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Why I Want to be Forgotten when I Die

July 1, 2024

For most people – certainly for most artists – to be forgotten when they die is not something they would wish. They would like to be remembered for a long time. Sometimes, when they fantasize about success, they might even dream of an undefined future, long after their demise, with their name still associated with artistic or other achievements.

Not me. I want to be forgotten when I die. I want my art, in particular, everything that I’ve made – from novels to songs to drawing – to disappear as if it had never existed.

This might sound counterintuitive, odd, and to some readers even hypocritical. I don’t blame you. As I said, to be forgotten when you die is not something you hear often from the mouth of people who create. Yet my motivations, as always, are entirely selfish. The deeper reasons might even be useful to you.

I want to be forgotten when I die. Image of graves — This is the graveyard of a small village on Lemnos, Greece, where my grandparents are buried – and, parenthetically, where some of the action in *The Storytelling Cat* takes place. I remember them, but after I and a couple other people die, there will be nobody left to remember them. It will be as if they never existed. I want the same, I want to be forgotten when I die, **especially** my art

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Accumulating Cringe Theory (or, why It Sucks Growing Old)

June 5, 2023

Experiencing, Society

experiencing, life, psychology, society

If you think you’re about to read some grand existentialist revelation, let me stop you right there – or redirect you to Giacomo Leopardi. Accumulating Cringe Theory might sound fancy, but it’s just something I came up with in the middle of the night while trying to fall back asleep.

To be fair to my brain, the “what if” behind it was intriguing. The basic premise is: If we are embarrassed by our past behavior – think of the silly things you said as a teenager – doesn’t it follow that the older we get, the wider the expanse of this past?

In other words, as we get older and have more of a past to recall (often in a flawed manner), doesn’t it mean we have more embarrassing moments, too? I decided to call this accumulating cringe theory just to have a name for it. Is there anything valuable to discuss there? I’m finding out myself as I’m typing this very post.

Perhaps this not-to-be-taken-too-seriously cringe theory of mine could contain a clause for doing embarrassing stuff when you’re old

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Symbolic Spring: From Rebirths to Temporal Distortions

May 8, 2023

Experiencing

experiencing, life, time

Somehow reading my own title makes me think it sounds too academic. Serves me right for using a phrase – “temporal distortions” – I’m sick and tired of, after using it a godzillion (sic) times in my doctoral dissertation. But this post isn’t academic. Hell, Symbolic Spring sounds like an awesome title for a post-rock album.

This text is mostly stream-of-consciousness. It’s about experiencing – another pearl of experiencing in a necklace containing such stuff as almond trees and Greek coffee.

It’s a post I write just because I feel like it – though this is a trick statement: All posts I write because I feel like it.

Symbolic spring? The symbolic nature of spring? Spring as a symbol? Rebirth is a hopeless cliche in that direction, I hate it. Spring isn’t about a rebirth; it’s just another instantiation of the temporal pit all humans are trapped in.

(In case you haven’t realized yet, this post will likely feel nonsensical and incoherent to you. What can I say, every now and then I need to write such posts – and publish them – as a reminder that I don’t try to please anyone; I only write them for myself. In other words, proceed at your own risk)

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