Creator Spotlight - Thomas J. Bevan

The founder of the Soaring Twenties Social Club answers a few questions

Thomas J. Bevan founded the STSC (Soaring Twenties Social Club), a modern virtual private salon for discussion and encouraging people to write and create in their own voice and their own style. The STSC publishes a weekly Omnibus newsletter with links to its members’ own writings as well as a monthly Symposium publication where members write on a common topic or theme. Thomas regularly publishes his own work at The Commonplace.

Welcome Thomas!

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What did you want to be as an adult when you were a kid?

It depends on what age you would’ve asked me. But I don’t think I realised you could *be* anything until a relatively late age. I had no grand ambitions or burning desires or specific goals, truth be told. Just to live somewhere more scenic than concrete and grey skies, I guess. 

But then teenhood beckoned and with that came music and books and art and idea and creating. And though I didn’t have the courage to fully dream, I knew I wanted some of *that*

What were your initial steps towards getting "some of that"?

Rock and roll! By which I mean playing in bands, doing a reasonable amount of gigging and seeing that people will pay for you to create and perform if you do it with enough verve and gusto (and persistence).

That was fun and hugely instructive to live that life for a while as a young man but music wasn’t truly my medium of expression. The written word was. But I kept that particular light hidden under a bushel as with writing their are no instruments or low lights or mystique to hide behind in the same way. It’s you and your viewpoint and your thoughts alone. It took me a while to build the courage and the skill to display those publically.

Was there an event or a moment that motivated you to start publishing your writing to the world?

There was no particular ‘aha’ moment, truth be told. I always leaned towards some manner of independent root because a) I used to work in a bar near a big publishing house and all of the bigwigs who were regulars at the bar were terrible tippers which is always a tell as to someones character and b) I grew up on fiercely independent music and so always saw those bands and labels as positive mimetic examples.

So with writing it was a case of toying with blogs and sending out essays in newsletter form. And then Substack came alone and all of the pieces of the puzzle came together, and now here we are.

Let's talk about the Soaring Twenties Social Club (not affiliated with any Roaring Twenties as far as I know). What led you to create this fine group of folks?

Haha. The STSC is not officially affiliated with the Roaring Twenties but its inception was inspired by it somewhat.

See, a while back I wrote an essay called The Soaring Twenties:

The Soaring Twenties Social Club

which made the argument that while the Lost Generation had Paris, artists today have the internet as there salon/cafe/hangout. At least in principle. I also argued that the 1920's began with pandemic (The Spanish Flu) and quite dire conditions following WWI but from that came a creative flourishing. And so is it possible that a century later the 2020's could see a similar flourishing given that even though history doesn't repeat, it does tend to rhyme?

So that was the gist of my essay anyway. And during that lockdown time it resonated with people. The audience wanted what I said to be true. And so I decided to make it happen and thus The Soaring Twenties Social Club was born.

What is The Soaring Twenties Social Club?

I knew that I could write about and diagnose contemporary cultural problems- ubiquitous screens and dopamine and distractions and algorithms and all the rest of it- but I knew that rather than settle for that I had to provide a solution of sorts, an alternative.

And so the STSC came into being- a group for writers, artists, bohemians, musicians, rat race avoiders and so on who wanted to create and have fun and have real conversations in a private, demetricated, ungamified, and above all authentic environment. 

I wanted to take the best of the old internet spirit and use it to create new things that spoke to this new era of ours. So far it has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations. And we are only just getting started...

What were some of the major surprises (good or bad) that have appeared during the life to date of STSC?

I can’t think of any bad surprises, but I think in a certain sense all of it has been a surprise because it has been unchartered territory for both me personally and I think what we are doing as a collective is fairly unprecedented in terms of writing and creativity on the internet,

But I would say in terms of a good surprise the main one for me has been simply the quality of people the group has been able to attract and from that the quality of work we have been able to put out. It turns out that the Field of Dreams ‘build it and they will come’ idea is true after all.

What's it like living in GB these days, post Brexit and (soon) post-Boris?  Do you personally regret losing the advantages of being in the EU?

If you don’t follow the news- which I don’t- there has been no real appreciable difference between life pre and post Brexit as far as I can see. I prefer to live a local life as all of that news consumption and ‘staying informed’ just fills you with a sense of impotent rage- most likely by design. 

Some people have gotten annoyed when I have written about this topic:

No News Is Good News

but ultimately I think it all comes down to your locus of control. I can have an influence within my block, on my street, and in the wider neighbourhood. National and international politics are completely beyond my ability to make a difference to. So which is the better vehicle for directing my attention and energy towards?

What are you reading these days that grabs your attention, outside of the STSC?

My current reading runs to STSC stuff when it comes to online fiction and non fiction and as to physical book reading the last 3 books I read were: The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas (brilliant but loooong in the middle), Fer De Lance by Rex Stout (A reread. The Nero Wolfe mysteries are underrated and should have a near Sherlock Holmes level of acclaim in my opinion) and London Calling by Barry Miles (pretty entertaining boomer reminiscence of the swinging sixties in London). 

I'm currently reading Mount Misery by Samuel Shem, which probably won't be as good as his more well known The House of God but I'm only a few pages in and am reading it with an open mind.

Pretend you wake up one morning and you learn that the Internet has been destroyed.  What's the first thing that you do?

Following a little victory dance I would have a cup of tea and then dust off my typewriter and type some letters to post to the STSC members whose addresses I have. The main point of discussion would be how are we going to leverage the death of the internet to make the STSC even better.

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Thanks Thomas!!!