Thank you for the shout out, Arthur Powell of Rifts in Stone who also features a lot of great reviews. For anyone interested you can find our review content on the YouTube rather than Substack (https://www.youtube.com/@tookysmag/pod)
And I completely agree with your claim that culture requires a living/ongoing conversation! What motivates people to even engage with media is often the ability to participate/understand their "tribe's" internal conversations, so definitely we are planting trees whose shade we may never fully know - but it's a heck of a lot of fun since the creators are still active.
It’s funny that political satire is all but dead (if you discount cringey and unfunny SNL skits) at a time when it should be a turkey shoot. Probably because everyone takes politics so seriously and the stakes seem so high that everyone is scared of having the lens turned around on themselves.
Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain is a decent example of contemporary political satire that is both funny and broad in its appeal. It will seem parochial if you know little about Australia and its politics but the style could easily be adapted to the political figures of any Anglo country.
Glad to read this. I think I'm done with the project I've run for 5+ years now. My energy is fading away from it but there is still a ton of poetry submitted by anons on www.atopthecliffs.com for anyone interested.
Writing in this sphere is FUN. I’ve been serializing a fiction in which our world was created to develop a warfaring AGI for the Gods’ interstellar war. In the latest chapter, our BAP-quoting protagonists create an artificial island to escape from the oppression of traffic laws. Why not? It’s been years since I’ve had such an enjoyable pastime.
"..... I try always to keep in mind that, however wrong-headed is the current Western liberal hive-mind, railing against it must never become the whole story. To awaken in a 2024 dawn may not be “sheer heaven” but life is still good....and Literature and Music (and maybe the visual arts too) are an important part of what makes it so. Also this subject was made topical recently by an essay- A Matter of Taste - in The American Mind that ‘went viral’ – particularly in the Rightist Substack ecosystem - sparking a large number of articles in response. The essay (by TAM editor Spencer Klavan) puts forward the case that “the Right has a culture problem” and is itself, at least partly, to blame for a dearth of ‘right-wing art’. Why, he asks, is there so little on offer for that “beleaguered, and chronically underserved audience demographic- normal people”? His answer is that conservatives have become so inured to the relentless bien pensant version of what counts as culture and entertainment in the mainstream media that they have allowed their own “tastes” to atrophy......"
"Could it even be that the Left’s total and comprehensive hegemony is actually good for Right wing art? Young men in particular tend to be naturally rebellious against ‘parental’ authority – whether that be familial of societal. The point was made in this reaction to Klavan: “because we’ve been completely ghettoized and shunned from mainstream culture.....We don’t need to “try” to do anything... We should forget entirely about “moving the needle”..... Instead, we should embrace our status as outlaws”. Do artists in fact tend always to be outsiders? It has often struck me how much of great Western art was created by homosexuals."
It's good to keep this in mind. There are many skilled and creative writers on the Right, but few of them have multi million dollar budgets. It's important that we be aware of the fact that we are right now building culture. It's worth it to take the time to write your short stories and your esoteric treaties. It's something we all need to take our time to do. I dedicate much of my substack to book reviews of relevant novels and novellas. If you have recommendations, please let me know.
Philosophy and navel gazing can get us only so far. We are the first-movers of this new cultural epoch and taking the time to create is of incredible importance. Any one who sees this comment and wants me to review their work, let me know. It's incredibly difficult to get traction in these sorts of decentralized projects, but worth it to build culture for the future we want to see.
Comedy? A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much ado about Nothing.
I’ve always loved Hamlet’s act 4, scene 4 soliloquy. Hamlet seeing an army marching to fight and die over nothing but the honor of their Prince. It jolts him into reflecting over what in the hell is he doing sitting on his hands and not taking vengeance on his enemies.
Thanks for the recommendations. Hard to say what my fancy is, I’m trying to get a pulse on the current events and fitting my direction from there. This moment in history seems equal parts tragic and comedic. So in absence of something specific resorting to filtering by plot and even skimming summaries of his most famous works. Dunno if that’s still too vague but perhaps what I’ve written evokes a particular work in you, otherwise you’ve given me something to work from.
Everyone is welcome to shill whatever they like in the comments.
Thank you for the shout out, Arthur Powell of Rifts in Stone who also features a lot of great reviews. For anyone interested you can find our review content on the YouTube rather than Substack (https://www.youtube.com/@tookysmag/pod)
And I completely agree with your claim that culture requires a living/ongoing conversation! What motivates people to even engage with media is often the ability to participate/understand their "tribe's" internal conversations, so definitely we are planting trees whose shade we may never fully know - but it's a heck of a lot of fun since the creators are still active.
Excellent article. Alternative media and creating our own culture and stories is 100% the right direction. If I may I'd like to recommend some works:
Ghost of the Badlands by Razorfist
Automaton by TR Hudson
I Am Uncle Sam by Dean Mosley
It’s funny that political satire is all but dead (if you discount cringey and unfunny SNL skits) at a time when it should be a turkey shoot. Probably because everyone takes politics so seriously and the stakes seem so high that everyone is scared of having the lens turned around on themselves.
Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain is a decent example of contemporary political satire that is both funny and broad in its appeal. It will seem parochial if you know little about Australia and its politics but the style could easily be adapted to the political figures of any Anglo country.
Thank you for the shout-out, frend. The NUT Army Rises 🔥
Glad to read this. I think I'm done with the project I've run for 5+ years now. My energy is fading away from it but there is still a ton of poetry submitted by anons on www.atopthecliffs.com for anyone interested.
Bookmarked.
Thanks.
Cool Article. As long as the left keeps rejecting reality, I'd like to think eventually the right will get it together and start winning big.
Also some good shoutouts. To add, would like to recommend my guy White Pill Media. Dude reads and reviews way too many books on our side.
https://www.youtube.com/@whitepillmedia
Writing in this sphere is FUN. I’ve been serializing a fiction in which our world was created to develop a warfaring AGI for the Gods’ interstellar war. In the latest chapter, our BAP-quoting protagonists create an artificial island to escape from the oppression of traffic laws. Why not? It’s been years since I’ve had such an enjoyable pastime.
Shameless plug: https://somablue.substack.com/p/the-singularity-in-a-perth-garage
I've been looking for this group for a while. Glad to see it's still active.
Hey, yup.
Just came across this interesting post (late) via Sustack reads. I wrote about this very thing in the most recent post on my own 'stack: https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/art-will-keep-us-alive
A couple of snippets.....
"..... I try always to keep in mind that, however wrong-headed is the current Western liberal hive-mind, railing against it must never become the whole story. To awaken in a 2024 dawn may not be “sheer heaven” but life is still good....and Literature and Music (and maybe the visual arts too) are an important part of what makes it so. Also this subject was made topical recently by an essay- A Matter of Taste - in The American Mind that ‘went viral’ – particularly in the Rightist Substack ecosystem - sparking a large number of articles in response. The essay (by TAM editor Spencer Klavan) puts forward the case that “the Right has a culture problem” and is itself, at least partly, to blame for a dearth of ‘right-wing art’. Why, he asks, is there so little on offer for that “beleaguered, and chronically underserved audience demographic- normal people”? His answer is that conservatives have become so inured to the relentless bien pensant version of what counts as culture and entertainment in the mainstream media that they have allowed their own “tastes” to atrophy......"
"Could it even be that the Left’s total and comprehensive hegemony is actually good for Right wing art? Young men in particular tend to be naturally rebellious against ‘parental’ authority – whether that be familial of societal. The point was made in this reaction to Klavan: “because we’ve been completely ghettoized and shunned from mainstream culture.....We don’t need to “try” to do anything... We should forget entirely about “moving the needle”..... Instead, we should embrace our status as outlaws”. Do artists in fact tend always to be outsiders? It has often struck me how much of great Western art was created by homosexuals."
It's good to keep this in mind. There are many skilled and creative writers on the Right, but few of them have multi million dollar budgets. It's important that we be aware of the fact that we are right now building culture. It's worth it to take the time to write your short stories and your esoteric treaties. It's something we all need to take our time to do. I dedicate much of my substack to book reviews of relevant novels and novellas. If you have recommendations, please let me know.
Philosophy and navel gazing can get us only so far. We are the first-movers of this new cultural epoch and taking the time to create is of incredible importance. Any one who sees this comment and wants me to review their work, let me know. It's incredibly difficult to get traction in these sorts of decentralized projects, but worth it to build culture for the future we want to see.
I’ve got a collection of Shakespeare I have to crack into. What would be a good place to start?
Depends on what is your fancy.
Historical drama? Henry V
Tragedy? Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet.
Comedy? A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much ado about Nothing.
I’ve always loved Hamlet’s act 4, scene 4 soliloquy. Hamlet seeing an army marching to fight and die over nothing but the honor of their Prince. It jolts him into reflecting over what in the hell is he doing sitting on his hands and not taking vengeance on his enemies.
Thanks for the recommendations. Hard to say what my fancy is, I’m trying to get a pulse on the current events and fitting my direction from there. This moment in history seems equal parts tragic and comedic. So in absence of something specific resorting to filtering by plot and even skimming summaries of his most famous works. Dunno if that’s still too vague but perhaps what I’ve written evokes a particular work in you, otherwise you’ve given me something to work from.