This post was originally published on murderiseverywhere.substack.com.
It’s very hot in Singapore right now. Yes, it’s always hot in Singapore, but right now it’s bad enough that I’m getting morning UV warnings from the Ministry of Health to stay under shade and wear sunscreen.
It’s also prescription antihistamines time for me because of all the smoke from roadside offerings in addition to the heat and haze from fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
But I can’t stay indoors because of course there’s…
And walking is extra thrilling for Sophia right now because it’s also Hungry Ghost Month.
This is when the gates of Hell are opened and the ghosts come back to visit. That means everywhere we go there’s smoke coming out of metal bins and designated burning areas as well as on the roadside. People burn paper money, paper cars, paper iPhones and paper computers… and of course there are the roadside food offerings which this small, well fed dog finds fascinating.
But this makes me wonder: if a banned book is burned in this world, does it head straight into a hell library for ghosts? Perhaps there’s an excellent library in that dimension, and… maybe I should start thinking about ritually burning my own books as offerings during Ghost Month… offering them to all my writer ancestors who are the reason why I’m here and writing now.
Though that’s probably not the most efficient way of showing respect.
I’d been thinking about efficiency but not getting very far—Like, what’s the most efficient way to handle doggie poop walks?
Answer: The most efficient way is to not have a dog.
What’s the most efficient way to make a living from writing?
Answer: Most likely, by day trading on the side…
But if we’re all still here writing despite the many more direct ways to make money, why do we do it?
I think it’s because writing is Play as Aristotle would define it: doing something where the process is the goal; because a good life isn’t built on accumulation or achievement, but on fully exercising our unique human abilities.
We don’t write murder mysteries to accumulate wealth (like we don’t become vigilantes to get justice) I think we write because it’s an engaging game we’ve gotten addicted to.
Like all other games from chess to the Hunger Games, mystery fiction relies entirely on artificial rules.
As writers, we exist in this bizarre, self created paradox where we have godlike powers over our fictional universes, yet are bound by the rules of our sandboxes.
The real challenge of writing a mystery isn’t just delivering a fair-play solution in a book that hits all the bestseller lists (though that would be nice—)
It’s the joyous, tricky, frustrating play process that engages and engrosses us and keeps us awake, curious and human long before it gets put before any reader. It’s for how playing the intricate, challenging writing game changes us, even as we put all our efforts into levelling up.
We create murders for the fun of it, not for the money. And it’s great, precisely because it’s difficult and full of inconvenient, irrelevant side quests and fascinating rabbit holes.
But now I’m wondering about creating an app for Ghost Offering ritual burnings of books (e-books, for ecological reasons) to announce new releases, listing the ancestral spirits it pays tribute to—and we can send ‘ashes’ or half burned sample pages to anyone who lights a joss stick to ask for updates…