Raymond Gaynor's Blog, page 39
April 19, 2021
VIOLENCE MILLS
JUST as there are educational (“diploma”) mills, there are other, in some ways more insidious “cons,” one being violence mills, better called wars. Both prey on innate human emotions. Both involve pre-scripted action. Both, to be “good businesses,” involve creating two, artificially constructed “levels” of participants (the privileged teachers or military leaders verses the less privileged students or soldiers) in a hyped up, fully staged, human-constructed theatrical game or play. Both end up violating the less privileged target participants in an effort to justify the existence of the privileged. It may sound harsh, but I do believe that the core part of all such confidence mills or games is the privileged and unprivileged playing out in pre-scripted fashion an unnatural “play” that ultimately leaves the targets traumatized. The worst of it is that once traumatized, it appears that while survivors can learn to live with the trauma, the core memory of the damage and its persistent layers of effects never entirely go away. It seems an inviolate part of the innate “fight and flight” reflex that allows humans to survive in the face of disaster. Think PTSD. Think numbers of victims. Is it any surprise that our world is so steeped in trauma and so many people struggle throughout their lives with post traumatic stress?
I was, at one time, impressed with the United Nations’ approach to dealing with the “epidemic” (actually a singular, ongoing pandemic) of war violence, namely by holding the privileged personally responsible for physical damages incurred during a transgression. So-called “War Crimes” and Crimes Against Humanity.” The idea seemed a good one. Sadly, it clearly hasn’t deterred war or those interested in instigating war. The “punishment” I think needs to involve that which inspires warmongering: the acquisition of money and power. Holding the privileged involved in warmongering responsible for the cost of mental damage and both human and animal rehabilitation, a cost that would be many times the financial cost of a war, and clearly a discouragement to power, however, just might.
The issue of violation and its effects is central to my newly released SciFu novel THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor. While ostensibly “Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live,” it throughout the book deals with the greatest human challenge: How to wean the world away from violation to cooperation, and the effects thereof. Novels should, I believe, have an engaging, entertaining storyline, but they should also play a part in the struggle for a greater good for humans, animals, plants and our “living” planet.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
Soon to be an Audible audiobook read by the incomparable Peter Pollock. Purchased for manga, animation and cinematic treatment by K. Simmons Productions.
I was, at one time, impressed with the United Nations’ approach to dealing with the “epidemic” (actually a singular, ongoing pandemic) of war violence, namely by holding the privileged personally responsible for physical damages incurred during a transgression. So-called “War Crimes” and Crimes Against Humanity.” The idea seemed a good one. Sadly, it clearly hasn’t deterred war or those interested in instigating war. The “punishment” I think needs to involve that which inspires warmongering: the acquisition of money and power. Holding the privileged involved in warmongering responsible for the cost of mental damage and both human and animal rehabilitation, a cost that would be many times the financial cost of a war, and clearly a discouragement to power, however, just might.
The issue of violation and its effects is central to my newly released SciFu novel THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor. While ostensibly “Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live,” it throughout the book deals with the greatest human challenge: How to wean the world away from violation to cooperation, and the effects thereof. Novels should, I believe, have an engaging, entertaining storyline, but they should also play a part in the struggle for a greater good for humans, animals, plants and our “living” planet.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
Soon to be an Audible audiobook read by the incomparable Peter Pollock. Purchased for manga, animation and cinematic treatment by K. Simmons Productions.
April 18, 2021
DIPLOMA MILLS
In THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, a Sci-Fu (science-based futuring) novel about post-TOTAL MELTDOWN NewAmerica, one of the more salient areas addresses is the future of education. Admittedly, the idea of interactive, holographic “classrooms” where the instructor and learners are not physically present, but the process so interactive as to seen so may be a bit overwhelming. However, based on a Sci-Fu approach, it would be a logical socio-technological outcome of overpopulation, pandemic disease or social structure failure and a need to move from unavoidably traumatic (or at least violational) “teaching” to transformational individual “learning.” It requires, however, a paradigm shift that unavoidably changes the very definition of a diploma mill.
By definition a diploma mill is a business that entices customers into constrained crowd-“teaching” situations, typically face-to-face to establish the required level of control, in which what is taught is do so by prescription. That is, what the “teachers” want their students to learn is pre-scripted, from beginning to end, the result being the expected diploma that will garner the “investor” a better job or more pay. Makes sense in a post-modern “monetized” world, but no sense whatsoever in terms of learning to learn, creating inspired lifelong self-learners, inspired more by the idea of exploring the depths and breadths of education than today’s illusory money and power. From this new perspective, most if not all of today’s colleges and universities are disguised diploma mills.
Isn’t constrained teaching the best way to insure that student-victims learn what teachers want them to learn without requiring the teachers to have to think critically? I’ve often thought that if educational institutions’ primary goal is effective, efficient education, they should study and implement brainwashing, the sine qua non of effective, efficient education.
Don’t be afraid to step up to The Edge of Madness and peer over the edge at a future world based on the emerging socio-technology of the present. Like it or not, THE EDGE OF MADNESS affords readers with a real vision of a really plausible future which, knowing such, allows one to come to a better decision regarding today’s seeming incomprehensibly entangled issues.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
Soon to be an Audible audiobook read by the incomparable Peter Pollock. Purchased for manga, animation and cinematic treatment by K. Simmons Productions.
By definition a diploma mill is a business that entices customers into constrained crowd-“teaching” situations, typically face-to-face to establish the required level of control, in which what is taught is do so by prescription. That is, what the “teachers” want their students to learn is pre-scripted, from beginning to end, the result being the expected diploma that will garner the “investor” a better job or more pay. Makes sense in a post-modern “monetized” world, but no sense whatsoever in terms of learning to learn, creating inspired lifelong self-learners, inspired more by the idea of exploring the depths and breadths of education than today’s illusory money and power. From this new perspective, most if not all of today’s colleges and universities are disguised diploma mills.
Isn’t constrained teaching the best way to insure that student-victims learn what teachers want them to learn without requiring the teachers to have to think critically? I’ve often thought that if educational institutions’ primary goal is effective, efficient education, they should study and implement brainwashing, the sine qua non of effective, efficient education.
Don’t be afraid to step up to The Edge of Madness and peer over the edge at a future world based on the emerging socio-technology of the present. Like it or not, THE EDGE OF MADNESS affords readers with a real vision of a really plausible future which, knowing such, allows one to come to a better decision regarding today’s seeming incomprehensibly entangled issues.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
Soon to be an Audible audiobook read by the incomparable Peter Pollock. Purchased for manga, animation and cinematic treatment by K. Simmons Productions.
April 17, 2021
TOMORROW’S PSEUDOPHAKIA
GOT you there, didn’t I? So, based on it’s sound when spoken, what would you guess “pseudophakia” is? Fake fake news? Sort but not entirely faked news? Actually it’s about replacing the lens in an eye that has become damaged (e.g. a cataract) by an artificial clear plastic intraocular lens (IOL). In yesterday’s post I mentioned the difficulty that people are having “seeing” the present obscured as it is by COVID and it’s effects. Today, I present THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor as the required pseudophakia necessary to once again see the world as it actually is, both intra- and already emerging post-COVID.
The biggest change I think is in seeing COVID for what it actually is: A shot across our era’s bow, warning us that we need to as quickly, efficiently and painstakingly as possible change our society’s overarching focus from crowd-sales to individual-service. The next big change is that by doing so, our infrastructures will transform from failing to expeditious almost instantly. It’s not fixing “old” infrastructure, but creating “new” individual-service oriented infrastructure throughout every aspect of government, business, education, transportation, health care, you-name-it. Only then will the cataracts be removed from our eyes sufficiently for us to see not where we were going, but where we should be in the future. Don’t favor getting “pseudophakia’ed? Grab a copy of THE EDGE OF MADNESS, kick back and settle in for the ride of your life. Eyes open and clear.
Sincerely,
Raymond Gaynor
Author of THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020)
Co-author with A. G. Hayes of QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016) and with William Maltese of TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009)
Author website at https://garymartine.yolasite.com/raym...
Author Facebook site at https://www.facebook.com/raymond.gayn...
Author Twitter site at https://www.savantbooksandpublication...
Amazon author page at https://www.amazon.com/Raymond-Gaynor...
Amazon Goodreads author page at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Savant Books and Publications | Aignos Publishing author page at https://www.savantbooksandpublication...
Distributed by Savant Distribution at https://www.savantdistribution.com/
THE EDGE OF MADNESS press release at https://www.prlog.org/12825474
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
The biggest change I think is in seeing COVID for what it actually is: A shot across our era’s bow, warning us that we need to as quickly, efficiently and painstakingly as possible change our society’s overarching focus from crowd-sales to individual-service. The next big change is that by doing so, our infrastructures will transform from failing to expeditious almost instantly. It’s not fixing “old” infrastructure, but creating “new” individual-service oriented infrastructure throughout every aspect of government, business, education, transportation, health care, you-name-it. Only then will the cataracts be removed from our eyes sufficiently for us to see not where we were going, but where we should be in the future. Don’t favor getting “pseudophakia’ed? Grab a copy of THE EDGE OF MADNESS, kick back and settle in for the ride of your life. Eyes open and clear.
Sincerely,
Raymond Gaynor
Author of THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020)
Co-author with A. G. Hayes of QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016) and with William Maltese of TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009)
Author website at https://garymartine.yolasite.com/raym...
Author Facebook site at https://www.facebook.com/raymond.gayn...
Author Twitter site at https://www.savantbooksandpublication...
Amazon author page at https://www.amazon.com/Raymond-Gaynor...
Amazon Goodreads author page at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Savant Books and Publications | Aignos Publishing author page at https://www.savantbooksandpublication...
Distributed by Savant Distribution at https://www.savantdistribution.com/
THE EDGE OF MADNESS press release at https://www.prlog.org/12825474
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
April 16, 2021
SOCIETY’S CATARACTS
FIRST, I’m not referring to Egypt’s cataracts, I’m referring to the blurring of one’s vision that typically comes with old age. Society’s been around for a long time, and in this interim between pre- and post-COVID worlds, society seems to me to have acquired serious cataracts. That’s why I wrote THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor.
COVID, I believe, was the proverbial shot-across-the-bow for our current civilizations which seem to be galloping unrelentingly towards a world where the selling of products to the crowded together masses is the pinnacle of life. COVID, however, has amply warned us of the dangers of crowd-based activities, and the subsequent disintegration and declining quality of services to one another are a further warning. In my new book and ebook, I describe the difficulties as well as the effects of transitioning from “crowd-sales” to “individual service” modes, reviving the humanities in a world increasingly controlled and at the same time forsaken by business.
The change, which if we are to survive COVID-19, -20, -21 and the host of other predicted virus and prion diseases predicted to ravage our hopelessly overpopulated world, is, in my opinion, absolutely necessary. It is also difficult and fearful. Change has always been so for societies and civilizations, people often preferring to “sink with the Titanic” rather than embrace changes in their ways of living. But change it will. The beginnings of this massive change are already presenting. Those civilizations, nations, social groups, businesses and organizations that can make the switch to “individual service” are already thriving and will surely survive the next pandemic. Those that can’t or won’t make this fundamental change will die out; by my reckoning, the longer they survive the more difficult and painstaking their demise.
“Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live.” Like all youth, they assume their “new world” is “normal” and simply strive to live within their perceived boundaries, the results being equally normal to them, but often surprising, even shocking, to readers. “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”— Marie Curie. Walk boldly up to the edge of madness, and see for yourself what’s likely beyond.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
COVID, I believe, was the proverbial shot-across-the-bow for our current civilizations which seem to be galloping unrelentingly towards a world where the selling of products to the crowded together masses is the pinnacle of life. COVID, however, has amply warned us of the dangers of crowd-based activities, and the subsequent disintegration and declining quality of services to one another are a further warning. In my new book and ebook, I describe the difficulties as well as the effects of transitioning from “crowd-sales” to “individual service” modes, reviving the humanities in a world increasingly controlled and at the same time forsaken by business.
The change, which if we are to survive COVID-19, -20, -21 and the host of other predicted virus and prion diseases predicted to ravage our hopelessly overpopulated world, is, in my opinion, absolutely necessary. It is also difficult and fearful. Change has always been so for societies and civilizations, people often preferring to “sink with the Titanic” rather than embrace changes in their ways of living. But change it will. The beginnings of this massive change are already presenting. Those civilizations, nations, social groups, businesses and organizations that can make the switch to “individual service” are already thriving and will surely survive the next pandemic. Those that can’t or won’t make this fundamental change will die out; by my reckoning, the longer they survive the more difficult and painstaking their demise.
“Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live.” Like all youth, they assume their “new world” is “normal” and simply strive to live within their perceived boundaries, the results being equally normal to them, but often surprising, even shocking, to readers. “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”— Marie Curie. Walk boldly up to the edge of madness, and see for yourself what’s likely beyond.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
April 15, 2021
TOPPING A RAPA NUI STATUE
YESTERDAY I watched a documentary on the statues of Rapa Nui. Some pukao (as they’re called) weighed up to 10 U.S. tons. Getting it up on top of a statue and positioning it correctly must have been an amazing chore. My theory is that, given the statues eyes typically are looking up, the inhabitants must have experienced a celestial event and were doing penance by carving out the statues and offering the ultimate sacrifice by topping them with pukaos.
Why, you might ask, the sudden obsession with pukaos? Several days ago the replacement for our condo’s rooftop exhaust fan arrived, and has generated cosmic (or comic depending on your point of view) concerns over how to get the device onto the roof. It’s far too big and heavy for the elevator, so, we’re apparently going to do a Rapa Nui: In this case, hire a helicopter to lift it from the road up 20 stories to the rooftop. I’m trying to imagine those Rapa Nui denizens filling out all the necessary permit forms, locating and hiring the local crowd police to keep everyone away from the statue during the fitting, and the effort, noise and ruckus associated with the actual topping. And people think the past is history!
The situation concurrently brought up one of the Great Paradoxes: how the ancients seemed to have done such difficult things. True, capping a 20-story condo with a massive rooftop exhaust fan is different from adding a pukao to a Rapa Nui statue, but how much different, really? Fan/hat? The idea that “technology” can do things better, faster and with less effort is firmly implanted in our (and, who knows, perhaps it was even in ancient Rapa Nuians’) minds. One of the principal tenets of THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor is what’s frequently ignored and lost altogether is the “price” — the “side” effects — of any such technological advances known or forgotten. It’s a little like the toxic positivity displayed by the most loquacious and narcissistic gamblers. One boasts of the rewards while ignoring the losses incurred in obtaining them.
My newly released SciFu (science-based future) novel is, from one perspective, about all of the above issues, though it looks at both the rewards (utopian?) and losses (dystopian?) incurred when humanity relies heavily on emerging technology to “save” it from itself — to disentangle humans from their obsession with the two great illusions, money and power, of the Great Monopoly Game. On the other hand, you can simply kick back and enjoy the book, ebook and soon to be audiobook for its compelling storyline and attendant adventure, romance, love, eroticism, or as an intellectual “mirror” of what to expect in the ongoing sociopolitical evolution of humankind.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live.
Why, you might ask, the sudden obsession with pukaos? Several days ago the replacement for our condo’s rooftop exhaust fan arrived, and has generated cosmic (or comic depending on your point of view) concerns over how to get the device onto the roof. It’s far too big and heavy for the elevator, so, we’re apparently going to do a Rapa Nui: In this case, hire a helicopter to lift it from the road up 20 stories to the rooftop. I’m trying to imagine those Rapa Nui denizens filling out all the necessary permit forms, locating and hiring the local crowd police to keep everyone away from the statue during the fitting, and the effort, noise and ruckus associated with the actual topping. And people think the past is history!
The situation concurrently brought up one of the Great Paradoxes: how the ancients seemed to have done such difficult things. True, capping a 20-story condo with a massive rooftop exhaust fan is different from adding a pukao to a Rapa Nui statue, but how much different, really? Fan/hat? The idea that “technology” can do things better, faster and with less effort is firmly implanted in our (and, who knows, perhaps it was even in ancient Rapa Nuians’) minds. One of the principal tenets of THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor is what’s frequently ignored and lost altogether is the “price” — the “side” effects — of any such technological advances known or forgotten. It’s a little like the toxic positivity displayed by the most loquacious and narcissistic gamblers. One boasts of the rewards while ignoring the losses incurred in obtaining them.
My newly released SciFu (science-based future) novel is, from one perspective, about all of the above issues, though it looks at both the rewards (utopian?) and losses (dystopian?) incurred when humanity relies heavily on emerging technology to “save” it from itself — to disentangle humans from their obsession with the two great illusions, money and power, of the Great Monopoly Game. On the other hand, you can simply kick back and enjoy the book, ebook and soon to be audiobook for its compelling storyline and attendant adventure, romance, love, eroticism, or as an intellectual “mirror” of what to expect in the ongoing sociopolitical evolution of humankind.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live.
April 14, 2021
A BRIEF ASIDE
YESTERDAY I posted about samsara and received an email reply asking for the recipe. It took me a few moments to realize the request was for a recipe for samosa, admittedly similar in written appearance and sound, but totally different in reality. Anyway, here’s a possible recipe: https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/... and, BTW, thanks for following my blog! The request did, however, get me thinking about the existential reason and logistics of escaping from samosas. Personally, I like them, so I wouldn’t want to escape. But, if one did, would it bring one closer to nirvana? My tastebuds and I personally doubt it.
It also brings up another, more cogent issue. While physical characteristics of animals, including humans, change slowly, perhaps over hundreds of thousands of years, one’s food preferences can change in the blink of an eye. And, to some extent at least, you are what you eat. Add to that the Malthusian Dilemma, that the curves for food production and population size will eventually cross and we will run out of, at least, “traditional” or first choice food or have to massively decrease the population, something I’ve been concerned about ever since being unable to book a popular San Francisco restaurant in pre-COVID times.
But I digress, and my brief aside is becoming less and less brief. Suffice it to say that these issues (aside from a samosa recipe) surface in my and William Maltese’s ribald yet serious novel of the TOTAL MELTDOWN of the United States of America published by Borgo/Wildside. The prelude to my newest novel, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor which takes up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live, and I would argue, takes up more cogent issues like the future of love, romance, pairings, family, adventure, coming-of-age and adult responsibilities.
Please enjoy this video book review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
The Edge of Madness
Soon to be an Audible audiobook read by the incomparable Peter Pollock; purchased for manga, animated and cinematic treatment by K. Simmons Productions
It also brings up another, more cogent issue. While physical characteristics of animals, including humans, change slowly, perhaps over hundreds of thousands of years, one’s food preferences can change in the blink of an eye. And, to some extent at least, you are what you eat. Add to that the Malthusian Dilemma, that the curves for food production and population size will eventually cross and we will run out of, at least, “traditional” or first choice food or have to massively decrease the population, something I’ve been concerned about ever since being unable to book a popular San Francisco restaurant in pre-COVID times.
But I digress, and my brief aside is becoming less and less brief. Suffice it to say that these issues (aside from a samosa recipe) surface in my and William Maltese’s ribald yet serious novel of the TOTAL MELTDOWN of the United States of America published by Borgo/Wildside. The prelude to my newest novel, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor which takes up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live, and I would argue, takes up more cogent issues like the future of love, romance, pairings, family, adventure, coming-of-age and adult responsibilities.
Please enjoy this video book review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
The Edge of Madness
Soon to be an Audible audiobook read by the incomparable Peter Pollock; purchased for manga, animated and cinematic treatment by K. Simmons Productions
April 13, 2021
IS IT SAMSARA OR…?
WATCHING the news today, I was impressed by the thought that despite the magnitude and importance of what was being reported, most, if not all of it was about events upon which I had little or no direct control. It suddenly occurred to me that I was, in fact, experiencing Samsara, defined on Wikipedia as “the indefinitely repeated cycles of birth, misery, and death caused by karma,” the key word being “karma,” meaninghuman intentions and actions that influence the future. That is, there are things over which I have direct control, and other things over which I don’t, despite the latter (meaning today’s “news”) holding a surprisingly tight emotional grip on my thoughts and therefore life during the rest of the day. Call it “stress,” if you prefer, where stress is defined as an emotional investment in things over which I have no direct control. So this is to be the “new” inter-COVID world…?
The ostensibly oldest religion, Hinduism, would direct people to seek escape from Samsara in order to attain the ultimate life goal: mindful consciousness, meaning attention to those things — sensations, thoughts and actions — over which we do have control.
And yet…do “news” of events over which we have no control have no value? I think they still do. There is something of value in not allowing oneself to become isolated from the world in which we live and upon which we are ultimately dependent — call it “nature” — and the results of the contemporary thoughts and actions of humanity — call this humanity’s collective momentary “consciousness” — both of which do drive the thoughts and actions of the masses which eventually directly affect our individual existence.
In THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, three coming-of-age firebrands must find their places in a challenging and dangerous future world where today’s hedonism and avarice now abound. In this future world, where individual diversity in friendship, affection, love and romance also abound, presents an interesting ultimatum not entirely unknown to us today: adjust, survive or die. So what do the natural and human actions of our world portend? Is there a “reason” to want to attain mindful consciousness in a world seeming singularly intent against it? I think so, and strongly suggest discounting any fears, instead, stepping up to the very edge of madness to see what’s beyond. And, yes, I’m writing the sequel, tentatively entitled “Prophecy” even now.
The Edge of Madness
Raymond Gaynor is the pen-name of the multi-award-winning, reclusive writer-artist-photographer-videographer, who, in his own words, “lives and breathes” San Francisco. He co-authored with William Maltese on the Tripler and Clarke naughty gay political thriller, TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) and with A. G. Hayes on the fifth Koski & Falk adventure, QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016). He is the author of numerous fiction, “sci-fu” and non-fiction works published under a variety of different pseudonyms.
The ostensibly oldest religion, Hinduism, would direct people to seek escape from Samsara in order to attain the ultimate life goal: mindful consciousness, meaning attention to those things — sensations, thoughts and actions — over which we do have control.
And yet…do “news” of events over which we have no control have no value? I think they still do. There is something of value in not allowing oneself to become isolated from the world in which we live and upon which we are ultimately dependent — call it “nature” — and the results of the contemporary thoughts and actions of humanity — call this humanity’s collective momentary “consciousness” — both of which do drive the thoughts and actions of the masses which eventually directly affect our individual existence.
In THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, three coming-of-age firebrands must find their places in a challenging and dangerous future world where today’s hedonism and avarice now abound. In this future world, where individual diversity in friendship, affection, love and romance also abound, presents an interesting ultimatum not entirely unknown to us today: adjust, survive or die. So what do the natural and human actions of our world portend? Is there a “reason” to want to attain mindful consciousness in a world seeming singularly intent against it? I think so, and strongly suggest discounting any fears, instead, stepping up to the very edge of madness to see what’s beyond. And, yes, I’m writing the sequel, tentatively entitled “Prophecy” even now.
The Edge of Madness
Raymond Gaynor is the pen-name of the multi-award-winning, reclusive writer-artist-photographer-videographer, who, in his own words, “lives and breathes” San Francisco. He co-authored with William Maltese on the Tripler and Clarke naughty gay political thriller, TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) and with A. G. Hayes on the fifth Koski & Falk adventure, QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016). He is the author of numerous fiction, “sci-fu” and non-fiction works published under a variety of different pseudonyms.
April 12, 2021
BODY HONOR, ARMOR AND CHASTITY
WHO would have thought that the Eugitor suits prophesied in THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, with their ability to deflect fast moving objects but allow through very slow moving ones like hands, would have so quickly become a sought after in today’s plague world. But they are. Whether as a defense against bullets, swords, knives, unwanted sexual advances or viruses, the idea of an “intelligent” monomolecular body suit to honor and protect one’s body is in fast revival. And why not? Slaughter by guns continues to rise in gruesomeness, public instances and in the public eye, be they military or civil. Rape and other unwanted sexual battery likewise, again whether it be war or just one more facet of day-to-day survival in cities where empathy, ethics and respect for others continue to erode, and “plague parties” increase. Blame it all on the ongoing pandemic, but don’t forget the legacy from world war, which likewise is growing in likelihood with increased saber-rattling worldwide.
It’s only natural in the “fight against fighting,” that people would begin thinking increasingly of “defending” themselves and their progeny. In a mortal world, immortality is attained only through one’s children or enduring writings. Both when “attacked” by intent, mistake or simply by being lost in the whirlwind of decaying politics, human rights and humanism.
Is where the world is going “good” or “bad?” Should we encourage or discourage those facets of custom that will ultimately determine our future? I invite you to walk steadfastly up to THE EDGE OF MADNESS, peer bravely over it, and decide for yourself. What have you got to lose that you haven’t already unknowingly lost?
The Edge of Madness
It’s only natural in the “fight against fighting,” that people would begin thinking increasingly of “defending” themselves and their progeny. In a mortal world, immortality is attained only through one’s children or enduring writings. Both when “attacked” by intent, mistake or simply by being lost in the whirlwind of decaying politics, human rights and humanism.
Is where the world is going “good” or “bad?” Should we encourage or discourage those facets of custom that will ultimately determine our future? I invite you to walk steadfastly up to THE EDGE OF MADNESS, peer bravely over it, and decide for yourself. What have you got to lose that you haven’t already unknowingly lost?
The Edge of Madness
April 10, 2021
PROVING THE TRUTH
SINCE the dawn of human communication, there’s always been the question of whether what’s being conveyed is true. Given that the primary purpose of human communication has been to get something desired, it makes sense that not everything said would be true.
The ancient Greeks asserted that there were five “appeals” which listeners or readers would likely consider: logos, pathos, ethos, keiros and nomos. In a word or phrase, the information being respectively logically reasoned, emotional, cultural, kingly or legal. Of these, only logos was said to have “truth value;” that is, it may be true if the premise or thesis, supporting arguments and evidence are appropriate and true. Logos is of special importance in a democracy where everyone and anyone can speak up.
Despite this rather academic approach to truth, sometimes called “critical” thinking, writing, reading, speaking and/or listening, untruths can still slip in. Think of former President George W. Bush’s justification of invading Iraq because Iraq was said to be employing weapons of mass destruction, which, in the end, they didn’t have. An educated person can create a most effective lie.
So the next question might be, “How can one prove that something stated is true?” To the best of my knowledge, in the 200,000 years that homo sapiens have existed, there have been only three ways uncovered of proving the truth: authority, science and statistics. Authority assumes that both original and stated sources have reason to know and tell the truth. Authority has been touted for over 3,000 years, and, as with the Church claiming the world was flat, authority, sadly, doesn’t unequivocally guarantee truth. Science, which has been around for roughly 300 years, posits something as true if it’s eminently repeatable under similar circumstances. Sadly, anything humanistic like human behavior, poetry, song, dance or war, is, by this definition, untrue, since it isn’t perfectly repeatable. That leaves the past approximately 30 years or so, when statistics have been hailed as the “gold standard” of truth. However, it only takes a moment of consideration to ascertain that what is statistically true of the masses, isn’t necessarily at all true for the individuals making up the masses. So, what’s left?
Some 3 years ago or more, theoretical physicists came up with M-Superstring Theory which seemed to explain everything from what was before the Big Bang to which bunch of tomatoes to buy on Fridays, if one but accepted the unusual “realities” of a Multiverse. I believe this theory presents a fourth way to prove something stated is true. Take, for instance, mental illness. Most theories of mental illness begin based on the assumption that one’s brain isn’t working properly. M-Superstring Theory allows one to consider mental illness as an adaption to conscious awareness of the size, diversity and side effects of the multiverse. Instead of drugging the consciousness, one might rather try to anchor the patient victim in one or another universe instead of two or more. You may like or dislike this example, but I think it makes the point. It is quite possible, in my opinion, that M-Superstring Theory, when it’s had the time to be better understood and taken seriously, may well prove to be either the elusive “Unified Truth Theory” or at worst, a fourth though equally flawed way of proving the truth.
Call me crazy or not, in THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, the principal challenge of the protagonists is to test and verify this fourth proof, and try they do, ingeniously applying the theory to everything from politics to ethics to relationships to love to affection to transportation to education to business to health care and more. I invite you dear reader to scoot up to the edge of madness, look over the brink and see for yourself if this potential proof isn’t, in fact as well as application, the Unified Truth Theory humanity has been seeking since inception.
The Edge of Madness
Soon to be a Audible audiobook read by the incomparable Peter Pollock; purchased by K. Simmons Productions for manga, anime and cinematic treatment.
The ancient Greeks asserted that there were five “appeals” which listeners or readers would likely consider: logos, pathos, ethos, keiros and nomos. In a word or phrase, the information being respectively logically reasoned, emotional, cultural, kingly or legal. Of these, only logos was said to have “truth value;” that is, it may be true if the premise or thesis, supporting arguments and evidence are appropriate and true. Logos is of special importance in a democracy where everyone and anyone can speak up.
Despite this rather academic approach to truth, sometimes called “critical” thinking, writing, reading, speaking and/or listening, untruths can still slip in. Think of former President George W. Bush’s justification of invading Iraq because Iraq was said to be employing weapons of mass destruction, which, in the end, they didn’t have. An educated person can create a most effective lie.
So the next question might be, “How can one prove that something stated is true?” To the best of my knowledge, in the 200,000 years that homo sapiens have existed, there have been only three ways uncovered of proving the truth: authority, science and statistics. Authority assumes that both original and stated sources have reason to know and tell the truth. Authority has been touted for over 3,000 years, and, as with the Church claiming the world was flat, authority, sadly, doesn’t unequivocally guarantee truth. Science, which has been around for roughly 300 years, posits something as true if it’s eminently repeatable under similar circumstances. Sadly, anything humanistic like human behavior, poetry, song, dance or war, is, by this definition, untrue, since it isn’t perfectly repeatable. That leaves the past approximately 30 years or so, when statistics have been hailed as the “gold standard” of truth. However, it only takes a moment of consideration to ascertain that what is statistically true of the masses, isn’t necessarily at all true for the individuals making up the masses. So, what’s left?
Some 3 years ago or more, theoretical physicists came up with M-Superstring Theory which seemed to explain everything from what was before the Big Bang to which bunch of tomatoes to buy on Fridays, if one but accepted the unusual “realities” of a Multiverse. I believe this theory presents a fourth way to prove something stated is true. Take, for instance, mental illness. Most theories of mental illness begin based on the assumption that one’s brain isn’t working properly. M-Superstring Theory allows one to consider mental illness as an adaption to conscious awareness of the size, diversity and side effects of the multiverse. Instead of drugging the consciousness, one might rather try to anchor the patient victim in one or another universe instead of two or more. You may like or dislike this example, but I think it makes the point. It is quite possible, in my opinion, that M-Superstring Theory, when it’s had the time to be better understood and taken seriously, may well prove to be either the elusive “Unified Truth Theory” or at worst, a fourth though equally flawed way of proving the truth.
Call me crazy or not, in THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, the principal challenge of the protagonists is to test and verify this fourth proof, and try they do, ingeniously applying the theory to everything from politics to ethics to relationships to love to affection to transportation to education to business to health care and more. I invite you dear reader to scoot up to the edge of madness, look over the brink and see for yourself if this potential proof isn’t, in fact as well as application, the Unified Truth Theory humanity has been seeking since inception.
The Edge of Madness
Soon to be a Audible audiobook read by the incomparable Peter Pollock; purchased by K. Simmons Productions for manga, anime and cinematic treatment.
April 8, 2021
AFTER A YEAR OF COVID, WHAT DOES JOY FEEL LIKE?
IT’S been a long year. Longer than usual in terms of how long it feels, and how joylessly the daily death reports have weighted on my heart. More so, given that I can now say that I personally know of five friends who have contracted COVID and had to be hospitalized, three of whom never left the hospital. That’s a lot higher a death rate than reported, and all but two were surprisingly young. Too young, having never had the time to experience life as it should be experienced.
Now that those who want to be immunized are finally getting vaccinated, what, two weeks after the second dose, does joy feel like in the “new normal” world?
Well, first a caveat. If you still don’t consider mask wearing, voluntary distancing and frequent hand washing “normal,” then maybe this question is premature. Maybe. On the other hand, I’ve never in the past gone a whole year without even a cold. Maybe that’s one silver lining to our resurrected public health, long ignored in the USA. Maybe that’s something to be joyous about. I think it is.
But I’m referring here to something more: What it feels like to accept the “new normal,” whatever it is going to be, and simply get on with life, joy being at the very heart of it all. Getting out and about, for instance. Even masked, distanced and frequently-hand-washed, it’s a joy to be able to walk outside and re-experience nature and our world once again.
I think of COVID as the heterosexual version of HIV. LIke HIV, I don’t suppose COVID (or plague) in some form or other is going to completely disappear, but I do expect that we will learn to live with it, and celebrate the times between outbreaks, in the process, creating room for joy.
My Sci-Fu (Science-Based Future Study) novel THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor is actually about just that. Each generation accepts the world as it is when they finally awaken to it, clearing the way for a life of joy and enthusiasm for the “new normal” that, to them, is simply “normal.” Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live. In Douglas Adams’ the HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, our world is credited as being “mostly safe,” basically because of this “new generation” phenomenon, an attitude everyone today can appreciate and apply, allowing us to re-experience joy in a perhaps new way, but joy nonetheless.
The Edge of Madness
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
Now that those who want to be immunized are finally getting vaccinated, what, two weeks after the second dose, does joy feel like in the “new normal” world?
Well, first a caveat. If you still don’t consider mask wearing, voluntary distancing and frequent hand washing “normal,” then maybe this question is premature. Maybe. On the other hand, I’ve never in the past gone a whole year without even a cold. Maybe that’s one silver lining to our resurrected public health, long ignored in the USA. Maybe that’s something to be joyous about. I think it is.
But I’m referring here to something more: What it feels like to accept the “new normal,” whatever it is going to be, and simply get on with life, joy being at the very heart of it all. Getting out and about, for instance. Even masked, distanced and frequently-hand-washed, it’s a joy to be able to walk outside and re-experience nature and our world once again.
I think of COVID as the heterosexual version of HIV. LIke HIV, I don’t suppose COVID (or plague) in some form or other is going to completely disappear, but I do expect that we will learn to live with it, and celebrate the times between outbreaks, in the process, creating room for joy.
My Sci-Fu (Science-Based Future Study) novel THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor is actually about just that. Each generation accepts the world as it is when they finally awaken to it, clearing the way for a life of joy and enthusiasm for the “new normal” that, to them, is simply “normal.” Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live. In Douglas Adams’ the HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, our world is credited as being “mostly safe,” basically because of this “new generation” phenomenon, an attitude everyone today can appreciate and apply, allowing us to re-experience joy in a perhaps new way, but joy nonetheless.
The Edge of Madness
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
