October 12, 2023 : Wondercab Mini (52A)
On Bended Knee, with Bated Breath
Fellow Cabineteers!
As some of you may have noted, our last issue brought to a close our second year of fortnightly efforts here at the Wondercabinet, perhaps a good moment for taking stock.
On the content side, we do feel like we are hitting our stride both in terms of more manageable volume (supplemented by mini-Cabinets between the fortnightly grand efforts) and wildly free-ranging variety. The folks at Substack Central tell us that they find us especially bracing in terms of the latter (both in terms of media and subject matter) and we hope you will agree. Here is THE COMPLETE WONDERCABINET ARCHIVE.
In terms of circulation, we’ve managed across those two years to pretty much double our total outreach, from just under 2,000 to almost 4,000 biweekly subscribers, a steady progress. On the other hand, only 181 of you have elected to pay your way (a cohort, granted, to whom we are immensely grateful), resulting in a gross income of around $20,000 across those two years, $6,000 of which went to our tech wingman David “Animal Mitchell” Stanford in the early phases of the operation. Since then his monthly fee has been covered by a combination of a one-year’s start-up grant from Substack itself (much appreciated) and a remarkably generous ongoing allotment from a supporter who prefers to remain anonymous (likewise treasured!). But that means that Ren has averaged only $7000 per year on a project that has been taking up roughly half of his time, which is hardly a sustainable state of affairs.
Most Substacks seem to share only a portion of their content for free to everyone while keeping the best parts behind a pay wall, and we’ve been urged to do likewise. But from the very start we insisted on making everything in the Cabinet available to everyone—such seemed of the essence with a project in which themes would braid and compound from issue to issue, and in the understanding that times are tough and commitments wide and not everyone will be able to contribute to the fullest degree at all times.
But still. We also fervently believe that writerly and editorial labor is work like any other, and deserves to be fairly compensated. And so once again we come to you, urging you to consider whether you might indeed be able afford the annual subscription rate of $60 (a sum which has remained steady despite inflation), and more if you can manage that, or the monthly rate of $6.
In addition, in recognition of the fact that many of our readers themselves work on a freelance basis (in which income is periodic and unpredictable, and ongoing commitment to a recurring payment is not practical) we have just added what is in effect a tip jar: if you find yourself momentarily flush and, reviewing the previous year, likewise find that the Cabinet has been bringing you insight and pleasure, perhaps you can make a one-time contribution (one time, that is, until the next time you feel thus enhanced).
TO MAKE A ONE-TIME DONATION, CLICK HERE.
We will continue to provide that button from now on, so please help us when and as you can. Annual subscriptions, however, remain our preferred option since they help to steady our ever-precarious ship of marvels.
And even if you can’t bring yourself to contribute financially at this time, do please pass the word about Wondercabinet to your friends; (the wider our base, the greater the number of paid subscriptions we can eventually expect). It’s easy: you can share our entire catalog by passing along THIS URL. And remember, too, that you can share individual issues by clicking the “Share” button at the bottom of each one.
Enough for now. Our fingers are in a rictus of crossed-ness, our breaths are thoroughly bated, our anticipatory thanks veritably abounding.
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MEANWHILE, a few updates:
That terrifically engaging Bobi Wine documentary, about the wildly successful slum-born Afropop musician who, against harrowing odds, has been taking on the decades-old dictatorial regime subjugating his native Uganda (and about his equally remarkable wife and partner) that we flagged for your attention back in issue #48A has now DROPPED ON HULU, and we urge those of you who can to give it a look!
And the critically acclaimed Hans Noë exhibition that Ren curated at the Museum of Mathematics in Manhattan (see the NY Times review here and further details here), continues through the end of this month, with A SPECIAL CONVERSATION between the 95-year-old Holocaust-surviving Hidden Master, his son the celebrated philosopher Alva Noë, the eminent mathematician Chaim Goodman-Strauss (lately very much in the news himself) and Ren, this coming TUESDAY OCTOBER 17 AT 6:00 PM AT 11 EAST 26TH STREET. Do come join us if you can!
See you next week…