Death is Eternal #364

Monday. September 4, 2023. 1,794 words.

A free-for-all Death is Eternal? You bet! And a newsletter full of changes? Yes! Oh, wow! So many changes, so few words! But there are so many exclamation points, though! Let’s focus more on the “few words” portion and less on the “exclamation points.” After all, I want you to focus on the changes instead of my pale attempt to make them look bigger and nicer than they’ll be...

Contents

1. Pavlik Morozov

2. Writing: Death is Eternal’s change

3. Bye! Oh, wait!

4. Life (from August 28 to September 10, 2023)

5. Death is Eternal review #235: Wonder Woman by Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, and others

6. The end

1. Pavlik Morozov

The room hushed as the man began to recount the tale.

Imagine this scene, “A young boy, no more than thirteen years old, named Pavel Trofimovich Morozov, but he prefers to go by Pavlik. He hails from the humble village of Gerasimovka—or any other place like that—a place where the wind whispers secrets through golden fields of wheat, and the rising and setting of the sun govern the daily rhythm of life.

“In school, Pavlik takes on a significant role as the leader of the Young Pioneers, a group of eager, youthful minds who, with shining eyes, look to the future. These children are the embodiment of hope and faith in the collectivization of farms, a noble cause that seeks to unite the heartland under the banner of progress.

“Now, picture a twist in this idyllic tale. Pavlik’s father holds a prominent position as the city’s chairman, a man of influence in the community. But one fateful day, as young Pavlik returns from school, he stumbles upon a disturbing truth. His father, once a trusted figure, is engaged in nefarious activities—perhaps clandestinely profiting from the sale of precious grains or fabricating treacherous documents to be peddled to those who would betray the cause.

“Conflicted and torn between loyalty to his father and allegiance to the Party that beckons him, Pavlik grapples with a decision that will alter the course of his life forever. He stands at a crossroads, poised between two irreconcilable worlds.

“In the end, Pavlik summons the courage to follow the path of righteousness. He chooses to denounce his own flesh and blood, a decision that leads to a grim fate for his father. The wheels of justice, relentless and unfeeling, roll forward, sentencing the once-mighty chairman to the unforgiving Gulag, where the very air is heavy with despair. There, within the confines of that harsh existence, the sentence takes a final, cruel turn, and Pavlik’s father succumbs to the relentless cruelty of the harsh Siberian winter.

“But the repercussions do not end there. Pavlik’s family, encompassing grandparents, uncles, and those who held their own truths dear, refuse to accept the young boy’s actions. Blinded by vengeance for the fallen father, they plot their own retribution, a dark cloud casting a shadow over Gerasimovka.

“News of this tragic turn of events travels far and wide, like ripples in a pond. Telegrams inundate government offices and newspapers, each one an anguished plea for justice. And justice, swift and unforgiving, is what they shall receive.

“The tale, this compelling narrative of tragedy and devotion to the Party, spreads through the land like wildfire. It reverberates through the airwaves in haunting melodies, graces the grand stages of opera houses, comes to life on the silver screen, and even stands as statues carved in stone, a testament to the extraordinary devotion of young Pavlik Morozov.

“In the end, Pavlik becomes a martyr, not by chance but by design. He becomes a symbol, a beacon of loyalty to the cause, a creation of collective will and belief.”

The man concluded his tale and a tense silence hung in the air. Stalin leaned forward, his piercing gaze fixed on the storyteller. In a voice that sent shivers down spines, he asked, “Is there another kind?”

Nervous laughter rippled through the room, but it was short-lived. A heavy silence settled once more as they awaited the verdict from the man who held their fates in his hands.

Stalin contemplated for a long time, leaving everyone in the room unsure of his thoughts. The story presented to him seemed full of holes, and they believed it would eventually unravel as a lie.

But then, Stalin spoke, and the room froze in astonishment.

“This is an absurd idea,” he began, his words echoing with finality. “It will never work. People will see through the deception, and our martyr will become a weapon against us.”

A collective chill swept through the room. Few had ever emerged unscathed from Stalin’s criticism.

However, the unexpected followed. Stalin’s lips curled into a smile, a sinister yet strangely pleasant expression.

“The story will work,” he declared, his gaze sweeping across the room. “Because this country knows only one truth, and that truth is me!”

The end

2. Writing: Death is Eternal’s change

Credit: Substack (a multicoloured chameleon)

Just this morning, I received an email from Substack saying that since I’ve published a newsletter for 36 weeks, I’m in their top 6% publisher. I’ve published more than 94% of all writers on the website! Still, my subscriber numbers don’t reflect that. And I wonder why.

Part of that is because I don’t market Death is Eternal. I don’t use social media to spread the word. Still, I do think that’s not all of it. Recently, Kieron Gillen mentioned in his newsletter that his active one (on Buttondown) is growing less than his inactive one (on Substack), and he thinks that happens because the latter became synonym with newsletter nowadays, so people who want to read and subscribe go to directly to the website and search for people there instead of googling “giovani cesconetto newsletter.”

Buttondown has been great, and the list has grown happily in its usual way, but I found myself looking at my substack account a couple of weeks back and was surprised to find it has a couple of hundred more subscribers than my actual mailing list. In other words, the passive influx of new subscribers from being part of an interconnected platform gained more subs than me actually running a newsletter.

—Kieron Gillen

But that’s not happening to me. As the Substack’s email shows, I’m clearly active, but still, I don’t have new subscribers. Except for one, I know all my subscribers, and although this is lovely, I’d also love to have people I don’t know and, consequently, don’t know me subscribing to Death is Eternal.

Okay, that was a huge preamble. Having said all that, what are the changes? Well, if you’re good at paying attention, you must already know the answer: Death is Eternal will be shorter.

Paying attention to the numbers, I realized that, usually, the shorter newsletters have more views than the bigger ones, which made me wonder if maybe seeing “2,000+ words” scares people away. I don’t know if that’s the answer, but it’s a hypothesis—and a good one, I think. So for the next two months, unless something entirely out of the blue happens, all Death is Eternals will have less than 2,000 words. Actually, I’ll try to keep all of them—aside from this one—under 1,500 words. Will that make a difference? I don’t know. But I know I have to try at least doing something different.

Oh, and if you have a theory as to why my newsletter isn’t growing, please feel free to get back to me. I’d love to hear back from you!

3. Bye! Oh, wait!

Here’s where we say our farewell to the free subscribers... Oh, wait! Not this week. This week, everyone can read until the end. If you’re a paying subscriber, you know what to expect. If you aren’t, you should seriously consider becoming one!

4. Life (from August 28 to September 10, 2023)

I usually have the “last week” and “this week” here, but as I aforementioned, I’m trying to write less to—maybe and hopefully—avoid scaring people away. So, I’m now condensing both here. It makes sense, mainly because the “this week” part tends to be shorter than the “last week” because I’m not good at planning, at least not as good as I am when talking about the past... Anyway...

Last week was a big nothing... almost. I didn’t do anything special. But I did receive good news, though. Stella Harvey read my book Suicidal in Heaven: A Journey of Choices and liked it so much she’ll feature it in her October newsletter. I won’t spoil her review more than I already did it, so if you want to know what she thought about it, you should subscribe to her newsletter and wait to read what she has to say about my work—spoiler alert, she has good things to talk about it.

This week tends to be another chill one, chiefly because it’s a four-day week—today is Labour Day in Canada. I like weeks like that, chill and with only four business days. I wish all the weeks were like that!

5. Death is Eternal review #235

Wonder Woman by Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, and others

Wonder Woman by Cloonan, Conrad, and others is great!

What sets this character incarnation apart from what came before is the use of other gods and myths that aren’t Greek. The first story in Valhalla is fantastic, bringing a new dimension to the character. But although the elements are here and there throughout the run, I wish we had the chance to see Wonder Woman interacting with other deities.

And that’s where it lies the biggest problem of the run. What I liked is the different status quo when it comes to villains and menaces, but slowly, little by little, the writers went back to the Greeks and the old status quo. The old villains and dilemmas. They do a great job here, but it doesn’t feel as fresh as it felt at the beginning.

Wonder Woman by Cloonan, Conrad, and others is great, but it could’ve been so much better!

6. The end

What do you think of the changes? It’s not yet a smaller-than-usual Death is Eternal, but I’m sure the next one will be. If this was your newsletter, what would you change? I thought about having only two topics, the short story and the “writing,” but I like to write the reviews and share a bit of my life with you. But do you like it? Would you prefer not to have these topics? Also, do you think I’m right in thinking the size scares people away? Many questions! And, hopefully, many, many replies... See you next week, bye!