Steven Christopher McKnight
Bio
Disillusioned twenty-something, future ghost of a drowned hobo, cryptid prowling abandoned operahouses, theatre scholar, prosewright, playwright, aiming to never work again.
Venmo me @MickTheKnight
Stories (94)
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All Hail Gritty, Chaos-God of America
I spoke a little bit about the American Mythos in my article about the Star-Spangled Banner and why the song sucks. Long story short, the United States functions by its own strange cultish mythology; praise be to Uncle Sam, the Statue of Liberty, the primordial boy band that resides inside of Mount Rushmore, and the sweet stars and stripes of the ol’ American Flag. And sometimes I think the symbol-worship goes a bit too far; for instance, some people get all worked up when a sportsperson doesn’t stand up to sing the overrated song at the piece of cloth. And sometimes, I appreciate these figures. I, for one, very much enjoyed when the Statue of Liberty came to life in Ghostbusters II and beat up the ghosts or whatever. (I haven’t seen the movie in quite some time.)
By Steven Christopher McKnight5 years ago in The Swamp
Memes: The Ultimate Language
It’s midnight. I see the green dot flash beside her profile picture on Messenger. I stare at it longingly, like Gatsby staring at the green lantern across the lake. With great care, I select a meme from my arsenal, something about Mary Shelley’s Graveyard Smash, since we talked about that once in passing, or frogs, because people generally like frogs. She heart-reacts the meme, sends one back in return. The ritual is complete. The courtship may commence.
By Steven Christopher McKnight5 years ago in Humans
If 6,000,000 People Read This Article, I Can Pay Off My Student Loans
Okay, so I’m going to be a bit meta here. I’ve been a freelance content writer on Vocal for maybe a week at this point. In the past week, I’ve racked up about 170 views on my articles. Not bad. For those 170 views, I have cashed in at about sixty-nine cents (nice). You know, the big bucks (or, cents?). Legitimately the most income I’ve made since graduating from college in May. That being said, I’ve crunched the numbers, ran the theorems, did math-things, and I have determined a goal that is far beyond the realm of possibilities. If six-million people read my articles, I will be able to pay off my student loans in full.
By Steven Christopher McKnight5 years ago in Humans
Why I Love Online Marketing
Last summer, my family was visiting my grandmother in her apartment in Vermont, and she was going through her old high school yearbook with myself and my brothers, telling us all about how she was in charge of finding sponsors and formatting the advertisements. It’s something my grandmother and I share, that appreciation of good formatting and the solidly-written word, and the conversation turned to how current technology makes her old job easier than ever. I don’t know how the topic turned to it, but my brother proudly told my grandmother about this wonderful plugin called “AdBlock,” wherein you don’t have to look at advertisements online anymore because the program filters them out. Aghast, my grandmother said to him, “That’s awful.” As someone who vehemently refuses to download AdBlock, I cannot help but agree.
By Steven Christopher McKnight5 years ago in Journal
What It's Like To Have Your Undergraduate Experience Defined by the Politics of the Time
Preface. I am straight, white, and male. My rights and value as a human being have not been under attack these past four years. However, as a young man in the arts, the rights of the people close to me, specifically women, people of color, and LGBTQA+ individuals have been. Not only that, but the elderly and the immunocompromised, many of whom are close friends of mine, are being treated as subhuman and expendable. No generation is without its share of conflicts, I admit. For my grandfather’s generation, it was the Nazis. For my father’s, trying to live peacefully under the constant threat of nuclear Armageddon. We, too, face our share of conflicts, and while in part that threat stems from Nazism (no one likes a rerun, but this time, they’re American, so that’s original), our generational conflict stems from a sudden awareness of the inequities within the system we were born into and the death throes of that system.
By Steven Christopher McKnight5 years ago in The Swamp
On Flip McVicker
Over the course of 2020, I have rewatched the entirety of Netflix Original Series BoJack Horseman at least twice. “Why?” my friends ask. “Research,” I say, not researching a thing. To be honest, I just like passing the time. However, in rewatching Season 5 of BoJack Horseman, I’ve come to realize what a fascinating character Flip McVicker is. Flip, voiced by escaped clone of Freddie Mercury Rami Malik, is the eccentric, low-energy, high-maintenance lead writer of Philbert, the show within the show that titular character BoJack Horseman stars in as titular character within titular character Philbert. Season 5 marked a violent shift in the show’s timbre, between BoJack’s newfound addiction to painkillers, Princess Caroline’s eternal quest to balance producing a show and adopting a baby, and Diane’s divorce from Mr. Peanutbutter. Setting the stage? Flip McVicker.
By Steven Christopher McKnight5 years ago in Geeks
Songs of Suffering: A Vital Script
I have a degree in theatre. Did you all know that? I feel like I don’t bring it up enough. For the past four years, I’ve studied and analyzed dramatic literature, mostly for a passing grade. I have also written several plays, and belong to the Dramatists’ Guild and New Play Exchange. As a result, I have read bits and pieces of new work, one such piece being Songs of Suffering: A Torture Play by contemporary playwright Nolan Barrett Nightingale. (That is his real name. Trust me, I’ve checked.) Anyway, the more I think on it, the more I realize Songs of Suffering is a piece born out of generational anxiety, and I want to work through that anxiety a little bit by exploring the themes of the script. Be aware, this article may contain spoilers for the piece, so if you are planning on reading it, you can purchase a PDF from Smith Scripts here.
By Steven Christopher McKnight5 years ago in Geeks
What Cheese Am I? A Search for the Self
Graduating college this past May has brought about something of an identity crisis in me. For the past four years, I have defined myself as a student, as a learner, as a theatre practitioner. Unfortunately, the churning of time has torn many of those things away from me. Covid-19 has ravaged the theatre world, and my own lack of talent barred me from any grad schools. So, who am I? The answer is not as simple as one would think, and by myself, I have had to do a lot of soul-searching in these past few months. I struggle to define myself without the presence of a physical environment. However, the Buzzfeed quiz What Cheese Are You has come to my rescue.
By Steven Christopher McKnight5 years ago in Lifehack
A Review of The Star-Spangled Banner
Let me preface: I am, whether I like it or not, one of over three-hundred million Americans. I have no choice in the matter. Over the past four-hundred or so years, bits and pieces of my ancestry sailed over from miscellaneous European countries to start a new life, avoid famine and war, make a quick buck. The usual. That being said, as an American, I find a lot of the American ethos and aesthetic to be tacky and, generally, awful. At the center of that disdain is The Star-Spangled Banner, a piece of American culture that the people up top blast at every sporting event and ceremony of interest. They played it at my high school graduation, and I was homeschooled, so I’m not sure how Uncle Sam pulled that off. But he did, and I’m just a little bit more indoctrinated because of it.
By Steven Christopher McKnight5 years ago in The Swamp
Content Spew from a Disillusioned Twenty-Something
Some background. I’m Steven. Hello. I graduated this past May from Susquehanna University with a degree in Creative Writing and Theatre Studies, into a decimated job market and $20k in debt. As my degree might hint at, I write. Plays, mostly. Some essays. Some short stories. The beginnings of novels. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the job market right now, I fear my degrees in the creative field might not be as lucrative as I led myself to believe.
By Steven Christopher McKnight5 years ago in Journal
