2009-03-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

What was originally intended to be a regularly-updated message to the world has suffered the fate of my many other blogs, which is to be discarded almost immediately after creation. Apologies all around, of course, and when I apologize I am only addressing myself, the lonely reader.

I will tell you about the story I have to write--not that I have to write it, you know. But perhaps I do have to. It is the story of myself, and not my real self, not the physical self, but the manifestation of an unrealized humanity. If that isn't what fiction is, what is it? We create fictive versions of ourselves, or of those whom we know, stretching and embellishing them into almost unrecognizable beings. We amass the tiny pieces of ourselves; sometimes we recollect them, distort them, and give them second lives. These little pieces are housed in a tangle of language and imagery, metaphor and simile, dialogue and narrative. What's the use of collecting all these little pieces of life if we merely tuck them away into a drawer, viewed occasionally and with intent that never comes to fruition.

An introduction, and statement of purpose

2009-02-17T08:26:00.001-08:00

An explanation on the title: Our lives are temporal, and yet there is something in each one of us that spits in the face of Death; though we understand that to die is our inevitable fate, we seek to create meaning and beauty, as if we were building a sandcastle on a beach, fully aware of the looming storm.

Purpose: Within my realm of friends and acquaintances, I feel that many do not understand me. This is not because I am more difficult to understand than the average person, but because often my tongue fails to communicate what my mind says. Secondly, my mind often falls into a state of stagnation which ultimately leads it into an abysmal depression. And lastly, I want to pass along all the valuable knowledge I accumulate over the course of my readings, but in a vastly abridged and convenient format. This forum will serve all three of these objectives, and I ask that no readers shy away from input.

Content: Literature and philosophy are my principle areas of interest, and while I am not an academic by any sense of the word, at least not yet, I do have a keen sense of how these disciplines can affect change in the world, socially as well as personally. More specifically, I would like to take many opportunities to discuss the philosophy of "idleness," the absurdities of life and the joys of nonsense.

There will be occasional and capricious updates to this little manifesto of mine, though its core tenets will remain unchanged.

Building Sandcastles Before the Storm

An introduction, and statement of purpose