Season 2 begins next week!
I hope you’ll find that this project is an extension of the journey in cultural studies through the arts that we’ve been on for fourteen months. Thank you for the wonderful feedback about the future of this work!
Today I’ve got a little preview trailer and explanation below. You can listen to this podcast on Substack, Apple, or Spotify. Transcripts, links, and multimedia will be available on the Substack web version. And, of course, there will be discussion in the post comments.
My decision to keep my posts paywall-free reflect an ethical ideal I have to allow access to knowledge and art. It doesn’t mean that I don’t think these things are worth paying for or that I think other writers shouldn’t paywall their work; it just means I am seeking alternative ways of funding The Matterhorn so that more people can access it.
Firstly I rely on patrons - thank you - to keep things running. I’m currently experimenting with Substack Chat, which I hope to use as a perk for paying patron subscribers. Let’s see if we like it for a few weeks during which I’ll keep it open to everyone.
You can further support my project simply by sharing any podcasts or posts you enjoy with someone who might like it. As my subscriber number grows, I will be able to reach out for philanthropic funding as well. Finally, I am also partnering with Bookshop.org (only on the US site - sorry!), who shares 80% of profits with local bookshops, by keeping an affiliate page where I receive 10% of profits — details below.
I greatly appreciate all of you here. You are keeping this going. Thank you! I look forward to sharing the introduction with you next week! Read below for details about the new season.
The Matterhorn: truth in fiction
how to layer stories with ideas, culture, places, and texts
podcast and original fiction from author and academic Dr. Kathleen Waller
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Tuesday: learn about layers of fictions & how I write
Thursday: get creative with 5-minute ‘Let’s Do This’ versions of the podcast
Saturday: read a new chapter of A Hong Kong Story
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💡 CURIOUS MINDS
Discover ideas about –⬩Hong Kong (politics, history, culture)⬩Artists working in different mediums⬩How fiction can be created into the quasi-real⬩Interdisciplinary approaches⬩Writing styles⬩Using fiction to explore the real world
✍🏽 WRITERS
Learn how to layer your fiction with –⬩Places & spaces⬩The dialogue of arts & literature (intertextuality)⬩The Everyday⬩Ideas in cultural studies & critical theory⬩Political discourse⬩Science, economics & other subject areas⎯⎯⎯⎯
Introducing the new project on The Matterhorn
🏔 The Matterhorn is a fiction: it is a peak that rises between two countries and cultures, creating faces that change in the light and through our experience or memories with them. It is the conglomerate of the millions of photographs and videos, the climbs, the skiing and eating in its vicinity, the many languages that vibrate off its rock each day. It is the passing of millions of years in its presence. At this peak, we create a story from all the layers of her brilliant life.
✍🏽 And you can create a story, too. Your fiction comes from everything. Creativity comes from knowledge. It is the pure space to explore and play with ideas. It is how we find the nuances of truth and discoveries of humanity.
💡 In this project, we will explore the way different layers can shape your fiction, creating intertextual dialogues of discovery. Whether a novelist, screenwriter, song writer, or any other kind of story creator, you can find ways here to add depth and purpose as well as beauty and enjoyment.
🇭🇰 Using my serialized novel – A Hong Kong Story – as a catalyst, I’ll share the ways I and many other authors use elements like place, allusion, culture, history, critical theory, languages, structure, and more to create something new. In that fiction, we are able to more freely play with ideas, working toward truth – or some version of it.
🗓 Each Saturday, I share a new chapter from A Hong Kong Story, and each Tuesday, I investigate a way to layer fiction with examples and discussion of the ideas as both a podcast and Substack post. On Thursday, I share a 5-minute digestible version of the podcast topic called Let’s Do This, where I offer three ways to get started.
🎙You can listen to the podcast on Substack, Apple, or Spotify. Please rate the show if you like it!
Preview of chapters and podcast titles as well as a previous look at The Matterhorn:
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📚 Books
While you’re here, I’d like to share with you my new affiliate page through Bookshop.org, which additionally helps me to keep all my work paywall-free. This means that if you purchase books via the link below, I earn 10% profit on each sale toward my work here.
Bookshop.org is a certified B Corporation, which means they work toward the greater good - “the highest standards of social and environmental impact.” In this case, it means 80% of profits go to local, independent bookshops and that they are carbon neutral. You can also choose which local bookshop you want your profit to go to.
Shipping is available in the US, UK, or Spain at this time, though my affiliate page is only linked with the US.
I can also make book lists on this page! What book lists would you like to see? Let me know in the comments, please!
Season 2 Trailer: Truth in Fiction