A Farewell to Posts

On leaving Substack

I started this Substack, Gladsome Light, going on three years ago. Originally, it was reserved for poetry. After a while, I began to publish essays, too, mostly on matters theological, but occasionally on issues of a cultural or political cast. I’ve derived a lot of enjoyment and edification from crafting these poems and essays (and reading the poems and essays of others!).

There’ve been many changes since 2023, most of them positive, both on Substack and “in real life.” But there’s been at least one negative development — very negative. I refer, of course, to the explosion of generative AI content, which was just emerging when I created this Substack, one week before the birth of my fourth child. In the last twelve months in particular, Substack has been overrun by slopmongers.

The “slopocalypse” (as some wit termed it) has proven obnoxious and depressing in the extreme. But, on the bright side, it has forced me to think about writing. In the abstract, yes, but also in the concrete. Why do I write? For whom do I write? To what end do I write? And so on.

Moreover, the slop merchants have forced me to reconsider the moral quality of the platform in and of itself, quite apart from their crimes against art and nature. Why am I here? What exactly is “here”? What’s in a <heart>? By posting and commenting, am I polishing the mirror of the soul, or covering it with filth? Am I advancing myself and others toward heaven or toward hell? Etc.

These contemplations have persuaded me that my energies are best directed elsewhere. Given my rather modest output, it will probably surprise you to learn that I’ve devoted hundreds of hours to the poetry and prose featured on Gladsome Light. For a while, I could justify the investment. No more.

Substack is better than other social media networks, I admit, and there’re some formidable minds worthy of attention. In the end, though, it’s mostly a glorified Twitter for pretend intellectuals (and a few genuine articles). It feeds all the vices typical of social media: haste, cattiness, acedia, frivolity, vanity, curiosity, rash judgment, party-spirit. To make things worse, it’s now full of junk churned out by manipulators of the logos-lacking machines, the LLMs.

I have ideas that I would like to tend to, ideas that might, if they are realized, help souls and contribute to the renewal of (Christian) culture, in some modest way. Most of these ideas revolve around reviving older means of social communication and literary production. Some will deride me as a luddite, a technophobe, a LARPer. I’m nothing of the sort. Sadly, these days you can’t escape such accusations if you so much as look askance our sacred complex of gadgets, screens, and apps.

I’ll continue to check my messages for a period. If you want to connect by some other means, let me know.

Well, this is the moment of farewell — to the good, the bad, the ugly. There’s bye to everything, sooner or later. And in the case of Substack, bye is sooner.

Thank you to those who read my work, and also to those who helped me build an audience. God bless.

—Philip

P.S. I may well come crawling back (as you surely suspect) — resistance is futile, perhaps…? — but not for a long time! Pray for me!