Fiction
Misdirection
Ahem... I know that it might seem strange that I am one of the people lifting a glass to wish a toast to the happy couple, but I have been told to do this in order to take up your time and make sure that we are all very much in our cups. They decided that they wanted to hit the road and they needed me to wish them all the best.
By Kendall Defoe about 14 hours ago in Critique
"The Shell in the Ghost, I Am Major"
In 2017, Hollywood did something predictable and scandalous at the same time: it remade the Japanese cyberpunk classic Ghost in the Shell and placed a blonde American star at its centre. The actress was Scarlett Johansson. Critics argued about cultural appropriation, about empire, about whether the United States had once again absorbed a foreign myth and refashioned it in its own image. Yet beyond the controversy, the American Ghost in the Shell remains a philosophically provocative film. It forces a simple but radical question: what is a human being made of?
By Peter Ayolov3 days ago in Critique
Why Saying Less Makes Words Feel More Valuable
There is a widely held belief that words gain value through scarcity. When someone speaks rarely, their statements are treated as weightier, more deliberate, and more worth attending to. When someone speaks often, their words are assumed to be interchangeable, disposable, or less carefully considered. This intuition is not entirely wrong, but it is frequently misapplied. Scarcity does affect perception, but perception is not the same as truth, and rarity is not the same as meaning.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast7 days ago in Critique
AI Generated Stories On Vocal? Seriously, What Is The Point?
Introduction When I see that a story is AI-generated it is a red flag to me, something to avoid. Today I have seen a lot on Vocal, and yes they are flagging themselves but seriously what is the point? I don't want to read something that someone couldn't be bothered to write.
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred 11 days ago in Critique
Small Prophets
Introduction I enjoyed Mackenzie Crook's first series, "Detectorists" which I wrote about here: So when "Small Prophets" was announced, I was obviously tempted and was glad I was. If you have access to the BBC's iPlayer, you can watch it here:
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred 21 days ago in Critique
Diaries to Nietzsche. Top Story - January 2026.
Quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche "He who wrestles long with monsters should beware lest he himself become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. Man is not destroyed by suffering, but by the meaning he makes of it."
By LUCCIAN LAYTH22 days ago in Critique
Speaking to Time Instead of the Room
Much of modern communication is oriented toward immediacy. Writing is framed as something meant to be consumed quickly, reacted to instantly, and replaced just as fast by whatever comes next. Under this model, the value of a piece is measured almost entirely by its initial reception. If it does not land immediately, it is treated as a failure. This assumption narrows the purpose of writing and misunderstands how meaning actually travels through time.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast22 days ago in Critique
Practice vs Performance
One of the quiet pressures shaping modern communication is the assumption that anything written should be immediately shareable. Drafts blur into declarations, and exploration is mistaken for conclusion. Under this pressure, writing becomes performative by default. The moment words are placed on a page, they are treated as finished statements rather than steps in a process. This expectation distorts both how writing is produced and how it is received, collapsing practice into performance and leaving little room for genuine development.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast23 days ago in Critique
The Message I Deleted Too Many Times
I typed her name into my phone more times than I care to admit. Not to call. Not to text. Just to stare at it. Her contact sat there like a quiet reminder of everything I never said. Every night, I opened our chat, watched the blinking cursor, and closed it again. Words formed in my head but died on the screen.
By Salman Writes30 days ago in Critique
