About 10 years ago I did a search for loner websites and found none. The only site that used the term was Loners of America. That turned out to be a group of seniors who had each lost their partner but owned an RV. This group of newly singled men and women travelled around America together, … Continue reading What is a Loner?
Rescuing Jude
Have you read Thomas Hardy's 1895 novel, Jude the Obscure? If you haven't, it's the story of Jude Fawley, a shy, intelligent, sensitive boy, then man, who is too shy, intelligent and sensitive to fit into a callous, indifferent and hypocritical world. Jude is working class, but he longs to become a Greek and Latin scholar … Continue reading Rescuing Jude
Wild New York
Recently I came upon a post by a Toronto journalist celebrating the many ravines in Toronto, the refuge of much local wildlife, valleys created by the rivers that run south through our city. As someone who has been exploring those places since the 1960s, I know them well and I celebrate them too. But when … Continue reading Wild New York
The Autism Matrix – a new vision
The biggest problem with autism is that no one knows what it is, or what causes it. That's why the debates about it are so confusing and unrewarding. People aren't talking about the same thing. I was very interested in autism when I was writing The Birdcatcher, and that continued as I worked on The Shyness Guide. In both … Continue reading The Autism Matrix – a new vision
Alan Conrad address change
Although I have had the domain alanconrad.com since 2006, and I hoped to continue with it here at WordPress, the location of its registration, it is proving to be problematic in the WordPress system and my access to the location of its registration is so poor, that I have decided that I must abandon it. … Continue reading Alan Conrad address change
Steppenwolf vs Herman Hesse
In my 2009 essay For Madmen Only (now a page on this site), I presented my idea that the ending of Herman Hesse's novel Steppenwolf isn't at the end of the book, but at the beginning. For several years that was a page on the previous Alan Conrad/Shy Highway website where it received more visits than the rest … Continue reading Steppenwolf vs Herman Hesse
Rescuing Fiction
When I had my previous website, The Loner's Highway, it was accompanied by a secondary blog known as The Society for the Protection of Fictional Characters, or, in short, the SPFC. I liked that name, and the acronym, but the acronym presented a problem. A web search found that SPFC includes: São Paol FC, a football/soccer … Continue reading Rescuing Fiction
Are We a Social Animal?
I've been asking myself this since I was in high school in the 1960s. That's when I read the chapters in H.G. Wells's Outline of History, where he introduced me to the evolution of early humans. Inspired, I read everything I could find on human origins. Over the years I noticed that most writers assumed that humanity … Continue reading Are We a Social Animal?
AVEN and Asexuality
Recently I discovered the AVEN site - The Asexual Visibility and Educational Network. Although I've noticed over the years that there are men and women who show little interest in sex, sometimes none at all, I was not aware that this is now seen, at least by the AVEN people, as a fourth sexual orientation. … Continue reading AVEN and Asexuality
Alan Conrad 