Vlad Bunea: You write in Homo Aestheticus (2025): “Material abundance is preferable to material destitution, of course, but ultimately the superfluities of consumer lifestyles are spiritually beside the point, representing a failure of imagination, a mistaken idea of wealth and freedom.
Samuel, I've added your book to my wishlist for when funds are available. I agree William Morris is still relevant, and while some of his views of communist revolution were naive (understandable pre-Russian Revolution), his push-back against industrialization was concrete and had some lasting impacts. He was not an idle dreamer.
Re. art and money, I've written both original fiction (for sale) and fan fiction, and far and away the most satisfaction I've had in community with readers and writers has been through fan fiction. It is incredibly freeing to be able to write and share with no monetary motive and to freely play with stories fans already love without being locked out by "IP" walls. Even when I traditionally sell a story, I almost never get any feedback from readers. But with fan fic, I still get a trickle of comments on stories I wrote fifteen years ago, with readers sometimes saying very sweet things about how the story moved them. Since many fans are both readers and writers, fan fic also flattens the hierarchy of writer/reader voices, which is great for building community. It is immensely gratifying, and there's so much room to expand this kind of experience of sharing aesthetic visions.
Samuel, I've added your book to my wishlist for when funds are available. I agree William Morris is still relevant, and while some of his views of communist revolution were naive (understandable pre-Russian Revolution), his push-back against industrialization was concrete and had some lasting impacts. He was not an idle dreamer.
Re. art and money, I've written both original fiction (for sale) and fan fiction, and far and away the most satisfaction I've had in community with readers and writers has been through fan fiction. It is incredibly freeing to be able to write and share with no monetary motive and to freely play with stories fans already love without being locked out by "IP" walls. Even when I traditionally sell a story, I almost never get any feedback from readers. But with fan fic, I still get a trickle of comments on stories I wrote fifteen years ago, with readers sometimes saying very sweet things about how the story moved them. Since many fans are both readers and writers, fan fic also flattens the hierarchy of writer/reader voices, which is great for building community. It is immensely gratifying, and there's so much room to expand this kind of experience of sharing aesthetic visions.