No longer trapped by cancer...

The World, As I see it
By Alex Ness
June 23, 2023

I am alive and hope that I will remain so, for a good amount of time. However, I don't know yet. I thought I'd share some recent messages to me, and Q&A. Plus showing two less famous writers in a field, such as fantasy in a branch of fantasy and a specific mythos of horror. I might or might not die from cancer. But I have no role in the result of cancer.

Messages

"You are fat and deserve to die of cancer, you fking fat fk."

I didn't reply with words, I blocked the sender on gmail, twitter and facebook.

Q & A

Q-1 "What 3 comic talents do you buy sight unseen?"

A- 1 Mike Grell, Mike Baron, Tim Truman

Q-2 "What 3 authors do you have near complete collections of" From the sender of Q-1

A-2 This depends upon your definition of collection. I have all the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, but as each has had more popularity in death than in their time alive, the plethora of reprints makes the concept of complete collections differ, I own all of the stories, yes. Do I own every version and every book including their work, no, that would make me have to sell my kidneys or liver to afford.

Q-3 "I do like your articles and website, but I am curious if you get paid for your work here. Because if you don't I'd suggest focusing on your own work and your poetry blog."

A-3 I love connecting with creative people, and sharing their works with people who might not have known of them, or would like to learn about the creative mind behind the works I show with the interviews or review offerings.  Not going to stop interviews, review offerings, or commentaries.

MY FAVORITE LESSER KNOWN WRITER

In the CTHULHU MTHOS: CLARK ASHTON SMITH

Smith was a poet as often as a prose writer but also a sculptor and artist. His use of his many abilities within his talents in the arts allowed him to imagine with a depth of amazing beauty, unique qualities of horror, and well worth delving into various mythos. He is often forgotten but his work should be compared to Lovecraft, Howard, Derleth, and others. But frankly, he'd be my favorite of all of those writers of Cthulhu.

In HEROIC FANTASY: DENNIS McKIERNAN

Dennis McKiernan has been pooped upon by some critics in comparison to Tolkien and others, for starting his literary career with a trilogy involving elves and men, dwarves and halflings, trolls and orcs on a great quest. However the trilogy was actually his 3rd through 5th works, and weren't his original choice for starting off the works. He had perhaps less layers and scholarly depth than Tolkien, but he absolutely was better in writing characters who expressed real emotions and motives that were well established. I have said, and I still think, McKeirnan's works work better with me than Tolkien, but I suspect that McKiernan himself would say Tolkien was a master. So think entertainment versus deeper literature in the comparison. I have to say, the covers shown are better than the current editions, but each of the two series do come in a one book collection. So perhaps seek that out.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I have considered doing interviews with people not in the arts, but in the world that the arts try to portray. Sometimes I see crimes and wonder about the response of fictional characters. And sometimes the reverse happens, I wonder if such a crime would flourish or even happen if there were violent vigilantes out there to kill or maim the perpetrators of the crimes. I wonder if the death penalty would be such a dangerous subject for politicians if the kind of horrible criminals you see in comics or fictional books existed. The term verisimilitude is long and sounds important but it is rather simple and direct, verisimilitude is a noun: a word meaning how a fictional work depends upon the appearance of truth; and is able to create the quality of seeming to be true. That is, does the fiction sound real enough for the reader to believe the world of the fictional happening.

So perhaps interviews with police, judges, forensic psychologists or criminals would be worthwhile. Because someone recently has argued that the character the Punisher is mentally ill and a murderer. He should not be a hero. Nor should a variety of other characters of fiction. Well I don't live in a fantasy world, and I know very well that crime is violent and the concept of these characters comes from the desire to harm and stop such criminals. The people trying to cure the mental illness of the comic book heroes should themselves stop and wonder why they think it is important to prevent our mental dreams and hopes, and creative responses to terrible real world events.

GETTING REVIEWS?

I can be found on Facebook, Twitter or through email Alexanderness63@gmail.com. I accept hard copies, so when you inquire at any of these places, I'll follow through by telling you my street address.If you send hard copies for review I will try to always review them, but if you prefer to send pdf or ebooks to my email, I will review these at my discretion. I don't share my pdf/ebooks, so you can avoid worrying that I'd dispense them for free to others.

My Creative Blogs:

5k poem blog     AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com

Published works   AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com/2007/01/My-Work.html

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