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23 July 2026
It now seems like a good idea for me to do fiction analysis. The project I have in mind is to try to describe what "MSLian fiction" would look like if it existed. Detective fiction is about detectives, professionals who can be outsiders to the case they take on (maybe usually are), who intervene in others' life stories (of victims, perpetrators, falsely accused, and the legal system). MSLians as well are professional outsiders, dropped into various contexts.
Why do this project now? Like Dostoyevsky and Balzac, I pay my debts with words. I don't worry about money, like they did, but writing helps me promote myself. I find a poverty in me toward most forms of seeking attention and social connection. But a relative wealth in me of writing, which can feed those functions. This project, specifically, helps me to solicit attention from literary people.
It occurs to me that literary people may make my best audience. (I didn't really think of this until very recently.) At least, they might, for a few reasons. One is that everything I write is at least a bit literary (my non-fiction may on a low level sometimes not seem literary, but if taken as a whole it is, I think). My voice is more "literary" than it is "analytic philosophy". People follow, trust, and distrust voices as much as content. I think the "analytic philosophy people" (such as philosophy of religion people and effective altruists) might not be able to trust what I do because of its literary dimensions. Also, I feel like for philosophy fans, I might seem like a lightweight, or like I haven't jumped through the hoops necessary to convince them, whereas for literary people, my writing is adequate in "perfection" (in the sense of "fullness", being completed enough to be a literary work).
The most obvious audience for my writing is religious people, of course, because religion is more central to my writing than being literary and philosophical. However, religious people, often, the more serious they are as people, the more invested they are in their current religions. So the very people who are most resonant with religious language, and most ethically serious, may be among the most natural opponents of MSL. Literary people may at least find value in my writing, though many might not be interested in joining a religion.
Something new to me about this project is the feeling of ambivalence I have toward it. My previous writing ventures have all felt clearly necessary, or sometimes if less necessary, at least clearly OK and desirable to work on. But this (after two days at it) feels like a job, something I really don't feel like doing, but which I show up to, my brain warmed up to it, fortunately so far not burning out on it. There are other things I would rather be doing, and I think when my social situation permits it, that is likely what I'll switch to.