Letters From the Labyrinth 416
The Nu-Oligarchs
I’ve been seeing some discourse these past few weeks in which authors and readers are being chastised, castigated, and judged for continuing to have a presence on the X/Twitter social media platform. And I get that it’s coming from a place of sincerity and frustration with the state of things. But in many of these cases, that’s not how it is coming across.
And look — I’m no fan of Elon Musk. I am all for space exploration, and I agree with the outlook that humanity’s future existence and evolution is dependent upon getting past the moon, but there are all sorts of people other than Elon who have championed that same thing. There was a brief moment where I thought maybe this dude could be a real life Tony Stark, but the moment you watch a few interviews with him or actually research the interior workings of his various companies, it becomes clear that the emperor has no clothes. Thus, I’ve been of a mind that we probably shouldn’t have let the pothead child of Apartheid be in charge of our space program and our electric cars and our industrial tunneling machines and brain interfaces and social media platforms.
But I digress.
I get why people would want to leave X/Twitter. But not all of us can. Myself, for example — and all of the other authors and comedians and actors and other artists who are currently involved in various legal actions against various AI companies can’t nuke our accounts and old Tweets due to legalities. Other folks remain on the platform due to accessibility issues (voice to text, etc). Some still post there because they still get engagement with their readers. And there are a host of other reasons, as well. Personally, I’d like nothing more than to get off that platform, but as I said above, I can’t until certain things have resolved. I understand that Elon and his ilk are dismantling democracy, but I signed up for the other fight before that, and it’s one I intend to finish. I think it is just as important, in the long run.
Musk. Bezos. Zuckerberg. These jackasses were more than happy to throw money behind progressive causes when it benefitted them. Now they’re throwing money behind conservative causes for the same reason. They are not Left-wing or Right-wing. They are oligarchs, and the only things they are beholden to is money and power.
Social media platforms are tools, just like your phone or a toaster or a flathead screwdriver. They are a product. Nothing more. Nothing less. And I think it’s stupid to shame artists for using the tools they have access to. None of these artists, not even Stephen King, have the money and power that the tech oligarch’s have amassed. An up-and-coming author like R.J. Joseph or Millie Price or Laurel Hightower or Stephen Kozeniewski should be able to connect with potential readers in whatever way they can. Established authors such as myself should be able to keep hold of that real estate due to legal and professional obligations or even just to keep some Nazi fucking bot from pretending to be them, and should be able to do so without being chastised for it.
And if you’re going to begin shaming creators for their usage of X/Twitter, then before you do, check your own usage of Goodreads and Amazon (owned by Bezos) or Facebook, Instagram, and Threads (owned by Zuckerberg). Then we can talk.
You not using one particular platform will do absolutely nothing to upset the balance of power, because all of the platforms are owned by the same oligarchs. And while I very much enjoy Bluesky, never forget that it is simply another tool. Sooner or later, one of the oligarchs will buy that tool, as well.
They want us fighting and squabbling with each other. That’s how oligarchs have always stayed in power, and that’s how these three will stay in power. And these half-assed purity tests I see people engaging in and judging others with are just a variation of that.
Don’t buy into it.
Good morning. I’m Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth — a long-running weekly newsletter for friends, fans, and family.
My pals Owen King and Clay McLeod Chapman will be appearing at Vortex Books & Comics next Saturday, March 1st, from 1pm to 3pm. They’ll be signing Self Help and Wake Up And Open Your Eyes, along with all of their other books and comics. Due to the expected crowd size, there will be no Q&A. Customers should prepare to stand in line. And that means dress appropriately for the weather. We will have plenty of books in stock. You may also bring ONE (1) item by each of them from home to be signed.
If you’ve been meaning to come check out my store, this is a great excuse to do so. We are located at 477 Locust Street, Columbia PA 17512. If you are coming from out of town, I’ve compiled a list of nearby hotels and other attractions.
I uploaded several new episodes of BRIAN KEENE’S SECRET HISTORIES to my YouTube page this past week (and several more to my Patreon). In this series, I’ve been going through my books in chronological order, and talking about their origins — where I got the idea, how it was written, what was going on in my life at the time, how the public responded to the book, what positive or negative impact it had on my career (if any), and other factors. The way it works is I upload them to Patreon first, and then one or two weeks later, they are publicly available on YouTube.
This week, I focus on EARTHWORM GODS (also published as THE CONQUEROR WORMS), THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE, and TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME.
Lots of folks asking about the new podcast, so I've put together this handy little Q&A:
Q: When is THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE returning?
A: It was supposed to be last month (January) but HOW TO SURVIVE 2025 is running a little bit longer than we had originally intended. I'm holding off until we've wrapped that. Between recording that podcast and the BRIAN KEENE'S SECRET HISTORIES series for Patreon and YouTube, I don't want to take on a third thing of that nature. I think we have two or three episodes of HOW TO SURVIVE 2025 left to record. Once that series is finished, I'll then start releasing episodes of the new podcast, which is now officially titled BRIAN KEENE'S HORROR SHOW.
Q: Why is it called BRIAN KEENE'S HORROR SHOW instead of THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE?
A: Several reasons. Hard as it sometimes is for me to actually believe, THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE was an institution, and it served as the inspiration for a lot of the horror fiction podcasts that you now enjoy. The last thing I want to do is come back on the scene and make those podcasts that we inspired now feel like we're competing. So, I'm changing up the format quite a bit. And to differentiate that this is not THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE but a spiritual successor, I'm calling it BRIAN KEENE'S HORROR SHOW.
Q: How will it be different?
A: Well, no Dave in the cohost chair, obviously, as his spirit is currently (I suspect) floating around somewhere past the Oort Cloud. But no Mary, Matt, Coop, Lombardo, or Dungeonmaster 77.1 either. No cohosts or cohorts of any kind. in fact. My intention with BRIAN KEENE'S HORROR SHOW is to do a sort of unplugged version of THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE. I will still have guests on occasion, but rather than the traditional interview format, it will be more of a conversation. (Early guests will include Todd Keisling, Laurel Hightower, and Daniel J. Volpe, because it's their fault I'm getting back into podcasting in the first place). But in addition to the occasional guest, I want to delve deep into our genre's history, and tell it from my perspective -- sort of a spoken word continuation of END OF THE ROAD, if you can dig that. And if you don't dig that, that's okay. There are plenty of other wonderful genre-focused podcasts available to listen to.
Q: No Mary? No Dungeonmaster? I call shenanigans!
A: I mean, they may very well pop up as a guest for an episode, but no, they won't be weekly cohosts. Nobody will. If my career were the X-Men movie franchise, then we are firmly entering my Logan phase, and I am approaching this podcast as such, and going it alone. Meet me in the forest…
Q: Will it be a weekly schedule like THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE was?
A: Ideally it would be, but I can tell you right now that I can't commit to that. More realistically, it will be biweekly.
Q: I will check out the new show, but I miss THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE.
A: Luckily for you, all of them are available to listen to here.
Currently Watching: Yacht Rock: A Documentary (Max), SNL 50 (Peacock), Clerks, Clerks II, and Clerks III (Prime), and Severance Season 2 (Apple+ and Prime).
Currently Reading: Matt Serafini’s next novel in galley form, Trad Wife by T. C. Parker, The Dunwich Romance by Edward Lee (a re-read) and The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King (a re-read).
Currently Listening: This past week was heavy on the new album from Killswitch Engage and the career-spanning David Lee Roth boxed set.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Yacht Rock documentary, but keep in mind that I was listening to Yacht Rock back before it was called Yacht Rock. Yes, this is the one time I can pull the hipster thing and say I was into something before it was cool. I would have liked to have seen them expand it a little bit more (no mention of Exile’s “Kiss You All Over” or the works of Paul Davis was especially glaring), and when they were showing clips of everything from The Sopranos to Family Guy and how they used Yacht Rock, I found it strange that there was no mention of Hello Ladies, a brilliant and much-missed sitcom that was absolutely infused with the genre. But still a great doc, and should appeal to fans both new and old school.
And that does it for this week. Thanks, as always, for reading. I’ll see you back here again next Sunday.
— Brian Keene
One thing I would add about oligarchs is that they cooperate with governments in some way, receiving aid from them and so supporting the person in power. It's a parasitic relationship. Many Russian oligarchs got their start when the Soviet state was imploding, when the KGB fed them money so they could privatize state institutions (oil, etc.) Huge American tech companies also rely on government contracts--Amazon's AWS, for instance. A scientist I used to work with told me that Google participated in one of the intelligence community's incubator programs. I can say no more on that one, mostly because I don't have first-hand knowledge. (The scientist was the model for the Ferber character in my story Black Vault, so if you've read that you know to trust Ferber at your own peril.)
Well, now I have "Kiss You All Over" stuck in my head. It'll probably be in my head till the night closes in...