Sorrow by Kurt Brindley is a thought-provoking and unsettling read that will resonate with readers who appreciate complex explorations of identity, social commentary, and the darker aspects of human nature, making it a great fit for fans of literary, psychological thrillers that challenge and provoke.
Gina Ray Mitchell
I would like to thank Ms. Gina Ray Mitchell for taking the time and making the effort to so thoughtfully read and review my latest release Sorrow.
And I would like to ask that you take the time and make the effort to read her full review, one deep and insightful. In fact, it is so insightful that I believe she may have a better understanding of the book than I, which is certainly far from an impossibility as I’ve long held the belief that books are typically much smarter than those who write them.
If you are intrigued by Ms. Mitchell’s assessment of Sorrow and would like to make an assessment of your own, you can purchase an ebook edition of it, and those of all my other published works, for free until midnight tonight (PST).
I initially set out to record Henry James’ somewhat condescending response to Walter Besant’s very pretentious essay “The Art of Fiction”…
Until I discovered the letter from Henry James’ older brother, and renowned psychologist/philosopher, William James, where he tells Henry exactly how he feels about Henry’s latest release “The American Scene.”
Spoiler alert: It’s definitely not a 5-star review…
Being the father of two sons, I know how brothers can be not only brutally frank and painfully honest to one another, but also highly competitive and a bit boastful as well.
The older brother’s letter to the younger encompasses all that and more.
Check out my youtube channel and like and subscribe and yada yada yada and peristaltic belching…
Better yet, how about reading and reviewing my latest novel?
For many people art means rose-coloured windows, and selection means picking a bouquet for Mrs. Grundy. They will tell you glibly that artistic considerations have nothing to do with the disagreeable, with the ugly; they will rattle off shallow commonplaces about the province of art and the limits of art, till you are moved to some wonder in return as to the province and the limits of ignorance.
Of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the peace and humanity he and his legacy embody…
And as a feeble distraction to the day’s political happenings who many believe are diametrically opposed to all this honorable day otherwise would embody…
The ancient concept of memento mori reminds us to “remember we must die,” not for any macabre or nihilistic purposes, but to prompt us to take a moment to contemplate our mortality so as to remember to live these fleeting, fatalistic lives of ours to their fullest.
Likewise, it seems the same could be said for Schopenhauer’s persistent contemplation of the evils of humankind. We contemplate these evils not to revel in and celebrate the boundless depravity of our kind, but to remind us that even in the best, most pure hearted of our species, therein Darkness resides; ergo, understanding that we have such an inherently Dark capacity to live wrongly, we should then strive in relentless determination to live our lives rightly and wholly in the Light.
Perhaps…
Excerpts from Schopenhauer’s essay On Human Nature. Music by @guinabernardes
Learning the tricky ins and outs of audio/video recording and editing ain’t easy for an old dog like me. But I’ve always wanted to offer audiobooks as part of my humble literary portfolio, so I guess it’s time for me to grin and bear it and get to it ’cause I certainly ain’t getting any younger.
As I work on recording my new novel Sorrow, I figured I might as well have a little visually creative fun with it along the way…
Narrating in general is less than easy for me; it is even less so when it’s the Early Modern English that was spoken nearly half a millennium ago.
I am a man of constant sorrow! I’m talking all day, all night, constant sorrow all the time, constantly. Now if this song doesn’t make your toes tap and your bootie wiggle even a little bit, then you, my friend, are sad, and sorrowfully so.
And you have until midnight tomorrow, or more specifically, 11:59 p.m., Sunday, November 24, 2024, (Bezos Standard Time, aka PST), to purchase a free Kindle version.
An aging white male forsakes humanity, changes his name to Sorrow, and begins identifying as an it, just as its white son learns his Black girlfriend is pregnant, and you begin a murderous rampage targeting interracial couples just like them...
And as Arthur Schopenhauer, that merry misanthrope, only happy when I’m not philosopher of old, reminds us:
It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.
Now, I am only the author of the tale so I cannot be sure, but if I were a betting man, which I’m not, but if I were, I would bet that Sorrow, our odd protagonist of our newly released tale, would agree with me that the quote above is true to the spirit of its journey. But alas we are sure to never know for sure since…
And by weird, I mean it in the contemporary sense, which is bizarre, strange, a bit nutty.
However, I read a study recently where its authors propose that dreams are also weird (my word not the authors) in the word’s more historical sense, which is supernatural, a la the Weird Sisters and/or Weird Tales.
And by supernatural (again, my word not theirs), I mean it in its literal sense, or at least in the-word-defines-its-meaning sense, which is beyond nature…
Or at least nature as we I know it.
And by beyond nature as I know it, I mean portals to other dimensions of being (their words not mine).
To wit:
This paper seeks to elucidate dreams’ profound effects on our psychological landscape, shaping our perceptions, behaviours, and perhaps even ontological orientation. It aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of consciousness, challenging the boundaries between subjective and objective reality, and opening avenues for further interdisciplinary research into the mystique of the dreaming mind. Through this exploration, we aim to decipher dreams’ content and potential significance as portals to other dimensions of being (my emphasis, not theirs) inviting us to reconsider the essence of reality as experienced through the dream state.
It amazes me how we humans are forever trying to find meaning from our dreams, as bizarre, strange, and nutty as they often are. And if they aren’t weirding us me out, then they are either befuddling me or scaring the bejeezus out of me. Rarely do I get one of those heavenly lucid flying dreams or any other kind that is wholesome and uplifting to the soul.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I actually enjoy having weird, befuddling, spooky dreams; and I appreciate them as one of those intriguing and mysterious spices of life. What I do complain about is how fleeting their details are. It is so frustrating to wake up knowing I just had an epic dream, but not being able to recall in detail what it was about.
But that frustration doesn’t deter me from slipping into one of my Jungian phases where I’m intent on recording as much about my dreams as possible so I can use them, via a kind of Jungian Active Imagination hocus pocus, to, not so much understand my dreams, but to use them to help bring me more in tune with the Universal Collective Soul/Conscious/God.
Is that the right approach to discover one’s deeper meaning of existance? Who knows? Certainly not me. Which is why I put as much value in what a study or any so-called expert says the purpose of dreams are as I do in someone/anyone trying to tell me what to expect in the afterlife, which is just about zero.
But it is fun to speculate.
And it is from such speculation — about dreams and death, or more specifically our my fear of death — that Sorrow was born.
And which, hopefully, will be available at Amazon within the week.
A disillusioned aging white male forsakes all humanity, changes his name to Sorrow, and begins identifying as an it, just as its white son learns his Black girlfriend is pregnant, and you begin a murderous rampage targeting interracial couples just like them.
If you are interested in helping Kurt me out by reading and posting a review upon Sorrow’s release, you can request a prepublication copy by sending an email to hank@kurtbrindley.com.
