Back to School with a SUPER Promotion

Listen up, eager readers!

If you are an Amazon Prime member, then check this out: from now until October 26, 2013 Superheroes: An Analysis of Popular Culture’s Modern Myths will be available to borrow from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. That means you can borrow the book and read it all you like!

On top of that, for 5 days only, between September 3 and 7, 2013, the Kindle edition of Superheroes will be made FREE to download. It’s like my Back-to-School gift to you! That’s right, during this limited-time offer absolutely anyone can download a FREE copy of my dissertation on how superhero narratives function in society. You don’t even need a Kindle e-reader to take advantage of this opportunity because the Kindle App is freely available for PC, Mac, and mobile devices.

So, be sure to get your digital copy of Superheroes for the Kindle, and then head on over to Problematic Press to see what other projects I’ve been working on. There you’ll find more FREE reading material and, of course, the Problematic Press Shop (CAN and US) is the place to find my projects in print and digital formats.

Please, read and enjoy!

Cheers!
DR

Working on Arthur Sullivan’s Reference and Structure in the Philosophy of Language

So, I was scouring the Internet for different works on the philosophy of language (why? because, that’s what I’m like) and I came across a text that I had a small hand in developing. I was surprised, and it felt a little surreal to see the finished product on my computer screen.

In the summer of 2007, while I was a graduate student pursuing my Master of Philosophy in Humanities at Memorial University, I was fortunate enough to work with Dr. Arthur Sullivan on an early manuscript of Reference and Structure in the Philosophy of Language: A Defense of the Russellian Orthodoxy.

I first had Sullivan as an instructor during my undergrad for propositional logic as well as a special seminar on the philosophy of language. It was a thoroughly stimulating experience, greatly influencing my later research as a grad student. I remember writing one paper for Sullivan on language, reference, Superman, and possible worlds. I lost that paper somewhere. I really wish I hadn’t.

Anyways, I recall it was an absolute pleasure proofreading the manuscript for Sullivan. The text dealt with ideas more complex than what I had encountered during my undergrad, of course, but it was a welcome challenge for me as I had recently finished my Bachelor of Arts degree with a Double Major in Philosophy and English Language and Literature. Reading that last bit, I suppose I was well-suited for the task of proofreading and offering feedback on Sullivan’s manuscript.

In the book, Sullivan interrogates the relationship between reference and structure, two foundational concepts in the philosophy of language. Make no mistake: this is a hefty task. Reference and Structure in the Philosophy of Language demonstrates that the notion of structure can be seen as the basis of various other important points in the theory of reference. Here, he expands upon the work of Bertrand Russell, Saul Kripke, David Kaplan, and Stephen Neale, to name a few, aiming to provide a simplified, comprehensive lens through which a variety of semantic phenomena can be better understood.

I am truly honoured to be thanked in the preface for the small role I played in the book’s development. In all honesty, it is I who should thank Arthur Sullivan for giving me the opportunity to work with him on his research.

It was a fantastic experience! Thanks, Arthur!

Cheers!
DR

National Poetry Month and the 90s

In 1999, the League of Canadian Poets began celebrating April as National Poetry Month. By then, I was really only concerned with writing angry, cynical punk songs. Although I was writing a lot of poetry around ’93-98, my interests had shifted somewhat from poetry to lyrics. Perhaps if poetry held much of the public’s attention a little earlier in my life, then maybe that would’ve rubbed off on me and I may have stuck with it a little longer. Instead, when I stopped writing poetry, that’s just what it felt like – like I had stopped.

In any case, I’d like to take this opportunity, since it’s National Poetry Month and all, to share some of the poetry I had written when I was really into it, when it felt like something substantial. So, here are two poems, “Piss Off” and “Drone,” for you to celebrate this April for National Poetry Month. Celebrate!

PISS OFF

Please,
If you’re
So
Sorry,
Others would
Feel
Fine.

DRONE

You have your yellow jacket.
You have your Adidas pants.
You have your Top 40 radio.
You have the assurance
That as long as you
Stay within the safeguards of
Popular society, you’ll be “cool,”
But you don’t know what cool is,
Drone.

Each of these poems can be found in Fawning, Fear and Frustration: A Collection of Teenage Poetry from the 90s. Print and digital editions of this work can be found at Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.

As an extra special treat, just to reward you lucky readers who have read this far, here is a promo video for Fawning, Fear and Frustration where I read “Drone.” Love it.

Cheers!
Dave

Problematic Press

Cheers, folks!

I am pleased to announce I have founded my own publishing house, Problematic Press! I’m really excited about this endeavour, since I’ll basically get to publish whatever I please. Oh, don’t worry. It won’t all be pornography. (I’ll just have to publish that under a pen name.) haha! No, but, seriously, I’m in love with the prospects here.

Although Problematic Press is a small, independent venture, it will deliver a broad range of material. I’d like to draw attention to works of Newfoundland literature, Canadian literature, as well as other imaginative works from such genres as speculative fiction, fantasy, science fiction, pulp fiction, non-fiction, comics, and children’s books. I plan to produce original works as well as popular classics, emphasizing texts that challenge readers. Indeed, there’s a lot I’d like to do with Problematic Press, and this is just the beginning.

The first Problematic Press publication (note: I really dig alliteration) will be Robert Hayman’s Quodlibets, which was quite likely the first piece of English literature written in North America. Hayman was Governor of the British colony in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland in the early 1600s, and he penned this collection of more than 350 epigrams. This edition features my own adaptation of the Middle English poetry into more contemporary English, in order to make the text more accessible to today’s audience. Hayman’s epigrams reflect upon matters ranging from spirituality to politics and are, collectively, an appeal to British citizens to settle in the Newfound-land. Quodlibets portrays the reflections and attitudes of one of Newfoundland’s, and also North America’s, founding fathers in unabashed eloquence.

So, please check out the Problematic Press website and “Like” the Facebook page! Tell your literati friends about Problematic Press!

Cheers!

David Reynolds