Fuck @Jordan_Castro2

I am grateful that there is a burgeoning, energized, diverse cultural space for writers, posters, “personalities,” and so on to work in: an alternative to the hamfisted ideologues who for years explicitly sought to censor and destroy not only works of art and literature, but also the lives of those who produced or even consumed it, under weak ideological pretense. Even if the work itself wasn’t recognizably at odds with the prevailing morality—“Your silence is complicity! There is no apolitical art!”—people were constantly browbeaten by lunatics for caring more about art than the news. It sucked.

[1. Nothing is a-political. Especially not art. see:

https://twitter.com/yung_savonarola/status/1659228836603518976?s=20

https://twitter.com/yung_savonarola/status/1659229594078134281?s=20

https://twitter.com/yung_savonarola/status/1659238340925718529?s=20

https://twitter.com/yung_savonarola/status/1659238851884220416?s=20

AND

https://twitter.com/yung_savonarola/status/1659956300783013890?s=20

https://twitter.com/deankissick/status/1660010363314659329?s=20

https://twitter.com/yung_savonarola/status/1660018625971888133?s=20

https://twitter.com/deankissick/status/1660024474920468484?s=20 ]

[ 2. Just because popular culture is hegemonic, that does not mean that any counter-cultural productions are inherently good. This is the basic premise you get wrong. Being a contrarian doesn’t make you good at art. You still have to write stuff worth reading. So establishing that you are against the “hamfisted ideologues” is not enough. You might also be a hamfisted ideologue, just with less money.]

~~

It’s no wonder that young people want to party with people who won’t nag them into oblivion or try to ruin their lives for making art, or exploring different ideas freely and openly—or even just chilling and have a good time.

It’s really that simple.

[1. No one wants to ruin anyone’s life for “making art” or “exploring different ideas.” However: no true exploration of ideas is free. Ideas are expensive. So I will audit your idea expense account and if I think the ideas you are exploring aren’t worth the price of admission, I will say something. I will add that I personally don’t want to ruin (almost) anyone’s life. I think we are all in this together.]

[2. I suspect that the idea that what art/literature right now needs is “to read less news” and “chill and have a good time” is wrong. And Lazy. And Dangerous. And Stupid. And Shortsighted. And lacking Rigor. And Boring. And Lame. I especially think this is the case because people like Walt still read the news, they just read it badly. And so you actually do have a politics. Its just bad politics.]

~~

It’s okay to write stories that don’t contribute to an imaginary leftist revolution. It’s okay to write from a perspective other than the one which is dominant in all major literary and academic institutions. I hope there is more of it moving forward, not less.

[1. Revolution will kill us all so I don’t want any leftist revolution. So I also think its okay to write stories that don’t do that.]

[2. There is not a single perspective that is dominant in “all major literary and academic institutions.” Only people who are lazy and sloppy in thinking can have this ridiculous caricature of our 2023 intellectual landscape]

~~

Everybody knows this, but there are still very few in the lit world who will say it: at a time when “diversity” is the stated goal of nearly every publisher, the books have never been more the same. Riskless, sanitized, tortured conformity—fake HR diversity has created real homogeneity. It’s boring.

[1. You act suprised that popular culture is flat and boring. Just because Hamilton fucking sucks doesn’t mean that frog twitter is right and Deanna Havas is the best artist of the 2010s.]

[2. Taking risks, avoiding conformity and experimenting are good ways to have interesting thoughts. But taking thoughtless risks, reacting to conformity out of reflex and experimenting without well-conceived hypotheses to test are all still Bad.]

~~

The breathless articles that come out about this or that scene being “fascist” are just zombie reactions to people doing something differentiated, which their cramped worldview can’t make sense of except through the same tired lense. There is no shadowy “scene mastermind”—even aging Monarchist tech nerds can enter a “party era” and hang out at readings. It’s fine. But for the confused, this must be “fascism,” in order to justify their incessant creepy essays and behavior. But most “sceney” people are still basically just liberals who don’t want to get bludgeoned by annoying leftists. Going to a party where an art ho does ketamine with an ex-nfl player next to an autistic racist who won’t shut up about the moon landing is not fascism, it’s just a good party; and fiction that is insufficiently progressive is still fiction, and should be judged on literary merit—it’s not “blah blah blah fascist influence that reaches ALL THE WAY UP (soy) to THE TOP.”

[1. The greatest gift those “anti-fascists” gave you lot was calling you fascists. Of course you aren’t fascists. You are idiots. There is a world of difference. I would never call you or this scene “fascist.” But I will call you short. As in retarded.]

[2. You keep talking about parties. Why? What do Parties do? What is done at Parties? I don’t want to suggest that Parties are un-important, but clearly they are just a piece of the puzzle, right? If you are doing all of this just to have fun at Parties… doesn’t that make you the worst kind of “artist” ??]

[3. The question of fiction is one I will surrender. I am not a fiction writer. I do not know what is best for fiction. But this is about the infrastructure surrounding fiction writing, not the writing itself. I’ll leave that to people more qualified.]

~~

It’s good if people don’t feel like they don’t have to constantly play the “disavow!” game anymore. Trying to “dot connect” your way from BAP to Honor or Madeline Cash is just an attempt to mark these young (mostly female) writers, who are at the very beginning of their careers, as ‘untouchable’—sloppy hit jobs by people who are competing by playing dirty. Instead of haphazard “dot connecting,” leftists should make better art, embrace The People, and stop acting like hysterical babysitters. It’s unattractive.

[1. Just like I don’t want to ruin any lives, I don’t want to play any “disavow” games.]

[2. Dot-connecting is a useful exercise. I don’t put women writer names in my mouth in this game ever, for better or worse. I’ll make an exception here: Honor plays an important role in this business and I respect her. I also hope she continues to grow up.]

[3. Don’t worry I do make better art than you.]

[4. “embrace The People” … yeah we gotta unpack this boss WTF? Who are “The People?”]

[5. We wouldn’t have to act like hysterical babysitters if y’all stopped acting like stupid babies]

[6. I am unattractive. I think this is okay. Maybe it means I don’t get invited to as many fun parties as you do. I don’t think that’s such a problem]