Reluctance: Journal of a Reluctant Writer

This autobiographical-cum-philosophical journal is effectively the sequel to 'Limitless' (2012), since it continues from where the previous such project leaves off, being in many respects its logical corollary. Not only is the autobiography taken beyond the situation that existed towards the close of 2012, but so, too, in a number of ways is the philosophy, so that one gets a fuller perspective on both the subjective and objective, the personal and vocational aspects of the writer's life that both complements and resolves the subject matter of its prequel, taking it to a new level in a similar, albeit stylistically different, vein to the way that 'Fixed Limits' (1976) went beyond 'Changing Worlds' (1976) and somehow resolved many of its outstanding issues, since effectively existing within the context of a 'changed world' from that in which John O'Loughlin had previously lived. So, too, in 'Reluctance', does the author find himself existing in a different social situation and mileu from that in which 'Limitless' was written, though whether or not it marks an improvement, given the justifications adduced for his reluctance to write, is a debatable point, and one which the reader will have to decide for himself, much as one would like to think that, even with all the grounds adduced for being reluctant, Mr O'Loughlin has rarely written anything eschatologically and ontologically better or more credibly profound within the general framework of his ideological philosophy of Social Theocracy.