This Week's Writing 12/23/23

Substack embraces Nazis...and happy holidays!(?)

Last week I posted the collective letter from Substackers Against Nazis, asking the founders at Substack to clarify their policy on having Nazis monetize hate on this platform. The founders finally responded, and it’s pretty dispiriting.

If you don’t want to read through all that, the super short version is that they acknowledge their are Nazis on the platform, but argue that that’s a good thing because free speech, disinfectant blah blah. It’s essentially an invitation for Nazis to organize on Substack.

So, where do we go from here? A number of writer and readers are leaving. I’m not inclined to do that; I’ve had fascists kick me off platforms before and I’m reluctant to decamp when Substack has been a good place for me in other respects. We’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, if you are leaving but would like to continue to support me, I mirror posts from here on Patreon. I was thinking about winding that down, but now I certainly won’t, so consider moving your subscription there is you don’t want to be here. I’ll probably start including the Patreon link in posts too.

Okay! Here’s what I published this week.

If you read one thing by me this week, read:

“Zone of Interest” gets at the complicity a lot of Hollywood Holocaust movies duck. (American Purpose)

Politics

Trump may not have read Mein Kampf, but he gets Nazism. (Public Notice)

Trump’s anti-immigrant speech is also wildly antisemitic. (Independent)

Substack’s search function is shit, but that’s not a good moderation strategy. (EIH)

Jeff Bezos like Mozart because Mozart can’t tell him what a tool he is. (EIH)

Cultural Criticism

“Past Lives” is one of the all time great anti-romcoms. (EIH)

“Poor Things” makes vivisecting the patriarchy look (too) easy. (EIH)

Nnamdi’s brain spews weird bedroom pop. (Chicago Reader)

Star Trek’s The Deadly Years shows that time will take you on. (EIH)

Poetry

A fun blurb for my chapbook, “Send $19.99 for Supplements and Freedom”! If you want one, reach out and I’ll send it over for like $6. (Winning Writers)

This satirical chapbook of found-poetry and hybrid texts includes a pantoum based on Joe Rogan's right-wing talk radio rants, absurd diagrams and multiple-choice questions mashing up the Graduate Record Exam with The Artist's Way, and a Swinburne double sestina featuring Jordan Peterson's pronouncements about masculinity and lobsters. It's like scrolling social media while dropping acid.

A haiku tribute to Richard Wright’s wonderful haikus. (Cold Moon Journal)

Richard Wright’s asleep.
In his eyes the cold rain drips.
Five, seven, and five.

Short poem about flying back from Greece. (Five Fleas)

Can insomnia
keep up with jet lag?

I’ve got a bunch of conceptual art poems at the tail end of this journal. (D.O.R.)

D.O.R. #5

5.06MB ∙ PDF file

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Literary journal from LJMcD communications

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A couple more conceptual art poem things. (Five Fleas)

One-Liner

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The Art of Poetry, The Poetry of Art

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A poem about how expoitative poetry submissions are. (Synchronized Chaos)