Blog Archives

A Glorious Demonstration of Nauseating Cowardice

11/30/2017

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Writes an article titled "Professor of Piffle" in which he criticizes Jordan B Peterson.
Title of article sums up nature and attitude of content.
Article warns of "the dangerous underside of Jordan Peterson's crusade against the humanities" and issues the rallying cry that: "We have an intellectual obligation to meet this threat directly and expose him for exactly what he is: a YouTube star who offers a wafer-thin intellectual validation for the political retrenchment of traditional hierarchies. Peterson is calling for war within the humanities. We should happily oblige."
Gets called out by Peterson immediately and challenged to a debate.
Proclaims he would debate Peterson anytime. Encourages people to set up the debate.
Peterson sets up a possible debate.
Wells backs out by stating - "I initially thought the debate would be good fun. I've since been disabused of that idea. I've said my piece."

Way to fight the war, Ira. You're a class act, all the way.

Candy-ass.

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New Novel Going Well

11/23/2017

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Though I am still in the research/planning phase, I am happy to report that my new novel Fallen Men is coming along rather nicely. The pieces are fusing together, the characters are beginning to take shape, and the narrative is starting to form. If all goes well, I hope to begin the first draft in January and complete the book within a year.

Wish me luck!

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Wisdom Is ______ist.

11/20/2017

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The world is flooded with people full of ideas about how to make the world more just, equal, diverse, inclusive, loving, kind, and open. Everyone seems to be an expert on what would make the world a better place, on what needs to go, and what should be put in its place. These ideas are usually presented through veils of compassion with a heavy emphasis on progress, but they always lack the one ingredient that would make them credible and viable in my book.

Wisdom.

When I analyze the ideas being spouted, forced, coerced, harangued, and legislated into existence, I am struck by how little they contain in terms of common decency and good judgement. Critics of these ideas often defer to wisdom (and facts) when they raise concerns against these new ideas, but countering any idea about justice, equality, diversity, and all the rest of it with wisdom has proven fruitless because the idea pushers see wisdom as nothing more than an oppressive force impeding progress. For them wisdom is one of the pillars of the very structure they are endeavouring to destroy. Anyone who dares to draw on wisdom to counter their ideas is not only an archaic relic, but also a morally reprehensible oppressor who is incapable of learning new things.

Those who draw on widsom are, therefore, ____________ist, and are to be vitriolically attacked and vehemently dismissed the moment they dare to utter even the slightest or most mundane kernel of wisdom.

Unfortunately, reality has been unkind to societies that callously dismissed wisdom in the past. What makes us think it will be any kinder now?

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Something I Used to Avoid, But Now Enjoy - Public Speaking

11/19/2017

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One of my students took this photo of me about a month ago when I was giving a short speech before an audience of about 100 to 150 at the University of Sopron. I used to hate public speaking and the very thought of having to say anything before a large group of people would have sent me running from the building, but over the past two decades I have improved tremendously. I actually look forward to speaking before larger groups now. All I have to focus on from here on in is not boring audiences to death!

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The Central Motif of My Next Book

11/17/2017

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New Project

11/16/2017

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The ideas for my next book have fallen into place and I am thrilled to announce that I have begun working on a new novel this week. I estimate it will take twelve to eighteen months to complete the book. it is great to be hammering away on a project again after five years. If I am able to properly transcribe what I have in my mind, it should make for an interesting read.

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Writing and Transcendence

11/16/2017

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“Above all else, art is one of humanity’s highest callings. It is a higher thing than politics or economics. It marks the total expression of the creativity and freedom of the human spirit and is also one of the few paths through which mankind can transcend its earthly circumstances and approach the Divine. This is the essence that makes art eternal.”

This is taken from my novel, The City of Earthly Desire. The passage appears heavily underlined in a fictional book about art that the protagonist, Reinhardt Drixler, finds in one of the art supply cases he stumbles across in his attic. The underlined passage and the art supply cases inspire Reinhardt to become a painter, and the message the passage contains guides him through his life as an artist. I included this in the novel because it succinctly summarizes what I believe the essence of art to be as well as the supreme role of art and its ultimate possibilities.

For as long as I can remember, I have approached my writing from this perspective. Even at a young age I recognized that writing was a means through which I could rise above ordinary limitations, move beyond physical needs and realities, and begin to approach or, at the very least, begin to contemplate higher, yet tangible, realities of being. This was primarily what made writing an engaging and fascinating activity when I was a child, and it continues to be my main motivation now.

I accept that this belief strikes most people, most writers among them, as pretentious drivel or psuedo-spiritual codswallop; so be it.

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The Misery of Writing

11/15/2017

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Writers bitch a lot about being writers and about writing.

This is understandable and, more often than not, forgivable. After all, there is much to bitch about. Writing is tough; getting readers to buy and read your material, even tougher.

Having said this, I can't understand writers who do nothing but whine and moan about the misery of writing. I just don't get it. If hardship, toil, and misery is all you experience when you are writing, you are doing it wrong, and you should seriously begin to question whether you should be doing it at all.

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Kindle Edition Will Be About One Dollar - Permanently

11/13/2017

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I have permanently lowered the price for the Kindle edition of The City of Earthly Desire to 0.99 cents or its rough equivalent on all Amazon sites.

So much great literature is available for nothing or next to nothing that I no longer thought it prudent to charge five or six dollars for my ebook. I do not expect the lower price to increase sales in any significant way, but I hope it might prompt a handful of potential readers to give the book a try.

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