The Year Behind and Ahead
An overview of 2022, my work, and a 2023 prediction
Hello and welcome to Many Such Cases.
I reflect back on 2022 in gratitude. It was a year that introduced me to a pattern of living closest to what I’ve always wanted for myself — one of writing on my own terms, of leisure, of an almost overwhelming amount of time spent with friends and traveling and still managing to pay my own rent. Some bigger notes: I got laid off, and I’m so glad I did. I went to Paris, Mallorca, Barcelona, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Mostar and Split. I went to Missouri, Miami and home to Massachusetts as much as I pleased. I published a good deal — in The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Jezebel, Dirt, The Face, Spy, InsideHook. And, of course, I finally got around to reestablishing this Substack with a vision.
Some of the finer notes of the year: being laid off and thus given the opportunity to give freelancing a real go was not an anxiety-free prospect. It still isn’t. I’ve had more time than ever to wonder if I’m enough, if I’m doing enough. What type of writer do I want to be? Who am I speaking to? What is it I can’t tolerate having not said?
These questions are perpetual, and will be asked in new ways with fresh answers likely throughout the entirety of my days. But at the moment I feel confident and comfortable in the space afforded to me here to work through the answers I have at present.
For the last several years, I’ve written about niche sexualities and bizarre personas on the internet without much a sense as to what it was I intended to say with all of it. I had the wish to bring new eyes to something unique or strange, but that was about the extent of my own understanding of it. But 2022 introduced me to new motivations. Through my work, my encounters with others and in attempting to engage with the culture of the present, I’ve come to better understand that my interest in these topics isn’t just to say “here, look at that, isn’t that interesting” but to use them as opportunities to scrutinize their origins and their implications for the rest of us. It seems obvious, but before this year, I hadn’t narrowed down upon the general thesis that sex is important and means something to us culturally in order to actually execute it. That’s changed. And thus, here we are with this Substack.
A 2023 Prediction
2022 brought a new rise of masculinity figures to prominence, even if only on Twitter. Accounts like Carnivore Aurelius and Save Your Sons come to mind. These accounts aren’t entirely new, but their reach and that of accounts like them has blossomed. I don’t see this dying down. But one theme they increasingly emphasize among their whole “provide for your family, eat red meat” bit is a revival in r/NoFap ideology against masturbation. As I wrote previously, much of r/NoFap conflates masturbation with pornography, and this holds here, too. I believe that in the coming year, this type of skepticism toward sexual habits and mental/physical health will further become part of the online dialogue. Some of it will be accurate (watching too much porn can be bad for your mental health) while some of it will be pseudoscience (quitting porn will entirely change your facial structure). People like John “King David” Porn Disrespector will further gain a following and virality over the coming year, often relying on ideas like the latter, introducing a new audience to a variety of mixed-messages about their sexuality. 2023 will likely bring even more confusion about desire, which for better or worse means I will have plenty to write about.
My In & Out List
What I Read This Year
I have never, not once in my life, felt as though I read as much as I should. But I do feel mildly okay about what I did read this year. A non-exhaustive list includes Fuccboi by Sean Thor Conroe, Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh, Kindred by Octavia Butler, The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party by Daniel James Brown, Great Jones Street by Don Delilo, Serotonin by Michel Houllebecq, Gag Reflex by Elle Nash and A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. I have picked up ant put down The Secret History by Donna Tartt on several occasions and have yet to finish it. Some of these were good, some of these were fine.
My favorite of the year was Serotonin. I picked it up ahead of my trip to Europe and it quickly became a book that shaped how I perceived the experience as it went forth, and how I remembered the experience once I was back home and finishing the book (I did not do much actual reading in Europe, as is only healthy). It offered a prescient sense of cynicism and a refreshing critique of contemporary culture, despite contrasting with my own attitude of optimism. I’m now eager to read everything he’s written.
What I Wrote This Year
It’s funny, in the six months of 2022 before MEL imploded I had been writing two pieces every day. Now, I can barely remember what some of those were. I loved speaking with the writers of the Seinfeld episode with Sue Ellen Mischke where her unencumbered big naturals were the star. I wrote a lot about the ineffable nature of men’s aesthetic sluttiness. I wrote about why Nathan Fielder is so hot and why Lana del Rey’s boyfriends serve as a cultural barometer.
I regret writing this piece on “homework simps,” or guys who get off on doing women’s homework for them, solely because I now get so many messages from men asking to do my writing for me. I like doing my own writing!
Elsewhere, I wrote about voice notes, sexting, Dunkin, censorship and why young men aren’t having sex.
But overall, finally getting around to formally launching this Substack in December was one of my highlights. I love writing for myself and my own audience. I am having fun!
In early January, I will begin sending out some of my first paywalled writing. Consider subscribing now, if you haven’t already :-)
I am wishing you all the best New Years, and I hope your 2023 will be filled with joy and comfort and excitement and whatever fond feelings you value most. Thank you all for being here.
Great stuff! Look forward to what you will cover and write in the new year