Humor/enlighten a literal-minded old-timer: this Vack guy set up a whole fascist humiliation ritual. Why’d you let him do this stupid “we’re not so different, you and I, routine?” If I understand the commitments one takes on when one publicly calls themselves a communist and another a fascist, wouldn’t the appropriate response be to hit him? Or if you don’t want assault charges — he seems like the snitch type — to at least tell him and his bullshit sister to fuck off? He’s not Celine. He’s not contributing anything to the arts. Why give him that much?
Crumps’s (acknowledged) passivity makes him barely the protagonist of these fictions. Instead he is more or less a floating consciousness through which various characters and scenes are refracted. Crumps has limited agency and his motives and desires, beyond “joining the scene and seeing where this all goes,” remain obscure. He is a sort of Ishmael, or Juan García Madero from The Savage Detectives if the young poet never got laid.
Accordingly, Crumps can’t attack the fascist - to do so would be literally out of character.
Huh, weird. Makes sense, but, afaic, if you’re going to be a red, you reject passivity. Practically speaking, I guess if he hit someone he wouldn’t get invited to the parties anymore?
Very true. He would have nothing to write about, or would need return to writing about incels, philosophy, or other topics open to the public. On the other hand, the narrative risk of sustained passivity is repetition and drift. Fiction told from the POV of an ingenue-observer generally features an active character (Queequeg, Belano), the reader can project their desires onto. Perhaps that will be Charlie.
This “Charlie” woman is honestly the only compelling character in this chapter, though even then the fact that she knew who the other players were seems a bit contrived.
Because comment replies show up in one's email without showing the comment they're replying to, I initially misread your response as referring to everyone else being unfortunately much too real...
But, yes, I know that Peter Vack is that washed-up child star who played The Brain on "Arthur"; Curtis Yarvin used to run the blog "Slate Star Codex"; Dasha used to be a reporter for InfoWars; and Crumps himself is that guy who wrote "Shoplifting from American Apparel" way back when... so, yes, I agree that all of the major players are much too real.
Chumley elsewhere in this comment thread thinks you don't have a real job. If you feel like defending yourself, you could scroll down and argue otherwise. Or not.
Right?? “Your honor, I regret to inform you I made a bad choice and ketamined myself” (I’m old and a nerd I have no idea what the verb form here is) “plus my ‘victim’ is a fascist plz see attached substack essay,” guarantee he walks!
Good to read someone making sense Peter. Vack is a talentless clown and Crumps is a hypocritical sycophant. Both are terrible.In fact, any one associated with this shitty scene is.
a hearty lol @ trying to flex on children excited to get into the afterparty of the huge and popular band they like because they aren't adequately signifying as well-versed in the downtown racist podcast scene
wow this “crumps music” sounds quite promising. i wonder if anyone is planning a boat party at which music along these lines will be prominently featured, perhaps someone mentioned in the article
The Crumps character is so fascinating. We're supposed to believe that you're ideological enemies of the people who's parties you go to, who you are on a cordial first name basis with, on whom your livelihood and relevance depend? Just seems an extraordinary feat of self deception to be in such proximity to figures like moldbug, and cultural detritus like the angelicism thing, and tell yourself that you are not essentially of a kind with them. Same goes for Charlie lol, "taking down dimes square with spontaneous acts of situationist terrorism" seems like it translates pretty directly to "cryptoironically participating in the scene while putting myself on a moral pedestal". All of you people need real jobs
I assume Charlie has a real job. That said, it seems like Peter Vack, et al, have adopted the attitude of "you have survived our hazing and now you are one of us", i.e. cynically recuperating Crumps (if we're going to continue Charlie's Debord theme here).
I see no textual evidence to suggest that the Charlie character has a real job, and if they do it's probably more of an adderall prescription work from home job than a callouses and scars kind of job, which is what I meant by "real job".
lol u r right about the pedestal, crypto irony, and moral highground. i was very new to the scene at the time of this interview and it turns out it’s not that deep. i am more political than p much everyone else in the scene but at the end of the day we all go to the same parties (i just don’t buy drinks).
i do throw parties that attempt to draw resources from the downtown folks to independent artists which is what i was mostly on about (situationist acts of terror can never actually enact a change in the economic base of a scene) but u r mostly right, i am a grifter and am not really enemies with most of the downtown heads. they’re actually very nice for the most part and i like them.
as for the job i do have access to significant familial support but support myself as a freelance production assistant/party promoter. it’s pretty physical labor and i work like 14-16 hours a day, every day, but it is creative class labor and i’m pretty privileged as far as people go.
lmao i wish there was some kind of total perspective vortex for new yorkers so they could get some kind of glimpse of what they actually are to everyone else. you can't make this shit up i tell u what
I’ve lived in Brooklyn for eight years, before that LA for eight years, and before that Chicago, so I can confidently say that Mr. Crumplar’s milieu is not unique to NYC.
The main difference with NYC is that you don’t have to drive everywhere. My rent is even cheaper in NYC than it was in LA.
Young trans women are statistically less likely to have familial support, so absent textual evidence that Charlie is rich it is statistically likely that she has to have a job in order to pay the rent, especially in NYC.
If we're going with stereotypes here, yes, Charlie is disproportionately likely to be a software engineer—as we know, all trans women are software engineers who listen to vaporwave—but she is still likely to have a "normal job" in the sense that having a "normal job" is the default, not the exception.
Though, idk, just follow her Substack and see what she posts about:
Bruh i enjoy your writing but it is not relevant to say she is trans 😭 no trans people are impressed that you clocked some bitch youre so clout poisoned
obsessed with Charlie, I'm rooting for her.
thanks me too
🫡
Humor/enlighten a literal-minded old-timer: this Vack guy set up a whole fascist humiliation ritual. Why’d you let him do this stupid “we’re not so different, you and I, routine?” If I understand the commitments one takes on when one publicly calls themselves a communist and another a fascist, wouldn’t the appropriate response be to hit him? Or if you don’t want assault charges — he seems like the snitch type — to at least tell him and his bullshit sister to fuck off? He’s not Celine. He’s not contributing anything to the arts. Why give him that much?
Crumps’s (acknowledged) passivity makes him barely the protagonist of these fictions. Instead he is more or less a floating consciousness through which various characters and scenes are refracted. Crumps has limited agency and his motives and desires, beyond “joining the scene and seeing where this all goes,” remain obscure. He is a sort of Ishmael, or Juan García Madero from The Savage Detectives if the young poet never got laid.
Accordingly, Crumps can’t attack the fascist - to do so would be literally out of character.
Huh, weird. Makes sense, but, afaic, if you’re going to be a red, you reject passivity. Practically speaking, I guess if he hit someone he wouldn’t get invited to the parties anymore?
Very true. He would have nothing to write about, or would need return to writing about incels, philosophy, or other topics open to the public. On the other hand, the narrative risk of sustained passivity is repetition and drift. Fiction told from the POV of an ingenue-observer generally features an active character (Queequeg, Belano), the reader can project their desires onto. Perhaps that will be Charlie.
This “Charlie” woman is honestly the only compelling character in this chapter, though even then the fact that she knew who the other players were seems a bit contrived.
unfortunately much too real
Because comment replies show up in one's email without showing the comment they're replying to, I initially misread your response as referring to everyone else being unfortunately much too real...
But, yes, I know that Peter Vack is that washed-up child star who played The Brain on "Arthur"; Curtis Yarvin used to run the blog "Slate Star Codex"; Dasha used to be a reporter for InfoWars; and Crumps himself is that guy who wrote "Shoplifting from American Apparel" way back when... so, yes, I agree that all of the major players are much too real.
lol i shouldn’t have replied but i did
Chumley elsewhere in this comment thread thinks you don't have a real job. If you feel like defending yourself, you could scroll down and argue otherwise. Or not.
based on the story it sounds like he was too out of control on imaginary ketamine to justify anything he did
Right?? “Your honor, I regret to inform you I made a bad choice and ketamined myself” (I’m old and a nerd I have no idea what the verb form here is) “plus my ‘victim’ is a fascist plz see attached substack essay,” guarantee he walks!
I am fairly certain "ketamined" is not a term in general use but, really, it ought to be
Good to read someone making sense Peter. Vack is a talentless clown and Crumps is a hypocritical sycophant. Both are terrible.In fact, any one associated with this shitty scene is.
a hearty lol @ trying to flex on children excited to get into the afterparty of the huge and popular band they like because they aren't adequately signifying as well-versed in the downtown racist podcast scene
"Crumps Music." Anyways, terrible dispatch.
I mean I hate it too which is why I just bought a paid subscription...
Can you send me a scanned pdf of it, my job (customs office in a Moroccan airport) does not allow me to cover the cost
Actually… do you have a fax machine?
The Crumpstack subscription? Scanning a PDF of an email might take me a while…
wow this “crumps music” sounds quite promising. i wonder if anyone is planning a boat party at which music along these lines will be prominently featured, perhaps someone mentioned in the article
Despite—or perhaps because of—the fact that I’m here in New York, I’m still not thoroughly convinced that any of these people actually exist.
I’m not sure if this is a credit or a demerit to Mr. Crumplar’s writing.
I have seen some of the actors that play these people and can confirm none of it is real
The Crumps character is so fascinating. We're supposed to believe that you're ideological enemies of the people who's parties you go to, who you are on a cordial first name basis with, on whom your livelihood and relevance depend? Just seems an extraordinary feat of self deception to be in such proximity to figures like moldbug, and cultural detritus like the angelicism thing, and tell yourself that you are not essentially of a kind with them. Same goes for Charlie lol, "taking down dimes square with spontaneous acts of situationist terrorism" seems like it translates pretty directly to "cryptoironically participating in the scene while putting myself on a moral pedestal". All of you people need real jobs
I assume Charlie has a real job. That said, it seems like Peter Vack, et al, have adopted the attitude of "you have survived our hazing and now you are one of us", i.e. cynically recuperating Crumps (if we're going to continue Charlie's Debord theme here).
I see no textual evidence to suggest that the Charlie character has a real job, and if they do it's probably more of an adderall prescription work from home job than a callouses and scars kind of job, which is what I meant by "real job".
lol u r right about the pedestal, crypto irony, and moral highground. i was very new to the scene at the time of this interview and it turns out it’s not that deep. i am more political than p much everyone else in the scene but at the end of the day we all go to the same parties (i just don’t buy drinks).
i do throw parties that attempt to draw resources from the downtown folks to independent artists which is what i was mostly on about (situationist acts of terror can never actually enact a change in the economic base of a scene) but u r mostly right, i am a grifter and am not really enemies with most of the downtown heads. they’re actually very nice for the most part and i like them.
as for the job i do have access to significant familial support but support myself as a freelance production assistant/party promoter. it’s pretty physical labor and i work like 14-16 hours a day, every day, but it is creative class labor and i’m pretty privileged as far as people go.
also i’m not a they, thanks
lmao i wish there was some kind of total perspective vortex for new yorkers so they could get some kind of glimpse of what they actually are to everyone else. you can't make this shit up i tell u what
I’ve lived in Brooklyn for eight years, before that LA for eight years, and before that Chicago, so I can confidently say that Mr. Crumplar’s milieu is not unique to NYC.
The main difference with NYC is that you don’t have to drive everywhere. My rent is even cheaper in NYC than it was in LA.
Though in all fairness to your employment situation… _Ne travaillez jamais_, non?
idk what that means ...
It’s a Debord quote that means “never work”. (I went looking for a juicy Debord quote, and this one seemed perfect.)
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/1963/never-work.htm
Good gig if your parents can hook it up for you, i guess.
I honestly have no idea how Debord paid the bills—regardless of his quote here—but Marx got the gig from Engels, did he not?
or mike crumps
If we’re going to be conspiratorial here, so you think Peter Vack is an egg? I ask because Petra is _hawt_.
Young trans women are statistically less likely to have familial support, so absent textual evidence that Charlie is rich it is statistically likely that she has to have a job in order to pay the rent, especially in NYC.
If we're going with stereotypes here, yes, Charlie is disproportionately likely to be a software engineer—as we know, all trans women are software engineers who listen to vaporwave—but she is still likely to have a "normal job" in the sense that having a "normal job" is the default, not the exception.
Though, idk, just follow her Substack and see what she posts about:
https://substack.com/profile/93349061-charlie-yates
lol pwn'd
Charlie took the bait at my urging, so… you’re welcome?
i forgive u
hey would you mind learning how to write paragraphs?
Also, is the joke of "crumps music" that he's just describing every music scene in new York since the 60s?
great, anoth3r long ass essay about a party with cool peopole. i didnt read, but if i did, I would probably say
> i ain't reading all that
> i'm happy for you tho
> or sorry that happened
(Someone should feed Crumps into ChatGPT.)
good work crumps! you got a seat at the cool kids table!
Bruh i enjoy your writing but it is not relevant to say she is trans 😭 no trans people are impressed that you clocked some bitch youre so clout poisoned
we r friends and its relevant in the broader downtown context i think its fair but thank u for standing up for us <3
Ooh, you're not fictional! Cool! Adding your blog to my RSS reader...
[makes secret transgender gang sign]