I am new to your work (and have read just two of your posts), but your style is delightful. And I am sure your book about non-existent islands will be, too.
"There is now less space between fiction and non-fiction in my mind. These were once completely separate shelves, which had clear distinctions that didn’t intersect, yet that divide seems, at this point, for me, both less accurate and less important, though this change has happened slowly, almost imperceptibly, in a gradual coalescing of categories. Even though the time that I’ve spent reading fiction has always felt more serious—it is more vital, more human, more fundamental to life, more salubrious, more relevant, more realistic—this literary hierarchy is less important to me, now that all the commonplace distinctions have begun to fade.
"... whether a story is factually true, in the admissible in court version of the term, isn’t really necessary if you seek narrative, if your objective is to locate an original voice on the page that reveals a unique and provocative and vibrant sensibility ..."
This is always the curious relief about being 'scooped' on a topic: it often turns out that a different person writes something quite different than what you are writing or plan to write about it.
It's almost never a big deal, outside of a few fields where being the first is really important (like journalism, where the word comes from). But we tend to treat our good ideas as very precious, so we can't help but feel defensive about them
Yes, there's nothing more alarming than seeing someone is writing on (has written on!) what seems to be the same topic. But in the humanities, honestly, the standard of obscurity we'd have to adopt to be sure we're the only person working on it is impossible to achieve.
Regarding an impossible-to-achieve level of obscurity, when writing about a topic in the humanities, this recalls a key character in Ursula Le Guin's first paid short story, "April in Paris" (1962) ;) :
"And he was sick of his work. Who cared about his theory, the Pennywither Theory, concerning the mysterious disappearance of the poet François Villon in 1463? Nobody. For after all his Theory about poor Villon, the greatest juvenile delinquent of all time, was only a theory and could never be proved, not across the gulf of five hundred years. Nothing could be proved. And besides, what did it matter if Villon died on Montfaucon gallows or (as Pennywither thought) in a Lyons brothel on the way to Italy? Nobody cared. Nobody else loved Villon enough. Nobody loved Dr. Pennywither, either; not even Dr. Pennywither. Why should he? An unsocial, unmarried, underpaid pedant, sitting here alone in an unheated attic in an unrestored tenement trying to write another unreadable book. “I’m unrealistic,” he said aloud with another sigh and another shiver."
If there can be scores of biographies about Churchill, there is certainly room for a second and I’m sure much more engaging book about Phantom islands!
To me it's more in the execution. Stories are often pieces and parts of others melded together in new and different ways. I'm sure your creative execution will have it's own unique flair - plus the other was nonfiction so totally different readers in my opinion.
Oh god now that I told everyone I'm writing a book I'm going to have to finish it aren't I
I did discover most phantom islands from wikipedia, and then I just browse around for extra information as necessary. Often the info is quite limited on any single island, so it's not actually hard to exhaust all available sources. The book I mention above does have content I hadn't seen before on the web for several islands.
There's also the separate research process of finding maps on which we can see the islands. When Wikipedia and Google Images fail, I look at the very cool David Rumsey historical map collection: https://www.davidrumsey.com/
I am new to your work (and have read just two of your posts), but your style is delightful. And I am sure your book about non-existent islands will be, too.
Thank you!!
well, if you publish it (in english), I'll buy it.
"The other, more intriguing possibility is that this book shows the limits of nonfiction."
Charles Schifano references the flickering dance between fiction and nonfiction repeatedly in his own writings. Perhaps no more clearly than here:
https://charlesschifano.substack.com/p/true-fiction-b3c
"There is now less space between fiction and non-fiction in my mind. These were once completely separate shelves, which had clear distinctions that didn’t intersect, yet that divide seems, at this point, for me, both less accurate and less important, though this change has happened slowly, almost imperceptibly, in a gradual coalescing of categories. Even though the time that I’ve spent reading fiction has always felt more serious—it is more vital, more human, more fundamental to life, more salubrious, more relevant, more realistic—this literary hierarchy is less important to me, now that all the commonplace distinctions have begun to fade.
"... whether a story is factually true, in the admissible in court version of the term, isn’t really necessary if you seek narrative, if your objective is to locate an original voice on the page that reveals a unique and provocative and vibrant sensibility ..."
Indeed; what matters, somehow, is the storytelling. This is what we're built for
This is always the curious relief about being 'scooped' on a topic: it often turns out that a different person writes something quite different than what you are writing or plan to write about it.
It's almost never a big deal, outside of a few fields where being the first is really important (like journalism, where the word comes from). But we tend to treat our good ideas as very precious, so we can't help but feel defensive about them
Yes, there's nothing more alarming than seeing someone is writing on (has written on!) what seems to be the same topic. But in the humanities, honestly, the standard of obscurity we'd have to adopt to be sure we're the only person working on it is impossible to achieve.
Regarding an impossible-to-achieve level of obscurity, when writing about a topic in the humanities, this recalls a key character in Ursula Le Guin's first paid short story, "April in Paris" (1962) ;) :
"And he was sick of his work. Who cared about his theory, the Pennywither Theory, concerning the mysterious disappearance of the poet François Villon in 1463? Nobody. For after all his Theory about poor Villon, the greatest juvenile delinquent of all time, was only a theory and could never be proved, not across the gulf of five hundred years. Nothing could be proved. And besides, what did it matter if Villon died on Montfaucon gallows or (as Pennywither thought) in a Lyons brothel on the way to Italy? Nobody cared. Nobody else loved Villon enough. Nobody loved Dr. Pennywither, either; not even Dr. Pennywither. Why should he? An unsocial, unmarried, underpaid pedant, sitting here alone in an unheated attic in an unrestored tenement trying to write another unreadable book. “I’m unrealistic,” he said aloud with another sigh and another shiver."
I can’t wait for your version. Sounds incredible!
If there can be scores of biographies about Churchill, there is certainly room for a second and I’m sure much more engaging book about Phantom islands!
Ha, good point.
To me it's more in the execution. Stories are often pieces and parts of others melded together in new and different ways. I'm sure your creative execution will have it's own unique flair - plus the other was nonfiction so totally different readers in my opinion.
Oh god now that I told everyone I'm writing a book I'm going to have to finish it aren't I
I did discover most phantom islands from wikipedia, and then I just browse around for extra information as necessary. Often the info is quite limited on any single island, so it's not actually hard to exhaust all available sources. The book I mention above does have content I hadn't seen before on the web for several islands.
There's also the separate research process of finding maps on which we can see the islands. When Wikipedia and Google Images fail, I look at the very cool David Rumsey historical map collection: https://www.davidrumsey.com/
Write your cyberpunk kung fu story anyway!