LONELINESS is our society’s shame. It’s something unspoken, something that we are ashamed to admit. The word means so many things to so many people. It causes physical and emotional pain within us. It makes us do strange things, makes us think strange thoughts. It makes us become and/or be who we are not, makes us seek out bad company, makes us act inappropriately. Surely, now is the time to discuss its devastating effects.
Yet, we don’t. Why? Because to admit to being lonely is to admit we have failed as humans. Yet despite failure being rebranded these days as something good - in a corporate sense - on a personal level, failure is still viewed as something deeply wrong, something that proves we are not all we should be.
Still the chatter around the subject of loneliness settles in around the superficial; rubbish chatter along the lines that we wouldn’t be lonely if we only made an effort, if we socialised more, if we made more friends, if we tried new things, if we changed our jobs, our lives, if only we became a better, more rounded human being.
Of course, deep down every single one of us knows that this is all nonsense.
You’ve heard the sayings; you can be lonely in a room full of people, you can be lonely if you have hundreds of friends, if you just try to socialise more you’ll bleach the loneliness out of your life, and all will be well.
Loneliness is - in our view - and we do discuss this topic quite regularly at our little press - those physical feelings you get when you don’t feel accepted, when you feel that your efforts are not being noticed or are being put down; when you struggle with life because of money, relationships or your environment. To us, loneliness equals powerlessness and lack of autonomy.
In our stunning soon-to-be-released anthology - called ALONE - journeys inside the solo life - each of our writers tell the story of their characters’ feelings of powerlessness, in the face of life events, their loneliness is not because of any human failing - never - it’s due to the circumstances they find themselves in, the way their world makes them feel.
None of our writer’s characters have done anything to deserve the predicaments they find themselves in, but life deals them all a bum hand and their very existence, their humanness is called into question. They are seen as somehow lacking, by society and by themselves. A person can seem to have everything, but that is never the full story.
To feel lonely is never shameful, it’s always our eternal truth. We all suffer from it and we all need to talk about it.
Email us at hello@8dpress.co.uk to reserve your copy of our next anthology of Scottish fiction, entitled Alone - journeys inside the solo life - due out in early January 2023. No purchase necessary at this stage. We will let you know when this paperback is out and send you a link so you can buy it online through our website.