Important Themes of The Eternal Reflection

A dominant philosophical theme I used in the novel series is existentialism. This refers to people such as Knut Hamsun, Jean-Paul Sartre, Nikolai Gogol, Albert Camus, and Hermann Hesse. Altogether, the novel series explores the following:

(i) Questions of existence concerning the cosmos

(ii) Inner emotions, thoughts, and morality

(iii) Themes of mortality and death

Literarily speaking, it employs two main methods of writing: phenomenology and psychological realism. This is based partially on the styles of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Patrick Suskind, and John Coetzee. Following people like Mo Yan, Leo Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky, my work portrays the inner, psychological world vividly. This involves switching from first-person perspectives between characters (like Alice Walker’s The Color Purple). I gave intense phenomenological coverage of many areas. This involves enlightenment, meditation, mental illnesses, and spiritual soul-seeking processes.

Because it is a fantasy novel, it employs imaginative realism. I drew influences from Cheng’en, J.R.R. Tolkiens, Terry Goodkind, Indian/Persian/Chinese epics, and M.P. Shiel. Altogether. It aims for extensive worldbuilding, involving the fictional fantasy of an alternate reality.

The novel also draws from Romanticism and Humanism. I wrote my characters with deep emotional and humanistic overtones. It is a character-driven work. Thus, each character goes through many distinct issues that span the gamut of human experience (its sufferings and joys). It pays homage to human sentiments and experiences. I also drew influences from Dark Romanticism and modern horror (Nathaniel Hawthorne, Joseph Conrad, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft) to cover human existence's negative aspects. Another source of my influence comes from Transcendentalism (Emily Dickinson, David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson). In my work, I focus on emphasizing the unity of the cosmos.

The prose tends to be literary and florid. It is partially reminiscent of 20th Century, Victorian, or Gothic authors. However, the goal is not to make verbose, high-flung prose like Oscar Wilde or Herman Melville. Due to modern demands, I made it far more readable while retaining some of its core essences. I cannot entirely agree with functionalistic and minimalistic prose. Therefore, to a certain extent, my prose choice is counter-cultural.

It employs a highly ethnographic writing style, where I breathe life, rich worldbuilding, and psychological narratives to many scenes. This novel series is unlike many modern thrillers that mainly focus on action. Read this novel as you would sip and appreciate a chalice of wine slowly, rather than gulp it down.

A major source of my philosophical influences comes from spirituality. Spirituality is not dogma or religion – it simply means finding one’s voice, meaning, and purpose in the cosmos. Throughout my books, I refer to phenomena such as meditation, the unity of the cosmos, the illusions of space and time, and the transcendence of matter. I explore disciplines such as Eastern philosophy, Anthroposophy, Theosophy, Neo-Vedantism, modern Integral Psychology, and Meditative states.

Because I have read many disciplines, I tend to have a very eclectic mixture of many ideas across dozens of disciplines. Throughout my novels, I will discuss many cosmological ideas. These include:

1. Cosmology: This involves John Wheeler’s and Frank Tipler’s cosmology of a self-defining universe. It explores what free will truly is and whether we have personal responsibility.

2. Psychology and Consciousness: I will also explore ideas in psychology, such as Ken Wilbur’s Integral Psychology and various ego-developmental theories. My works generally suggest that civilization evolves from individuated consciousness to an all-encompassing cosmic perspective.

3. Alternate physical and mathematical structures: I delve into areas such as the physical sciences, astrophysics, and mathematics, and explore ideas such as Penrose’s diagram for parallel universes. Then I show how morality and psychology differ based on different laws of biology or physics.

4. Linguistics: In language, I explore the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and Chomsky’s structuralism. I show how thoughts affect reality.

5. Philosophy of life: I also explore philosophies of life, such as those of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. Generally, I believe that life is a chalice of wine to be consumed rather than to be looked at.

6. Sociology: Because I have degrees in Sociology, many volumes will explore means to better humanity by framing new alternate social and economic structures. My master’s thesis heavily influences my character development style.

7. Spirituality, Religion, God, Theology: Being interested in literature and religions, I will make many references to ideas such as the Tao De Ching, Rig Veda, or Tibetan Buddhism. I also explore Jordan Peterson’s idea of god and religion. The general idea I believe in is pantheism.

8. Esoteric knowledge: The explorations are not limited to conventional sciences, arts, or humanities. Sometimes, I can delve into esoteric sources such as altered consciousness or the soul's existence and the afterlife (I had an out-of-body experience before; long story). I refer to the works of people like Michael Newton, Brian Weiss, or Victor Zammit.

9. Postmodernism: It is also highly postmodern and post-essentialist (Foster Wallace, Derrida, etc.). It explores non-essential forms of existences and alternate forms of morality. It is also based on moral relativism rather than absolutism.

10. Others: I also cover things in mathematics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, neurology, or the computer sciences. This includes linking the works of logical positivism, Gödel, Boole, Fodor, Frege, and Wittgenstein to linguistics.  

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Each of the primary protagonists and antagonists represents a part of my psyche. In the end, it is a dialogue with myself to unravel and cope with certain psychological impediments in my life to uncover their meanings and purposes.