Chris Angelis's Blog, page 6

Strengths and Weaknesses as a Writer: a Pointless Question

I recently had a hilarious (as it turned out) experience in a professional capacity. A Gothic writer wanted to hire a freelancer and I was one of the candidates. One of the interview questions was, What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer? On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with […]

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The Collapse of Criteria and the Prostitution of Art

In an interview in 1991 (I will share the relevant excerpt translated/transcribed in this post), the Greek-French philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis pointed out a sobering fact: We live in an era characterized by the collapse of criteria and the prostitution of art. That is to say, Castoriadis argued, we live in an era with no criteria […]

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How to Write a Song Influenced by Postrock/Postmetal Sensitivities

This ought to have simply been a “here’s how I write my music” post, but I decided to shift the focus a bit. So this became a “how to write a song” post. And since my music is influenced by postrock/postmetal sensitivities, the weight will naturally be on that. Perhaps you are not interested in […]

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The Storytelling Cat – or, OK, I Lied

Last December I said I’d likely never write another novel. And what did I start doing before a month had passed? Writing another novel. Never say never and all that. The story of how this novel, The Storytelling Cat, came to be would make for an interesting essay on creativity and art in itself. Later […]

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Shape-shifting in Nimona: Metaphor and the Subconscious

Nimona is an animated film based on the graphic novel by ND Stevenson. It features “a girl” (more of this in a while) who can shape-shift into any form, from whales to gorillas and from little boys to emulating other people. As I explore in this post, shape-shifting in Nimona is a metaphor that reveals […]

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Shame Will Save the World

“Shame will save the world” – often translated as “Shame, the feeling that will save mankind” – is what the character of Kris Kelvin utters near the end of Solaris, the film by Andrei Tarkovsky. Can shame save the world? For Dostoevsky, it was beauty that would perform that miracle. However, as a Greek blogger […]

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Misunderstanding a Song – for Twenty Years

Certain art forms are easier to “misunderstand” than others. That is, it’s easier for any kind of authorial intention to become something entirely different in the eyes (or ears) of the audience at a social level. Music and poetry are particularly susceptible to this, because of their abstractness. Misunderstanding a song is indeed hilariously likely, […]

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Dealing with Lack of Skills in Writing: a Misleading Premise

Writing, drawing, composing music, and basically every form of art consists of two components: the artistic one and the technical one. That is, to express ourselves artistically we must first and foremost have something to say, but it’s not quite enough. We must also have the skills to do that. So, what happens when we […]

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An Iambic Pentameter Checker in JavaScript

My iambic pentameter generator has been one of the most popular posts of the blog. To be honest, I’m not sure if that’s still the case or not. Since I completely revamped the blog (actually even earlier), I removed Google and Jetpack analytics. In any case, today we’ll be looking at, essentially, the reverse scenario: […]

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Anger as Motivation: Revamping the Home for Fiction Blog

You might recall that some time ago I completely revamped the main site of Home for Fiction. In the same post I mentioned how one day, if I’d only find the motivation and energy, I’d completely redo the blog, too. Turns out, anger is great motivation. You’re reading a brand new Home for Fiction blog. […]

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