Andrew Hussie on Homestuck’s cult-like fans and Psycholonials’ message

Artist and author Andrew Hussie is a reluctant father of web fandom. His comedian, Homestuck, revealed underneath the web site MS Paint Adventures, adopted a gaggle of teenagers who unintentionally introduced in regards to the finish of the world with a replica of a online game. Hussie constructed a profession by spinning dramatic and bumbling tales of the onslaughts of on-line life.

The interactive story of Homestuck strung out to epic proportions — it’s over 8,000 pages lengthy and ran from 2009 till 2016. At its peak, the comedian entertained roughly 600,000 readers a day, and impressed some of the sturdy cult followings of a technology — followers crammed conference flooring with cosplays of the characters and crammed on-line boards and web sites like Tumblr filled with fan artwork. In 2012, round 24,000 backers pledged roughly $2 million to assist convey Hiveswap, a online game model of the Homestuck, to life.

However Hussie was prepared for one thing new, and in his phrases, “anti-cult.”

Hussie’s Psycholonials, a “visible novel” launched within the spring of 2021, follows Zhen and Abby — two ladies who should determine what to do with a large number of a revolution and empire that they themselves prompted. Within the first chapter of Psycholonials, Zhen, the novel’s essential character, shoots and kills a cop. Because it goes within the story, she was drunk driving, and after the cop will get bodily together with her, she grabs the gun from his holster and shoots. This occasion kickstarts her personal story and accelerates the event of her personal private politics. Ultimately, she goes on to put in writing a extensively learn manifesto; taking the reins of a militant revolutionary group that wears goth clown make-up.

All through the course of Psycholonials, there are burning police stations, a revolution towards the state, and a world pandemic — all mediated by means of the eyes of a younger lady who’s making an attempt to outlive the fucked up world round her and whereas calling consideration to its issues. The story appears like a retelling of the hell-year that was 2020, however Hussie began drafting the story again when everybody was simply beginning to be caught inside for the primary time.

“I keep in mind having an unsettled feeling within the early days of the pandemic,” Hussie informed Polygon over e mail, “seeing that most likely tons of of hundreds of individuals have been about to die because of a willful mishandling of the disaster, and the inhabitants appeared very listless, as if it was about to take a seat again and let that occur with out placing up a lot of a combat.”

Hussie determined that the “comatose feeling” America was giving him would make foil for a way more “outlandish, escapist kind of revolutionary situation that examined what such a revolt would possibly seem like on this period.”

He didn’t full a draft till only a day earlier than the primary Black Lives Matter protests prompted by the homicide of George Floyd by the hands of law enforcement officials in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“The protests started, police stations began burning down, and all of it felt fairly surreal, as a result of I’d simply spent a month writing about conditions that regarded quite a bit like this. However primarily I used to be relieved to see the protests occur, as a result of it answered a extra elementary query I had earlier than beginning on this story, which was questioning whether or not the nation had any actual combat in it.”

And whereas the author says he noticed this nation-wide spark as a “very constructive growth,” he puzzled “if this was even a narrative that wanted telling anymore.”

Ultimately, he determined it was. Hussie stated he returned to the 140,000 phrase lengthy draft, lower the story in half, and “tried to make it really feel like one thing legitimately value studying to anybody who crossed the complete span of 2020’s insanity.”

Picture: Andrew Hussie

Pyscholonials isn’t about Andrew Hussie and it isn’t a Homestuck sequel. (As he places it, “it’s in regards to the issues it’s about.”) The story presents a contemporary path to revolution by which the catalyst for the overthrow of an imperialist system just isn’t the navy strongmen of previous, however a younger lady with social media savvy. The determine of revolution within the eyes of Hussie’s story is in truth, an influencer.

As Zhen’s, who additionally goes by “Z”, campaign grows, she continues to grapple with the duty that comes with inspiring such a snowballing motion. Towards the tip of the story, Z and her greatest good friend are pressured to determine what to do with the empire that they’ve constructed that has turn out to be troublesome to manage — a actuality that Hussie himself is aware of as a de facto chief of a fandom.

Hussie suggests the non-public allegorical parts in Psycholonials are “extra like factors of inspiration.” This story is about Z in spite of everything, not himself. Nonetheless, he stated that the textual content works as a thematic followup to his complete expertise with constructing a fandom.

“In a private sense, this story is an odd fusion of two allegories. It loosely correlates with my previous expertise of presiding over an enormous fandom and watching it spin uncontrolled, utilizing far more fantastical parts like revolution and world conquest because the backdrop. It’s additionally an allegory for what I’m doing presently with Psycholonials. Z decides to launch a brand new model, and to rebrand her personal picture by making a clownsona, after which roll out new content material to the general public as a approach of turning the web page on no matter she was as much as earlier than. That is mainly what I did, and these two concepts combine collectively within the narrative.”

Previous to releasing this story, Hussie struggled to pinpoint what his model was because the creator of Homestuck. “However understanding that Psycholonials is mainly an anti-cult narrative ought to assist level to how I view the Homestuck phenomenon. I got here to treat that fandom as being fairly near a cult. Not formally, and nowhere close to as harmful as extra typical cults may be, however shut sufficient to attract significant comparisons. And that’s about how I’ve come to treat all fandoms now.”

Picture: Andrew Hussie

It’s inconceivable to speak about Hussie’s sentiments towards his following with out discussing the next itself. The Homestuck following was (and is in some ways nonetheless) very concerned with the mission. In some methods this was prompted — Hussie took fan enter whereas writing the unique story and integrated it into the ultimate product. In its heyday, the Homestuck fandom iterated and developed loads of cultures which have come to characterize fandom as we speak. At time of publication, there are roughly 57,000 works of fanfiction devoted to the collection on Archive of Our Personal. Again then, followers popularized in-character discussions the place followers may roleplay characters by means of a web based chat. Devoted followers even created a browser extension that notified you the second new Homestuck content material went up.

Followers nonetheless recurrently obsess over questions and particulars of Hussie’s life and work. A fast search on Reddit reveals dozens of threads discussing questions like “What occurred to andrew hussie?” and different posts monitoring the creator’s exercise on social media platforms like Tumblr. Folks dissect drama round his work and turn out to be beginner reporters on issues inside to his firm. On a scarier be aware, followers have even gone so far as to search out Hussie’s brother’s social media accounts, in response to those that posted it.

“Anybody who presides over one thing in style is pressured to play the position of a casual cult chief, which is what it felt like all through most of Homestuck’s run, and even nicely past.” He stated, “Some on-line personalities will enjoy that position, and really begin behaving like a real cult chief. However these with extra of an anti-cult stance, which describes myself, will occupy the place reluctantly.”

To him, a “reluctant cult chief” will withdraw from the highlight and barely handle their followers. Nonetheless, even then, Hussie thinks, a distance from the chief may presumably result in an much more insatiable fandom.

Being a recluse can “suppress cultism in some methods (by not having somebody on the prime always throwing crimson meat to a hungry base, which inflames obsession and radicalism),” Hussie stated, “however in different methods I feel cryptid [sic] conduct can intensify cultism. A cryptid chief leaves a serious vacuum of content material, route, messaging, private data, all of the stuff a frenzied cultist craves. So what fills that vacuum is rampant hypothesis. Conspiracy theories, outright fabrications, connecting dots on no matter valuable details are recognized to color no matter image the theorizer desires to color.

“The content material vacuum created by a cryptid chief leads to overwhelming situations of parasociality, and the projections of character, morality, and biographical information onto the blank-slate chief can get ludicrous, and infrequently fairly spiteful. Then once more, relying on the ambiance of any given second in fandom, there could also be at the least as many simps projecting absurd deification fantasises on the chief.”

Picture: Andrew Hussie

What Hussie describes is a dynamic that we see play out many times on-line. In her article, “How Twitter can destroy a life” Emily VanDerWerff tells the story of an nameless author turned enemy of the web, and the way only a pseudonym and a beginning yr gave individuals on Twitter sufficient gas to bully the creator out of writing. After which there are all of the individuals who can’t shroud themselves in secrecy. Streamers must turn out to be more and more savvy about the necessity to defend private boundaries with out frightening the ire of followers. On Twitter, creatives, journalists, and anybody with a modest following agonize over what individuals suppose they find out about them on-line, and trolls recurrently obsess over private data round matters like psychological well being. On this sense, fandom itself, with examples like Homestuck, was the precursor to the asymmetrical relationships which have come to characterize a lot of on-line life.

“Evidently no matter small methods I used to be in a position to management that model, again once I nonetheless was fascinated with doing so, has since turn out to be dramatically overwritten by the preposterous hallucinatory projections of a zealous fandom.”

Hussie’s apprehension of fandom — and the wild projections that include presiding over one — appear acceptable given how public feedback on his work ignite controversy inside the fandom. In a video revealed in April 2021, Canadian YouTuber Sarah Z delved into the historical past of Homestuck and Hiveswap, with a concentrate on the turbulent growth cycle of Hiveswap. In a flurry of accusations, the video known as out each the studio’s monetary selections and Hussie’s personal inventive work because it pertained to the discharge of the sport. The video, predictably, provoked hypothesis over the true timeline and occasions surrounding the sport’s growth. Hussie initially spoke to Polygon earlier than the Sarah Z video, however agreed to observe up conversations after its launch. Whereas he declined to be quoted straight, he feels that the video missed necessary contextualization that he had supposed to supply to the YouTuber in a dialog.

It’s a first-rate instance of how — even years after Homestuck and Hiveswap have been accomplished — the gap Hussie retains between himself and his fandom doesn’t maintain his work from spiraling out into controversy. Following the incident, What Pumpkin, Hussie’s former Homestuck manufacturing firm (which he has since left), threatened to sue Sarah Z. In response, the YouTuber made a video about their risk, which in response to the authorized doc shared by the Sarah Z cited “false, speculative claims,” propelling the matter even additional into the general public theater. An in any other case slumbering fandom ignited as individuals crammed Reddit boards with hypothesis.

Nonetheless, Hussie doesn’t suppose each side of fandom is “utterly horrible.” Some types — like writing fanfiction or creating fan artwork — are a constructive, enjoyable exercise. However Hussie questions these practices as a type of “fandom,” and redefines what the phrase actually means as we speak.

“Once I converse of fandom I’m referring to the exercise which is extra indicative of obsession, hyperfixation, the necessity for a way of belonging to a larger motion, and beginning to let that feeling form your identification. I’m unsure how a lot there may be that’s really constructive about these issues, however there may be a lot which is unfavourable. A member of fandom might have angle for some time, however since their involvement is based on obsession or very strongly held emotions, that constructive angle can activate a dime, and it may possibly take little or no to set off excessive negativity. It may be a flip within the story they don’t like, the way in which a fictional character is handled, or the way in which different members of fandom they disagree with are behaving. So it’s not that I’m saying fandom is all dangerous, as an alternative I’d simply say that the looks of something constructive about fandom ought to be handled with suspicion, and as if it may turn out to be harmful at any second for any cause. The identical may be stated for any cultist.”

Picture: Andrew Hussie

The place does this go away a technology that grew up on-line, a lot of whom have been religious Homestuck readers? Pyscholonials doesn’t give in to hopelessness. Whereas it’s about revolution, it’s informed in a refreshingly fashionable and related approach. The language is deeply rooted within the now, and leans into the web vernacular with phrases like “simp,” “e-girls,” “reply guys,” and “cringe.” At one level, one of many protagonists strikes from being a fan, to relationship a member of the favored Okay-pop group BTS (which additionally occurs to be one of many largest, most influential fandoms of the second). Even contemplating the medium of the textual content itself, it’s a remarkably on-line object. You should buy the interactive fiction on Steam. It’s digitally illustrated and allows you to click on by means of such as you would in a story sport. It’s a up to date textual content that carries the historical past of Hussie’s work and on-line life — for higher and for worse.

I requested Hussie if he thinks everybody ought to simply log out. Presumably in a bid to keep away from pulpiting to any followers, and even me the author, he stated he doesn’t suppose his story is telling every individual to chop themselves off. “It’s not that I feel individuals ought to, it’s that everybody already is aware of they need to,” he stated.

“The [Online Poisoned] typically even joke with self consciousness about their dangerous web habits, however [they] simply maintain doing it,” Hussie stated. “That’s how obsessive preoccupation works, and it’s an accelerator of those types of on-line cultism. Nobody wants me to inform anybody this, however tales can at all times function reminders.”