Second Look: The Italics Are My Own

tyunglebower ♦ June 19, 2024 ♦ Leave a comment

This novella is weird. Odd. Unconventional and difficult to describe. Experimental and dreamy, I knew when I conceived it that it would not be for everyone. In fact I knew it probably would be something very few people would look into, even once I started marketing it.

I wrote it anyway.

So why did I write in The Italics Are My Own?

Actually, how is the first question I should answer. I was determined to write something as wistful, poetic, and meandering as I damn well pleased. Though there is a light theme and a story to be told within it, this novella’s central purpose was language. I wanted to delve deeper into the sound and sequence of words and phrases in service of mood and setting, and to some degree character than I had ever done before. Mostly, I did it for me, hoping prose and language lovers out there might stumble on to it, and give it a chance.

Short of that, I wanted the concept to appeal to fans of ambiguity, non-linear narratives, and symbolism. Of allegory.

Four mysterious men meet one another at a cafe in search of a missing fifth among their number. Determined to locate their one-time fellow, they set off through a set of oneiric venues that for the reader borders on the edges of reality, but for them may be more believable.

Then, every other chapter we meet up with two men, one young, one older, who speak in script/dialogue form, their conversations becoming more sophisticated each time, and taking place in a more recognizable reality. How do they relate to the mission of the four mysterious men? You’d have to read it to see if you can detect it.

Other than to call it an “experiment” and a “language focused” book, I recognize there is little I can do to market this work, to date my strangest. There are light spoilers for it on this website, back during the time of its original release though, if you wanted to read those entries to give you a better idea before or after you give this oddity a try.

This is one of, if not the least purchased works in my entire catalog so far, and I suppose I see why. And I had hoped one or two people would have read it and offered thoughts on it by now. Perhaps you will be the first one to do so?

Not long enough to warrant the time and effort for a paperback, you can download this one for 99 cents from various ebook retailers.