Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · 11d

Today's classroom takeaway, via Willa Cather's My Antonia: ChatGPT can't read literature allusively. After asking it to identify the influence of WWI, the Russian Revolution, and the Homestead Act on the novel's themes, it couldn't provide any passages that weren't direct historical references.

Reposted by Marc Blanc

Kim Kelly @kimkelly.bsky.social · Aug 21

things were better when the computer lived in its own specific room and you only went in there sometimes

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Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · Jul 30

Admittedly I'm a big LeBron fan, but the "Mickey Mouse Ring" thesis has never made sense. Removing home court advantage arguably creates a more even competition, and winning while in isolation took an extraordinary amount of psychological toughness. That chip is legit, and they earned it.

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Reposted by Marc Blanc

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · Jul 7

a place to start

go.bsky.app/2Fq4P6e

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Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · Jun 25

It's an honor to be included!

Andy Oler @andyoler.bsky.social · Jun 23

Check it out: the pre-order link for Lingering Inland: A Literary Tour of the Midwest! This book collects dozens of #LiteraryLandscapes essays, and pre-orders will ship in November—perfect for Christmas! www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p0...

Lingering Inland

www.press.uillinois.edu

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Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · Jun 20

"Who most clearly saw the real crux of the conflict, most definitely knew his own convictions and was readiest at the crisis for decisive action, was a man whose leadership lay not in his office, wealth, or influence, but in the white flame of his utter devotion to an ideal." Du Bois on John Brown

Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · Jun 19

This Juneteenth, I'm reading W.E.B. Du Bois's excellent biography of John Brown. ✊

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Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · Jun 17

"In truth always thinkers who do not work have tried to unite workers who do not think. Only working thinkers can unite thinking workers." –W.E.B. Du Bois, "Dark Princess" (1929)

Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · Jun 4

If anyone tells you that the US isn't a class society/class conscious society, advise them to try to get approved for an apartment in a big city. This is brutal

Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · Jun 3

Agreed!

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Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · May 30

The Conversation U.S. @us.theconversation.com · May 30

Walt Whitman was the original selfie king. Long before Instagram, he staged portraits to craft his image — even faking a butterfly landing on his finger. In his lifelong search for the “real Me,” the more images he collected, the more he seemed to lose himself in their contradictions

Like today’s selfie-takers, Walt Whitman used photography to curate his image – but ended up more lost than found

The poet obsessively collected images of himself, foreshadowing both the good and the bad of today’s selfie culture.

buff.ly

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Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · May 24

"The cultural production of radical left-wing movements ultimately should struggle not over space on the terrain, but over the authority of the marketplace in people’s cultural and political lives." Jacqui Germain in @journalspectre.bsky.social
spectrejournal.com/on-this-land...

On This Land We All Get Fed – Spectre Journal

Jacqui Germain reflects on the difficulties and tasks facing the leftist artist in a cultural space geared towards the political right.

spectrejournal.com

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Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · May 22

Incredibly proud and awed by the talent of my wife, @madisonjblanc.bsky.social, who dropped a killer EP last week. If diaristic alt-pop is your jam, I recommend this
open.spotify.com/album/1HqiX5...

All Good Things

Maddi Sullivan · EP · 2025 · 4 songs

open.spotify.com

Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · May 22

Hard to tell if the centrist profiles following me lately are bots or if neoliberal consensus thinking just has a bot-like quality to it

Reposted by Marc Blanc

Gregory A. Hargreaves @bordergroves.bsky.social · Jan 26

"[A] democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power." - FDR (1938)

a man stands at a podium with microphones that say wor on them

ALT: a man stands at a podium with microphones that say wor on them

media.tenor.com

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Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · May 12

👎👎

Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · May 12

Some sad confirmation from @bcgl.bsky.social while I was at UW last week—the National Digital Newspaper Program—which builds Chronicling America—has been shut down

Historical newspapers are probably the archival material most used by the general public—for genealogy, local history—it’s such a loss

About this Collection | Chronicling America | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

Search America's Historic Newspaper Pages through 1963 Please Note: The Library of Congress has transitioned the longstanding Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers website to this new digi...

www.loc.gov

Reposted by Marc Blanc

abc @thekitchentapes.bsky.social · Apr 10

Katy Perry going to space--while Trump is disappearing people and throwing the country into economic collapse--is the "Whitey on the Moon" of our times.

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Reposted by Marc Blanc

Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · Apr 11

Curtailing people’s ability to read widely and carefully, to locate, assess, and compare different sources for themselves, and to write in their own voice about what they find and what it means, is arguably more effective than censorship. It is also one of the most obvious effects of generative AI.

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Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · Apr 9

Whole thread is spot on

Devin 🌞 Thomas O’Shea @devintoshea.bsky.social · Apr 9

Tish losing marks the real end of the political front that developed after Micheal Browns murder - what killed it was money

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Reposted by Marc Blanc

National Humanities Alliance @humanitiesall.bsky.social · Apr 1

On Monday, March 31, 2025 we learned that DOGE is targeting the NEH with the aim of substantially reducing its staff, cutting the agency’s grant programs, and rescinding grants that have already been awarded.

Learn what steps you can take here: nhalliance.org/federal-fund...

Save the NEH! – National Humanities Alliance

nhalliance.org

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Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · Feb 23

Thrilled that my favorite article so far is up on @jacobinmag.bsky.social today. Place and region matter when talking to people about socialism, and Missouri’s Anvil magazine spoke to rural/Midwestern workers eloquently and intimately in the 1930s. jacobin.com/2025/02/anvi...

Anvil, the Forgotten Magazine of Heartland Marxism

Printed out of a cattle barn in Missouri, Anvil published some of the biggest leftist writers of the 1930s, including Richard Wright and Langston Hughes. Its popular vision for a multiracial socialism...

jacobin.com

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Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · Feb 20

Nancy Fraser, "Cannibal Capitalism: How Our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet—and What We Can Do about It."

Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · Feb 14

Was thrilled to participate in a record-breaking #douglassday! "If there is no struggle, there is no progress"

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Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · Feb 12

So excited to participate here in STL! #douglassday

P. Gabrielle Foreman @profgabrielle.bsky.social · Feb 9

Join us on Feb. 14th, Frederick Douglass’s chosen bday, for a day of collective love for Black history! You can join thousands of others to help make American history accessible for everyone by transcribing fascinating historical records! #DouglassDay @douglassday.bsky.social

Douglass Day @douglassday.bsky.social · Jan 16

This year's Douglass Day theme, "You Make History," emphasizes the power of communities in shaping the past, present, and future through storytelling, and the celebration of Black excellence. Join us on Douglass Day, February 14th, to honor this legacy and make history together!
#DouglassDay

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Marc Blanc @blancpages.bsky.social · Feb 12

Amidst all the strife in the world, I had the best day of my life last Saturday. I love you @madisonjblanc.bsky.social

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