I'm a chronic daydreamer. I have been all my life. I grew up reading the fantasy novels of my father, learning and playing D&D by myself, and dozing off to flights of fancy. A younger me, blithe to the enormities of my kind, aspired towards the more humane pursuits in life. Puberty and trauma, however, brought its fair share of nihilism, and a young man with bright prospects as an Astrophysicist abandoned everything to a sense of emptiness.
Many years ago I had idle fantasies of becoming an author - I daydreamed and loved stories anyways, so why not? – but I still stuck with the sciences through college. The Misanthropist's Guide to Philanthropy is an amalgamation of several things: I had dreams of writing a book about a young elf girl hunting her parent's murderer; I had started seeing the disgusting state of humanity and its greed for what it was; and my mental state kept driving me further and further into a state of paranoia and isolation.
In my late teens to my early twenties I wrote what you will start seeing as of today. All throughout my childhood I crafted my own twist on a high fantasy world, with its own magical systems, storied history, ECT. I used the basis of this world design and implemented my more adult understanding of the world to craft a fiction about an individual who views the human race from an extrospective perspective.
The Misanthropist's Guide to Philanthropy (the title is perhaps the most clever, sardonic joke I've ever thought of) is an anthology of stories following this individual as he ruminates on some of the events that lead him to this low point in his life. It delves into the philosophy and tribulations of someone who disassociates himself from humanity whilst still trying to maintain some semblance of ambiguous "morality." The story structure of this first volume is inspired heavily by a book I read shortly before committing to writing it, Andrzej Sapkowski's "The Last Wish," which had come out in English translation a couple years prior to me penning it. I liked how he effectively used the book as a character introduction to kick off what would eventually become his world famous "Witcher" series. As someone whose writing always struggled being too prolix, I appreciated the idea of using "throw away" stories to get the point across.
Anyways, I'm in my late 20s now. I wrote this book back while I was still in college and have just sort of been sitting on the manuscript for years now with no real impulse to do anything with it. Due to the current global situation, I'm currently working only one of my two jobs, so I've had a lot of free time on my hands. I'm really just putting this out here for posterity's sake.
I always fancied getting it out there, making some money off of it, and making a career out of turning it into a series…but I've since lost the ambition. I still have the ideas for four more books stored in my head, but no longer have the time for it. Perhaps one day.
A few words, before we start –
I will be releasing one chapter per week (tentative) – While the whole manuscript of Vol 1 is finished, it's just that, a first draft. I did my best to edit as I went along; but I want to put my best foot forward, so to speak, even no one reads it and I don't make a dime off of it. I still work 40-50 hrs per week, so I'm going to take a little time each weekend to polish it up before I drop the next chapter. I hope you understand.
I wrote this in Word – During college Microsoft Office 2007 saved my life. I've never used Wattpad/Webnovel before and I have no idea how I'm going to translate this format…It may just be a Ctrl+C/V kind of thing. The thing is, I formatted it a little more eloquently: proper punctuation, tabbing the start of my paragraphs, centering titles/subtitles, using bold and italics to emphasize words, ECT. I also usually denote a shift in "scenes" with an extra line between paragraphs. I'm really hoping I can get it to just…work. But please bear with me if it looks like shit for a while, I really don't want to go through each and every line to make sure things work out alright.
I may eventually do something supplemental – I poured a lot of my heart and soul into this story, these characters, and this world. I think it may be kind of fun to do some "behind the scenes" stuff for this, eventually. This IS NOT a promise, but I'm thinking of making a Youtube channel or something for some background stories about inspirations, or QnAs and such.
THIS. BOOK. IS. TWISTED! – I have seen some terrible things in my life. When I wrote this book I was in a very dark place mentally. I poured my animus, my odium, my vehement fury into writing this tale and presenting it in a very exaggerated way. I would encourage you to look elsewhere for a "happy" story. Have you ever read "A Clockwork Orange?" While its literary validity and social commentary may not be as eloquent as that book, you can be sure the content is twice as fucked up. You have been warned.
Anyhow, I hope you're ready for a ride through the brain of a paranoid schizophrenic with Aspergers Syndrome!
Thank you for your patronage!
-Z