relative popularity

If we judged short stories in terms of view numbers, then my two Five Stories in Five Days events on Substack went like this, from most-viewed to least-viewed:

5SI5D I:

1. "Very, Very Bad Erotica"
2. "When Mr. Fusion Finally Arrived"
3. "Alien Life"
4. "A Tale of Ass"
5. "Telekinetically Yours"

5SI5D II:

1. "Don't Interrupt"
2. "Little Billy in Hell"
3. "Why Good Self-Expression Matters"
4. "Telekinetically Yours 2"
5. "Nanospray"

Some notes:

1. "Very, Very Bad Erotica" was me channeling the absurdity of Mark Leyner. If you've never read Mark Leyner, may I suggest his Et Tu, Babe? I still smirk cynically when I think about all of the people who flocked to my post with prurient interest and were doubtless disappointed by the silliness they'd beheld.
2. "When Mr. Fusion Finally Arrived" was my humble attempt at teasing out the implications of a spectacular, new power source and how it might change life and society. In the end, it didn't change much. I'm more partial to the notion that "history rhymes" than to the idea that history is some kind of relentless, inevitable, linear progression, some march to an Omega Point. Nonsense.
3. "Alien Life" was a riff off the idea that octopi (octopuses, octopodes) are truly alien in nature, yet their way of apprehending the world follows much the same physics-rooted logic as it does for us humans. I've been fascinated by octopi since childhood and still wish I could keep one as a pet, but knowing me, I'd accidentally kill it.
4. "A Tale of Ass" is my favorite of the first group, and the most Zenny. From its low ranking, I can guess that most people didn't get it at all. Sigh... what a benighted group of readers. But to be fair, I guess they haven't been exposed to Zen approaches to the world before. To be sure, the stereotype of Zen as iconoclastically antiscriptural—with monks slapping each other over the head, farting everywhere, and using sutras as toilet paper—is hilariously wrong. But this isn't to say that the Zen way of looking at life isn't without its own unique sense of humor.
5. I'm sad to see "Telekinetically Yours" in last place because this one was most rooted in my own real, personal life. I experience the frustration of being "thwarted" every single goddamn day, and writing about Marv was a little bit cathartic. Don't you ever wish that you could have just one day where absolutely everything went the way you wanted it to, from A to B, with no hitches? For some of us, the world never shows us that face.
6. "Don't Interrupt" was my sop to right-wing readers who are sick of rude, crass, left-wing culture and the way it constantly shouts, interrupts, mocks, and shits all over everything. At my most nightmarishly Hitlerish, I would line all of these loud, stupid people up against a long wall and gun them down one by one, a quick pop to each skull. The problem is that, after committing mass murder, I'd enjoy quiet for about one day, then a new crop of loud assholes would appear.
7. "Little Billy in Hell" was written over 25 years ago. It still holds up today. Hell isn't just for bad people... as little Billy finds out.
8. "Why Good Self-Expression Matters" is once again me venting my frustration about sloppy people and their sloppy writing. The idea, which might not have been clear in this first story, is that there's something supernatural about the sexy lady. Maybe she's a demoness or a succubus. Either way, she's a force that's out to punish the mentally slobbish. And if this story gets sequels, there will be punishment galore.
9. "Telekinetically Yours 2" is a further exploration of how Marv deals with life now that he's got his new powers. And as you see, life is still annoying for him.
10. I had the most trouble writing this story. Originally, I had written only the expository crap about nanospray and nanoswarm technology. But a story that's all exposition is a pile of shit, which "Alien Life" was also in danger of becoming. While out for a walk, I had the idea of interleaving the exposition with a more personal story of a rich kid whose dad is involved with nanotech, which is why the kid and his girlfriend get captured and suspended from roof reams until the kid gives up his dad's passcodes.