If it makes you feel any better, I am definitely interested in writing but I absolutely cannot stand to read writing about writing, especially on Substack.
One of the great things about Substack is supposed to be the way you can entirely avoid the debates and generally silly behavior that occurs on social media. The existence of Notes is what has made this thing possible, and it or something like it was bound to happen sooner or later. I find it very unfortunate that Substack the platform for writers has become so bound up with a social media platform for vitriol and clapback. The good news is that you can easily miss all of this by simply not going on Notes, and unsubscribing from any writers that take up this topic in their main newsletter. I'm guessing most of the people that subscribe to you don't subscribe to many publications that would even consider including this stuff in their main newsletter anyway.
Anyways, I renewed my paid subscription to make sure I don't miss out on what's going on here, I'm excited for your books (both those mentioned in this post and The Third Bird, which is sitting on my bookshelf, waiting to be opened after I finish what I'm currently reading). I'm not sure I'll ever make it to Paris--would you ever consider doing a similar workshop virtually?
Dec 18, 2023·edited Dec 18, 2023Liked by Justin Smith-Ruiu
I love this post and where it led to. But you started in the world of fiction, where I think the problem is not the medium as much as the structures that control it -- i.e. the corporate publishing industry or industries, and the economic system that surrounds and supports that. Nothing to be done, not by one or two or ten passionate fiction writers without a genre hook or a substantial platform or tiktokish instincts etc. Still I find more fiction to read than I have time to read, let alone all the brilliant re-reading to be done, and I mostly won't read on a screen, especially not fiction, so there you go for reading fiction (yours included, and thank you for the subsidized subscription just the same) online, I mostly can't do it, unless it's very very short. I read fiction and anything substantial in the form of books, printed on paper, bound. Short fiction now and then on a screen, a single poem, and so on, but really, this is not the way to read. Substack does offer more substance than most online reading but it still is online reading. I hope it's true that many Substack readers are like this, and this is why the 'stacks themselves are not so full of fiction. Sometimes they're serialized books, I've noticed, but I cannot bring myself to read them. Even as I consider posting some serialized thing here myself. May it never come to that. It would be a page in a bottle from a deserted island, hoping for a rescue. Cheers, again I loved this somewhat confessional post. And regret (for more reasons than this) that I'm not in Paris to enjoy your workshop or class or however you designated it. I too have pretty much sworn off travel, though not quite 100%
The question I have is how do you rationalize the soul and/or transcendentals with materialism? Do you even?
I've recently converted myself (and I suspect we may have read the same Thomist scholar) and even though I believe in a soul I can't escape agnostic skepticism. So right now I'm just grasping at straws looking at gestalt psychology and Jungian archetypes as somehow pointing the way. But I think I'm trying to divide by zero here.
Thanks for a great year of writing. Just “do you” as the kids say. Personally I’m interested in the way your newfound (or rediscovered) faith will find its way into your writing. Here’s to a successful 2024 for “The Hinternet.”
By the way, you mention Novalis. Have you read “The Blue Flower” by Penelope Fitzgerald? It’s a fictionalized account of his life. I have no idea how accurate it is (doesn’t matter really), and I suppose in this way it may be a bit like your own fictions. It’s a remarkable book.
Thanks for this Justin. I am another reader who likes to read fiction on the page. Will you still be publishing content on philosophy, history, what you are reading and your life changes/observations as well as the fiction?
Re. Fiction. My ongoing theory is that most people* use social media to talk about themselves, even when seemingly not talking about themselves. Writing about writing allows people to comment about themselves and see themselves. Fiction offers fewer direct opportunities to talk about oneself.
Thanks for this, Justin, and for another year of wonderful writing. I was wondering: do you have a link/ date/ any more information about the upcoming Paris workshop? I’m very interested and may need to be in town anyway, but would need to plan well in advance.
I haven’t seen a better takedown of pseudo-writing than yours here. I can’t afford to pay-subscribe; if you’re generous/foolish enough to comp me, I’ll try to pay lip service to the abstract idea of hypothetically making a good faith effort to take a stab at considering the possibility of eventually reading your stuff more often. As it were.
If not-- I understand. You’re bringing some much needed wisdom and sanity to this place, and i wish you well.
I agree with the people here saying they can't read fiction on a screen. I think it's because I tend to read faster when it's on a screen (probably just a habit formed by skimming through forums and news articles) and this can sort of work for nonfiction and blogs but with fiction is just makes everything feel flat and shallow.
As for the increase in people 'reading about writing fiction' rather than reading fiction, I'd say it links a lot to what David Shields called 'reality hunger', a book which is worth reading: he makes a case for why people are so much more interested now in nonfiction than fiction, and the rise of 'autofiction'.
I hate to be that guy but I'm going to ask if I could have subscription access without paying, because I love reading these posts but after moving to another part of the country (UK) this year I'm currently unemployed. Hopefully soon enough I'll be able to pay.
Dec 19, 2023·edited Dec 19, 2023Liked by Justin Smith-Ruiu
Subscribed! Individual substack writers are so far the only thing I subscribe to on the internet. Not claiming poverty here, but if you say that 60€ is the kind of money you can spend *by mistake every day*, then your finances must really be not bad at all :) And if the kind of subscriber engagement you are able to summon up on Substack allows you to move with your little family to a secluded farmhouse in some Atlantic nation, then godspeed and congrats!
About the decline of fiction, I'm not so surprised... Common culture has been getting increasingly practical, and the ugly side of that is showing. Appreciation for beauty is probably intrinsic to humanity, but talking and writing about it seems to be in decline, let alone writing things that need to be read allegorically instead of giving "the straight dope". I would never have anticipated that giving people unrestricted ability to publish and communicate across the whole world would result in a huge surge of doomerism, takemongering and partisanship, but that's the kind of mainstream we are getting. At least there are alternatives, and I appreciate your efforts to be one of those. Hey, at least this reader here will buck the trend in these comments - I really don't mind reading book-length stuff on a phone.
What you share about your spiritual conversion really resonates here. I'd say don't worry about 25 years or however long of unrepentant hedonism and materialism - each individual life history is what it is, things come when they are ready. I dove hard into spirituality (of the Eastern kind) quite young, and did the rounds while others were partying, so I get what you mean when you say that the knees know. There are real riches there somewhere, and it really doesn't come from the head. I have to say though — confession here! — that I have a really deep-seated sense of dread towards Christianity. The proximate cause is probably the recent political history in my country (Spain), where the Catholic Church has been very closely allied with the ugliest of right-wing social authoritarianism, but on a bad day the halo of it extends to the whole of Abrahamic monotheism. I'm not proud of it, but at some point you can't argue with your emotional conditioning; the best I can do is know where I stand, and temper it with the best antidote there is to all kinds of prejudice: regular human familiarity. So I find it really heart-warming to read your story, what your knees are discovering, and especially your awareness and commitment to humanity in its entire history.
I chuckled at your comment on the hierarchy of arts, and indifference towards high and low and fashion. Since you very rightly put music first, and shared a moving example of it, here is one that I've been playing repeatedly since I found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFSmJHwgJ7s
Yes, you should go all paywall, Justin, for all the reasons you stated. A mind that roves as far afield and fingers that type as much as yours should not be uncompensated for even a few paragraphs.
As with most other people commenting today, fiction on screens doesn’t work for me, either. I am especially interested in reading and writing historical fiction, particularly set in the period from 1897 through 1923. A Greek or a Turk and let’s through in an Albanian, a Serbian and of course you would know why this is such a fertile field. May your holidays be joyful.
If it makes you feel any better, I am definitely interested in writing but I absolutely cannot stand to read writing about writing, especially on Substack.
One of the great things about Substack is supposed to be the way you can entirely avoid the debates and generally silly behavior that occurs on social media. The existence of Notes is what has made this thing possible, and it or something like it was bound to happen sooner or later. I find it very unfortunate that Substack the platform for writers has become so bound up with a social media platform for vitriol and clapback. The good news is that you can easily miss all of this by simply not going on Notes, and unsubscribing from any writers that take up this topic in their main newsletter. I'm guessing most of the people that subscribe to you don't subscribe to many publications that would even consider including this stuff in their main newsletter anyway.
Anyways, I renewed my paid subscription to make sure I don't miss out on what's going on here, I'm excited for your books (both those mentioned in this post and The Third Bird, which is sitting on my bookshelf, waiting to be opened after I finish what I'm currently reading). I'm not sure I'll ever make it to Paris--would you ever consider doing a similar workshop virtually?
I love this post and where it led to. But you started in the world of fiction, where I think the problem is not the medium as much as the structures that control it -- i.e. the corporate publishing industry or industries, and the economic system that surrounds and supports that. Nothing to be done, not by one or two or ten passionate fiction writers without a genre hook or a substantial platform or tiktokish instincts etc. Still I find more fiction to read than I have time to read, let alone all the brilliant re-reading to be done, and I mostly won't read on a screen, especially not fiction, so there you go for reading fiction (yours included, and thank you for the subsidized subscription just the same) online, I mostly can't do it, unless it's very very short. I read fiction and anything substantial in the form of books, printed on paper, bound. Short fiction now and then on a screen, a single poem, and so on, but really, this is not the way to read. Substack does offer more substance than most online reading but it still is online reading. I hope it's true that many Substack readers are like this, and this is why the 'stacks themselves are not so full of fiction. Sometimes they're serialized books, I've noticed, but I cannot bring myself to read them. Even as I consider posting some serialized thing here myself. May it never come to that. It would be a page in a bottle from a deserted island, hoping for a rescue. Cheers, again I loved this somewhat confessional post. And regret (for more reasons than this) that I'm not in Paris to enjoy your workshop or class or however you designated it. I too have pretty much sworn off travel, though not quite 100%
The question I have is how do you rationalize the soul and/or transcendentals with materialism? Do you even?
I've recently converted myself (and I suspect we may have read the same Thomist scholar) and even though I believe in a soul I can't escape agnostic skepticism. So right now I'm just grasping at straws looking at gestalt psychology and Jungian archetypes as somehow pointing the way. But I think I'm trying to divide by zero here.
Thanks for a great year of writing. Just “do you” as the kids say. Personally I’m interested in the way your newfound (or rediscovered) faith will find its way into your writing. Here’s to a successful 2024 for “The Hinternet.”
By the way, you mention Novalis. Have you read “The Blue Flower” by Penelope Fitzgerald? It’s a fictionalized account of his life. I have no idea how accurate it is (doesn’t matter really), and I suppose in this way it may be a bit like your own fictions. It’s a remarkable book.
Thanks for this Justin. I am another reader who likes to read fiction on the page. Will you still be publishing content on philosophy, history, what you are reading and your life changes/observations as well as the fiction?
Have a lovely Christmas
Re. Fiction. My ongoing theory is that most people* use social media to talk about themselves, even when seemingly not talking about themselves. Writing about writing allows people to comment about themselves and see themselves. Fiction offers fewer direct opportunities to talk about oneself.
* I am talking about myself here too.
Thanks for this, Justin, and for another year of wonderful writing. I was wondering: do you have a link/ date/ any more information about the upcoming Paris workshop? I’m very interested and may need to be in town anyway, but would need to plan well in advance.
I haven’t seen a better takedown of pseudo-writing than yours here. I can’t afford to pay-subscribe; if you’re generous/foolish enough to comp me, I’ll try to pay lip service to the abstract idea of hypothetically making a good faith effort to take a stab at considering the possibility of eventually reading your stuff more often. As it were.
If not-- I understand. You’re bringing some much needed wisdom and sanity to this place, and i wish you well.
I agree with the people here saying they can't read fiction on a screen. I think it's because I tend to read faster when it's on a screen (probably just a habit formed by skimming through forums and news articles) and this can sort of work for nonfiction and blogs but with fiction is just makes everything feel flat and shallow.
As for the increase in people 'reading about writing fiction' rather than reading fiction, I'd say it links a lot to what David Shields called 'reality hunger', a book which is worth reading: he makes a case for why people are so much more interested now in nonfiction than fiction, and the rise of 'autofiction'.
I hate to be that guy but I'm going to ask if I could have subscription access without paying, because I love reading these posts but after moving to another part of the country (UK) this year I'm currently unemployed. Hopefully soon enough I'll be able to pay.
Amazing content this year. Happy New Year to you.
Subscribed! Individual substack writers are so far the only thing I subscribe to on the internet. Not claiming poverty here, but if you say that 60€ is the kind of money you can spend *by mistake every day*, then your finances must really be not bad at all :) And if the kind of subscriber engagement you are able to summon up on Substack allows you to move with your little family to a secluded farmhouse in some Atlantic nation, then godspeed and congrats!
About the decline of fiction, I'm not so surprised... Common culture has been getting increasingly practical, and the ugly side of that is showing. Appreciation for beauty is probably intrinsic to humanity, but talking and writing about it seems to be in decline, let alone writing things that need to be read allegorically instead of giving "the straight dope". I would never have anticipated that giving people unrestricted ability to publish and communicate across the whole world would result in a huge surge of doomerism, takemongering and partisanship, but that's the kind of mainstream we are getting. At least there are alternatives, and I appreciate your efforts to be one of those. Hey, at least this reader here will buck the trend in these comments - I really don't mind reading book-length stuff on a phone.
What you share about your spiritual conversion really resonates here. I'd say don't worry about 25 years or however long of unrepentant hedonism and materialism - each individual life history is what it is, things come when they are ready. I dove hard into spirituality (of the Eastern kind) quite young, and did the rounds while others were partying, so I get what you mean when you say that the knees know. There are real riches there somewhere, and it really doesn't come from the head. I have to say though — confession here! — that I have a really deep-seated sense of dread towards Christianity. The proximate cause is probably the recent political history in my country (Spain), where the Catholic Church has been very closely allied with the ugliest of right-wing social authoritarianism, but on a bad day the halo of it extends to the whole of Abrahamic monotheism. I'm not proud of it, but at some point you can't argue with your emotional conditioning; the best I can do is know where I stand, and temper it with the best antidote there is to all kinds of prejudice: regular human familiarity. So I find it really heart-warming to read your story, what your knees are discovering, and especially your awareness and commitment to humanity in its entire history.
I chuckled at your comment on the hierarchy of arts, and indifference towards high and low and fashion. Since you very rightly put music first, and shared a moving example of it, here is one that I've been playing repeatedly since I found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFSmJHwgJ7s
Yes, you should go all paywall, Justin, for all the reasons you stated. A mind that roves as far afield and fingers that type as much as yours should not be uncompensated for even a few paragraphs.
As with most other people commenting today, fiction on screens doesn’t work for me, either. I am especially interested in reading and writing historical fiction, particularly set in the period from 1897 through 1923. A Greek or a Turk and let’s through in an Albanian, a Serbian and of course you would know why this is such a fertile field. May your holidays be joyful.
Thank you for the Al Green
First they came for the Nazis
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Nazi
Then they came for the Antisemites
And I did not speak out
Because I was not an Antisemite
Then they came for Hamas
…