Reality Is Less Than Television

In partnership with

Hello from out here on the Thames Delta. Been a bit of a week, hasn’t it? It feels like either nothing much is happening - I have had less email this week than at probably any time in the last ten years - or everything is happening too much - news apps are burning holes in my phone and nobody even noticed that Apple are developing an AI pin.

Be advised thar, in previews, the logo for this newsletter is not showing up - Beehiiv, who power this newsletter, are migrating everyone to a new posting system and some stuff seems to have busted. So if there’s a broken image in here, no need to tell me - I’ll see it too.

Talking of newsletter hosts who seem to have lost the plot a bit of late, Substack is now a streamer. There is now an Apple and Google Substack TV app, that collates and streams any live or on-demand video you have access to through your Substack subscriptions. Apparently there’s been something of a “pivot to video” on that service over the last year, a phrase that always gives me a chill. On the one hand, this is actually really interesting - with video, podcast hosting, a social media function and, yes, newsletters, Substack is becoming its own kind of “everything app” for self-publishing. And I’ve been reading a lot lately about people who have built sustainable and expansible media businesses on Substack, like Emily Sundberg’s FEED ME. On the other hand, they seem to be racing towards a moment where the newsletter system is the least important part of their offering, and turning everything into television may not end well for anyone.

Clavicular - that’s his television name - is a 20 years looksmaxxer. I sent this article to a friend and she immediately assumed it was fiction. It’s not. The article is called “Clavicular and Contentmaxxing” and it’s a faintly terrifying read. This is a guy who has turned himself into “content.” That in itself isn’t new, but the berserk level of what you might kindly call “commitment” is car-crash fascinating.

I remember Clive Barker once saying, probably back around 1990, that it was important to read books by the world’s most popular authors, regardless of their literary merit, because those authors were speaking to hundreds of millions of people and it was important to know what was being said to them. People like this guy are the creators whom a frightening number of people are listening to the most, these days. This is television now. Pay attention. It’s weird.

Sean Monahan on shit getting weirder and time seeming to collapse this month.

Everything seems to be happening a lot, doesn’t it? I’ve barely even left the house this week because of work and weather, and yet there doesn’t seem to be enough time to either get the work done or keep up with anything else. Instagram was my last footprint in social media and I’ve hardly even looked at it lately, let alone used it. I’m supposed to be disconnecting and reading books and watching films and writing in my notebook at night and I find myself buried in news apps and newsletters and search engines (often while watching Bloomberg with one eye) until 1130pm while also writing material directly on to my phone because it’s in my hand which is the WORST habit. (IA Writer is great for that. DON’T DO IT.)

BOOKS/NON-FICTION

THE HOUR OF THE PREDATOR

The hour of the predator is essentially just a return to normality. The anomaly was the brief period during which we believed that we could curb the bloody quest for power with a system of rules.

Pair that shit with Mark Carney talking about the end of rules-based international order this past week.

I read this short, witty and fairly scary book over Xmas. It’s a series of pen-portraits of autocrats and global political entities - the opening section on how the United Nations doesn’t actually work at all is both funny and horrible, and feels particularly pointed this month.

da Empoli is a longtime political operator and writer who’s been around power a lot. He’s very good at pointing out how political theatre is reflected across history and across the world right now in ways we don’t always see.

A less common occurrence is for a head of state to appear dressed in an outfit of his own invention, made for him by Miss Universe’s stylist. Yet this is what happened when Nayib Bukele, the young president of El Salvador, appeared in an indigo tunic with golden floral motifs embroidered on the cuffs and collar, giving him a look midway between Simón Bolívar and a Star Wars character.

The details are great. In the round - especially paired with AUTOCRACY INC - it goes a good way towards contextualising our present moment.

THE HOUR OF THE PREDATOR (UK) (US)

So impressed was I, I went back and bought his previous book.

• This week I have been, among other things, writing the foreword for a friend’s graphic novel. I don’t think the work has been announced yet. I haven’t written a foreword in years - I stopped doing at lot of that sort of thing around the time I stopped doing public appearances and speaking, 2018-9, when it started to dawn on me I was doing a lot for other people and making myself miserable - so I’m trying to recover that writing muscle where you are both curator and salesperson.

• New Laura Cannell record. THE MEDIEVAL DRONE SOCIETY. Which is a great album name.

• The best film action scenes of 2025. Action scenes are among the hardest things to write well, and you should always study the people who pull them off.

• A very very famous film director once told me that you should always have everyone crying at the end of a film so that the audience thinks that something important happened.

If you want to work together this year, or if you’re doing something creative you want more people to know about, or if you think there’s something Orbital Operations should be doing, hit reply to this newsletter to shoot a note to the office.

SETTLE THIS FOR ME

Robert Eggers’ next film, WERWULF, is set for Christmas this year. Opinions differ on what his best film so far is. Obviously, only my opinion is correct, but people argue. So I’m opening this up to you - which is his best? Results will be posted here next week.

GOT MORE TIME?

LTD

WARRENELLIS.LTD is a digital writer’s notebook and you’re invited to read over my shoulder. I currently put up one big post at noon-ish every day. You can actually subscribe to it by email as well as via RSS now.

This letter has been zapped to you via Beehiiv and is sponsored by:

Start your year with clarity

Written by Shane Parrish and reMarkable, this workbook helps you reflect without complexity or stress. It guides you through the past year with intention, so insights emerge naturally.


This isn’t about setting more goals. It’s about understanding what matters, clearly and calmly.


A simple reset for January. A thoughtful way to review your year.

Download the workbook

Take care of yourself. Gonna be a weird year. See you next week.

W