A Guide to THE ZONE
As I have lost and gained subscribers, some people might have missed posts at THE ZONE that they might have enjoyed. As Substack archives are less than entirely accessible, longtime subscribers might have also enjoyed posts and never got around to reading them again. I thought it would be nice, then, to have a list of what are in my skewed opinion the best posts on THE ZONE — to be updated as and when appropriate.
I am sad to see how many posts are not worth revisiting. But I hope that you enjoy discovering or rediscovering some of the posts I have resurrected.
Animals
“Halal Slaughter and Hypocrisy”
“Why You Should Consider Vegetarianism”
Britain
“A Postcard From Bath” My hometown
“Notes on Cockwomble” Against morbid twee
“A Conspiracy of Murmuring” The grooming gangs scandal
“The Rest Is Politics: A Review” The Hell of centrist podcasts
“The Memory Sanctioning of Britain” Damnatio memoriae
Crime
“Death and Discopolo” Organised crime in Poland
“Dregs of Justice” Cosa Nostra
“Murder Machine” On Roy DeMeo
“Rap, Murder and the Hidden Depths of Online Anthropology” Drill rap and the Internet
Culture
“God, the Devil and Nick Cave” On music and the sacred
“Howard Stern and Boomer Decline” On shock jocks and old farts
“Piers Morgan Uncensored is the Death of the Soul”
“Diss Fing of Ours” In praise of The Sopranos
“Peter Cook’s Undisciplined Genius”
Internet culture
“Elevatorgate and the Death of Franz Ferdinand” A momentous event
“IRHell” Making one’s life public
“On the Anon” In defence of anonymity
“The Red Pill is A Depressant” On negativism
“Reject the Nü-Misogynists” On woman-hating negativism
“The Bastard Spawn of JRE” Do we need so many podcasts?
“The Internet Eats Its Own” On haters
“Dance Footage and Snuff Films” The experience of the algorithm
“You Are What You Profit From” Modern pornographers
“Making an Argument” Against porn
Literature
Christopher Hitchens and legacies
Masculinity
“In Which I, A Man, Talk” On men’s mental health
“In Praise of Male Friendship”
Mildly philosophical
“Smoking and keyif” On contemplation
“Dysmorphia” On self-loathing
“On Knowing That You Will Be Forgotten” Death and memory
“A Philosophy of Snow” On the beauty of the winter
Personal
“Beer and recovery” How Tyskie helped to save my life
“Dog Days” On my dog
“Gold Hill” On family
“Jesus, Hitler and Vampires” The oddest experience of my life
“Mum”
“Reflections on a career” On teaching
“Remembering Ally” My aunt
“Confessions of a Guilty Slob”
“The Lake” On death
Poland
Forty things I love about Poland
When Poland spared Europe from war
Religion
“In Defence of Richard Dawkins” The ruins of new atheism
“Twenty Years of Submission” Islam and freedom
“Is Christianity Good for the West?” And does it matter?
Technology
“Against the algorithm” No substitute for humanity
“Deepfakes, and How We Think About the Future”
The woke business
“Identity and Experimentation” Thoughts on self-definition
“The Fear of Being Just Anyone” Identity and individuality
“Poetry and cliche” On Amanda Gorman
War
“The Ruins of Empty Promises” Before the Russo-Ukrainian War
“The Anti-Russian Case for Peace” Amid the Russo-Ukrainian War
Wrestling
“Vince McMahon Is America” An American legend
“How Professional Wrestling Can Change Your Life (I)” and “How Professional Wrestling Can Change Your Life (II)”
yay Murder Machine FTW