Show Don’t Tell – A Writer’s Guide by William Noble

I recently finished Show Don’t Tell – A Writer’s Guide by William Noble. The book is filled with useful examples and the author takes the art of story and writing in a comprehensive manner. All throughout the book he gives the readers examples from other books and literary works on how to approach writing. The book is divided into chapters and describes in detail how a writer should approach the writing and create a compelling piece of writing that keeps the reader hooked. He tells the methods of writing a compelling story and techniques that are supposed to sustain the interest of the reader. The approaches are simple and well defined, it’s like a step by step guide to writing a compelling story. The book is about fiction, about stories and novels and the writing is structured to tell the readers exactly how he should move forward with his writing and what he ought to do to make his stories compelling. There are numerous tricks and tips to keep the writing exciting and chapters on melodrama, dialogue, anecdotes, on how to craft the narrative, how to keep the story moving and numerous other approaches to make the story interesting. A great read for a writer wanting to know the nitty gritty of writing a story to keep the reader’s interest. It has numerous examples and advice on how to keep the readers hooked to the story and what it takes to make a compelling story. Worth a read.

Resolving the Conflicts Between The Truth and One’s Writing and Fiction

I was having conflicts about my writing, mostly about how to approach my writing and that was due to my awareness of the reality and the things I wanted to write. After much introspection and deliberation the conflicts finally got resolved and as much as my mental faculties allow, I can now pursue my writing. It was not an easy task arriving at the resolution because the conflicts are such and no one in past or current literature or pop culture actually has dealt with it in a way (if they have dealt with it at all) that would be able to guide me or help me regarding my approach and it was a relief that I could finally resolve the issues. I would not be discussing all of it but I can discuss a part of it. How to negotiate aesthetics with science was one of the conflicts. How to, while writing, not think about the moon as a barren satellite of earth that reflects the light of the sun, but think about it as something that illuminates the night sky making streams and water bodies shimmer and gleam. There were few more conflicts about the truth of the world and negotiating the reality of the present world with the genres that I want to write in. It took a lot of introspection and I finally arrived at my conclusions that have eased my writer’s block a little bit and from here I can build on to strengthen the approach I have discovered by writing more and more. It was an epiphany and suddenly I was able to deal with and write all the genres I was finding myself difficult to deal with and write.

Nom de plume

I have to settle down with the genres I want to write. I have a clear idea of what genres I like. I like noir, gothic fiction and weird fiction and cosmic horror. I want to delve into Indian mythological fiction too. I also want to condense 90s magazines, children’s magazines, comicbooks and Hindi literary aesthetics into a genre and then express it into English. It’s tough, especially due to the writer’s block I face but I am sure that if I achieve it it would be highly satisfying. I want to delve into cybernoir for a bit. At present I’m working on two projects on Wattpad, one is an adventure novel with elements of historical fiction and science fiction and the other is Indian mythological and noir novel. I decided to write it on Wattpad because I do not want to monetize my writing, I write for pleasure, mine and readers’ and I want my stuff to be open access and open source so that no one has to think twice before learning or getting inspired from my writings. Yes, I discourage shameless and blatant copying and using my work for nefarious purposes, but other than that I’m fine with my stuff being free and people learning from my writings and using the information provided in it. I might even earn a little bit from Wattpad, Medium, Substack, or any other platform I write on and that is and will be just peanuts not even enough for my cigarettes, but other than that I’m not going to monetize my stuff. Most presses and publishing houses in India either publish people who are established, famous or well connected and it’s mostly a circlejerk earning money through propaganda peddling or writing below par stories. It’s a tightly controlled propaganda echo chamber and I do not want to be a part of it. I write for creative pleasure and I do not want to be an established author in this country or for that matter anywhere because it’s all just fake. Good stories are what matters and I’m working to be able to write good stories that are pleasurable to my readers. A writer can write to be sold, and that’s not a problem at all but I mostly write to entertain and evoke emotions in people and if I’m able to do that my goal is accomplished.

Parry Hotter and The Fact Manufacturing Factories

I have tried numerous blogs with different themes to write on. It was a sort of experimentation. I have written themed blogs on my musings, sarcasm, philosophy, I have tried movie reviews and book reviews but I have always faced the same problem, inability to write on different themes on the same platform. Now I’m trying the same, writing on different themes, without dedicating the whole platform for it. For me it’s a sort of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), that I have to arrange things according to categories and no amount of intentional chaos that I cause in my life to get rid of this OCD actually helps. This blog was made for books and for having discussions that I imagine would have happened in the early 20th century European coffee parlours, you can also consider it as equivalent to modern day podcasts just that I’m both, the guest and host and the listeners here are the readers. The good thing about writing in the 21st century is that only those who love to read would read you, and given my reading stats there aren’t many. Reading is a lost hobby I suppose and in today’s world only the old or the old fashioned do it and it works great for me. I have wanted to be a writer since I was seventeen and it’s been more than fourteen years writing regularly. I have been a voracious reader since I was a child and it’s only since a decade that despite trying I’m not really able to read, but I read anyway, at least one book a week even if I have to take the help of text-to-speech software or audiobooks. Earlier I wrote just for the sake of writing which I still do, but now I also have a goal for my writing other than writing just for the sake of writing. Writing can inform, educate and entertain, it can make you feel emotions and it can also brainwash you or radicalize you. I mostly write for entertaining, making people feel and educating them. I make sure that what I write cannot be used as propaganda and the truth, at least as much truth as I know it, is clear in my writings. The thing about the truth is that there isn’t an absolute truth as well as there is an absolute truth. Unfortunately our very lives are based on lies, but still, we have our personal truths. Our personal truths empower us to search for the greater truths and it’s while searching for the greater truth that you encounter this huge castle of lies from where lives of people are manipulated. I have faced my truths already, I didn’t need to but I was forcefully made to face them even though I already knew them. I was forcefully made to accept my truth from a very different perspective than I knew them, but that has been the method of oppression since time immemorial, forcing people to accept things that aren’t true. A lot of times the truth only becomes valid if you yourself have a stake in it. People can assume truths, and it is easy to assume. They can assume the truth about someone and force it down his throat even if he doesn’t agree to it being his own truth. But then what I have seen in the past decade in this country is that they artificially manufacture facts and then they use those artificially manufactured facts to create truths. The point of this process is that since these false truths are based on facts nobody can falsify them, and nobody except the individuals who have created the facts know that the facts are manufactured. Thus the population can be misguided, exploited and blackmailed on the basis of truths based on falsely created facts and a good and moral man cannot oppose the exploitation, rape and extortion based on that truth because he feels guilty. I had lost access to the source from where my writing comes, but I still write and now it feels that I’m in touch with that source even if a little bit. A little bit is enough to do what I want to do. I write for my pleasure and creative satisfaction and to entertain, educate and make people feel. Sometimes I write for the truth too.

Golden Cat Political Theorem

One thing I have been searching for for a long time is the correct method to be. What I have got in the time I have been alive is that the correct method to be is to never intentionally hurt another person for no reason and to mind one’s own business while being aware of what is happening around us, locally and globally. This is the most correct method to exist in society. This method has one more advantage, when you are targeted by the politico-economic structure of your region or country you realise at once that it is not due to any fault in you. The method of oppression in countries like India is first inserting guilt into people’s minds and then guilt tripping or exploiting that guilt. No one is safe. I’ll give you a simple example, a beggar comes at a house to beg, the lady in the house is bathing and couldn’t really come out in time to give alms and the beggar goes away, later the lady meets with an accident and the first thought that comes into her mind is that this happened because she did’nt give alms to the beggar. The whole Indian neuropolitical setup can be understood by this example. They blame people for things that aren’t their fault and then exploit that guilt. And this exploitation can be done in numerous and unlimited ways. You can live your lives with morality and ethics but if the establishment that controls your life is corrupt, being good makes you first in line for slaughter, and it’s just a simple reason, convenience. Good people are easy to slaughter. Hinduism might look great in scriptures and philosophy, but the way it is actually practiced in India, its home country, is nothing short of demonic. The majority of it is guilt-tripping and induction of fear. The example I gave you, a majority of small towns and village women live a life like that. “Couldn’t give alms” is made to be “didn’t give alms” and this is all systematic. In India corruption is systematic and lies at the very core. You don’t see the Indian rich with Lamborghinis and Ferraris guilt tripping about giving alms to a beggar. It’s not about giving alms at all. It’s about totalitarian control in which people are raped and tortured for no actual reason, and it ultimately gets published in the local newspaper as madness, suicide or murder. The correct method to be is to have strict ethical codes and to follow them so when you are guilt-tripped you realise that you are being guilt tripped for no reason except for exploitation or sadistic pleasure of torture and for getting power trips.

Zen In The Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

 In his book Zen in The Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury tells about his writing life, his inspirations and his process. There is not much writing advice here upfront but people can learn by reading about the writing life of Ray Bradbury. Bradbury gives importance to the subconscious and believes that reading books, stories and gathering experience ultimately culminate into writing. We get a lot of events from his writing life and he tells about his inspirations and his process. Later he tells the writer not to chase money or fame but to just focus on his work and his process. He lays out the philosophy of work, relaxation and don’t think. He says that good writing comes from getting relaxed and when the writer is actually not thinking. He compares writing to sculpting, surgery, archery and other things to hit the point home. He says the goal of the writer is to tell his truth and when he tells his truth things fall in place and his work speaks for itself. It’s a great book for knowing Bradbury’s process and some genuine writing advice.

Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk

In his book Consider This Palahniuk gives readers incidents from his writing life and also advice to wannabe writers. He doesn’t leave the readers and dark and tells exactly what they should do until they are mature enough to be able to do things themselves. He gives useful advice which can be readily used. The incidences from his life as a writer tell the readers what one should expect as a writer and that it’s not all hunky-dory as people might expect the life of a writer to be. You create a product and then you have to market that product. Palahniuk’s advice is direct and no frills, he tells what a writer ought to do in specific situations. He tells the methods he uses and with clarity and detail. He tells about what he thinks works and tells the readers to use them, until they are good enough to improvise by themselves. He doesn’t give vague descriptions, he tells the readers exactly what they need to do to improve their stories and writing. It’s a good book to learn about Palahniuk’s style and writing in general.

Writing Down The Bones by Natalie Goldberg

I had found the first fifty pages of the book unimpressive but things really started to flow after that. I started to learn a different way of seeing things. While I agree that they are not suitable for today’s survival oriented world, it’s a great outlook about the world to have access to. Here and there, in the book, I found a bit of useful writing advice too, and the most practical of them all was about combining verbs with nouns, which would be of great practical use to me. It’s an honest book, and one that is bound to give a lot of inspiration to the writers. It’s like a love letter to the wannabe writers telling them to “just write”. There are a lot of zen examples and zen related elements in the book and after a while you start feeling the zen in Goldberg’s writing too. There is not much technical writing advice in the book but there is one most important advice that every writer knows but wants to be reaffirmed to him or her that is to “just write”, in any situation. There is a bit about the importance of places in writing but I know from my experience that places are not as important as Natalie tells in the book, I think it might be subjective to her, but I do agree that places are important and they can be as important as they are to her to many other writers. Except for the first fifty or so pages the book has been easy to read and you silently achieve a meditative state while reading the book as she tells about her writing and teaching about writing and various exercises she did with her friends or other writers. Every writer has a process and it was great to know her process and after not liking the book initially I was pleasantly surprised. Even though I don’t have such a soft attitude in my writing, her way of looking at the world offered a fresh perspective on looking at things and the world which can be used by the writers in their writing. I didn’t think I would like it at first but I was pleasantly surprised. A must read.

2024, Book Reading Challenge #3

I have been reading quite a few books at present and three of them are a Solution For Writers by Sol Stein, Writing Down The Bones by Natalie Goldberg and Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk. I find Natalie Goldberg’s advice a bit bland for my taste but Stein gives great advice and Palahniuk is direct in giving writing advice, making understanding them a lot easier. Palahniuk doesn’t beat around the bush. He talks directly and gives direct advice which can be directly used in writing. I have begun writing, while I read books on writing as well as fiction. Truth is I do not get enough time to read and write, and suffer with writer’s block but I do the best I can with whatever time and resources I do have. I have to finish the books by Goldberg, Stein and Palahniuk so that I can go to other books. I’m still reading Dracula and it’s the only fiction I’m reading at present. There is another one I had started, Show Don’t Tell by William Noble. Having so many half read books tells me that I should read only two books at a time. One fiction and one non fiction. Once I finish the books I’m currently reading I would try not to start more than two books at a time.

2024, Book Reading Challenge #2

I have been reading quite a few books on writing. I finished On Writing by Stephen King. It was a good book with important tips for wannabe writers. The majority of the books I read were about memoir writing. They were Art of Memoir by Mary Karr and Write it All Down by Kathy Rentenzenbrink. It was good to read the processes of the writers who write memoirs. I had finished Naked Drunk and Writing by Adair Lara it was an okayish book with useful tips. Other books I read were The Writing Life by Anne Dillard, The Writing of Fiction by Edith Wharton, On The Art of Writing by Arthur Quiller-Couch, Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande and How to Be a Writer by Ruskin Bond. I personally found Anne Dillard’s book to be self indulgent, Quiller-Couch’s book was more about British Nationalism than writing and Edith Wharton’s book smelled of arrogance and snobbery. Dorothea Brande and Ruskin Bond were helpful and gave helpful tips on writing.

Of all the books I read on writing I liked Stephen King and Ruskin Bond the best. They had useful advice for wannabe writers which could be used and also dispelled a lot of fears that young writers may have.

As far as fiction goes I haven’t been able to read much except a few more pages of Dracula. I intend to finish it and after that I will start another book. Though I read some short fiction, some short stories in Hindi and in English. I read two stories of Amrita Pritam, and a couple of horror short stories of William Hope Hodgson. It was a fruitful week as far as reading is concerned though I would like to increase the amount of fiction that I read, as time permits.

2024, Book Reading Challenge #1

I recently read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. It was a fine book in which the author narrated her childhood and her growth as a writer and also gave useful writing tips. At present I’m reading On Writing by Stephen King and he has recalled his childhood and also gives useful writing instructions in the book. I’m reading a lot of books on writing in present days and I’m doing it to become a good writer. I like to write fiction but then the incidences in my life have been such that I no longer believe in fiction. The revelations that I’ve had end the scope of fiction itself unless the reader is delusional. I do write because it is what I like to do and it’s the only artform I know, but then the world has changed and there is no scope of fiction in the new world unless you are a kid or you are delusional. But that’s not going to stop me from working on the craft. I want to emulate some writers in creating atmospheres, especially Lovecraft and Bram Stoker. It’s going to be hard work learning to create atmospheres intentionally but then I’m ready for it. I haven’t yet decided on what genre I want to write but I have an idea. It would be a mix of noir, sci-fi, cosmic horror in an Indian setting. I would add and delete genres in this combined genre as needed or required. Anne Lamott’s advice was fine but I’m liking Stephen King’s advice better as I’m able to retain it. There are few other books I’m reading but then at some point of time they all become typed. The most direct book on writing I have encountered is by Chuck Palahniuk. I like Chuck Palahniuk and his writing and I like his choice of the genre he chose to write in. His advice in his book is direct and no frills. It’s no nonsense. He tells you directly what you ought to do in writing and I actually appreciated this to the point approach. I’m planning to read more fiction, but it’s difficult, and that’s why this blog doesn’t see many posts. If I was reading, I would have written my opinions here. Though I was successful in rereading a few pages of Dracula by Bram Stoker and couldn’t help but marvel at the atmosphere he has created in the book.

A Changed World

I have seen the world change. I have seen people deriving entertainment from movies to becoming a source of entertainment on social media themselves. Social media felt like a great place once. I had an Orkut profile where people used to leave scraps and write testimonials for each other. I have seen websites like Twitter (now X) from being a rendezvous point for discussing interests and meeting like minded people to becoming a hub of propaganda peddling. I’m old school and prefer blogs to social media websites. It’s been a long time since I actually enjoyed a book, but I still try to read. I would be reading books, if only for writing about them on this website. In the past decade, after my encounter with the reality of this country a lot of my beliefs about this country, about the human condition and in general have changed. Some experiences that I’ve had have been eye-opening. I realised that we live in a slavery situation, I don’t know about the world but I can say this about India and specifically the Purvanchal region of India. As a writer I do not like to write about myself. I like to write about ideas and I like to write stories but in the past decade I have realised that reading and writing anything doesn’t really matter, but the truth is even if it doesn’t matter, it matters a little bit, and at the very least reading is food for thought and writing is a source of creative pleasure, that is, if one is able to do it. The issues going on with me are very practical, though if I want to read and write, I would try to do it even if there are practical disabilities in doing so.

There once was a time when people used to talk about their interests, now talking about interests is less and one-upmanship is more. I wanted to talk about ideas, stories and books, and for a long time I kept searching for people to do so. Despite trying my best to find people to talk to about my interests I was unable to do so both online and offline, I was unable to do so, and it is here this blog comes into picture. I would talk about my interests, the ideas I like, and the books I read, here.

Nom de plume

I have to settle down with the genres I want to write. I have a clear idea of what genres I like. I like noir, gothic fiction and weird fiction and cosmic horror. I want to delve into Indian mythological fiction too. I also want to condense 90s magazines, children's magazines, comicbooks and Hindi literary aesthetics into a genre and then express it into English. It's tough, especially due to the writer's block I face but I am sure that if I achieve it it would be highly satisfying. I want to delve into cybernoir for a bit. At present I'm working on two projects on Wattpad, one is an adventure novel with elements of historical fiction and science fiction and the other is Indian mythological and noir novel. I decided to write it on Wattpad because I do not want to monetize my writing, I write for pleasure, mine and readers' and I want my stuff to be open access and open source so that no one has to think twice before learning or getting inspired from my writings. Yes, I discourage shameless and blatant copying and using my work for nefarious purposes, but other than that I'm fine with my stuff being free and people learning from my writings and using the information provided in it. I might even earn a little bit from Wattpad, Medium, Substack, or any other platform I write on and that is and will be just peanuts not even enough for my cigarettes, but other than that I'm not going to monetize my stuff. Most presses and publishing houses in India either publish people who are established, famous or well connected and it's mostly a circlejerk earning money through propaganda peddling or writing below par stories. It's a tightly controlled propaganda echo chamber and I do not want to be a part of it. I write for creative pleasure and I do not want to be an established author in this country or for that matter anywhere because it's all just fake. Good stories are what matters and I'm working to be able to write good stories that are pleasurable to my readers. A writer can write to be sold, and that's not a problem at all but I mostly write to entertain and evoke emotions in people and if I'm able to do that my goal is accomplished.

Resolving The Conflicts Between The Truth and One's Writing and Fiction

I was having conflicts about my writing, mostly about how to approach my writing and that was due to my awareness of the reality and the things I wanted to write. After much introspection and deliberation the conflicts finally got resolved and as much as my mental faculties allow, I can now pursue my writing. It was not an easy task arriving at the resolution because the conflicts are such and no one in past or current literature or pop culture actually has dealt with it in a way (if they have dealt with it at all) that would be able to guide me or help me regarding my approach and it was a relief that I could finally resolve the issues. I would not be discussing all of it but I can discuss a part of it. How to negotiate aesthetics with science was one of the conflicts. How to, while writing, not think about the moon as a barren satellite of earth that reflects the light of the sun, but think about it as something that illuminates the night sky making streams and water bodies shimmer and gleam. There were few more conflicts about the truth of the world and negotiating the reality of the present world with the genres that I want to write in. It took a lot of introspection and I finally arrived at my conclusions that have eased my writer's block a little bit and from here I can build on to strengthen the approach I have discovered by writing more and more. It was an epiphany and suddenly I was able to deal with and write all the genres I was finding myself difficult to deal with and write.

The Luxury of Grief

Grief is a very personal thing. I have seen grief up close, and so have many others. Not many have the time to allow themselves to grieve, they have to continue with their lives. My grief led me to feel that I was seperated from the world. That I was alone in it. That I had no future in front of me. Imagine a scenario at a party where your acquaintances are gathered and you feel seperated from all of them, despite them being your mates technically. I have grieved losing my world, my future. I have grieved trying to get away with my loved ones just because my anxiety won't let me have a future and I thought distancing with my loved ones was the only way to have a future. I later realised that I would never do that, I would never trade my loved ones for a better future, but that I thought about it caused me a lot of grief. Now, imagine, there are villages in this country in which men solicit the women in their homes for prostitution. It is their generational way of living. The women in the house sell their bodies to feed the men in the family and there are so many villages like these in this country. I can't even think about the kind of grief it must bring to those women and men, and I suppose they take solace in the fact that it is their traditional and generational way of making a living, or probably they don't grieve at all, probably they process grief totally different than we think about it. Queen Elizabeth II had said

Grief is the price we pay for love.

Normally we connect grief with death. It is true, but it is not only when someone we love dies, but also when something intangible dies. Like in my case the death of the future I had imagined. I grieved, I tried to resuscitate my dying future and I grieved its imminent and ultimately death. I loved the future I had in my mind for myself. Though after a long time I realised that it doesn't really exist in the first place and it was a delusion in my mind, but I suffered what I suffered. Freud had said

Love and work... work and love, that's all there is.

I love a lot, I work a lot. I do not like wasting my time and I have learnt to love the right people with time. I used to think that living is grieving but it is not, it is the principle for the majority, but the majority is smart and recovers from the grief because most of them can't afford to grieve. Survival overcomes grief, though the grief stays in the corners of heart, when survival comes to the fore, grief takes the backseat. Grieving is the luxury of the ones who have not the problem of survival. There is a lot of grief in the world, and despite what people say, I do not think that empathy is a good thing, because those who cause suffering to others in this world would never empathise and those who are capable of empathy and choose to empathise would suffer more. People who love, invariably go through more grief than the ones who do not, and for people who love it is hard to believe that there are people in this world without an iota of love within them. Vincent Van Gogh had said

I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.

And look how tortured he was. I have come to terms with my grief because as matured I realised that there is an indescribable amount of grief in this world and most of it, if not all of it is designed. I can't waste my time grieving on fake shit. In fact, I find myself lucky that I have the luxury to grieve about things, which the majority of people in this nation and the world do not have. 

A Slice of Life of 21st Century

What is the true image of world at present. Woke people arguing that people people with XY chromosomes are females because they identify as them and vice-versa, and people doing antics on the internet till they become famous enough to sell things. The former unfortunately and scientifically is a mental disorder hidden beneath rubble of inability to face one's demons and political correctness and the second is survival and now a valid profession which makes you thrive as soon as you start getting those brand endorsements. You have to be politically correct to survive, in this world, so you have to accept that an individual with XY chromosomes is a woman just because they identify with it, to me it's just decency, to not to hurt someones feelings but then it all now has taken a radical turn. I thank my small town upbringing where, still, there are just three genders, male, females and eunuchs. Eunuch is not a correct term for intersex people but then that's what they identify as in small towns of this country. They have their livelihood but their lives are hell, and yet you see them accepting their identity. And here, in the civilised world the men are feeling like women and women feeling like men. These unfortunate young (or old) men and women can't be blamed, because those who know the truth about why is it happening, know that it is not their fault. Internet has evolved, since the days of Yahoo Messenger it has grown and it has been commercialised and weaponised both. Earlier it was a source of information, it is still, but now a big chunk of information on the internet is useless. That the internet has been commercialised and weaponised tells a lot about the real social and political nature of the world. Isaac Asimov had said

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. 

It is both true and false. True because it is still happening and false because humanity never learns, and whatever new comforts, technology or ideas come forth, they mutate like a virus to create new problems. However one can take respite in the fact that all of this mutation is in fact created, assisted, promulgated and reserved for the lower rungs of the society. Nature always keeps peeking from behind the society and the food chain is always working. When you are aware of what is happening in the 21st century, you would think that the slavery of 19th century and before that was better. But it is better to not be aware of what is happening. H.P. Lovecraft had said 

Life is a hideous thing, and from the background behind what we know of it peer daemoniacal hints of truth which make it sometimes a thousandfold more hideous.

I find Lovecraft a bit extreme, but knowing and having read his writings I know that he was a rational man. Truth affects everyone in a different manner and to a man as sensitive as Lovecraft it affected like this. Our collective truth is that we are searching for our heavens, which is pleasure for the beastly, happiness for the humane and God for the ones who have realised that there is no point in running after pleasures and happiness. God has two modes, blissful and political. The smart ones seek the bliss and the majority seeks survival, which is due to the political nature of God. Emmanuel Swedenborg had said

Love consists in desiring to give what is our own to another and feeling his delight as our own.

Lucky people get to experience love in their life, while the majority experiences love in some form or the other, not everyone is lucky enough to experience love. The problem with love is that although it can cause immense bliss, it is the cause of immense pain too. And it is here that 21st century had overdid itself, by weaponising and commercialising love too, at a scale that is just discombobulating. Parenting is not just love anymore, it is something that has to be learnt from books. Earlier generations turned out to be pretty fine with just love, but then the world was not like this back then. We have knowledge of the world at our fingertips and yet we are unable to choose the chromosomes assigned to us by nature, if only for the sake of commitment to our own physiology. 

A Writer's Wakeup Call

What is it to be a writer? I wanted to be a writer in my teens, and now I write. When we are young we have dreams, and when we mature we realise that they were exactly what they were, dreams. The truth of the world is such that even the ones who have made it have to suspend their belief to enjoy what the world has to offer, if they are not delusional or monsters. Anton Chekhov had said

There is nothing new in art except talent.

And I realised that a bit late. I realised that everything has been already said before. What matters is how you say it. I like literature of late 1800s and early 1900s because I have a belief that writers of that era were honest. My writing goals went through a lot of phases, at first I wanted to write noir, then a fantasy, then a crime fiction and then magical realism. I realised that despite the nature being magical, only magic in the world is politics. Politics uses magic to propagate itself and then culls it so that the common man doesn't experience it. Only magic the common folk experience is love and sometimes religious experience, that too if they are lucky, otherwise their whole life is spent in trying to earn bread, clothing and shelter for their loved ones. What is the truth if not bread, clothing and shelter? Nothing is free in the world except air. If I write noir now, how would it be? How would noir suit a place where people do not know to flush toilets in trains? You mature when you realise that all of it is intentional. And after knowing that writing crime fiction would be demonic. Conan Doyle had said

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

And I have lived long enough to know how facts are created. I do not believe in facts anymore; I believe in intent but I have realised that in the world of today even the intent of the individual can be diluted or in fact can be replaced by an artificial one, and the way it happens is like magic, but it is actually technology and in the end it is politics. It was strange to see that this kind of politics had no goals except exploitation, depravity and sadism. The control is not for order and justice but for slavery and exploitation. It is hard to digest after we study such high and mighty philosophies in schools and colleges, but then when truth expresses itself, such as in healthcare setup, that healthcare is just like a one up system in videogames. If you have money, you get a one up, otherwise you have to vacate the seat on the planet. The problem is not that. It is still a very benign system when compared to what I have experienced. And I'm not as skilled as a writer yet to be able to explain what I have experienced in words. What I would say, though, is whatever controls this nation and the world, is nothing short of demonic. William Gibson quite sometime back had said that

The future has already arrived. It's just not evenly distributed yet.

The truth is people do not need the future because anyway the comforts of future are just used as a dangling carrot. People just need love and peace besides bread, clothing and shelter and they do not even get that because individuals in the future are demonic sadists. The truth is I can't write what I wanted to write anymore. There is no romance, no sci-fi, no fantasy, no noir, no crime fiction and no magical realism. All that is there is here and now. Art now is just skill because hearts of people have been subdued. We are living under a providence that farms us. All that remains is creating good memories, and that too is only for the fortunate, chosen ones. The rest of us have their destinies already pre-written. The magic of nature, the flowers, the fruits, the green grass, the waterfalls have all become something that are only enjoyed when we shut off the truth, or are delusional. 

Cupcakes and Nietzsche

You buy a book of philosophy of Nietzsche and Freud and Iliad by Homer. It was a decision back then to read classics. How can one be so disconnected with the nation I would think now, and I realise that I was not disconnected with the nation, I just didn't know that the nation was a penal colony. You read The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James and had a religious experience yourself. Here is a quote by James.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

A decade later after buying Freud, Nietzsche and Homer, you know what William James had said is true. You just couldn't believe it that shit could get real with you, but actually it had got real a really long back. A decade later you know that it was not misfortune, but slavery and torture and you know the reasons for it. The reason is that there is no reason required, but reasons are produced to make the torture look reasonable. Still, there was no need for this level of torture for a person who just wanted to help people and earn an honest living, but then you look at the majority, suffering tremendously and daily. How could you not suffer when everyone around you is suffering? Philosophy and theology turned out to be smokescreens. What turned out to be true is neurology, exploitation, depravity and torture. Here is a quote by Freud

Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.

Now this quote tells a lot, but it doesn't tell in which language does one have to be honest with themselves. In this country (India) social classes have are stratified according to class and linguistics. Each social class has its own linguistics. So, if you were sodomised in childhood, in the upper strata it would be poor you who got sodomised, but in the lower strata you would just be someone who got his ass fucked, and the design of stratas is such that the ones who get raped in the lower strata are thought to be deserving of getting raped. How is it possible? It is possible when criminals rule the society. So, in short, in India, criminals rule the society at a neurological level. Though after the spread of the internet it looks like they rule everywhere. Here is a quote by Nietzsche.

Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.

In this day and age, I can talk about this country, hope has been weaponised. People have no privacy and personal agency and hope is used as a dangling carrot by whoever is in power in this country to lead them to either hell or their extinction. People will continue to hope because movies and motivational books have glorified it, but then it is only of use when you have been selected to taste the fruits of this planet, for beasts of burden, which is the majority, it is just a dangling carrot that pushes them further in time and prolongs their suffering and they can't even end their suffering because of the people they love. 

Comics in Post-Truth India

I have always loved comics and graphic novels. I think one of the best thing a child can do in his or her childhood is sit and read comics in a cozy corner of the house. I was lucky enough to do that. And as I grew up I realised that not everyone has that luck. Many children, especially in India, have to grow up too fast, since child labour is still prevalent. But those who have read comics in their childhood know how it has enriched their lives. But now little children have Instagram accounts. I hope their parents have the sense to buy them comics too beacuse popular culture of this country has deteriorated to such an extent that at present, at least, it seems beyond redemption. How difficult it is to have a bunch of friends and talk about comics and pop culture with them in this country? It's been more than a decade and I have not been able to do so. So maybe it is a fault in me despite trying hard, or maybe it's the fault in the places I've lived at or it can also be that the problem is with the country. I have seen the design and internal curfew in this country, so I know the truth actually, but still I hope that there are people who are free to talk about pop culture in this country and that the design of totalitarianism is employed specifically on me, but then there is also the social media which shows nothing but frustration of people with culture as well as pop culture. What was wrong with a bunch of nerds sitting and talking about comics? There was nothing wrong, just that it's not the design. The design is crabs in a bucket. It keeps people at the top, safe. What if these kids read the comics of Alan Moore and become enlightened and realise that they are being extorted, manipulated and exploited every second of their living life? I have had the absolute pleasure of reading comic books in a room cooled by a desert cooler in a hot summer. I have had the pleasure of collecting comic books and reading them while eating my food even though reading while eating was discouraged at home. These were the simple pleasures of life. It is much later in life I realised that people have not-so-simple-pleasures in life too, and they consume people who believe in the simple pleasures.

There is a bit of resurgence in the Indian comic industry post Corona, but it would be curious to know how long it would last. Reading and collecting comics is an expensive hobby and not everyone can afford it now when the comics which could be bought in 8 rupees in the 90s have costs ranging from 80 to 600 rupees. So, dream of poor children being able to read comics in a cozy corner of their home is a dream that has become even more distant. I know why is it happening though. It's happening because earlier just study was study and now we live in the times of any knowledge is knowledge. So the poor kids watch low grade propaganda on the internet. Every strata has their kind of propaganda now and thus their own kind of delusion. Comics has just become something that the well-to-do manchildren of this country pursue because it reminds them of the beauty of the 90s. Unfortunately or fortunately, I'm one of them.

 

A Paradise Lost in Politics

There are numerous philosophies so as to how the world came into being.  Religions have their own stories and science has its own Big Bang, at least as of now. If we think about it, we can't deny that it's magical. Stars in the sky, plants, animals in the wild and how they survive, it's all like magic. Humanity has a magic of its own until you realise the slavery you live under. The world is a beautiful place until you realise the politics of it and the technology that is used to enforce that politics. Carl Sagan had said

    It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

So when one comes to know about the slavery one has to come to terms with it. It was hard for me to come to terms with the slavery. I just didn't want to let go of all the beauty my childhood had. It is hard actually to accept the world it really is. And truth is, one should only accept slavery when he or she can do absolutely nothing about it. Unfortunately, with the technology, that time has arrived. Some will ask, isn't it better to die than live like a slave in this world? It is actually. It is better to die. But then there is love. Love makes you stay in hell. It is the loved ones who make you live on your slavery. Love is a tool for exploitation and the most potent one. Aleister Crowley had said

    The pious pretense that evil does not exist only makes it vague, enormous and menacing.

It is actually hard for good people to believe in evil, but the truth is they live with evil all their lives, in fact their whole lives are designed by evil. How funny is it that Aleister Crowley earned the title of the wickedest man in the world, while behind the curtains each living breath of ours is being controlled by the wicked. I do not have an opinion on Crowley, for I have understood by now that people can be what they seem or can't be what they seem. And when Crowley talks about being the Chief of Staff of the devil, I believe him, because he was a man who knew what he was talking. Unfortunately, the devil did not accept him and branded him as the wickedest man alive, forever. It was hard for me to accept evil despite seeing it throughout my life, but then I had a decade worth of experience with it and realised that people like Aleister Crowley were kids in front of what actually controls this nation and the world. Philip K. Dick had said

    The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.

And this is what is happening in the world of today where there are gadgets and computer programs that can do your work for you, but no peace and belonging. I had a first hand experience with manipulation of words, and it was done with me not because I was in the wrong but simply because it could be done. Like Abraham Maslow had said

    If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

This quote has could be interpreted in a twofold way. One that if we know only one solution we tend to apply on all of our problems and two, that if we have power over something we tend to behave that there is only one way to deal with things. It's odd how these simple explanations fit on complex things. Power makes people mad, but in this country people express that madness by murdering and raping people from the inside, and I think it could be true of other countries as well. In the end, from what I have witnessed in the past decade, every religious philosophy has been falsified in context of this nation, and what actually remains is beastly pleasure derived on the expense of lives and unexplainable pain to others, and it is done in a manner so covert and at such a level that it cannot be even explained to anyone.