XXVII: Subcultural Scenes w/ Cairo Smith

This week’s guest is Cairo Smith: a prolific novelist and filmmaker who edits the literary magazine Futurist Letters here on Substack. We sat down to talk about his extremely online novel Scenebux and the extremely online subcultures that inspired it.We also talk about his novels Current Affairs and Komodo, as well as his short AI horror film Red Team. And we couldn’t resist talking about Vibecamp, which makes a brief cameo in Scenebux as “Edgelands”. Check out Cairo on Substack at Futurist Letters or at Askari Productions, where you can find out all about his upcoming projects.(This episode was recorded quite a long time ago, so we apologize if anything is out of date.)TIMESTAMPS00:00:12 – Intro00:02:20 – Reinventing old forms of media in the Internet age00:04:51 – The novelty of seeing tech slop Twitter in a real novel00:08:36 – Why indie fiction is able to be more up-to-the-minute than trad pub00:10:30 – ALL THAT WE SEE OR SEEM and the irrealism of “realistic” fiction in 202600:14:10 – When should you take the L for the art?00:17:46 – The excitement of independently coming to ideas at the same time as everybody else00:21:27 – Scenebux and the vibes at Vibecamp00:27:47 – Kevin’s anecdote about the “smell guy”00:31:28 – The importance of subcultural preservation in literature00:31:56 – Jargon as an antimemetic defense against subcultural dilution00:32:38 – The short film Red Team by Cairo Smith00:37:36 – The changing role of the writer across eras00:42:17 – Will anything replace the Hollywood film?00:46:06 – Conclusion and final recommendations00:48:42 – Synthesized Sunsets Backstage begins00:49:26 – Brief synopsis of Komodo and Current Affairs00:52:35 – Komodo discussion00:55:13 – Kevin’s thoughts on Scenebux01:00:25 – What is Vibecamp?01:01:40 – Gordon explains why being waterboarded is fun01:08:56 – Kevin yaps about his upcoming novel01:14:35 – Conclusion and final recommendations This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit synthesizedsunsets.substack.com/subscribe