1 Peer To Peer.

I've rewritten this damn thing at least five times, so I'm going to keep it as simple as possible and write out the purpose of this book and why I've written it. Why cause a complication when simplicity is the mother of all calamity?

This book is here to prove a point that everyone has gotten softer, the world is a husk of what it was, and eventually we'll end up like this.

It's really that simple. There's no need to oversimplify it right? You can work out the rest, it can't be that difficult. This is my first book after all. Mainly it's used as a test drive, to see if I can actually write.

The factor to shock an audience is gone from current modern literature. Books that I've read and that seem to release around this time (September-December 2020 in which Peer to Peer was written) seem a lot safer and honestly a lot similar to one another. No one sets themselves out of the societally accepted and almost obligatory 'Safe Zone' all of the novels end up in. Murders are predicted, souls are left unaltered, and most people simply put the book down and move on, picking up someone almost as uninspiring. All of your books are made of money, for money, with money in mind. It's honestly saddening. What happened to the days at which a book would leave you at the edge of your seat? Cause you to quickly turn the page due to tension? Where you'd say "only five minutes" and end up spending up to hours just reading? It's the main reason this book is released on a writing platform that's free. It's the main reason I didn't immediately approach a publishing company. It's the main reason I didn't and haven't promoted it. For is 'art' truly art if no one sees it once it's completed? The thief of the Mona Lisa, Vincenzo Perugia, kept it to himself, occasionally singing it songs. Art is subjective in the similar way a perspective can be altered by storytelling and direct interaction. The stories of knights and princes taught us manners and normalities. The stories that fight monsters teach us how to identify and fend for ourselves. The stories that you read as you age show a level of maturity, one that you then have to continue to follow. People are here for a perspective, wether it's the one they expected or not is an entirely different story to tackle later, but for now? Simplicity. This is not here to alter your perspective. This is a direct address to you. Only you. Yes. You. Growth is achieved in multiple ways, grief being a primary one. Wholly accepting the belief of never changing results in a world that is behind itself, but too much change too fast creates a dystopia, a world in which nothing thrives, and all eventually succumb to the 'Dead Zone:' An area in which those who advance too fast are locked in, the walls constantly expanding and churning its garbled and heinous crap out. A sickening display of technology that has surpassed Orwell's 1984: A world so disgusted with its constant growth it's decided it's cure to the disease humanity is to twist the clock back so many years. Sure, some modern items are still strewn around, but I guess some people just enjoy the taste of their own position. Cant change it. Cant charge it. Cant even alter it. Meanwhile, in the real world you are trying so desperately to hide and escape from, we have a reality that is on the brink of collapse: Man himself has an intolerance to man, and refuses to acknowledge the imminent end of days we all very slowly trudge towards. Whilst all of this occurs, here I sit in my English Literature A Level class. Trying to craft the begin I g of my version of Modern Gospel: (God, I hype myself up too much.) What you don't want to hear, but honestly need to, even if it is my book. Nothing is off the radar here, just so the air stays clean when you open it. People burn, kids die, and despicable things still happen everyday, it's just society has gotten used to turning the other way. Well here you have to read them. You will. You have a choice not to, but you won't leave. You're either going to be numb to it, laugh at it because your humour is dark, (like incredibly dark) or react with such a level of disgust you'll almost want to challenge me on the creation of it. It's simple: I wrote this book as a purpose to both shine light on the idea that things still happen everyday, and to piss some people off. Hey, sue me, but I think it's incredible.

Enjoy the book, and don't complain about it. You know what you're getting into once you open it. You read the description. Alright? Okay, cool.

-TheGuide

P.S I dreamed of being someone famous one day, but if this book takes off I'm using it as a demonstration of subversion of expectation and push it to be a text used in A Level and GCSE classes. Why? Because all the other texts bored me to death. Here's some modern philosophy to generate some damn conversation. Anyway, I should probably focus on class now, right? Yeah, I should. Alright, well, I hope it isn't too scarring.