Labels are like lifesavers for the intellectually lazy, drowning in a sea of confusion.
Are you a fan of Don Quijote? You may enjoy this new book. When Metaphysical Man, Atro City’s resident superhero and trendsetter is inadvertently sucked into an alternate world by a mysterious super villain he’s forced to overcome his only weakness; reality. Read more at http://smashwords.com/books/view/540303#amreading #amwriting
“You have got to be kidding me,” thinks Metaphysical Man as the Camry crosses the intersection. Just then a sudden impact causes the superhero to lose consciousness for an instant. When he opens his eyes it’s to find that the car has been thrown up onto the curb.
“Ya meeno emvwah? Is everyone alright?” Asks Chaz frantically unbuckling his seat belt.
He exits the car to survey the damage. When he does so Metaphysical Man notices a soldier angrily exiting the navy blue armored vehicle that ran the stop sign and struck them.
“Wah! Zah va! Endag abeen!!” Orders the soldier angrily while walking towards Chaz.
“Me wah geet!!” he threatens. “Do you know whose car this is?” asks the soldier pointing angrily at the armored truck. “This belongs to the son of ‘He who Commands’. I’m not paying you nothing!”
Metaphysical Man could smell the strong breath of the soldier from his seat in the car. It was as if he were soaked in spirits.
“Are we going to have a problem?” asks the soldier while placing his hands on his hips and revealing his side arm.
“No,” responds Chaz meekly looking down at the ground. “I just want to get my car home.”
Chaz motions toward the damaged Camry. The soldier squints his inebriated eyes and takes a closer look at Chaz.
“I know you from somewhere.”
He shakes his finger accusingly at Chaz.
“Wah oney ehyora yay?”
“Me ney ehyora ney Chaz,” responds Chaz.
The soldier laughs.
“I know your sister. Go home Chaz. We’ll pretend this never happened. Okay?”
Before waiting for an answer though the officer turns and walks toward his vehicle. He noisily peels off showering the damaged Camry with dust and rocks.
The ride home is quiet. Metaphysical Man’s irritation about the internet is temporarily forgotten. He is surprised however by his reaction to the preceding events. He would have expected his mind to be filled with questions and protests over the actions just witnessed. Instead he feels a sense of order mixed with relief for having been shown mercy.
“Have I been here so long that such shocking behavior seems normal to me? I need to watch myself,” thinks MM.
Are you a fan of Don Quijote? You may enjoy this new book. When Metaphysical Man, Atro City’s resident superhero and trendsetter is inadvertently sucked into an alternate world by a mysterious super villain he’s forced to overcome his only weakness; reality. Read more at http://smashwords.com/books/view/540303#amreading #amwriting
There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who swing the car door open without looking and those who look to make sure they don’t strike another vehicle or person. Which kind are you?
Are you a fan of Don Quijote? You may enjoy this new book. When Metaphysical Man, Atro City’s resident superhero and trendsetter is inadvertently sucked into an alternate world by a mysterious super villain he’s forced to overcome his only weakness; reality. Read more at http://smashwords.com/books/view/540303#amreading #amwriting
Along the way to the gas station MM notices a metal post carrying electrical lines bent forward. It appears to have been struck by a car as indicated by the shape of the bent metal at the point of impact. Metaphysical Man fixes his eyes on the live power lines, which slope down towards the ground. To avoid electrocution pedestrians now need to duck down when passing. “That post could fall at any minute. Someone had better do something.” Double M’s hero instincts began to flare up. While still connected at the base the only thing that appeared to be keeping the post from collapsing were the attached wires. Metaphysical Man glances in alarm at the spool of wires attached at the hub. “Power line spaghetti.” Though Metaphysical Man is anxious to act he does nothing. A garbage man lifts the lines using a wooden beam so his partner can pass under them with the truck. Chaz takes advantage of the opportunity and the Camry speeds by the fallen post. Metaphysical Man catches a close up glimpse of the power lines. The line has been patched together in many places making it impossible to tell the original date of installation. In many places the workers didn’t even bother covering the patch with electrical tape. Double M has never seen this much exposed wire before.
When Metaphysical Man, Atro City’s resident superhero and trendsetter is inadvertently sucked into an alternate world by a mysterious super villain he’s forced to overcome his only weakness; reality. Read more at http://smashwords.com/books/view/540303#amreading #amwriting
One of my friends advised me to have a second look at the finished draft of ‘BREED The Secret Design To Maintain Racial Inequality Among The Despised Classes’. Though the book attracted my friends interest he said he was put off by the long paragraphs and some editing glitches. I accepted the advice and took a second look at my manuscript. After examining it with a critical eye I decided that my friend was right. Though I’m still sucked in by the storyline I admit the presentation could use some improvement so I decided to do a complete revision.
If you’ve ever rewritten your own work you will understand my surprise at the irregularities I discovered had slipped between the cracks of my initial revision. I thought I was done! Well editor Sol Stein says you can tell the difference between a writer and a would be writer by their attitude toward rewriting. The writer professional or not looks forward to the opportunity of excising words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters that do not work and to improving those that do. I don’t believe that what I put down on digital paper is indelible. I’m all about improving as a writer and I look forward to the opportunity. That being said, allow me a moment to explain my situation.
I don’t want anyone to get the impression that ‘BREED’ was a rush job. It’s true I was anxious to get it out there because I was desperate for feedback. When you tell your friends and family who have known you your entire life that you are now a writer and you hand them a manuscript you probably will not receive the response you were hoping for. I couldn’t get anyone to take me seriously. After putting down over a hundred thousand words I needed to know whether or not I was any good so I unleashed my masterpiece on the public. The interest aroused by my book was encouraging but I now realize I made a mistake in not having it vetted by beta readers. That’s why I decided to offer the book for free. I’m of course biased but I still believe the work is exceptional and worth money. I’m also a realist. The world doesn’t know who William Chasterson is yet. For the time being I’ll offer the book for free. After the release of ‘Metaphysical Man the Don Quijote of the Digital Age’ I’ll make a decision on the pricing of ‘BREED’.
A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. So I guess that makes me a smart man. I won’t make the same mistake on ‘Metaphysical Man’ that I made on ‘BREED’. This time I’m going to make use of beta readers. I’m currently on schedule to complete ‘Metaphysical Man the Don Quijote of the Digital Age’ by the end of March 2015. Between now and then I need to gather as many beta readers as possible. This should give me plenty of time to digest the feedback and make all necessary revisions before the July 1st release date. If you’re interested in serving as a beta reader for Metaphysical Man please send me an email at williamchasterson at gmail dot com. Please put ‘Beta Reader’ in the subject line. Thanks in advance for everyone’s support.
William Chasterson
When Metaphysical Man, Atro City’s resident superhero and trendsetter is inadvertently sucked into an alternate world by a mysterious super villain he’s forced to overcome his only weakness; reality. Read more at http://smashwords.com/books/view/540303#amreading #amwriting
Remember when we were little kids and how easy it was to make friends. We didn’t have to wade through race, culture, political and religious ideologies. There was no confusion about what being friends meant. It’s no longer easy to answer the question; how many friends do you have? Since entering the digital age the concept of friendship has been compartmentalized to an extent never before seen. In the past, quality trumped quantity and individuals made sacrifices in order to retain true friends. Today we have facebook friends, followers and frienemies.
Social media has unmasked inconvenient truths about true friendship. I have friends that claim they would die for me and yet asking them to click the follow button on my blog is too much to ask. A while back someone claiming to be my friend reached out to another friend to inquire about my welfare. I was told the message was motivated from a genuine concern for me. I said to myself, “Who is it that considers themselves as my friend yet I don’t hear from this person directly? They care for me but not enough to make personal contact.”
I thought I had a firm grasp on the makeup of human beings. But the problem is that I’m also a human being and it’s hard to be objective about oneself. I believe most of us are poor judges of character when it comes to judging ourselves. “But I know myself,” you say? “I can judge others based on the unchanging benchmark I’ve placed on myself.”
I’ve many times fallen into that trap of self deception. It’s self deception because most of us refuse to recognize that we are a constantly changing benchmark. Our mind rationalizes, excuses and adjusts according to our behavior. This is a defense mechanism which enables us to have self esteem. The problem arises when we take this feeling and use it to judge others.
In my new book ‘Metaphysical Man The Don Quijote Of The Digital Age’ I examine contrasting viewpoints on what true friendship entails. Feel like taking an action packed journey into the human psyche? Order your copy of ‘Metaphysical Man The Don Quijote Of The Digital Age’ today! http://smashwords.com/books/view/540303
Are you a fan of Don Quijote? You may enjoy this new book. When Metaphysical Man, Atro City’s resident superhero and trendsetter is inadvertently sucked into an alternate world by a mysterious super villain he’s forced to overcome his only weakness; reality. Read more at http://smashwords.com/books/view/540303#amreading #amwriting
I realize I’m doing this backwards. Usually people introduce themselves before they begin talking. But I jumped right in and began posting because I was very excited about my first book. After four months of posting allow me to take a moment and introduce myself. My name is William Chasterson. I’m a writer and a student of history. I was raised in the Midwest of the United States in a very conservative town of about 15,000 people. In my twenties I moved to New York which is where I’ve been for the past 15 years. After the first few years of culture shock I was finally able to settle into my environment and actually consider myself a New Yorker. For the past year and a half however I’ve been living in the third world. I’m not going to mention the name of the country I moved to because governments can be sensitive at times and although I have nothing negative to say about any government. They could arrive at the wrong conclusion and I could wind up behind bars.
How did I end up here?
I’ve always had an inclination to want to be successful. But I felt something was lacking in the traditional means and end most people use to arrive at what they consider to be a success. I wanted to contribute something positive to society. For years I’ve done volunteer work but I always felt as if I was holding back somehow. I wanted to do more and my wife and I talked about one day making a grand sacrifice and traveling to an underdeveloped country. Then one day we found that ten years had passed by and all we had done is talk. We were getting older. If we were going to contract some rare disease while helping others, now was the time to do it. We’re still young enough to be able to bounce back. But the clock was ticking. We decided that it was now or never. We needed to either take action or stop talking about it. Although I had a nice paying job with flexible hours I decided to quit. My employers couldn’t understand my decision and it was difficult for me to explain. On the exit interview every question implied that I had found a better job and they wanted feedback on what they could have done differently to retain me. After I left my job things began moving rather quickly. I rolled my 401K savings over into an IRA. We got our travel vaccinations and malaria pills. We stocked up on everything we thought we would need to get us through the first year. We’ve always considered ourselves as living simple lives. But when you have to gather up and store everything you own you may find you have more possessions than you thought. That’s what happened in our case. Friends did us the favor of storing what we could not take. Long story short, we boarded the plane and embarked on a new phase in our lives.
The first year
The first year was harder than we could have ever imagined and the plans we made to support ourselves caught snag after snag until finally falling through. This meant we had to rely on our savings more than expected. The country we moved to has no middle class. In America people talk about their not being a middle class or the middle class being under attack but until you actually experience a society with no middle class it’s impossible to imagine. First of all there is a small class of über rich people and a much larger class of extremely poor people. I expected everything to be cheap but the opposite is true. There’s no competition for prices because the rich don’t complain or bargain. Whatever things cost they just pay and keep it moving. The poor can’t afford any luxuries. They live in survival mode. Imagine high prices and low quality products and food and you’ll have an accurate picture of what it’s like here. Compared to Western societies even the rich here live relatively rough lives. While the poor just subsist in the most barren of environments. It’s kind of like George Orwell’s 1984. Despite the challenges however we have had much success in the volunteer work we came to do. I’m not using this blog as a forum to further my volunteer work at this time. Most of the people I work with don’t even have computers. For this reason I won’t go into great detail about the work. But I will say we educate people to make practical changes which enables them to live happier lives. I know our decision to move seemed unusual to many but I always believed that deep down everyone wanted to do what we were doing. We’re not special in any way. We saw an opportunity and we grabbed it. If given the same opportunity I felt anyone else would do the same. This belief has changed somewhat but I don’t want to talk about that right now. We sent a lot of emails and pictures back home because we thought everyone would be interested in what we were doing. We carefully filtered the emails because although we were suffering we didn’t want to discourage anyone. We only chose pictures where we were enjoying ourselves and we highlighted only the good experiences. Far from discouraging however I get the impression that the emails had the opposite effect. Some may have thought we were having the time of our lives and were bragging. We were actually having the time of our lives but not in the ways they may have imagined. On our return to the states I once again experienced culture shock but now in a different way. Everything was convenient but there was an overpowering stress that permeated everything. On the surface it seems that living in the third world is much harder because of the poverty, poor hygiene and strong military presence. But the stress I felt on my return was harder for me to deal with than anything I experienced the previous year. I blame no one for this. Human beings (including myself) are complex strange creatures. I’ve documented some of these experiences in my new book Metaphysical Man which is due to be released July 1st 2015. I’ll most likely be updating this post as time goes on so that those who might be interested can find out what eventually happens to us. But that’s all for now.
Sincerely Yours,
William Chasterson
Want a sneak peek of my upcoming novel? Preorders are now available @pubslush! Get some great early bird rewards : ) Link to http://smashwords.com/books/view/540303
In his book ‘the Brothers Karomozov’ Fyodor Dostoyevski invents three brothers that serve as archetypes for different facets of the human condition. In this article we’re going to focus on Dmitri Karomozov who is a caricature of man’s romantic passion.
My neighbor lady has a strange way of viewing theft. When we first moved in she told us that we needed to give her the equivalent of thirty dollars US in order to get our power turned on. When the workers came she took them aside and told us she would handle everything which didn’t seem totally unreasonable as merchants raise the prices considerably for Americans. I was actually appreciative for her intervening. They turned on the power with no problem but then she approached us saying she needed the thirty dollars or else they would shut it back off. I went for the money but my wife became suspicious after the workers left without taking the money. Our neighbor said they would be back and we should leave the money with her. Needless to say we decided to wait until we could verify what she was saying. The next day it rained buckets. Here, when it rains like this no one works which is why we were surprised when we got home and the neighbor lady said the power company came by twice to collect the money and were upset because they hadn’t been paid. My wife asked the neighboring shopkeeper who sits in front of his shop every day waiting for customers if the power company came by our house.
“In this rain?” he asked sarcastically.
Our suspicions were confirmed. The neighbor lady was lying. She was trying to take us for thirty dollars. “So you’re a thief,” I thought.
A few days later thieves broke into her bar and stole boxes of beer along with money. She paced to and fro in front of our house lamenting about the thieves in the neighborhood and the deteriorating conditions in the world. At that moment I realized that even though she was planning on taking money from us she didn’t consider herself a thief. We would be giving her the money willingly so in her head she was not stealing even if our act was motivated by a lie.
Her loose interpretation of what qualifies as theft reminds me of an explanation given by Dmitri Karomozov on his view of theft. The following is an excerpt from this explanation.
“I’ll put it more plainly for you perhaps it’s really difficult to understand you see. Listen carefully.
I appropriate three thousand entrusted to my honor and spend it on a wild party and having spent it I come to her the next morning and say Katia I’m sorry I squandered your three thousand. Well is that nice? No it isn’t. It’s dishonest and cowardly. The man who does such a thing is a beast. He has no more self restraint than a beast. Isn’t that so? But he’s still not a thief is he? Not a downright thief. Not a downright one. You must admit he squandered the money but he didn’t steal it.
Now a second a still more favorable alternative. Please listen carefully while I may get confused again I’m afraid my head’s still swimming.
So Here’s a second alternative I spend here only 1500 out of the three thousand that is half of it. The next day I bring to her that half. Katia take the fifteen hundred from me blaggard and thoughtless scoundrel that I am I’ve squandered half the money and may therefore squander the other half so take it and keep me from temptation. Well what about such an alternative? Anything you like. Beast and a blaggard but not a thief not entirely a thief for if I were a thief I would certainly not have brought the other half. I would have appropriated that too. Here she would see that since I brought back half the money I’d bring back the rest that is the money I’ve squandered that I’d try to raise it all my life. That I’d work to get it and return it. I’d be a blaggard then but not a thief. Not a thief whatever you may say…I do regard it as a vital difference. Everyone can be a blaggard and I dare say everyone is but not everyone can be a thief. Only an arch blaggard can do that. Anyways I’m afraid I’m not very good at these subtleties only a thief is viler than a blaggard. I’m convinced of that. Now listen. I carried the money about with me for a whole month. Tomorrow I may decide to give it back and then I’m no longer a blaggard. But the trouble is I can’t make up my mind. Though I make it up every day, though I egg myself onto it every day to do it. ‘Make up your mind you dirty blaggard make up your mind’ yet for a whole month I can’t make up my mind. Yes sir well what do you think? Is that nice?”
“Why in the first place,” the examining magistrate asked, “did you divide the three thousand into to equal parts squandering one part and hiding the other? What exactly did you hide it for? What exactly did you mean to do with the fifteen hundred?”
“Why of course,” cried Dmitri striking himself on the forehead. “I’m sorry to be such a nuisance to you I haven’t explained the main thing or you’ve had understood it at once. For you see it’s in the motive of it that the disgrace lies you see…”
“…I craftily counted out half of the three thousand and cold-bloodily sewed it up with a needle, sewed it up intentionally, sewed it up before I was drunk and having sewn it up I was off to get really drunk on the rest. Dear sir that was vile. Do you understand now?”
A thief is a thief. But as Dmitri Karomozov and my neighbor lady illustrate, the conscience has a great deal to do with what we view as acceptable. If not trained by a standard, everyone’s conscience is different resulting in differing behavior sharing the same clear conscience.
When Metaphysical Man, Atro City’s resident superhero and trendsetter is inadvertently sucked into an alternate world by a mysterious super villain he’s forced to overcome his only weakness; reality. Read more at http://smashwords.com/books/view/540303#amreading #amwriting
In his book ‘the Brothers Karomozov’ Fyodor Dostoyevski invents three brothers that serve as archetypes for different facets of the human condition. In this article we’re going to focus on Ivan Karomozov who represents the faculty of reasoning and understanding objectively, especially with regard to abstract or academic matters.
Ivan explains, with his poem “The Grand Inquisitor,” his beliefs with regard to God and immortality. The following passage is an excerpt taken just after his explanation.
“I’m telling you this in all seriousness. I deliberately began our talk as stupidly as I could but I finish it with my confession because that’s all you want. You didn’t want to hear about God but only to find out what your beloved brother lived by and I’ve told you.”
“And why did you begin as stupidly as you could?” asked Alyosha looking thoughtfully at him.
“Why? For the sake of proving to you that first of all I’m a Russian and Russian discussions on these subjects are always conducted as stupidly as possible. And secondly the stupider the more to the point. The stupider the clearer. Stupidity is brief and artless but intelligence shifts and shuffles and hides itself. Intelligence is a nave while stupidity is straightforward and honest. I brought my argument down to my despair and the more stupidly I presented it the better for me.”
Ivan’s preferred technique of presenting his argument as stupidly as possible appeals to me. As imperfect human beings we take ourselves far too seriously than we should. We also judge each other far too harshly than we ought to. By beginning a serious endeavor stupidly we immediately lower everyone’s expectations. We can express ourselves freely without fear of judgement because we were never supposed to succeed in the first place. On the other hand if we consider our character infallible (even if it’s only a secret belief which we refuse to admit to ourselves) we attract criticism and it’s not usually constructive.
For example the heading of my blog says I’m examining the makeup of the human ego and it’s predictable results. My Twitter handle says I’m an amateur sociologist exploring humanity between the classes. If I was to present myself as someone important or worthy of attention I know I couldn’t write freely. I would be crushed under the weight of negative criticism people are just dying to dole out to idealists. For this reason I will conduct and present my experiments as stupidly as possible.
When Metaphysical Man, Atro City’s resident superhero and trendsetter is inadvertently sucked into an alternate world by a mysterious super villain he’s forced to overcome his only weakness; reality. Read more at http://smashwords.com/books/view/540303#amreading #amwriting
After thoroughly satisfying his curiosity regarding the dying spider MM remembers his assigned task. He walks on through an obstacle course of abandoned cars. Some of them have been turned upside down or on their side and most of them have stray dogs living under them. Metaphysical Man pauses to observe a dog struggling to enter one of the rusted shelters. He ponders over the symbolism of the scene. The dog’s ears are raw and bleeding from scratching insect bites. Yet he opens the wounds even more by scraping against the bottom of the car. Apropos of his situation the beast struggles to enter an unfit location in order to flee from an even more hostile environment. The superhero notes the muddy ground and rusty roof of the shelter and considers just how hostile the environment would have to be in order to make this bacteria trap appear as the safer option. Metaphysical Man continues down the road and spots a government building. He reads the title written on the front of the edifice. “Ministry of Sanitation and Social Wellbeing.” He laughs inwardly at the obvious irony.
When Metaphysical Man, Atro City’s resident superhero and trendsetter is inadvertently sucked into an alternate world by a mysterious super villain he’s forced to overcome his only weakness; reality. Read more at http://smashwords.com/books/view/540303#amreading #amwriting
William Chasterson 