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(This episode was recorded quite a long time ago, so we apologize if anything is out of date.)
TIMESTAMPS
00:00:12 – Intro
00:02:20 – Reinventing old forms of media in the Internet age
00:04:51 – The novelty of seeing tech slop Twitter in a real novel
00:08:36 – Why indie fiction is able to be more up-to-the-minute than trad pub
00:10:30 – ALL THAT WE SEE OR SEEM and the irrealism of “realistic” fiction in 2026
00:14:10 – 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 else
00:21:27 – Scenebux and the vibes at Vibecamp
00:27:47 – Kevin’s anecdote about the “smell guy”
00:31:28 – The importance of subcultural preservation in literature
00:31:56 – Jargon as an antimemetic defense against subcultural dilution
00:32:38 – The short film Red Team by Cairo Smith
00:37:36 – The changing role of the writer across eras
00:42:17 – Will anything replace the Hollywood film?
00:46:06 – Conclusion and final recommendations
00:48:42 – Synthesized Sunsets Backstage begins
00:49:26 – Brief synopsis of Komodo and Current Affairs
00:52:35 – Komodo discussion
00:55:13 – Kevin’s thoughts on Scenebux
01:00:25 – What is Vibecamp?
01:01:40 – Gordon explains why being waterboarded is fun
01:08:56 – Kevin yaps about his upcoming novel
01:14:35 – Conclusion and final recommendations
