Do they exist? Not, apparently, in the world of 'the glass bead game.' There are no women of power or intellect. There are no mothers, sisters, daughters. There are no random women walking down a street. There are no instances of the word 'she' in the entire book so far. The only hint that the female …
Mind games
I've started reading 'The Glass Bead Game' by Herman Hesse, mainly because the title made me think of go. The story features a fictional game that is very abstract and deals with concepts and ideas as the 'pieces'. The players are intellectual elites who use pieces of knowledge or pieces of culture to play their games. The …
Painting with words
I imagine sometimes that writing descriptively must be like painting, though I've not done much painting in my life. You get an idea in your head, and you choose the right colors, the right palate, the right style, to get the image you want across. Is finding the right word like finding the right color …
Real life
I'm having trouble concentrating on the fictional worlds I create, when the real one I live in is in such turmoil. It's hard not to think 'what's the point?' Who care's what happens to a pretend person I made up when there are real people in trouble everywhere? But we can't all do everything. That's …
Immortality
I wonder if Shakespeare ever suspected his writings would be the subject of entire classes, hundreds of years later. Did Van Gogh ever imagine even in his most optimistic dreams that replicas of his works would be hanging in dorm rooms across the world in the 21st century? I doubt it. They are still influencing …
Jonas David 