Hi,
Welcome to the Hardihood Books June Roundup. Substack just introduced a text-to-audio function, so those of you with the app should be able to listen to my posts now. I’ve no idea how good this function is yet or what the voice will sound like, but it’s worth considering if you’re pressed for time.
What I Published in June:
As I foreshadowed last month, I began June with a tongue-in-cheek essay entitled, “Was Isaac Asimov a Soft Totalitarian?” I use the word “soft,” because Asimov could never be characterized as an advocate for the jackbooted thuggery of Stalin or Mao. However, as much as I loved his science fiction, I think there’s a case to be made that – taken to their logical extreme – the ideas in some of his novels imply that he imagines a kind of “benign totalitarianism” to be the ideal regime. If you’ve read his Robot and Foundation series (or if you don’t plan to), I think you’ll find this a fun piece. It’s outside of the paywall, so feel free to forward it around, share it on social media, etc.
My first story in June was “Cutting out the Middleman,” a very short tale that I imagine (sadly) might be in our near future. Perhaps not in the next five years. But in my lifetime, I’m sure various companies (and a few individuals) will try this sort of thing. Recently, I had some very mild experience recently with an early version of this technology. Perhaps I come off as a tad unfair or cynical. I’ll admit, I don’t like artificial intelligence. As a consumer, I’d refuse to consume any content I knew was “created” by AI. But I’m sure people will try to make it happen.
After that, I published “Whispering Past the Graveyard,”1 a flash science fiction story about a spacefaring regime on a faraway planet. Originally, it was behind my paywall, but I moved it out so everyone can read it. It’s about the power of narrative to affect reality, in this case a narrative about decline and fall. I’ll be interested to hear feedback about this one, so feel free to respond to me via this email, Twitter, or (if you’re a paying subscriber) by commenting on it.
My second essay was “Intertextuality and Emergent Order.” It didn’t turn out quite as I’d hoped, but it was fun to play around with the concepts. Recently, I read Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor. And though I remembered intertextuality from high school and college, his references to it struck a chord with me. Suddenly, the complex world of literary allusion, symbol, dialogue between the great (and lesser) texts, and ever-evolving written word seemed to resemble a constantly-shifting ecosystem or a complicated trade network. In other words: an impossibly complex and chaotic environment out of which emerges a kind of bottom-up order. It’s amazing how many things in life, and throughout the natural world, are like that.
I also published the mini-story, “Fear of Flying.” I subtitled it “Episode One,” because I suspect readers will not like the conclusion. I’ll write a follow-up story at some point – perhaps about a different character – with a more uplifting ending. What is this story about? A boy who is afraid of airplanes. Just like how Moby Dick is just a story about a man who hates a large aquatic mammal.
Finally, I posted Part Two of “System Sanctus,” in my ‘Hortus Deorum Universe’ (if you can call it that). Part One was free to everyone, but Part Two is for subscribers only. I’d encourage everyone to go ahead and read Part One anyway, along with “Hortus Deorum.” Originally, I’d intended “System Sanctus” to be a two-part story, but it’s shaping up to be much longer than I’d anticipated. Now, I’ll hazard that it will be a four- or five-part story in the final telling, but we will see. Still, the upside is that each installment is at a bite-sized, readily digestible length, making it easy for readers to keep up each month. This latest installment is shorter than I’d anticipated, but I reached a natural breaking point and it felt right to end where I did.
In Closing:
Thanks for subscribing. Please feel free to email me with any feedback. If you’re on the free list and you’d like to respond to one of my stories or essays, you can email me, or reach out via Twitter (@benconnelly6712) or LinkedIn.
I’ll be traveling in July, but I’ll stick to the regular publishing schedule. I’ll be doing more flash fiction and (hopefully) shorter essays. Also, I might have some more announcements coming.
If you’re a paying subscriber, please keep an eye out for the newsletter tomorrow.
Finally, before I go, I thought I’d link to a fun short story I published a year ago. Given the number of people who’ve signed up for my free list in that time, I’m willing to bet most of you haven’t read it. It’s called, “A Day in June,” and it’s outside the paywall for everyone to read and enjoy.
Thank you for reading and subscribing.
Cheers,
Ben Connelly
Yes, the title is intentionally “Whispering” and not “Whistling.”