Writing

Posted on by Opher

I prefer writing to reading and I love reading! My head fills up with thoughts and ideas that I am driven to write down. As soon as I have committed them to paper I am free of them. I find the creativity essential to my mental well-being. I become elated when I write. I love making up stories.

My wife says I am obsessive. I would prefer to see myself as driven. Writing is a compulsion.

I have been writing books for forty four years. I doubt that I will ever stop.

I do not write in order to become ‘successful’. That is not the motivation. I know it will never make me rich and famous. I write in order to revel in the joy of communication. I write to attempt to capture the thoughts that are in my head, commit them to the tangible symbols of words and understand them better myself. I write because I am an idealist who wants to change the world for the better; who believes that we can make it better and who believes in the power of words. I write for the sheer joy of it.

I write for myself. I do not write for a market. Because of that I am totally unrestrained. My work is often shocking, extreme and pornographic. So be it. That is what comes out.

I know that writing for yourself is indulgent and does not achieve the stated aims of improving the world and communicating with others. This is a conundrum. I know that if I was hopelessly stranded on a desert island I would still write. Yet I also know that any creative person requires an audience. I need an audience in order for the process to be complete. To be completely satisfied I need to know that people are reading my books. That is why I have published fifteen of them so far.

Being in the luxurious position of being retired with a pension that enables me to live I can and am devoting myself to rewriting all those books that have come out of my type-writer over these last four and a half decades. I have the time, energy and inclination. I am enjoying myself.

Hopefully I will ruffle a few feathers, gain a few friends, shock a number of people, and have a great deal of fun in the process.

Sometimes I write graphically about torture, environmental degradation, exploitation and war. I write in the hopes that these things will improve. I want to shine a spotlight on them. I write because I am angry. I write so that they we can raise our awareness and sensibilities. I write in order that those things will not happen.

I write about sex because I think our culture is hung up about it. Sex is natural. It should not be taboo or embarrassing. We have made it so.

I write about the future as a warning.

I write to relieve the pressure cooker in my head and because I love doing it.

I hope you might enjoy being my audience.

My books are available on Amazon under Opher Goodwin. Why don’t you have a look and see what you think?

This is me!

Posted on by Opher

Controversial, uncompromising, shocking, extreme, quirky, thought-provoking, passionate, extraordinary, embarrassing, ridiculous, intense, humorous, industrious, caring, idealistic, old, unstoppable, infuriating, outspoken, dangerous, thoughtful, energetic, unrealistic, imaginative, clumsy, angst-ridden, driven, impatient, concerned, anxious, impetuous, compassionate, empathetic, angry, articulate, inarticulate, loving, caring, upset, deep, shallow, intellectual, stupid, funny, lustful, zest, spicy, obstinate, individual, unique, furious, fervent, incompetent, adventurous……………………

 

There are many sides to my personality. Which do you see?

 

Zeitgeist is the way forward.

Posted on by Opher

There are times when we become aware that we are in an enormous society directed by people with power. We feel powerless to influence it or change its direction. We feel helpless.

All around us society is  engaged in destructive behaviour – an insane rush for growth, the selfish acquisition of wealth and power, the destruction of the environment, pollution, religious conflict, war, and exploitation of other people. The resulting hatred and poverty engulfs us all. It seems futile to resist all this as we have no influence.

I do not believe that. I believe all creative people should be involved in putting out an alternative positive vibe. I do not think this is religious or spiritual; I believe that there is a process of the brain that creates a zeitgeist that we live in.

Help build a positive zeitgeist!  Visit Opher’s World – https://ophersworld.com/

 

This is what I believe!

Posted on by Opher

I live on a small planet going round an average sun.

My body is an incredible phenomenon created by billions of years of evolution. My consciousness is even more amazing and created by the same way.

My awareness came out of nothing when I was in the womb and will go back to nothing after I die.

I share this incredible planet with billions of other life forms which evolved in the same way as me. Many of them share the same attributes as me. Some are quite different but all have very similar biochemistry. This life is a spectrum created by the evolution of the stupendous DNA molecule. This DNA molecule interacts with proteins to create a phenomena we call life.

At this moment in time my species, having wiped out all other human species, has temporarily overcome most of the predators that kept our numbers in check and all other limiting factors. We are not likely to be eaten by fierce animals, killed by disease or restricted by lack of food, water or adverse conditions. Therefore our numbers are increasing exponentially and we are using up space, resources and the natural environment. In the process we are killing off other species at an alarming rate. We do not seem to understand that we are part of a fragile ecosystem the destruction of which will destroy us. We do not recognise other life forms as possessing intelligence, consciousness or feelings. They are lesser forms of life to be cruelly destroyed or thoughtlessly eradicated.

Many of our species have formed a superstitious belief that we were ‘created’ and there is a wonderful ‘plan’ for us. They are not too bothered by the destruction around us. It is part of the ‘plan’.

Many of our species are sitting comfortably in their own little bubble in which the ‘real’ world does not intrude. That’s just how they like it.

Many of our species are obsessed with owning more whatever the cost.

Many of our species are living hand to mouth and trying desperately to survive. They will use and eat whatever comes their way.

Unless this is addressed on a global scale we will thoughtlessly destroy something that is miraculous.

I do not believe we will destroy life. What is left after we are gone, even if it is only bacterial slime, will form another incredible, but different ecosystem, after a few billion years.

It is the thoughtless cruelty I detest.

Of course we can do something about it and alter the Zeitgeist!!

An attempt to lighten up!

Posted on by Opher

It seems to me that what the world really needs is a lot more fun. Things have got far too serious. There should not be so much cruelty, hatred and sectarian violence. We should all lighten up and be peaceful, happy, helpful, loving and friendly.

For that reason I would like to propose that we all take a mandatory look, once a day, at George Carling. It should replace superfluous stuff like praying. Instead of pointless prayers to an invisible supernatural human construct we should take the time to lighten our minds, bring in a little mirth and have fun.

I suggest everyone should check out George Carling – ‘religion is bullshit’ and ‘the ten commandments’ on Youtube:

The ten commandments – http://youtu.be/CE8ooMBIyC8

Religion is bullshit – http://youtu.be/8r-e2NDSTuE

Then, having refreshed the spirit with a little light relief, we can get back to looking at Opher’s World and start considering all the shit that governments and religions don’t want us to think about. We can exercise our intelligence, turn on the brain, stop believing anything the government tells us, discount everything we read in newspapers and start trying to stop the destructive ravages of war, overpopulation, ecosystem destruction, poverty and religious hatred.

They are things that can be solved. We can create a better world. All the rhinos, elephants, whales, chimps, tigers and gorillas do not have to die. Let’s feel really good by making things better.

Opher’s World is about a better zeitgeist!

The solution to immigration

Posted on by Opher

England, like many developed countries, has too large a population. It also has a very high standard of living compared to most of the world.

Many people in the third world are desperate to get to England and escape the terrible conditions in their own countries. They want a job and a better life for themselves and their children. They risk their lives to get here.

We do not want them here because we have too many people, there is not the infrastructure or facilities and we are concerned that our culture is at risk.

We can put up obstacles to prevent immigration. We can legislate to keep them out. We can fight a xenophobic war against immigrants. We can become racist and fascist.

I have a better solution.

Why don’t the super-rich capitalists refrain from creating poverty in the third world, which they exploit for profit, and enable the whole world to stabilise, educate themselves, restrict their population, develop prosperity and not need to emigrate to survive?

If there wasn’t the huge differential of wealth across the globe there would not be a problem.

Capitalism creates poverty.

Until the selfish and greedy super-rich elite develop empathy and compassion, or there are international laws to restrict their predatory sociopathic tendencies, we will have poverty, war, conflict and misery.

In the midst of plenty most still go hungry…………… It cannot be right.

Someone is rewriting my past

Posted on by Opher

I have read voraciously through the whole of my life. It has given me more pleasure than any other activity. I know – I know – but a book will last for hours!

It is not unusual for people to ask me what my favourite books were and I’d trot them out. There were the usual suspects:

Jack Kerouac – Dharma Bums and On the Road

John Fowles – Magus

John Steinbeck – East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath

Ken Kessey – Sometimes a Great Notion and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

DH Lawrence – Sons & Lovers, Women in Love & Lady Chatterley’s

Henry Miller – Tropic of Capricorn

Aldous Huxley – Brave New World and Island

George Orwell – 1984 and Keep the Aspidistra Flying

Joseph Heller – Catch 22

Robert Heinlein – Stranger in a Strange Land

Jerry Rubin – Do It!

Robert Sheckley – Journey Beyond Tomorrow

Larry Niven – Ringworld

Kurt Vonnegut Jnr – Breakfast of Champions and Ice Nine

Plus a few hundred more!

Then I got to thinking and I realised that a number of these books that I had revered I had read in my teens and early twenties. That meant that I had not read them for over forty years.

I decided that it would be good to go back and see if they were as good as I remembered them being. So I began to intersperse them with my current reading. Do you know what I discovered? Half of them had obviously been rewritten by inferior writers over the intervening years.

So come on you publishers – I want the original books back that I loved so much! Many of these are nowhere near as good as they were!

 

How about checking out my blog: http://ophersworld.com/

It might make you angry, sad or cheerful. Who knows?