Substack Hall of Fame - January Edition

My favorite posts of the month

Jan 29, 2024

Hello, underworld. Taking a cue from Demi and Tesstamona, I’ve decided to feature roundups of my favorite posts on Substack. Here’s how it works. Toward the end of every month, I’ll compile my favorite posts and share them with you guys. They will be all over the map, their main unifying factor being that I believe they deserve further amplification.

Let’s do this.

The Elysian

Bring back the "Renaissance Man"

The night was getting late, we were gathered in the salon of an Airbnb in San Francisco, Maarten Boudry was playing the piano and Jason Crawford was crooning a tune as a lingering cast of intellectuals drank wine and tried our best to sing along. Jason was our host, the rest of us participants in his…

a year ago · 181 likes · 20 comments · Elle Griffin

Tech For Life

Our Neo-Romantic Rebellion

Why most predictions are boring For the tech world, the new year isn’t just about breaking resolutions, it’s also about pundits trying to predict the next big trends for the upcoming year. Unfortunately, these predictions are mostly boring. They follow a strategy I call…

a year ago · 19 likes · 3 comments · R.B. Griggs

A Convict's Perspective

The Convict King

“Did you know that Skinhead’s all make the same ‘Oop!’ noise when you run steel through them?” Moe said with his deep southern drawl to the young-blood kid sitting next to him with a calm smile, loudly enough for everyone to hear, in response to a group of Aryans on the prison yard demanding the bleachers where the two of them sat…

a year ago · 80 likes · 47 comments · J. Coleman

RUINS

The aesthetic subcultures and the floating world

With each outfit we wear and each accessory we curate, we tell a story about ourselves, our culture, and our inner world. —Rachel Haywire Because they fall we love them—the cherry blossoms. In this floating world, does anything endure? —Ariwara no Narihira (823—880…

a year ago · 22 likes · 7 comments

The Partisan

Yippie Memento Mori, Motherfucker

Depending on who you ask, along with numerous factors I could never totally account for should the need arise, I’m roughly one month away from death at all times. You see, I’m a Type 1 diabetic. Without regular insulin injections, I have nothing to look forward to but a painful end. I know this, intimately, because I am one of the extraordinarily unl…

a year ago · 55 likes · 28 comments · Phisto Sobanii

CLiuAnon

Is Fashion Doomed to be Fashy?

One of the greatest female designers of all time, some one who changed the way women dressed for both work and play, Coco Chanel was a Fascist or at least Nazi adjacent.. Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War from 2012 is a meticulously researched account of her intimate relationships with British and European anti-semitic aristocrats: from …

a year ago · 22 likes · 12 comments · Catherine Liu

Platoon Post

Parsing Prose

Earlier this year, someone commented in the chat box during one of my State of Disunion streams. Did I have any writing advice? They could not possibly have known with what relish I received this question. I have long been a collector of writing style guides and am obsessed with what separates good prose from bad. I fear, however, that in answering their question I came across rather pontifical: who was…

a year ago · 23 likes · 1 comment · Ozkii

Searching for Solomon

On Pursuing Knowledge

Schools these days offer a mediocre education at best. Many of the subjects taught are no longer practical, were never practical or are only practical for people pursuing a specific track in life (advanced trig I am looking at you!). I am currently following a personal reading plan to systematically get smarter and wiser. (Interestingly enough, I found …

a year ago · 6 likes · 5 comments · Yosef Hirsh

Nooceleration

Nooceleration: A Better World is Possible

One common trope in the fantasy genre is the interplay between the mundane affairs of court intrigues and wizarding school drama and petty geopolitical squabbling, and the growing threat of the Dark Lord - Sauron, Shai'tan, the Night King - and his minions mustering their strength in the Chaos Realms and preparing for a final apocalyptic war against the…

a year ago · 16 likes · Anatoly Karlin

Gray Mirror

Heroin liberals and cocaine conservatives

Political orientations in present America are best regarded as fundraising narratives. Democratic politics proper—the contest for sovereign power by organizations or individuals with massive support, decided by counting heads—is basically dead. In the present American regime, politicians, pro-regime or anti-regime, are only granted a small trickle of di…

a year ago · 302 likes · Curtis Yarvin

A. Hellene Author

Eternal Cover Band

Hey! Do you remember “Africa” by Toto? Do you remember “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds? How about when Ronnie Spector sang on “Take Me Home Tonight” by Eddie Money? Did you like that? Then you’re going to love “Last Train Home” by John Mayer. It’s got the keyboard sound and the shuffle beat and everything. Its…

a year ago · 23 likes · 25 comments · Alexander Hellene

Cross Current

Gold Soundz

On Wednesday January 17th, Anna Wintour announced that Pitchfork was going to be “folded into” GQ. Many great think pieces have been written about the implications. This is not one of them. This story is strictly being used as a news hook for something I wanted to write about before the announcemen…

a year ago · 10 likes · 5 comments · Mo_Diggs

motheRucker

Techno Shieldmaiden

“Though not a 'dry nurse' in temper, she was also not really a soldier or 'Amazon', but like many brave women was capable of great military gallantry at a crisis.” -From The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien “But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Éomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For…

a year ago · 91 likes · 44 comments · Bridgette

The Upheaval

The Rise of the Right-Wing Progressives

A few months ago the prominent tech investor Marc Andreessen released a lengthy “Techno-Optimist Manifesto” that caused a big stir on certain segments of the internet. It’s a full-throated hymn glorifying technology, progress, and boundless growth, while castigating what it portrays as the demoralization, enervation, and…

a year ago · 300 likes · 63 comments · N.S. Lyons

Underthrow

A Tale of Two Food Cities

When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. —Benjamin Franklin Don’t hate the player. Hate the game. —Ice-T Editor’s note: This article first appeared in 2011. In America, there are two basic types of wealthy people: those who get rich by making our lives better and those who get rich by using the political…

a year ago · 9 likes · 5 comments · Max Borders

Ruxandra’s Substack

Political polarisation by gender: a matter of aesthetics?

This weekend, The Financial Times released an article highlighting a growing divide in political leanings between men and women. Nothing entertains and inflames us very online people quite like gender discourse. However, non anon people mostly engage with these topics quietly, typically as observers or 'lurkers'; That’s mostly because openly debating ge…

a year ago · 61 likes · 26 comments · Ruxandra Teslo

That’s all for now! If you enjoyed my roundup, like my Notes, appreciate my ideas, want to help me grow my writing career, and/or want to attend my monthly salons, please become a paid member of The Cultural Futurist. It means the world to me that I’ve gotten so many new subscribers in such a short period of time. I could not keep this publication going without all of you incredible people.

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