Category Archives: Short of Love
CAN LOVE BE COMMODIFIED?
Tom and Vicki meet at university in Liverpool in the Beatles era. When she tricks him into being tested on a lie detector, her questions are intrusive and he loses trust in her, but becomes obsessively in love with this capricious feline.
To escape being distracted from his studies by her, he suspends being with her until he can complete his course of studies. This is satirised as a short trade in a commodity. Dealing in love as a commodity lands him in trouble with her.
The novel Short of Love is a humorous semi-autobiographical troubled romance.
When his studies are completed, he tries to take up with Vicki again. He doesn’t succeed immediately because he is in Canada working as an engineer. He keeps in touch with her and is successful in his job, becoming CEO of the company that exploits a developing country, Vicki opposes him. This is an exciting romance based on true events. Will Vicki and Tom ever trust each other and resolve their differences?
From Amazon. Reviews see: martinknox.com
LOVE SLAP LOSES TRUST
Short of Love (2018) is a novel by Martin Knox, similar to ‘The Slap’ by Christos Tsiolkas (2008). Both novels commence with dramatic incidents pivotal in relationships throughout the stories.
The Slap is bitterly disputed within a family, whereas in Short of Love, Vicki tricks Tom to take a lie detector test, as a university student in Liverpool in the Beatles era, losing his trust. Knox’s book satirizes conventional love relationships and when Tom commodifies their love it backfires disastrously, blowing him and Vicki apart. He is obsessed with her, becoming an irrepressible hippy and a vulnerable CEO. It is a tantalizing love story, a fast-moving page turner with an unexpected ending.
Available on Amazon. Reviews at martinknox.com
NOVEL FICTION HAVING PURPOSES
from author Martin Knox.
1. THE GRASS IS ALWAYS BROWNER (2011)
speculates on Australian society in 250 years in the future, in terms of population, sovereign territory, trade with Indonesia, religion, climate, resources, science, government and urban reconstruction. Abajoe is the indigenous prime minister, with a gene for sharing.
2. PRESUMED DEAD (2018)
has novel crime reconstruction analysis and a think tank, applied to corruption in an Australian political, government and corporate setting, with solutions proposed for the problems of partisan politics and hegemony in urban development. Protagonist Jane is a feisty political independent.
3.SHORT OF LOVE (2019)
is a humorous novel satirizing a love relationship in which love is a commodity traded with an expectation of gain. The story explores the relationship of Tom and Vicki, what they want from each other and how they go about getting it. Tom is a corporate CEO and Vicki a psychologist.
4. TIME IS GOLD (2020)
presents a story of novel achievement by ambition, training and love, in elite marathon running and physics. A couple join forces and make a winning breakthrough in psychology and neuroscience. Maxi wants to break the world record in the pole vault.
5. ANIMAL FARM 2 ( 2021)
is an update of Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945), on a tropical island controlled by Russia. Totalitarianism continues during the Cold War and into modern times, with a new paradigm of climate change and superpower geopolitics. The animals learn English and science and oppose rule by the pigs with animal liberation. Dimitri faces another rebellion of the farm animals.
6. TURKEYS NOT BEES (2022)
is speculative fiction satirizing opposition by governments in Australia, to the individualism of Megan, an elite Athlete and her boyfriend Chance, an elite philosopher. Their conflict with the nanny state, sports and Covid industries, reveals the precarious state of individual freedom. Through non-violent disobedience, they depose collectivism and replace it with an individual-friendly regime.
Available from Amazon. Reviews and excerpts see martinknox.com
PERFORMING BETTER IN OWNED TIME
Living in my time, not wearing a watch and doing things when I feel like it, seems to run against the self-control and personal interdependence that Norbert Elias, 1897-1990, called the civilizing process. He identified a dramatic reduction in homicides in England. The trend became the theme of Pinker’s tome ‘The Better Angels of Our Nature.’ He explained that youth rebellion worldwide is a counterculture against social time, when timeliness has become a personal battle, from A Clockwork Orange to the hippy movement.
In 2022 we have achieved historically low homicide rates worldwide, without the stress of obeying ‘Slessor’s little fidget wheels’ which would impose clock time. We can choose to have our cake of time freedom and eat it too, by allowing ourselves to flow timelessly, by optimal achievement, according to Mihaly’s theory of that psychological condition.
My novels ‘Time is Gold’ and ‘Turkeys Not Bees’ tell stories about high achievers who have let flow take over their time. Reviews: martinknox.com
