NOTES ON STYLE - INTRODUCTION

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Thanks for coming to have a look at this section.

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I should note at the start that my books are not really novels - no matter how much they might look like it - and I have never sought to become the kind of writer who seeks the attention of publishers and prosperous older white women at literary festivals.

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It's OK, I'm pretty sure they don't seek me out either :-)

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On one level my books are simply exemplars of love between human beings. That's it. Written in service of my view that Love one Another is the whole of spiritual wisdom, that there is no other spiritual truth or spiritual practice outside of that one very simple (and yet very demanding) injunction.

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The style that I call Hypnogogic (Hyp) Prose is a rhetorical engine designed to enhance and amplify the emotional impact of these love stories. It's a loose constellation of literary effects and techniques that are designed (in hope) as a "more perfect logos" in order to vivify the reader's experience of the story and apprehension of the emotional movements within the text.

 

Hyp Prose is an adapted version of western scriptural speech, owing much to the stark rhythm and repetition of the Hebrew poetry which drives the poetic and wisdom books of the Old Testament.

 

It also owes to the elevated speech of various other scriptural traditions, which I think have the same basic root and basic sound. Hyp Prose synthesises and modernises this language, smoothing and democratising it to the point where it can effectively reach modern - and largely profane - audiences.

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My books don't easily fit into any genre. They are not really fiction, and they are certainly not literary fiction. I once hoped they would qualify as YA but that form has been debased of late. They may belong to something like the "New Sincerity" movement predicted by the late (and very great) David Foster Wallace:

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The perfect book would be both technically brilliant and be so sad it would make you want to jump off a bridge... it would have a full intellectual aesthetic and an absolutely full emotional effect. 

 

The best genre descriptor I have come up with is "New Scripture" which is nowhere near as high-falutin as it sounds... being works encompassing a very simple moral outlook and a proposal for the reformation of human spirituality.  

 

They Say: Love One Another and here is what that looks like.

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If you would like to hear more about Hypnogogic Prose please feel welcome to check out the material on my blog and the other articles on this section of the website.

 

I have also made all of my books available free of charge. You can access PDF copies if you navigate from my books page, or if you prefer other formats you can check out the Internet Archive page where I have uploaded copies in multiple formats.

 

I do recommend buying a properly formatted paper copy of Amazon just for the reading experience (see my books page for the links) but if you are short of a quid you're more than welcome to access the free copies I have provided.

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There are also full text AI Accessible Copies linked to this page.

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