Letter From The Founder
This began- as many good things do- as a joke. One day in the STSC Discord several of us were talking about how we were encountering more and more ‘How to grow your audience’ posts on Substack. I won’t link to specific examples but these ‘How to Grow’ posts are a whole genre complete with tropes, cliches and best practices like every other flavour of clickbait that pollutes the internet.
So this seemed ripe for satire and ‘How to Grow Your X’ was floated as a future Symposium topic. But things evolve. Give any of our writers a limit and they will do everything they can to stretch the idea to breaking point and colour completely outside the lines. So ‘How To Grow Your X’ became just ‘Growth’ and our writers have run in all kinds of directions with that seemingly straightforward prompt. Because growth could mean striving and self-actualisation but it could also bring to mind tumours or monsters or fantasy worlds that have very physics to our own.
We have essays for you this month. We have satire and body horror and erotica and poetry and Clintavo really putting a shift in with three entries across three genres. Whether all of this will lead to this Substack continuing to grow remains to be seen. Because growth, as you will learn by the end of this, is more complicated and strange than it first appears.
Enjoy.
Essays
How to Grow Humanity's Creativity by Clint
Vanya’s Gambit i.e. entering two different submissions across two different mediums has been eclipsed this month by what some are calling the Clintavo Strategem which sees the madman entering three different works across three mediums. This essay is the first of the trilogy and its a corker.
Expandable space by Terry
Sheds, Vivaldi and Parkinson’s Law. Terry Freedman has a great eye for just the right detail to make his essays come alive and this one is a fine example of this skill in motion. It takes hard work to create such easy reading.
How to grow your garden. by Ana
A nice prelude to the Halloween season this (because in this crazy world of ours Christmas and Halloween have merged into a season that seems to begin in late September) with all of its talk of death and cemetries and ways of disposing of remains. Alongside Ana Bosch ‘s outstanding prose there are also some lovely local cemetry shots from various STSC members. I love to see collaborations like this.
How to Grow Your Audience!!! by Thomas J. Bevan
As I mentioned in the intro this months theme began with discussing how to satirise ‘Growth hackers’ and clickbait merchants. In this submission of mine I try to show what this game is really about and what it does to the psyche of the players.
How to grow your princes by Konstantin
But it reminded me that the future is not written. Upbringing is not destiny. And even the most spoiled and entitled little brat may grow into a spiritual leader.
Konstantin Asimonov takes what he calls a silly analogy and weaves it into a fun and surprisingly insightful essay on nepotism, politics, and judging others. Masterful.
This Substack is worth Your Money by Michael K
Kanga Bangas, Veblen Goods and supply and demand graphs. Michael K gets satirical but in the process ended up teaching me a thing or two about economics. The liberal use of the Subscribe button also made me laugh, I must say. Well played.
Fiction
How to Grow Your Nervetooth by Dane
Dane Benko has got quite the knack for the uncanny and for body horror. At times my mouth was agape reading this story and then I quickly shut it again and puckered my mouth and tried not to get freaked out. This is a compliment by the way. It shows that Dane knows what he is doing here.
No One Knows What Grows Inside by Trilety
If Dane’s story above was ‘body horror with a touch of erotica’ then this latest from Trilety is ‘erotica with a touch of body horror’. Of course it goes without saying that Trilety Wade pulls off this quite difficult remit with ease.
How to Grow Your Grimoire of Girlfriend Necromancy by Clint
The fiction leg of the Clintavo Strategem and my personal favourite of the three. This is inventive, confident and fun storytelling and in keeping with the theme I must note that I personally have enjoyed being able to witness Clint’s growth as a storyteller this year.
Huxley Bupkins's Execution by Vanya
He’s just absolutely in a league of his own, is Vanya Bagaev . Nothing else needs to be said.
Moon Phoenix by Adam K
I am massively biased and think that everyone who writes for the STSC is underrated and deserving of a bigger audience. But even among this group I think Adam Kozak is underrated. A consummate stylist who can create whole worlds with just a handful of sentences.
Poetry
How to Grow the One Soul's Song by Clint
The final part of Clintavo ‘s thematic trilogy. And I didn’t even know that Clint was a poet, yet here we are. Talent and work ethic both on display here, which lesser people- not me, but lesser people you understand- may find just a tad annoying.
Photography
New York City Breaks My Heart Today by Michael K
A beautiful collection of (over)growth based photography from Michael K , our man in New York.
Elliot’s Corner
Debut Album by Elliot
Has AI gone too far? Does playing with these prompt technologies break your human brain? These are questions Elliot Lessing poses. How far out is too far out, that’s what I’m wondering…
So that was the STSC symposium on the topic of Growth aka How To Grow Your X. We hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed creating it.
Thank you for your support with these projects we share, thank you for reading them and thanks for all of your comments, feedback and notes. Thank you for taking the time to share them and pass on the word.
And of course above all thanks to all of the contributors and those who help keep the STSC going via their kind support, especially those who keep a low profile, I hope we will be able to coax more of you into taking the plunge and participating in future issues.
Cheers.
Brilliant. Thanks for kind words!
Fantastic work Thomas. STSC rules🤌