This attitude and its conflict with other ways of thinking about writing and the marketplace is discussed in my last and final CS blog post from 2015.
Publishing for Impact
Often after seeing reviews of my books, I am left with the impression that even if reading the book had been an enjoyable experience, ultimately no impact has been made. Lives have not been changed. Minds have not been touched. The worldview they came in with is intact. And that's okay, but I always hope.
Today, Facebook told me that the fans of Our Lady of Kaifeng had not heard from me in a while. Not knowing what to post, I scoured the internet for new mentions. I did not find any new reviews, but I found something even better. Our Lady of Kaifeng: Courtyard of the Happy way was mentioned when discussing the meaning of the word autoist.
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| Source: Stackexchange |
The impact I am having is not literary or political -- but I am making a contribution to the English language!
Why is the word "autoist" necessary to describe someone who does things only for the love of the thing? Because "hedonist" isn't right, and "selfish" or "egoist" have all those negative connotations, and because while "autistic" is actually closer than you think, it, too, is heavy with misconceptions.
So there you have it: the opposite of an altruist is an autoist, not an egoist. And altruist, in case you are wondering, is just "social metaphysician" with a positive connotation. So the opposite of an egoist is a social metaphysician. But if you want to avoid words with negative connotations for the concepts you are discussing, just use autoist and altruist. They are pretty much self-explanatory, if you understand the etymology.
