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A brief guide to slug town
Hello and welcome to Sluggish, a weekly newsletter by writer and artist Jesse Meadows.
Sluggish is a place for deviants, mis-fits, and creatives.
We take as our symbol the slug, patron saint of all those who cannot keep up, who revel in their own slime, which the world would have them hate. For our goo is how we travel, not in a straight line, but meandering up the walls, across shards of glass, through millennia again and again. The Order of the Slug is an order of indulgence; we embrace pleasure, live by the seasons, and sleep through all morning routines.
In less poetic terms: this is a newsletter where I write about disability and capitalism, covering the politics of mental health, the history of popular psychology, and the philosophies of living outside the norm.
Sometimes themes emerge at Slug HQ and become a series, like this 3-part exploration of Adderall, drug user solidarity, and medication autonomy:
CURRENT HYPERFIXATIONS INCLUDE
Dopamine: I’ve been exploring the political implications of what I call ‘the dopamine mythos’ in my Dopamine Dispatch series, which comes out whenever the mood so strikes.
Attention: For a few years I have been obsessed with Critical ADHD Studies, a field that doesn’t exist but which I hope to manifest into being through sheer force of interest. I will be thinking through a series of such texts with paid slugscribers; check the ADHD tab for stuff like this.
However, this publication is not constrained by the medium of pure text. Here you will also find podcast episodes and video essays, like this one on dopaminergic puritanism:
And interviews featuring other writers, thinkers, and creatives:
What else should I read?
Some prosetry about how fucking hard it is to make art, these deep thoughts on embodiment and the history of feminist self-portraiture, an argument about why using genetic research as personal identity validation is a trap, narrative non-fiction about the ritual nature of medicine, a personal ode to interdependence.
What’s the deal with the paywall?
I’m a disabled person who has found creating content on the internet to be a bit of a saving grace. It’s important to me that at least half of what I make is free for everyone to read, but generous patrons of the slug arts are my main source of income.
Subscribing for $6/month gets you access to deeper dives, a peek into my research with reading and media recommendations, creative experiments I’m still workshopping, and access to all comment sections. Plus, we also have a discord, and everyone in there is very nice!!!
Who makes all this?
My name is Jess (or Jesse Meadows if you’re printing something official), I studied art and used to work as a documentary photographer, a bartender, and a local news journalist. Five years ago, I was a lonely queer in Florida having a mental breakdown, so I started making memes online about my experiences with psychiatry and the struggle of coming out late in life, and a lot of people seemed to like them. Meme captions became essays became a public obsession with critical disability studies and Autistic politics, and now here we are.
For professional inquiries, casual introductions, or just to tell me about some cool stuff, you can email me at welcome2slugtown@gmail.com. My pronouns are they/them, btw.
Your the goddamn best
Not sure where to post this so why not here? I struggle with text-based online content. I’d like to listen to your articles. On the phone app, I see an icon to play (top right). I don’t know if this part of this app or because I also have speechify on my phone--despite not quite knowing how to use it yet.
Anyhow, I looked through Substack support, which only seems to be FAQs. Can’t find where to ask Substack this question...can’t find it in the knowledge-base. Or can’t find any support email or chat.
Anyone know if it’s possible to listen to Substack? I’d love a link to such info! Thanks.