The Big Question 5/5 The End of the Beginning

Fifteen years of thought and reding led me to the conclusion that I drew in the last instalment. Should I ever run into Petunia (from the first instalment) again. And, should we talk long enough for the subject to come up, I will be ready to pounce like a theoretical puma in a forest of hypothetical trees. Unfortunately, I don’t have several years to wait in the hope of bumping into her so about a week ago, in the interest of rounding off this introduction, I looked her up on Facebook. To my absolute horror, I discovered she had become an English teacher. I would have been happier if she was working developing chemical weapons or testing cosmetic products on animals. I would like to elaborate on her Saul-like conversion to literature: explaining in detail how my earlier, much less though out, defence of literature had sparked a passion for literature in her that was only rivalled in intensity by the unending physical pain she felt at the regret of dumping me. However, she ignored my friend request so I am on very shaky ground.

I am currently burried in reading through Shakespeare and the publishers keep putting out quality book after quality book, so I'm behind on my this year's fiction. But I will try to keep updating this as much as I can.

Until then, keep asking: is literature what makes us human?

Anyway, until the next installment...

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The Big Question 3/5 - Why we still need storytelling

In the end, even preternaturally large gorillas must face their mortality. Having touched briefly on the Christian creation myth in the last instalment, I would like to return to it just as briefly to talk about storytelling. Storytelling seems to have been what our ancient ancestors used in lieu of information. Creation myths exist almost universally throughout human culture and they are a good example of how literature fills the gaps of human knowledge. Certain things within the human experience are simply unknowable and, it tends to be those unknowable elements of our existence that stop us from sleeping properly. As a man who prides himself on having moved past the Eighteenth century regretting only the loss of cottage industry I am able to see creation myth for what it is - literature. In The Bible, we are given the following information: that God created the world from the word. However, there is no explanation of what force created God. Most of the important back-story is absent...

Going to work is just awful

See, Bukowski gets it. I've just seen the #thingsIwillmissaboutlockdownhashtag trending. So, I'll say this, I will miss not having to go to work. Look, I know people have it bad. This Covid-19 thing is kicking the world’s economy right in the ass and taking down a lot of good people, both physically and financially. And yes, this post is coming from a place of privilege; because, if I were about to miss a meal I know I’d be happy to get back to work. Over the years, I’ve done some pretty humiliating stuff to make ends meet: from cleaning bottles of piss left by workmen on construction sites to lining up at an agency at 4am in the hope they might send me out for the day. Thankfully, that’s all a while behind me, and right now, in a usual year, I would be marking exams for 14 hours a day seven days a week to top up my meagre teaching wage. So, let’s be honest, work is shit. The average person with an average job, on average, earns below the a...

The big question 2/5: What the hell am I talking about?

Whilst there is room to debate the issue within the creation of matter, humanity as we know it begins with language. In the beginning, reads The Bible , was the word and the word was with God. Not only that but the word is so powerful that God only has to use a few more words to create light, the universe and all life as we know it. The Bible holds words in pretty high regard and so it should, the Bible is all just words. Seems like a simple point to make, most books primarily consist of words. However, take a minute to stop and think about the profound effect that one collection of words has had on the world. Think about the wars, the conversions, the cultures lost suppressed and destroyed. Think about the personal sacrifices it inspired, the acts of compassion, of heroism and of generosity. Feel free to stop and make a cup of tea if you want, it always hurts my head to think about it too. The Bible is only one book in one branch of literature; its influence on the world,...

Thomas Ouphe

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