Thoughts and words

The end of the world...

Yesterday, reflecting on relationships, I wrote that: "...shared reality is a perceived commonality of inner states, for example: feelings, beliefs and concerns. What this means is that two people are drawn to be friends or lovers because they see and share the same truth. Eventually, this shared reality becomes a... Read more →

You are my world...

I would not like to put an exact number on it, but it seems to me that the vast majority of popular songs are about love, happiness through love, break-up and loss. For example, look at the words of this Bill Withers song, "Ain't no Sunshine." Wonder this time where... Read more →

Beware of the hand that feeds us...

Power, abuse of power and corruption are explored in literature on many different levels. From Robin Hood to Shakespeare's Macbeth and to Lord of the Flies, characters in books (and history) have been doing terrible things to acquire power, and worse things to keep it, and readers love to read... Read more →

From the unknown...

It has often struck me how much other types of art inspire my writing. A visit to a local picture gallery, for example, can send my imagination into overdrive. But, for me, the most inspirational of other artistic pursuits is photography - or to be more precise - the old... Read more →

Ours is no longer to reason...

John Le Carre's 2001 novel, The Constant Gardener, is a story about political corruption and corporate greed. It is also one of my favourite novels, and I would argue that now is the time for more books that expose the rotten state of current politics. I urge this because it... Read more →

Twisted minds

Few writers would disagree that words form the basis for all the stories and ideas they want to communicate. However, word choices and the way in which writers put those words together can communicate ideas in a number of ways. The complete sentence tells much more than individual words describe... Read more →

Heroes and villains inside us all

When we hear of people doing bad things, we tend to attach the label "evil" to them and condemn both perpetrator and action as being abnormal. But what if that is not true? What if we could all do evil things given the "right" circumstances? Basically, my question is this:... Read more →

The power of strangers

"I confess that I was completely bewildered by the conversation which I had with this extraordinary man. I am afraid that I am even yet hardly in a state to report it in such a way that it will affect others as it did me. Very likely the effect was... Read more →

Inspiration through constraint

Can I do it? I am feeling a need to create. How do I know? Because I am prowling around the house or wandering over the hills and getting snippets of ideas which I write in my notebook. But what I want to do has no shape and no theme... Read more →

Inspiration from gender

Elena Ferrante's books seem to be making waves. I have read that she writes like a woman. What does it mean "write like a woman"? Do women create differently from men? Can't say I have given this any thought in the past. Read more →