The STSC Omnibus #48
This Omnibus is brought to you by The Soaring Twenties Social Club. Everything you want to know about our community and why you should join is contained within this post ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Letter From The Founder
Happy New Year!
For many this is a time of reflection and introspection, of goal setting and dreaming and starting to bring plans into fruition. Of gathering momentum and getting back on track. So in that spirit we have decided to make the first Omnibus post of the year a best of anthology featuring the works from 2022 that our writers and artists are most proud of.
I’m incredibly proud of the work that everyone has put out in 2022 (both in terms of volume and quality) and I think this Omnibus in particular is a great showcase of the depth of talent that the Soaring Twenties Social Club has. The voices are unique and distinct as art is an individual pursuit but they also clearly spurred on by the collective atmosphere and culture of genuine encouragement and help that we have been able to foster in the community.
For me personally seeing the group flourish and grow has been my proudest achievement to date and one that I hope will long continue.
And as this is a time of new beginnings I want to end by reminding you that the STSC still has room for more writers and storytellers and poets and painters and creatives who are looking for a way to get more out of their work and from their time online.
I hope to see you in our community.
Until next week,
Live well,
Tom.
Essays
Moments of Beauty by F.B. Fanat
This year, the vibes of the STSC got me to write something proper for the first time in ages. This is that one thing. Let there be more soon.
The Fragmentation of the Human Spirit by Vita
Feeling frazzled? Frantic? Fatigued? That's because of fragmentation caused by modern technology. I picked this piece because I return to it myself. When I feel too busy, I look for what parts of my life are too fragmented (part 1) and I do things to defragment my life (part 2).
All Alone in Our Own World by Lyle McKeany
This piece is my favorite example of my memoir-style writing in 2022. It was also nearly two years in the making. I had written and rewritten it so many times. I've submitted versions of it to publications to no avail. But I think it took all that time and those iterations to get it to this final form, which I'm quite proud of.
Context Clarity by Victor Casler
Sometimes I reread my work and it’s a bore to get through. Not this one. As I read this essay, I was curious about where the piece would go and delighted with the outcome. Both intellectually stimulating and practically useful, I am most proud of this essay on the path from context tunnel vision to context clarity
Really Useful Engines by Lyle Enright
I've tried a lot of new things with my writing this year: trying to get out of myself a little, trying to enjoy the research process again, trying to attend to the "Gestalt" of what I'm creating, and, above all, to smooth my critical edges by leading from a place of shameless curiosity and joy. In this piece, I feel I do all those things as well as I ever have.
The dumb idea of dumbing down by Craig Burgess
The web is demanding you simplify your writing, yourself, and you 'dumb down'. Here, I attempt to make a case against the opposite.
Curious Realizer - monochrome was the palette of the unreal, envy and nostalgia by Mark Dykeman
I felt that we don't think enough about the impact of monochrome in entertainment, especially for the GenX cohort that subsisted on it during their formative years. Plus I was able to work in some of my favorite TV series.
Maths Robots by Timothy
Even amongst children who have never been to school there is a great distrust of "maths". Culturally mathematics is accepted as hard and boring, which is not true. Maths is actually creative and playful, and maths should be explored not endured. Maths is probably the most "schooled" of all the subjects, but it doesn't have to be so linear, methodical, taught in disconnected small steps of progression. Maths is one big interconnected mess of knowledge that you can travel around in any way you want. And the tools that we have available on the internet now only make that easier. This essay was probably my most widely read and it really connected with a lot of parents of unschoolers and hopefully demonstrates how maths and play can be brought closer together.
Abstracted Practice of Body Transfiguration by Trilety
This was the first piece I wrote for both my Substack and thus the Soaring Twenties Social Club (the STSC is the reason I started a Substack in the first place). Choosing my "first" piece as my "best" may be a sign of plateaued evolution, or maybe it is more a way to remember the raw boldness that comes with a new experience. This piece is inherently me as it is body-obsessed with cinematic referencing and has an undertone of Woman to it. Oh, and it has religious references too, which seem to give fatty skim to the surface of a lot of my pieces. . . would this be the case if I'd never left the church? Catholicism is the ex I'm healthier without yet made me who I am today.
Experimenting with Styles by Terry
This article is an introduction to a form of Oulipo (the workshop of potential literature) concerned with playing around with styles. I have selected this article because it's quite informative, reviewing as it does two excellent books on the subject. It also includes a couple of my own examples, thereby kicking off a series. I think it's all good clean fun, and I hope other people do as well.
Reflections on my time at a very large company by Yuelian
Leaving my job after 8 years (in an industry I'd worked in for nearly 14 years) was perhaps the most significant decision I made in 2022. In this patchwork essay/reflections piece, I tried to give some glimpses of my favorite memories as well as why I ultimately made the decision to leave. I'm not sure if I'd call it my "best" writing from this year, but it certainly captures a key moment for me personally.
The Silence of Risk Management Victory by Stephanie
Sometimes risk management succeeds. When it does, no one notices. But it's still a victory.
A Late Night, Unencumbered Walk Along the Shores of North Myrtle Beach by Tony
I don't have a favorite piece that I have written, as I am a horrible critic of my own work. I could've chosen any and simply said "because I said so" when asked the reason why I had selected a particular essay. With all that being said, my submission for the Beach edition of the STSC's Symposium received positive feedback from certain members in the Club who I admire as writers. And after reading through it once more, I would agree. While this piece is not my longest, nor is it my most technical, I do think this essay is a good benchmark for what is to come. When I imagine my future as a writer and storyteller, I envision publishing more work similar to this one - gritty, degenerate, eloquent, endearing, and somehow meaningful, despite lacking real purpose or plot, all told through a genre that I could best describe as "modern-day Midwest Americana, with traces of mysticism, surrealism, and romance". Enjoy dear readers!
On Spirit by Frank
This short essay is personal. Inspired by a second viewing of a PBS documentary, I felt compelled to discuss the beauty of the creative spirit and offer up an antidote to anyone who feels a sense of cultural stagnation. If this piece manages to give one reader an ounce of hope for tomorrow's creative scene, and perhaps the itch to pursue their own creative endeavors, then I have done my job. Here's to a better tomorrow!
bookmark #274 by Deepansh
It is not often that someone asks you to pick one piece out of about 350 of them, and it is even rare to be able to make your pick. It has been a productive year. After struggling mildly, I decided to choose the one that started it all: the first one from this year, the one that kicked everything off, and the one that is still as relevant for me as it was when I wrote it. I hope it is relevant to you, too.
Travel Diaries #38 - Cổ Loa by Gavin
Travel is both objective and subjective; it is equally about where you go and the effect it has on you. As much as I write to discover and share the deeper effects that travel has on one’s spirit, I also try to pay my respects to the places I’ve been by depicting them as honestly as I can. This piece is an entry point into the time I spent living in Vietnam and working as an English teacher, and also captures an ongoing theme of travel for me: finding yourself caught between the pull of the spiritual safety of home comforts and the rewards of throwing yourself into the beautiful and bizarre unknown.
Requiem for Sean in D Minor by Charlie Becker
This is a heartbreaking essay about friendship, shame, addiction, helping the ones we love, and living with complex regrets.
The Murmuration of Grief by Huw
With my father's ashes unscattered, grief became a stone in my shoe. Migrating from the winters of loss back to the springs of some semblance of living meant that I had a choice of two flight paths.
Mario by Sam McFadden
[TJB: No blurb supplied so judge it for yourselves]
Fiction/Poetry
Gathering amber. A short story by Oleg
Despite being way more active that I would have imagined on the essay front, I haven't written much fiction in 2022. As short stories is a genre I want to get really good at, I'm sharing a short story I wrote.
In Too Deep (Entry 1) by G.K. Gaius
The first of the In Too Deep Series captures the hearts of two individuals lusting after each other. Committing a sin that'll lead them wherever they wish to go.
Portrait of a Rose by Sajan
A story quite outside myself. I felt painful/powerful inspiration throughout the making of it. And though one should never solely rely on inspiration, it is always a gift to be in its throngs.
Bewildering Wilderness by Vanya
This piece was pivotal for me. It has helped me understand how and what I want to write. It has become a backbone for my current and future work. It's a blend of prose and poetry or a poem in prose or an entity emerging when those two clash—whatever. Sasha Sokolov coined the term "proesia", which I'd like to use to describe what "Bewildering Wilderness" is, even if he meant something different and I misintepreted it. In any way, this is what I'm embarked on to writing. My more recent story, "For Whom The Universe Caws", was the next big step on that journey, and the next year, you'll see more of that. Please enjoy!
The Curse of Polyphemus by Adam Kozak
A narrative poem in blank verse (non-rhyming iambic pentameter) about the Cyclops Polyphemus after his encounter with Odysseus. My favorite out of everything I wrote this year.
Dropping Heat by David Torkington
In funny twists of medium and poetics, this short story endeavors to find out what happens when you strain yourself on Twitter. It is my first-written and best sample of proesia, or prose poetry, a budding form on which Ivan and I continue to work.
We Stand at This, the Turn of Year
Well perhaps this is cheating, because I don't know if it's my favourite or the best. But what it is, is new year themed. A hymn for the turn of the year, to be sung to Auld Lang Syne. I'm not as good at blurbing as Tom, so I have nothing else to say other than Happy New Year!
Why not first place, Achilles, and hate him to play by James Maynard
I don’t know what it is about this one, but I’m drawn to it. Takes place during the funeral games for Patroclus in “The Iliad”. Just a small riff I’m wild for.
The Terminal Tweet by Clint
[TJB: Clint is away but he asked for this story to be submitted along with my original blurb for it]
… Clint was clearly moved by recent social media world events to pen a biting bit of satire. That this is his first ever attempt at fiction (so I’m lead to believe) is genuine astonishing.
The Record Collector by Thomas J Bevan
As everyone else featured here will attest, nominating your own favourite work and writing a blurb on it is surprisingly difficult. But I’m opting to this one as it is possibly my best attempt to date at having the words on the page match the images in my mind. Stylistically, I think this is a fair representation of ‘me’ and where I want to head as I develop. I hope you enjoy it.
Art/Video
Skull plus for other things by Dom
"Walking the Grounds" Oil on Canvas by Jeanne Thompson
Dry Beach by D.B.
I almost posted an entire BTS essay on why I was excited about this video: in a lot of ways it consolidated many of the stylistic elements and storytelling approaches I've developed for a long time, but also felt fresh to do. It also helped me appropriate an abandoned short story idea into a different medium that gave it the guardrails it needed to work. And lastly I got to experiment with new lenses while also having a clear idea of what the final look and feel would be. All of the elements came together pleasingly and in 2023 I'm going to put it into the festival circuit.
TJB Film Recommendation
Bullitt (1968)
D. Peter Yates
W. Alan Trustman, Robert L. Fish, Harry Kleiner
S. Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset
The story goes that Robert Vaughn didn’t want to do this film as he felt that ‘there was no plot nor a sensible story line.’ McQueen insisted that Vaughn relented and did the film but he refused until the studio stepped in with a (figurative) suitcase full of cash.
Now, in a way I can see where Vaughn was coming from (canny business tactics none-withstanding). Bullitt is a realistic police procedural with little dialogue and a story that I suspect probably reads as quite flat on the page. But fortunately it is a film and indeed is one of the purest examples of cinema I can think of.
You have the never cooler McQueen in the iconic lead role, you have fantastic and highly assured direction and cinematography, you have the incredible Lalo Schifrin composed score and of course arguably the greatest car chase in cinematic history. The whole thing is a study in escalating tension, in grounded realism and in low key but highly effective acting.
All talk of Bullitt inevitably repeatedly hammers home the words ‘cool’ ‘iconic’ and ‘stylish’. And deservedly so. But it is more than surface. Watch it yourself and you’ll see what I mean. A masterpiece.
Thanks as always for reading/listening and thanks in advance for pressing all of those various buttons at the bottom which help the Omnibus spread further.
Also I can again (tentatively) confirm that Craig and I might be recording a new episode of the Tragedies of Modernity podcast tonight at 8pm GMT. We’ll host it and record it live from the STSC community and then post it via this Substack tomorrow.
If you want to join us live and listen in and post questions/comments/heckles in the podcast channel chat you are more than welcome. You simply have to sign up to the community first.
I look forward to seeing you over at the Social Club.
Cheers!