Jakob Ryce

Latest

  • My Windup Brain

    It is now common knowledge that insomnia is a growing problem – more and more people are getting to bed late and rising late, or are simply sleeping less. Perhaps it’s the start of a kind of sleepless revolution where more cafes, shops and stores burn the midnight oil – much like they do in…

  • The Courage to Be Irrational

    Originally published in Dumbo Feather. Courage might just mean discovering the lost and hidden parts of ourselves   I was never a risk taker in my twenties. Not really. When confronted with a daunting challenge I usually crawled back into my comfort zone, where it was safe. I even signed up for a bungee jump…

  • The Exodus From Social Media Has Begun

    If Nils Frahm Can Do It, So Can I I woke up this morning to a newsletter from one of my favorite music labels, Erased Tapes. Still rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I read the headline: Nils Frahm… withdraws himself from social media. I lay back in my bed and smiled. I discovered Nils’ music…

  • Arc of the Meridian

    Arc of the Meridian is a poem I wrote earlier this year. It has finally found a home at Drunk Moneys and will be published in early 2019.

  • HOME, LIKE DYING EMBERS

    Home, Like Dying Embers is a weekly – fortnightly story series and bit of an experiment in self discipline. One of the problems many writers face is the inability to finish what they begin, including me. And while I don’t believe in lumping all your stories onto your blog, I do believe in sprinkling them…

  • ONE IN A THOUSAND

    My short story ‘One in a Thousand’ received Third Place in Issue #32 for On the Premises. Their prompt was: We challenged contestants to write a creative, compelling, well-crafted story between 1,000 and 5,000 words long in which a character (not necessarily the main character, but one important to the story) almost dies. In the…

  • The Static of Alzheimer’s Disease

    and reflections of my late father This weekend marks the 4-year anniversary of my father’s death. Dad died in July 2014 at the age of 65 from ‘Pick’s disease,’ a rare form of progressive dementia involving localized atrophy of the brain. His symptoms all pointed towards early-onset dementia, and we only learned of his true diagnoses…

  • Your Looking-Glass Self

    Why you should give up the need for validation You want to be popular, you want people to like you and that’s completely normal. Maintaining a healthy self esteem is vital. In fact, it’s becoming even more important as our society grows ever more competitive. And yet, the race towards popularity comes with some adverse…

  • Why Haruki Murakami is so Very Japanese

    by Jakob Ryce / 5th June, 2018 Haruki Murakami belongs to a new generation of contemporary authors who speak to the eclectic, progressive spirit of Japan, often communicating his theories through popular magazines and resisting traditional literary labels, such as ‘jun bungaku, pure literature, opting instead for the Anglicism fuikkushon, fiction’ (Stretcher 1998). And this…

  • Fahrenheit 451 & Bradbury’s Foresight of Fire

    by Jakob Ryce / 28th April 2018 In Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury creates a hedonistic society that thrives on ignorance, is dependent on technology and constantly distracted by ‘TV parlours’ (Bradbury, Ray 1953, p. 31). It’s a novel that’s shockingly prophetic and its concepts go far beyond the author’s own imaginings. Free-thinkers, or individuals in…