Hi,
Welcome to the Hardihood Books June Roundup. I hope your summer is off to a good start.
I know navigation is still a bit of a challenge on the website. While I’ve added tags, I haven’t finished setting up everything on the backend, so you still can’t search the archive by tag or filter my posts by tag. Soon, I plan to rectify that.
What I Published in June:
My first story this month, “The Disagreeable Audience,” which is free, is a piece of satirical flash fiction in which a speaker addresses a crowd and is shouted down repeatedly by various audience members. It is an illustration of the fact that it is (quite literally) impossible to write or say anything that pleases everyone, and that it has become increasingly difficult over the past decade or two to write or say anything that doesn’t offend someone. For those of you out there who have felt like you’re walking on eggshells due to being out of step with a rapidly shifting culture, you may like this one.
My first essay this month was called, “Intellectual Property Belongs to the Author.” My guess is that it will prove controversial, but I stand by it. Taking intellectual property (pirating) against the creator/owner’s consent is stealing. It’s wrong – even if you don’t like the creator/author. The more controversial argument I advanced in the piece was the line I draw from the stealing of intellectual property to the relativism which passes as literary analysis with which we approach so much great work. The common attitude is one of entitlement, rather than one of gratitude, as if literature just should belong to us without our having done anything to earn it.
My second essay this month, “On the Passing of Cormac McCarthy,” is a reflection on the legacy of my favorite author – in the eyes of many, the greatest American author of the last fifty years. If you’re not a paying subscriber, you can read the free preview, which should give you a good taste. Up front, I’ve linked to some other tributes to him. The best thing I have read on his work in the last several months is this article (written before his death) in Commentary,[1] by Abe Greenwald – a review of The Passenger and Stella Maris (replete with spoilers) which takes into account McCarthy’s literary journey.
I also published a story called, “It Mattered to Him.” This is on the longer side, but I feel strongly that it’s one of the more important stories I’ve written. It isn’t preachy and there isn’t too much dialogue, or any long speeches. It’s free to read and I think many people will like it. In theory, it takes place thousands of years ago, but I was intentionally vague about historical detail. The most profound, compelling, and important case for individualism is the moral one. Especially the idea that an individual has a moral right to his or her own life. While this argument might be considered the final one in one sense, I know that many people will misinterpret my story (sometimes willfully). Whether that means interpreting it through the lens of power dynamics and hierarchies of oppression (with perhaps an attack on religion and custom),1 or making a communitarian case for why the events described are still the fault of selfish individuals, these misinterpretations involve reading something into the story that isn’t there. But unlike some of the critics of individualism, I do not think those who disagree with me are evil, merely misguided.
In this month’s two installments of “Private Investigation,” I moved things much closer to the finish line. The novella will conclude in July. Chapter Eleven is the most violent one yet, but I tried to keep it a little discreet or muted by leaving out gory details – if I were writing a grittier detective novella, I would have signaled that in the first chapter. It wouldn’t be fair to readers to switch subgenres this late in the game.2
From the Archive:
To some, it might seem contradictory for someone who writes stories and essays about individualism to also make the case for unconditional loyalty to friends and family, but it isn’t. Two years ago, I published, “The Family You Don’t Choose,” the title of which is a riff on the saying, “friends are the family you choose.” And last year I published, “The Professor and his Dog,” which is ostensibly about a professor who wins a debate, but is actually about loyalty, friendship, unconditional love, and a man who can’t see what is under his nose: that his best friend knows something he doesn’t.
A year ago this month, I published “Intertextuality and Emergent Order,” an essay on the evolution of literature. Originally, it was paywalled, but I made it free late last year. If you haven’t read it, I would encourage you to do so. Particularly if you do not like (or want to read) my essay about absolutism regarding authors’ property rights. I suspect that last year’s essay will appeal to a very wide variety of people from all walks of life, and the argument I advance in it is less controversial. If you like reading books, you’ll probably find something to like about it.
In Closing:
Please feel free to email me with any feedback. If you’re on the free list and you’d like to respond to one of my stories or essays, you can email me, or reach out via Twitter (@benconnelly6712) or LinkedIn.
Thank you for reading and subscribing.
Cheers,
Ben Connelly
Anyone who knows me knows that I am both religious and a fan of custom, habit, and tradition.
Romance novels range from the squeaky-clean to the erotic, and a lot of work goes into signaling to readers up front how much sexual activity will be in the novel. Some readers prefer more and some prefer less, and the goal is to ensure everyone knows what they are getting. A similar thing is true with thrillers and the amount of violence.