19 Comments

You bring life from language, Joel. You open a new world to me through your poetic prose. Muchas gracias.

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Absolutely, Kenny. Joel's proses are a delight! And, they constantly send me to a dictionary to understand both the written word and the delicate meanings.

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Tongue in Cheek LSO

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Aug 18Liked by Joel Bowman

Welcome back Joel. Always enjoy your travel tales. Your children are blessed to have the education you and wifey are providing. Look forward to all your new written thoughts.

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I agree, all fiction is autobiographical. It always emanates from the experience and mental gyrations of the author. Whether or not autobiography is a fabrication or lie depends on the person. Some have an essence of truth, some are a jumbled mess of mental inconsistency. You need the essence of truth to be a good story teller, they resonate on some deeper level, reach a pervasive audience, become classic.

I thought modern literature dead, then I listened to Tucker Carlson interview the Wolf of Wall Street.

The Wolf said, he learned to write by reading Tom Wolf’s “Bonfire of Vanities.” I subsequently read Bonfire and it is a truthful rendition of NY justice and American Society.

I recently bought The Harvard Classics, couple of dollars on Amazon.

I am beginning to read the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin; I don’t expect to find much fiction there.

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author

Always so thoughtful, Xavier. Thank you for your comments. Cheers!

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Aug 18Liked by Joel Bowman

Nice to have you home in BA, you seem more comfortable and reflective.

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author

Thank you, kind sir!

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Aug 18Liked by Joel Bowman

Tell me the difference and commonality between Forward and Foreword please.

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author

The difference… an auto-correct typo that I overlooked. Twice! (Corrected, thanks to another vigilant reader.)

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founding
Aug 19Liked by Joel Bowman

Delicious!

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founding
Aug 18Liked by Joel Bowman

Novels are joy to read! You get lost in another world and a nice relief from our day to day tribulations. Awesome

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Aug 18·edited Aug 18Liked by Joel Bowman

Thank you Joel, buying your book on Amazon and looking forward to an entire week of your wonderful work 🙏

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author

Thank YOU!

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Aug 18Liked by Joel Bowman

I can't find where or how to download the books.

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author

Check here, good sir. Please let us know if this does not deliver. If you’re a member, it should allow you access:

https://joelbowman.substack.com/s/books

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Many more of these "we" usages. "We do this..." and "we do that...". This is the assumption that I already agree, and an thus subsumed into the writer's suppositions. But I do not and ought not to be. No, fiction is not autobiographical; rather, it is imagined. It is not a story of the writer's life, unless he is a hack. Rather, fiction is, in its greatest successes, a solution for its character's tribulations that is imagined out of thin air.

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Modern literary fictions uses many words to say little. I prefer the opposite, on those rare occasions when I can find it.

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RemovedAug 18Liked by Joel Bowman
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Thanks for your patience! It’s as Pericles said: “Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.”

I would infinitely prefer to write about the nature of aesthetics and metaphysics… alas, the reality of politics compelled us to pay attention. Cheers to you!

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