“Today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups… So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.”
Philip K. Dick
Hi! My name is Miles Schneiderman, and I like to write about stuff. Usually I write essays that border on small novels, but for this here About page, I’m going to keep it short. None of the content you’ll find on this page is fiction, but most of it is about fiction, or at least about stories. Stories fascinate me, and while I enjoy creating them, I’m more interested in examining those told by others and discovering the lessons they hold. That’s what this website is all about.
The latest incarnation of Universes of the Mind is divided into four sections, which represent my four primary areas of interest (currently):
The Book of Hugo Project is my effort to expand my knowledge of science fiction by reading the winners of the Hugo Award for Best Novel in chronological order and writing about them. This is the section that currently has the most content, as it was the original content for this entire site.
Bells and Wristlocks is the place to go for all my writing about one of my great loves, professional wrestling. I’m working on this content with the intent of allowing it to be understood by anyone, but you will probably get a lot more out of it if you happen to be a wrestling fan. If you’re not, hit me up on social media and I’ll be happy to convert you!
Wide Left is about looking at professional sports in America, particularly the National Football League, through a progressive political lens. Lots of people will tell you sports shouldn’t be political. Unfortunately for them (and occasionally for the rest of us) everything is political.
The Infinite is where I’ll be talking about any other media that doesn’t fit into the first three categories, including news media, movies, comic books, and anything else that catches my eye long enough for me to write about it. Expect lots of stuff about the MCU, genre fiction, and extreme leftist politics.
If you’ve gotten through all of that and you’re still wondering who I am, I have to say, I’m impressed. You deserve some sort of reward for that. Here are some links!
P.S. By the way, in case it’s not clear, this site is kind of a work-in-progress, so keep checking back for updates and keep being patient. Also, that picture up there is absolutely a placeholder, in case you were wondering. It’s kind of a nice picture, though. I took it myself; it’s from Ruby Beach in Washington. Matches the color scheme. On a completely unrelated note, hit me up if you happen to be a graphic artist. No reason.
Universes of the Mind 