Welcome to Sleepless Nights

Welcome dear readers to a new series entitled 'Sleepless Nights' and no, it has nothing to do with horror though initially, it was my intention to do something with the genre. So watch this space, for it might change.

So far, if you read regularly you will notice that there are a number of 'series' posts that I do. Including one that I have really come to love researching and writing entitled 'Why It's a Masterpiece' on Saturdays. This is then met with its more recent and weird cousin 'Why It's Shifty' on a Sunday. These will continue for as long as I can handle them and as long as I can see that you guys are still reading them.

I would now like to introduce you to a post that will come out once every two weeks. This series is entitled 'Sleepless Nights' and the general concept of it is to unload those weird things that I think about when I think about literature and reading in the middle of the night. More of an opinion or thought series, 'Sleepless Nights' will include posts that look similar to "Bad Books and We Who Write About Them" and "What's In a Reading Experience?"

They will also include (if you're interested in this stuff) some random facts about me in the mix. This is similar to what you will normally find in my book reviews where at the beginning, I talk about where I found the book or what I'm doing with my time at the moment. This is also similar to the 'Background and Context' sections you might see on essays or in-depth academic articles.

A lot of you might be wondering why I'm bothering with this series at all and there's an easy answer for that. There's a lot of stuff I've been thinking about lately to do with literature and reading. The communities for it online are becoming more and more divisive as we speak with everyone thinking that their opinion is the correct answer to a certain problem. We have people arguing that books like Solenoid about brutalist male experiences are the best books, we have people suggesting that authors only use big words because they're trying to make themselves look intelligent, we have arguments such as "Men don't Read" and that women only read 'dumb' literature. It's all a bit much and it's been swirling around on the internet for some time.

I wanted to make my own point about these things but found that social media perhaps was not the best way to do it. With limited characters and people generally uninterested in actually understanding nuanced opinions which involve some level of critical thinking - I have therefore brought my opinions here, to a more intelligent place.

The topics mentioned above are only some of the topics to expect. Apart from this, there will also be more fun and uplifting stuff like deep-dives into books I'm finding a bit weird and difficult to get into - but I'm persevering with. For example: as of writing this it is April 2025 and I'm getting on with Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon, not really seeing the comedic side in it that everyone else is, but enjoying it nonetheless. You could be seeing a deep-dive into my thoughts on that book, or other long and intense literature I'd like to read that is more appropriate for an article rather than a book review.

Most of all though I want you to remember one thing: these articles are going to be opinion pieces. Opinions don't de facto mean that one person is right and the other is wrong, even though someone may say so. You may disagree with my opinions or you may agree with them - it really doesn't matter. What does matter is that we keep the conversation open and respectful. My opinions are nothing more than views I hold and the same goes for everyone else - nobody deserves to be insulted or ridiculed for them unless they are actively hurting someone else. So, let's all remain respectful of each other's opinions. Social media doesn't necessarily foster that perspective but on Vocal, I am sure we can make it work.

There will be no schedule for these articles in which at the bottom of the article, you can find next week's topic because of how current I want it to be. However, you can find the article every fornight and on a Friday. So, on with Sleepless Nights. I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I enjoy writing them!