Writing lessons we can learn from Vincent Van Gogh
Writing, for some, for those who do a lot of it, may seem like a mechanical process. A formulaic procedure, a technical exercise. But for those who do it not as a profession, but a pleasurable pursuit, writing takes time, inspiration, and great thought. Writing, for those who truly love it, is a humanist endeavour: a way of making sense of the world in which they live. In this way it is art, and should be treated and understood as such.
Vincent van Gogh was an artist, but was also a writer. His heartfelt letters to his brother have been…
It is within human nature to look to things greater than ourselves for answers. Some turn to religion, some turn to mathematics and/or philosophy. Some worship God(s) and pray they will provide us with guidance. Religion is unknowing, but it is a way of knowing in a world in which we know nothing. Having faith in mathematics is similar to having faith in religion: it is to believe in something intangible which yet is tangible in the minds of believers.
Math and religion are the same in that they both aspire to a sort of grace. They are conscious endeavours…
Books for up in the attic, a creepy castle, and under the harvest moon
“Something wicked this way comes” — Macbeth, William Shakespeare
As the leaves change colour, the nights get cozier, and the wolves howl louder, it’s time to revel in all spooky things. I’ve always been timid when it comes to scary movies — usually regretting my decision when the lights go dark. But I’ve actually felt the opposite for scary books. When the floors begin to creak, gothic literature still comforts me.
The best way to ring in the season is with a book and cup of tea by the fire, while tendrils of fog hug crooked oaks. …
Haunted houses as a home for feminine horror
“I am no bird; and no net ensures me: I am a free human being with an independent will” — Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Unlike any other genre, there is something sinister about the way women fit into horror. As Princess Weekes writes in her article, “horror has always been concerned with the relationship between the marginalized and terror.” The main difference being who gets to tell the story, and those experiencing the story to tell.
Women as victims have been a trope since the very genre emerged. Take Wuthering Heights, as an example. Cathy is plagued by abuse before…
The Apeiron Blog Newsletter
Philosophy in the news and our picks of the week.
Hey Fellow Philosophers!
Here are our team’s selected philosophy resources this week. I hope they provoke deep thought!
Philosophy in the News
“As a philosopher, I have nothing to add to the scientific evidence of global warming, but I can tell you how it’s possible to get ourselves to sincerely doubt things, despite abundant evidence to the contrary”
In his opinion piece for The New York Times, professor N. Ángel Pinillos provides an explanation on how, despite having an abundance of evidence in favour of climate change, we have somehow managed to fervently doubt it.
Although published a few years ago, Pinillos’ article is…
Books to read in the crisp September air
If August bleeds nostalgia then September breathes new life: September is January in a different font. The month of summer’s end and time of the equinox, September brings the season of academia, gothic narratives, and spiced teas into full swing.
This September is a new one for me: it’s my first year not returning to school. No campus life, no late study nights, no shopping for school supplies. As the crisp air blows in so does a new chapter, a new period of life. If September was a novel, it’d be the beginning.
As I close the last chapter, I…
Understanding Rooney’s relationships as a political performance
I didn’t appreciate Sally Rooney’s Normal People until I read an articulate analysis. It was one of those books that didn’t particularly move me — the characters, the setting, the plot all struck me as flat. Two young adults navigating adulthood is, of course, predigested: safe, second-hand unabashedly normal.
This may be more of a fault of my own. I’ve always struggled to enjoy the genre of romance in all its tropes. Maybe it's a hot take, but I find romance stale because we know it. The love triangle, friends to lovers, the star-crossed lovers. …
On Renaissance art and Romantic ambitions
“The line of beauty is the line of beauty. It doesn’t matter if it’s been through the Xerox machine a hundred times” — The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
As my generation remains enthralled by angel numbers, for myself, Botticelli girls emerge in the same fortuitous fashion: in music videos, in novels, on teacups. There I find them, or more accurately, her — porcelain skin, soft lips, loose curls coming undone.
Venus endures as the epitome of beauty. Modesty bordering on eroticism, cold lingering on the edge of spring. Around her, subdued pastels wash the landscape, strong in their characterization of an…
The Apeiron Blog Newsletter
Philosophy in the news and our picks of the week.
Hey Fellow Philosophers!
Here are our team’s selected philosophy resources this week. I hope they provoke deep thought!
Philosophy in the News
“The more the universe seems comprehensible,” Nobel laureate physicist Steven Weinberg wrote, “the more it also seems pointless.” Weinberg, who recently passed at the age of 88, made the conclusion in his 1977 book The First Three Minutes that “whatever the universe is about, it sure as heck isn’t about us.” I wanted to explore this statement further through the articles this week: how we make sense of the universe we live in, and the inextricable link between philosophy and space.
For under the willow tree, in the garden hammock, on the coast
As we approach the end of summer, August bleeds nostalgia. The whispers of willow leaves, the creak of an occupied hammock, waves frothing at the shore. Summer is sensory but short: a sedated rhythm in time.
Now August bleeds out; its muggy air dissolves. Ice cream melts slower, palms less clammy. And although maybe we don’t miss the heat, we miss the sun’s kisses, the mist of the ocean, melons balled in a bowl. That elusive summer feeling we oscillate into as we orbit: zestful, balmy, redolent, before it casually slips away.
As August sips away with it, a bottle…
