An end-of-year reflection

Modern Relics is the newsletter that asks, “What’s religion got to do with what happens online?” (It’s a lot actually).

Sorry this post was late, on my usual posting day I was at a friend's house having a lovely dinner. In a few days I’m going to post a special Christmas edition to round out the year, so this week I’ll do a bit of navel gazing. Sorry! I’ll break it up with some memes though don’t worry.

It’s been a big year. I got married, I went overseas, and there have been a few big changes in my day job. The stress and busyness has meant I haven't been as consistent this year as in years previous. Modern Relics is supposed to be weekly, but I've only posted 39 times (plus one short announcement) so far in 2023. Still, that's quite a lot of writing! If it weren't for this newsletter, those words would have stayed in my head and eventually been lost.

Growth has been slow this year and the audience is still small. Promoting this newsletter remains a challenge — self-promotion is generally frowned upon on Reddit/various Discords where potential readers can be found. Fortunately, the people who have found this newsletter are highly engaged, and my open rate remains around 50%, which is typical for Substack. I won't do a big statistical analysis until we get to the three year anniversary in May, but I want to look back over the last calendar year and take a look at some highlights.

My top five most viewed posts this year:

1. Zoomers are making gay fancams about the Bible (627 views)
2. Would you convert for the skydiving Christian baby? (538 views)
3. Jesus At The Gay Bar (511 views)
4. Thoughts and prayers for Sufjan Stevens (491 views)
5. My Baldur’s Gate 3 theological crisis (480 views)

It's a very Modern Relics list. Memes, music, games and queer stuff, all through the lens of religion. I derive a lot of satisfaction out of making something that otherwise would not exist. Generally speaking each post gets around about 400 views, and a handful of likes.

As we approach the three year anniversary, I wonder what my goals are for this project. It started as a proof of concept, and on that front I think it’s been a success. It remains a good way for me to workshop ideas in public, and if you pay close attention you’ll see themes from here crop up in my professional work too. Ideally I’d love to go a little deeper in my analysis and actually conduct interviews with people who make the things I write about here, but that’s perilously close to becoming a job, and I already have one of those.

So anyway, happy new year! I’ll post a special Christmas edition as the last Relics of 2023, and then I’ll see you in a few weeks.

Sorry I missed Chanukah

Is it bad that I don’t hate this

Dunno if I’ve posted this before

I retweeted this back when Bec first posted it but my husband sent it to me again and I laughed so here you go.

Pirate Bible

Normally novelty Bible translations are annoying but I’m running a pirate D&D campaign, so.

Oh I see

See also one of my most popular posts, Accidentally Erotic Christianity. (Thanks for sending this to me Shanti).

Do NOT show this to my husband

He’s going to go on and on about this for days.

What fandom is this

Also can’t remember if I already posted this before or not

Thanks for reading! See you in a few days with all the Christmas posts I’ve been saving up. There are heaps, so make sure you click through and read that edition online!