Introduction

Art by Mervyn Peake

This blog has been created mainly as a mapping tool  to document all of my ideas, thoughts and opinions  on all sorts of topics (that I ought to be worth  documenting, of course) - largely on literature and  cinema, especially fantasy and science fiction - as to  make them more coherent, digestible and articulate,  and as to improve my understanding of the material.  This is also one of the main to reasons why I write reviews. 

Some time ago, in English class, the teacher randomly inquired what my hobbies were:

"What do you read?" "Great literary works." a safe, vague answer "What are your favorite books?" damn, he's going deeper than I thought he would, also a surprisingly tough question "Uhm, Gormenghast..." oh, you're smart eh, there we go again "What's that?" "Uhm, a great, uhm, literary work... of the twentieth century... oh and I also like Charles Dickens!" my sedate brain cells thought this to be a genius escape route, but then he asked: "Why?" why? why do I like Charles Dickens? hm. "Uhm, because he has a great writing style." really? is that all can say? poor wit! how can I solve this?

Tadaa!!!

Thus, since then, I eagerly started to note down my opinions, ideas, thoughts, etc., to avoid such a thing from happening ever again. To clarify; this is mostly for myself, as I have no intention of being pretentious and do not think myself or my ways to be much important or relevant, yet this is ultimately not to be decided by me, but by the reader. Although I do like the idea of introducing people to new works of art, new concepts or ideas and thus enriching their understanding of the world and essentially their life, even if it is just that tiny bit. This makes me eager to move on to the next important thing I want to talk about, and that is the roots of this blog.

Experienced internet surfers might recognize a certain influence, and it would be insolent of me to mention neither his name nor his far superior blog:

Author and critic (goodreads): J.G. Keely 

Blog: https://starsbeetlesandfools.blogspot.com/

If you haven't checked them out already, I highly recommend reading his posts and his suggested fantasy readings, for his unfathomable knowledge of the fantasy genre exceeds mine by a frighteningly large margin, while keeping in mind that I already consider myself to be quite an experienced and avid fantasy reader. 

You might also notice some weirdly structured phrases and spelling-mistakes here and there, this is because English is not my native language; I am from a small, yet very complicated, multilingual, fussy piece of land, called Belgium. Flanders is the part where I'm from and Flemish (Dutch) is the language we speak. Why write English then? I hear you wonder, that, my reader, is for exercise, and not because I don't like my mother tongue, no! in the contrary, I adore writing in Dutch and translating to Dutch as much as I do with English. So don't hold back if you notice any grammatical or spelling errors, for I'm highly appreciative of any corrections or advice.

Belgium, even our fries are complex

Another reason for the occurrence of poor syntax and fallacious arguments is that I'm of a pretty young age, at least, to write a blog. Over the years we will, hopefully, be able to see an evolution taking place, both in how I write and how I view the world. And since I grow older every day, I am able to gain more knowledge and experience; therefore some of my opinions will eventually change and my recommendation lists will be in need of expansion; remember thus, that I am again, always highly appreciative of any suggestions, opinions, or ideas for new posts.

But you wonder: why write so young? Why write when one can learn, educate oneself (especially when one is not yet well-educated)? As what you write now will be worthless in comparison to your later writings (hopefully). 

Well, I've found writing in itself, including the research and thinking that goes with it, very insightful, often learning more while writing, then while the reading or watching the discussed material. It also partly prevents forgetfulness, which has plagued me in the past, which can hurt, when one begins to mix up the plots of their favorite Shakespeare plays -- this being maybe a weird example, as my memory is, as we say it in Dutch, 'gatenkaas', or in English, 'hole cheese'. Yet it must be limited, as reading great literature, playing great games, exploring the most obscure and insightful corners of the internet and watching great cinema are also too important to be ignored if one wishes to excel at writing criticism or posts, because it is where one 1) takes inspiration for his writing style 2) does his research 3) finds the material he wants to discuss. You don't want to be stuck discussing Nolan films because you don't have the time to watch great cinema -- not that I dislike his work, just that his popularity and his fans can often be associated with ignorance of greater works of cinema.

Anyway, this also means I will be taking a lot of inspiration from my favorite blogs and critics, mainly including Keely, resulting that, at the moment, this blog looks like a cheap copy of Keely's (imitatio), but this will change over time, when my influences expand and mix: shaping a unique website, with a unique writing style and more interesting material (aemulatio).

Anyways, there are a lot of things I wish to cover in the (nearby) future, from discussing the conservative view of modern cinema to examining the characters and themes of the Gormenghast-series. I will also be posting reviews on Goodreads and Letterboxd, also for the same aforementioned (as for this website) reasons, on both of which I have just recently created an account and both requiring a lot of catching up to do.