Release Me from the Splendid Prison of Words
a compilation
As some of you may know, this past August, I released my debut novel, ‘Give Up the Ghost’. It has done better than I ever expected, and even more so to incredibly positive reviews; however, during the last stretch of publication (final editing, formatting, etc.) I found myself exhausted by words. Not only as one might expect nearing the end of writing, but including the media and people’s use of them. We live in a world of linguistic intrusion. Whether ‘doctor approved’ appeals to authority, the ‘we need to talk’s and ‘do betters’ of the Reductionist zealot, the lyrics of algorithimic aural assault or simply forced memes, our thoughts must battle to remain our own, much less the forms we express them by.
Alas, also in this world, a writer must self-promote. Something that does not come naturally, certainly not to me, but without which, one cannot have a readership beyond those kind souls who would buy your book if only to stave you off from despair. God bless them. And so, I found myself in a state of mind that could not communicate, out of my element regarding promotion and temporarily out-of-love with the very tools that created my art and have drawn such readership.
But the (G)ods are kind and offer art forms outside man’s purest construct, and so it was that I realized that while I could not use words effectively, and I could not promote myself with bombast and slogan, I could attempt an art form that, while making others aware of the existence of my book, could stand on its own and, irregardless of sales, hope to provide pleasure and inspiration.
And so I offer these to you, dear Reader. A series of my videos (almost all under 30 seconds) inspired by my book along with three readings of brief passages that I considered beautiful. I hope you enjoy them.
For those who would prefer a third-party take on the book, I have included two in-depth reviews below:
If interested, links to buy a physical copy can be found here and the free PDF of the manuscript here
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Follow P.C.M. on X(twitter): @plzcallmechrist
“Linguistic intrusion” is what I’m gonna call cunnilingus now
I can sympathize. When I finished my novel, I felt had nothing to say to promote it. Log on to Twitter; words gone. And why not? Everything I had to say was in the book.