Oct 8·edited Oct 8Liked by Chris Best, Katherine Dee
It was a good interview, and the article was good as well. You are right that this Internet medium, which is about a generation old now, is still in its infancy, and is generating new forms of expression that aren’t even properly perceived yet as art forms. This is a conceptualization I haven’t seen anywhere else. But once you hear it, it seems to be clearly correct. It’s interesting that you mention nostalgia for earlier period in the Internet. As someone who was blogging in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 when there was an explosion of blogging, that really does feel like a lost world. So there’s already been a rise and fall of communities, and even forms of expression. Also, the idea that the things we now consider canonical are dying out, and that this is tragic, is not a good way to look at the history. The things we now think are canonical were once demotic and new, and considered disruptive themselves. If you read about Verdi and the rowdy opera in his era, it does not look anything like the staid world of modern opera, to pick one example. Looking forward to your further thoughts on all this.
Love these interviews Chris. Katherine, this is exactly why Substack is my happy place. What a great perspective. I absolutely love that you’re leading the charge in defining and creating the language to explain what’s happening. I have decided to pursue in film but aiming at using Substack to release my work next year. I think your predictions are not only correct but offer a roadmap for the future of creativity. Keep writing amazing stuff!
Agreed! I think your concept of multiple Stacks working as a developing world through comments, publishing, and chatter is incredibly interesting. I imagine a place it’s an almost choose your own adventure type of feeling as you peruse comments, click to view profiles and start to understand the broader story at hand.
Never said that. You willfully misinterpreted me when I said it was different than writing about the business side of technology. I’ve always loved the Internet, which is why I pivoted from content strategy within an agency setting to writing.
You’re not “enemy coded” (whatever that means!), but you spent all of 2020 shitting on my philosophy on the internet and online culture reporting. So it’s amusing to see this pivot!
I absolutely did not do that. By 2020, I was already doing this kind of writing! I do remember you calling me antisemitic to your audience of 100k+ apropos of nothing when I had under 2,000 followers and me politely asking you to stop engaging with my posts after it caused an angry and scary dogpile. To your credit, you deleted it :-)
Literally zero idea what you’re talking about. But it’s nice to see all those tweets about internet culture reporting from before 2023 are conveniently deleted! Those of us who actually cover this beat remember them well. Good luck playing catch up :) and sorry the Thiel money or whatever dried up.
Happy to post screenshots if you want to turn it into a thing. But like I said originally, just because I’m friends with people you dislike doesn’t mean you have to reflexively attack me, try to discredit my writing, and then accuse me of being paid off. We’re adults. This is just catty for no reason.
It's an interesting argument, but I'm not sure the examples are that strong. Can you really compare a social media account to War and Peace? If there's an interesting emergent art form surely it's computer games. I am pretty ignorant about them, but the scale of collaboration and expertise is quite impressive.
Yes, that's fair enough. To kind of reverse the argument, it would be quite strange if films, music, and books remained completely the same through a digital revolution. It's only because of the printing revolution that these art forms exist as they do now.
It was a good interview, and the article was good as well. You are right that this Internet medium, which is about a generation old now, is still in its infancy, and is generating new forms of expression that aren’t even properly perceived yet as art forms. This is a conceptualization I haven’t seen anywhere else. But once you hear it, it seems to be clearly correct. It’s interesting that you mention nostalgia for earlier period in the Internet. As someone who was blogging in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 when there was an explosion of blogging, that really does feel like a lost world. So there’s already been a rise and fall of communities, and even forms of expression. Also, the idea that the things we now consider canonical are dying out, and that this is tragic, is not a good way to look at the history. The things we now think are canonical were once demotic and new, and considered disruptive themselves. If you read about Verdi and the rowdy opera in his era, it does not look anything like the staid world of modern opera, to pick one example. Looking forward to your further thoughts on all this.
I posit and have hope for the conversation about literature and serialization on the amazing, creative Substack!
I want to see collaborative serialized novels, where people take turns adding an “entry” … maybe that’s an experiment I should try
Here's a collaborative text base game: https://alexanderipfelkofer.substack.com/s/storyverse
Omg!!! Thank you for sharing
It's cool, it has two story paths already and growing. Anyone can participate!
Love these interviews Chris. Katherine, this is exactly why Substack is my happy place. What a great perspective. I absolutely love that you’re leading the charge in defining and creating the language to explain what’s happening. I have decided to pursue in film but aiming at using Substack to release my work next year. I think your predictions are not only correct but offer a roadmap for the future of creativity. Keep writing amazing stuff!
Thank you!! And that’s a very cool idea. Curious about new ways to use video here…
Agreed! I think your concept of multiple Stacks working as a developing world through comments, publishing, and chatter is incredibly interesting. I imagine a place it’s an almost choose your own adventure type of feeling as you peruse comments, click to view profiles and start to understand the broader story at hand.
Very funny (and opportunistic?) pivot from the girl who said internet culture reporting isn’t real tech journalism a few years ago!
Never said that. You willfully misinterpreted me when I said it was different than writing about the business side of technology. I’ve always loved the Internet, which is why I pivoted from content strategy within an agency setting to writing.
By the way, I’m just gonna say it: you don’t need to reflexively pick a fight with me because I am “enemy-coded.”
You’re not “enemy coded” (whatever that means!), but you spent all of 2020 shitting on my philosophy on the internet and online culture reporting. So it’s amusing to see this pivot!
I absolutely did not do that. By 2020, I was already doing this kind of writing! I do remember you calling me antisemitic to your audience of 100k+ apropos of nothing when I had under 2,000 followers and me politely asking you to stop engaging with my posts after it caused an angry and scary dogpile. To your credit, you deleted it :-)
Literally zero idea what you’re talking about. But it’s nice to see all those tweets about internet culture reporting from before 2023 are conveniently deleted! Those of us who actually cover this beat remember them well. Good luck playing catch up :) and sorry the Thiel money or whatever dried up.
Happy to post screenshots if you want to turn it into a thing. But like I said originally, just because I’m friends with people you dislike doesn’t mean you have to reflexively attack me, try to discredit my writing, and then accuse me of being paid off. We’re adults. This is just catty for no reason.
It's an interesting argument, but I'm not sure the examples are that strong. Can you really compare a social media account to War and Peace? If there's an interesting emergent art form surely it's computer games. I am pretty ignorant about them, but the scale of collaboration and expertise is quite impressive.
I agree video games are an obvious example I excluded. I think many of these forms aren’t mature yet
Yes, that's fair enough. To kind of reverse the argument, it would be quite strange if films, music, and books remained completely the same through a digital revolution. It's only because of the printing revolution that these art forms exist as they do now.
This culture commentary is so awful because it’s clear they never read McLuhan.