I don’t normally post fiction here – and by “normally”, I suppose I mean “ever” – but last month, Futurist Letters ran a competition here on Substack with the theme/title “Dispatches”. The brief was to write a short story in the style of a piece of journalism that could imaginably be read in the present day or the near future, focussed on the frontiers of tech and societal weirdness (I paraphrase, but that was broadly how I interpreted it).

Well, I entered, and won! I’m pretty proud of the story, which is a first-person, somewhat gonzo reportage-type piece that I was picturing running in something between Rolling Stone and, say, The Atavist (my fictional magazine is called GAUCHE). It’s a journey into a hot new social media trend and subculture with roots in the ancient past, and (I hope) captures the way that many of us are now looking backwards to make sense of an increasingly confusing present. It’s not one for fussy eaters, and… well – you’ll see, if you read it:

Futurist Letters

Soiled

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2 months ago · 4 likes · Tom Barrie

Many, many thanks to the judges, Cairo Smith, Simpulacra, and Arbogast, and keep an eye out for the two honourable mentions who I believe are going to be featured in Futurist Letters in the near, uh, future!