Why doesn't Substack feel like Substack Anymore

hello cuties angels lovers and other hot literarians

Today, I am on my third cup of coffee in my hot literati mug and I'm sitting in my new reading chair, typing into an old fashioned blog. I've very passionate about an old fashioned blog. I've had one since I was fourteen, even though I've developed or "reverted to draft" most of the pieces.

My writing used to be disgustingly flowery because I was obsessed with Fitzgerald and Nabokov. Now, I still love both of them, but I've settled into my own rhythm a bit more. 25. Brain on, thank God. Things do get better.

With celebrities joining substack left and right, I wanted to write through a brief explanation of what's happening as well as my own thoughts for hot literati and it's direction.

Two Ideas to hold in your brain for a bit

function versus form

FUNCTION: an activity or purpose natural to or intended for a person or thing.

FORM: the visible shape or configuration of something.

My Introduction to Substack

was when I was sitting in my apartment with my ex in Germany. Someone invited me to do an interview on theirs, but I was really shy at the time, I'm naturally quite shy, even though I've gone through phases where I've decided that i'm not. Depends on the day, I guess.

I remember scrolling through and being intrigued by the immediate email capture pop-up. At that point, hot literati existed on TikTok, Patreon with a Discord integration, and I was being courted to use an app called Sunroom. I was creating on everything with no clear direction, but the experimentation was fun and I enjoyed it.

My Introduction to Tech

I've talked about this a bit in other pieces, but I grew up around a lot of technology. I loved literature and I loved computer. These two things can exist together. I love a blog. I love staying up late once every quarter and watching someone's Youtube. But the older I get and the more I'm actually friends with the people I watch on the internet, the more I want to watch small creators and cheer them on.

I built my first website around fourteen, when I was developing the non-profit concept I volunteered under during high school. It was called "Self Posi" and I traveled around middle schools speaking to girls about the importance of self compassion. 12 is a tender age. I hated myself at 12. Being able to talk to them about how it gets better is important. And I think that's why I still love blogging, too, because I know that some young girl in the midwest is surfing the internet to try to imagine the sort of life she could lead.

When I Started Writing on Substack

It was more out of curiosity. I was a TikTok famous writer, who only talked about other people's books. The ability to put my own writing online changed my life and was affirming for a bit, but I love building communities and brands because it's more fun than writing alone.

When I was 23, Belletrist took me to The Paris Review Spring Revel. I got to talk to Emma Roberts about Breakfast at Tiffany's and listened to Tobias Wolff discuss how lonely the writing process is. At that time, I had done weird things with my internet presence. Unfollowed every account but a Dostoevsky fan page because I didn't really want to exist as myself online anymore. I was tired of being perceived as something other than who I was in the room.

Emma's words about Holly Golightly really hit me and Tobias Wolff''s about sitting alone at your desk did too. My writing process at that point in time was sitting at my desk with a bowl of microwaved peas, listening to Car Seat Headrest and sobbing. I was writing to get something out, instead of trying to make something.

I am grateful for that phase of my creative life, because even while writing on the internet, I wrote a book, and eventually sold more copies of it on my own than William Blake did during his lifetime.

The World is Always Changing

In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy explores the idea that you can be progressive or reactive. In my head, I often think about the fact that you can be a hater or a cheerleader. You can criticize something someone else is building, or you can cheer them on.

Or you can make your own thing. Or be a part of something with other people.

After going viral on the internet for cultural criticism I got tired of being a hater and I got really hungry to make my own world and art. But I think that's something that came to me with age, and hopefully the feeling will stick around for a bit.

Everyone likes to be creative, but not everyone feels that they are allowed to. No one likes to be a product, but that's sort of what happens once someone becomes very famous or mainstream. The world builds you up to tear you down. We see it all the time. Your criticism about someone, especially a celebrity, would alter dramatically if you could have a face to face conversation with them, or if you could walk a mile in their shoes.

One of my artistic obsessions is the duplicity of perspective. The fact that there are so many minds in the world and you will only ever be in yours. This thought used to make me sad, until I realized most people like to be asked what's going on in their head. And that's intimacy, right? Broadening shared context. Looking at the same thing.

Be honest. Be yourself. Have Fun. Have Faith.

On Substack

Substack is a very creative thing in multiple ways. For the founders. For the people coding and shipping new features. And for the writers and creatives writing and creating on it.

Substack is the same, just with new bells and whistles and fame and famous people.

As I've learned more about economics, the idea I'm stuck with is the popular idea that things are always growing or decaying. I don't buy this entirely, but to be fair I think of everything as one big dance.

Substack will probably continue to grow, as a business, as a platform, but taking a step back for hot literati and looking at form versus function, substack is a feed, a newsletter in your inbox, and a chatroom.

HOT LITERATI DOT COM

I like having an old fashioned blog and website for many reasons. For one, it can be black and pink. It can have different rooms for music, fashion, literature, and art. It can have products (digital and physical) and a good old fashioned blog. It's the sort of thing you can get lost in. Like Paris.

I had an American boyfriend in Paris for the last few days of September. But that is the sort of story I would like to print in something you can hold in your hands.

More than anything, I want you to feel like you are a part of something beautiful. Something literary, and fun, and gentle. We aren't a substack community, I am not a Booktoker, sometimes I don't even like to be called a writer.

I am hailo, and this is hot literati, and I'm happy you are a part of this, because it's our community that makes this place so special.

all my love

hailo