only thing I’ve ever really wanted,” she tells her mother teary-eyed, “was to be understood.”
Justice, then. A special kind of justice, one intertwined with empathy, humility, and our ability to see beyond our own confines. All these are extremely important elements in what we understand as community.
