Universal Cultures

Jesus is God , God is Jesus . God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. That last sentence was spoken by Nietzsche, a man of philosophy (though really you could argue a man of many things) who wrote about it in Thus Spoke Zarathustra  (1883 - 1891), though was first used in The Gay Science  (1882). Of course, this idea could have been sparked by many others - Nietzsche was the first to really speak of it in great lengths. Religion is always a touchy subject for many, I'm quite open in my beliefs. Raised as a "be whoever you want to be" but with the influence of my paternal grandparents and their forceful nature, I grew up pretty Christian. Baptised under Anglicanism, my parents were married in a church (with both parents divorcing and remarrying with the religious ceremony replaced by a non-denominational wedding officiant), my maternal grandparents were raised in The Church of England (Anglican again) and it wasn't until I was in my teens when I t...

A lot of writers are different from what they write, but a lot are the same. I talk about philosophy and politics and queer culture and you'll find that in my work, I write philosophical pieces, I have politics in my fiction pieces, and almost at least 1 character isn't straight. So my beliefs are inputted into my work. For others is different, there are people who might write about morbid things, might write about politics or philosophy, but really on the outside, they're very different to that, and that's okay. It's okay to write differently to how you act, your public vs. private life (something I learnt about in my politics class funnily enough). It's okay to write the same as you act. In the end, you've created something that wasn't there, and no matter how you write, who you are, this piece of work is yours and it's beautiful. 

Melissa Taylor is a queer 23-year-old who is studying their 2nd-year Creative Writing at RMIT. They'll write science fiction, philosophical essays and urban fantasy, all the while looking to the likes of poetic prose from Allen Ginsberg, Rene Descartes' and Plato's philosophies, and the aesthetic of The Illuminae Files from Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman. Their philosophical essay Abortion: Ethical Thought (2014) published in The Kents Tomb by Holmesglen, and their non-fiction piece, My Coming Out Story (2015), was published in the queer zine, Alex. You can find them arguing with random people online about politics and why Mass Effect: Andromeda wasn't all that bad.