Degrees of Absurdity: A Novel

A teaser trailer of my book

Hofstadter’s Law states, “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law”. This definitely applies to me as I’ve been working on my first book. But in the meantime, I want to continue providing updates.

I’m fired up about this story. I’ve had so much fun writing it, and I think I really captured something about both an era and the human condition in this novel. I know that sounds a bit dramatic or whatever. I don’t care. That was part of my goal for doing this. That’s what fiction is all about. And that’s what I’m going to keep aiming to do in other books I write in the future.

I can’t wait to get it in your hands. My next steps are to hand out copies to beta readers and query literary agents. I’m also planning to submit the manuscript directly to some publishers who don’t require an agent for submission.

Alternatively, I’m exploring hiring an editor and designer to go the self-publishing route. As a young, first-time author with a politically incorrect book full of edgy humor, this is probably the more realistic route anyway and potentially a better one. Time shall tell.

Below is an AI-assisted sample of what the back cover of the book might look like. Much of this came from ChatGPT after I fed it my manuscript, and while I had to edit it, it did a pretty good job capturing the essence of the book.

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Degrees of Absurdity is a darkly funny campus satire about the search for truth within an ivy-covered circus of fear, hedonism, and progressive dogma.

Apollo Apate, an inner-city kid, makes a desperate gamble—conning his way into the prestigious Halbridge University—in hopes of rising above his rough background and finding success and meaning.

But as he navigates frat kings, activist cliques, and a viral campus scandal, Apollo’s lies begin to seem minimal compared with those of the institution itself. A brilliant physics professor becomes his only mentor; his idealistic roommate’s Black History Month speech ignites a firestorm; and a cynical opportunist turns victimhood into power. When the manufactured outrage spirals into violence, Apollo has to decide how much truth is worth.

Set on the eve of the COVID era—when paranoia, moral panic, and misinformation reached a fever pitch—Degrees of Absurdity blends social satire, philosophy, and moral drama. A comedy with tragic undercurrents, it is a story that exposes the absurdities of academic life and the dangers of ideological conformity.

It leaves readers asking one of the big questions of our time: Can universities and the West keep their soul alive, or is it already lost forever?

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