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Rabbit Hole: an Infinite Text Exploration of the Sublime

November 21, 2022

literature, philosophy, programming, subjectivity, sublime

Chances are, the title – as well as the listed categories – might sound confusing. “Rabbit Hole”? “Infinite Text”? “the Sublime”? Ironically enough in this context, this program – which I named, rather predictably, Rabbit Hole – precisely exploits two interrelated faces of language:

Language is both ambiguous and limiting; we have fewer words than we have possible concepts and ideas to express.
As a result, language is subjective; we create our own meaning.

With all this in mind, Rabbit Hole is many things at once. In a sense, it’s an infinite text generator – a bit like the one in Word Journey. In another, it’s an exploration of the sublime – our inability to go beyond certain thresholds, though we might still be able to taste what lies beyond them. After all, as I implied above, talking about the limits of language, how can we represent the unrepresentable?

In a way, we could say Rabbit Hole is an exploration of art – in the most subjective sense of the word. It is what its user wants it to be.

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Are You a Writer or an Artist?

September 13, 2020

Writing

art, artist, experience, experiencing, marketing, mediocrity, reality, subjectivity, writing

Most fiction writers would like to think of themselves as artists. To be an author is to be an artist, right? Well, no; not necessarily. The question “are you a writer or an artist” might corner some of you. Perhaps you resist it.

“Surely”, you might say, “one can be both a writer and an artist”. Again, the answer is no, not necessarily. And mind you, I don’t mean that you might be writing nonfiction.

There are untold numbers of fiction writers out there who think they’re artists. Remember that short-lived meme that began with a statement – let’s take “I’m a writer” as our example – then continued with a series of photos, captioned like “What my mom thinks I do”, “What my friends think I do”?

writer or artist — Art, expression, narrative, affect… These are *very* different concepts

It then ended with “What I really do”. And here’s where the problem lies. What you really do is often in conflict with what you think you do.

If you feel brave enough to discover something about you as a writer (or an artist) – self-delusion is a viable strategy for some people – by all means, read on.

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Sounds in Literature: Creating Subjective Meaning

December 17, 2019

Literature

affect, literature, meaning, music, sounds, subjectivity, symbolism

After sight, hearing is arguably the second most important sense to most of us. Humans mostly use seeing and hearing to interact with their surroundings. And so, sounds in literature can be powerful in conveying meanings – particularly those subtle and symbolic.

But, as with every aspect of writing that is important, there is significant depth below the surface.

To talk about “sounds in literature” isn’t about a one-line advice in the direction of “remember to describe the weather” – sorry Ernest; I never liked your writing.

In other words, in this post I won’t tell you “remember to describe sounds in your book” – let alone how to do it. Instead, I’ll become a bit more abstract and show you why sounds in literature can be powerful and useful, and how they affect your readers.

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