Ilyn Ross's Blog: Dear Readers
November 22, 2009
August 30, 2009
Reason Reigns and Royal Serf - A Hearing
“It’s not criminals who provoke great hatred, it’s honest men.” The words of a polymath and polyglot executed by tyrants at age 35: Dr. Jose Rizal.
Honesty is fidelity to the truth. The truth is what conforms to reality. Integrity is fidelity to logic. It is the refusal to hold contradictions; it is the consistent cohesion of words and deeds; it is honoring one’s mental creations by giving them physical existence.
I hold that the honest would accord my novels, Reason Reigns and Royal Serf, a hearing. I expect hatred from the moral descendants of the executioners of Dr. Rizal and the persecutors of Galileo, and from the enemies of the principle of individual liberty. They destroy rather than stand the test of truth and reason.
Reason Reigns extols independent thinkers, and Royal Serf honors the Declaration of Independence. These novels proclaim that the right to the pursuit of happiness is the right to selfishness.
Royal Serf’s Apollo says: “One not concerned with oneself has no desire to live. The concept of one’s concern for oneself, represented by the word selfishness, has been twisted to mean malevolence towards others. Those who desire to live but accept the twisted meaning of selfishness unwittingly facilitate insidious destroyers. Unable to rule nor influence individuals who accept no guilt in their desire to live and pursue happiness, destroyers demonize their core by associating callousness and malevolence with selfishness.”
Apollo responds to this request from an interviewer: “Use major swindler Bernard Madoff to contrast a selfish man with a selfless man.” -
“The basic selfishness criteria are self-preservation and self-reliance followed by self-love and self-respect. Bernard Madoff is not self-reliant. A dependent, he fed off his victims. Unmindful of losing his liberty, he committed massive fraud. Self-preservation is clearly absent – Madoff does not value himself. He fails even the basic selfishness test. Madoff is selfless.”
Selfless means no self: no self-esteem, no self-respect, no self-love.
Apollo also declares, “Independent equals must choose: self-reliance or dependence. Self-reliance requires selfishness. Dependence breeds moochers, looters, and rulers.”
The sixteenth amendment, a stick-up of hard-earned wages, tramples on the Declaration of Independence and incinerates property rights. The Antitrust Law spits on logic, puffing up that free competition must be enforced! Undefined, flexible, contradictory laws are hailed. Sacrifice is the Holy Grail. Selfishness is trumpeted as having horns, a pointed tail, and a pitchfork.
Honesty demands that one’s soul be put on trial: The advocacy or sanction of coercion is the mark of evil. Integrity must be summoned to reclaim the Declaration of Independence from the clutches of sacrifice glorifiers.
Check your premises on selfishness. Self-preservation requires it. When Reason Reigns, every freed Royal Serf shall create wealth and happiness.
Honesty is fidelity to the truth. The truth is what conforms to reality. Integrity is fidelity to logic. It is the refusal to hold contradictions; it is the consistent cohesion of words and deeds; it is honoring one’s mental creations by giving them physical existence.
I hold that the honest would accord my novels, Reason Reigns and Royal Serf, a hearing. I expect hatred from the moral descendants of the executioners of Dr. Rizal and the persecutors of Galileo, and from the enemies of the principle of individual liberty. They destroy rather than stand the test of truth and reason.
Reason Reigns extols independent thinkers, and Royal Serf honors the Declaration of Independence. These novels proclaim that the right to the pursuit of happiness is the right to selfishness.
Royal Serf’s Apollo says: “One not concerned with oneself has no desire to live. The concept of one’s concern for oneself, represented by the word selfishness, has been twisted to mean malevolence towards others. Those who desire to live but accept the twisted meaning of selfishness unwittingly facilitate insidious destroyers. Unable to rule nor influence individuals who accept no guilt in their desire to live and pursue happiness, destroyers demonize their core by associating callousness and malevolence with selfishness.”
Apollo responds to this request from an interviewer: “Use major swindler Bernard Madoff to contrast a selfish man with a selfless man.” -
“The basic selfishness criteria are self-preservation and self-reliance followed by self-love and self-respect. Bernard Madoff is not self-reliant. A dependent, he fed off his victims. Unmindful of losing his liberty, he committed massive fraud. Self-preservation is clearly absent – Madoff does not value himself. He fails even the basic selfishness test. Madoff is selfless.”
Selfless means no self: no self-esteem, no self-respect, no self-love.
Apollo also declares, “Independent equals must choose: self-reliance or dependence. Self-reliance requires selfishness. Dependence breeds moochers, looters, and rulers.”
The sixteenth amendment, a stick-up of hard-earned wages, tramples on the Declaration of Independence and incinerates property rights. The Antitrust Law spits on logic, puffing up that free competition must be enforced! Undefined, flexible, contradictory laws are hailed. Sacrifice is the Holy Grail. Selfishness is trumpeted as having horns, a pointed tail, and a pitchfork.
Honesty demands that one’s soul be put on trial: The advocacy or sanction of coercion is the mark of evil. Integrity must be summoned to reclaim the Declaration of Independence from the clutches of sacrifice glorifiers.
Check your premises on selfishness. Self-preservation requires it. When Reason Reigns, every freed Royal Serf shall create wealth and happiness.
August 21, 2009
One-Star Ratings for Royal Serf (because zero is not available)
Links to the reviews:
One of the two winners (out of 479 requesters) in the first author giveaway: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/....
One of the two winners (out of 432 requesters) in the second author giveaway: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/....
For the third giveaway, there are 431 requesters as of this moment. I hope they read these reviews.
One of the two winners (out of 479 requesters) in the first author giveaway: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/....
One of the two winners (out of 432 requesters) in the second author giveaway: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/....
For the third giveaway, there are 431 requesters as of this moment. I hope they read these reviews.
July 22, 2009
Worth One’s While
Enjoying a book is a win-win for the reader and author. The reader does not waste precious time. For a buyer, it is money well spent.
My novels are labeled self-published. The first half of each is available online. To have a good chance that reading Reason Reigns or Royal Serf would be worth your while, I hope, dear reader, that you would check the posted chapters first before purchasing or requesting the book.
I am a Romantic writer. I depict heroic subjects. My writing style is reality-oriented. My characters think, speak out, and decide. I do not tell the reader what to think about the characters’ thoughts, ideas, actions or inactions. I endeavor not to make arbitrary assertions - the value-judgments of the characters are part of the characterizations. Readers who prefer the emotion-oriented literary style would not enjoy my novels. It would be a strain to understand them.
My values are reflected in my writing. I hold that glorifying sacrifice is evil because self-sacrifice is masochism and sanctioning it is sadism. I regard selfishness as a virtue because it is concordant with man’s nature. I revere equal, inherent, inalienable rights.
I regret wasting anyone’s time. If I did not provide the book to a dissatisfied reader, I deeply regret wasting his/her money as well. For a self-published author like me with very limited resources, if I provided the book and the reader finds it boring, not good, or not worth reading, it is a double whammy: a waste of precious money and an unfavorable review.
My novels are labeled self-published. The first half of each is available online. To have a good chance that reading Reason Reigns or Royal Serf would be worth your while, I hope, dear reader, that you would check the posted chapters first before purchasing or requesting the book.
I am a Romantic writer. I depict heroic subjects. My writing style is reality-oriented. My characters think, speak out, and decide. I do not tell the reader what to think about the characters’ thoughts, ideas, actions or inactions. I endeavor not to make arbitrary assertions - the value-judgments of the characters are part of the characterizations. Readers who prefer the emotion-oriented literary style would not enjoy my novels. It would be a strain to understand them.
My values are reflected in my writing. I hold that glorifying sacrifice is evil because self-sacrifice is masochism and sanctioning it is sadism. I regard selfishness as a virtue because it is concordant with man’s nature. I revere equal, inherent, inalienable rights.
I regret wasting anyone’s time. If I did not provide the book to a dissatisfied reader, I deeply regret wasting his/her money as well. For a self-published author like me with very limited resources, if I provided the book and the reader finds it boring, not good, or not worth reading, it is a double whammy: a waste of precious money and an unfavorable review.
