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Matthew Cheney

@melikhovo.bsky.social

2.3K followers 820 following 830 posts

Writer, teacher, person. Books from Black Lawrence, Bloomsbury Academic, punctum, Third Man, Lethe. Horror fiction, modernism, pedagogy, weirdness. (Would love to post less about politics, but, well, look outside...) https://matthewcheney.net

matthewcheney.net

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Matthew Cheney @melikhovo.bsky.social · Aug 29

Kirkus gives Moon Songs a star!

"This compellingly assembled retrospective gives longtime Emshwiller fans a chance to savor her unique sensibility again, while lucky newcomers enjoy the thrill of discovery."

@thirdmanbooks.bsky.social

www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...

MOON SONGS | Kirkus Reviews

A greatest hits collection of unclassifiable speculative fiction.

www.kirkusreviews.com

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Walter Chaw @mangiotto.bsky.social · 11h

Showed my class the "It's a Good Life" episode of The Twilight Zone because I wanted them to understand what it looks like when you give an idiot child who is also a dangerous narcissist absolute power.

a young boy is sitting in front of a group of people .

ALT: a young boy is sitting in front of a group of people .

media.tenor.com

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Matthew Cheney @melikhovo.bsky.social · 11h

(And yes, friends, that is my publicity-shy stepmom Ann making an appearance! We all do crazy things for the Rounds pumpkins!)

Matthew Cheney @melikhovo.bsky.social · 11h

A fun story from @wmur9.bsky.social about my school's 50-year tradition of putting pumpkins atop a clocktower — the secret closely guarded all this time!

www.wmur.com/article/chro...

Pumpkins have appeared at top of Plymouth State University building for decades, but how?

It's a seasonal mystery that has made its appearance every autumn since 1975. We search for answers. (via NH Chronicle)

www.wmur.com

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Saoirse Ní Chiaragáin @miseryvulture.bsky.social · Dec 17

Now, more than ever, you have to be a weird little pervert who makes art of questionable quality. You need to be driven crazy by the flesh. Because, as we all learned from Cronenberg's The Fly, the computers are not made crazy by the flesh. They can't do it like us.

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The Transfeminine Review @thetransfemininereview.com · 1d

Reading Miss Majors Speaks was an incredibly moving experience last year. I can't recommend this book enough for those unfamiliar with her work.

Rest in peace 🖤

Miss Major Speaks Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary by Toshio Meronek and Miss Major

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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 15h

It is at least *interesting* that the people making this supposedly world-changing technology think its most profitable use cases are: social media videos and sexting.

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Matthew Cheney @melikhovo.bsky.social · 12h

All so true. And good luck if you write anything over 5,000 words.

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Kate Clancy @kateclancy.bsky.social · 19h

I am being asked to tell my department which pieces of lab equipment should be supported with backup power because they expect rolling blackouts and brownouts in 2026 due to increased energy demands from AI. In case you're wondering how my day is going.

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onion person @junlper.beer · 14h

these people know how extreme they are

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Matthew Cheney @melikhovo.bsky.social · 17h

This is from this year's conference. Just imagine next year!

(Meant to tell @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social about this and forgot in midst of busy-ness. Good stuff on art, freedom, and estrangement in To the Lighthouse & Annihilation from Chris Gortmaker from U Chicago.)

A screen in a conference room. Projected onto it are the covers of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse in the original edition with art by Vanessa Bell and Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer in the recent US paperback edition.

Reposted by Matthew Cheney

Sammy Roth @sammyroth.bsky.social · 17h

First sentence says it all: "Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed legislation that would have required data centers to report how much water they use." Read the rest of the story though. from @ianjames.bsky.social: www.latimes.com/environment/...

California cracks down on water theft but spares data centers from disclosing how much they use

Gov. Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required data centers to report their projected water use when applying for a business license.

www.latimes.com

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April Ehrlich @aprilehrlich.bsky.social · 3d

The Forest Service says staff that organize timber sales are essential, so logging national forests continues through the shutdown, even as hundreds of thousands of other workers are furloughed. www.opb.org/article/2025...

Logging in national forests in Oregon continues, despite government shutdown

The U.S. Forest Service plans to auction off trees in the Deschutes, Wallowa-Whitman and Umatilla national forests by the end of the month.

www.opb.org

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Matthew Cheney @melikhovo.bsky.social · 18h

(Really grateful to the MSA for already planning for online sessions. I talked with people at this year's conference who don't feel safe traveling far within the US and fear what would happen if they left & tried to get back in. Scary times.)

Matthew Cheney @melikhovo.bsky.social · 18h

Don't know if I'll be able to make it to the UK next summer — hope so, tho, bc this is exactly my field of study: weird modernism and/or the intersections of modernism and weird fiction.

Modernist Studies Association (MSA) @moderniststudies.bsky.social · 1d

Believe it or not, it's already time to think about MSA 2026 in Loughborough, UK. The conference will meet July 1-4, and proposals for panels, papers, roundtables, workshops, and seminars is December 1. Please note this MUCH earlier deadline. The CFP is here: www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...

An image of a Tarot card empress with a crown of stars on a mustard yellow background. The text says: Weird Modernism, BAMS/ MSA 26, 1-4 July 2026. Loughborough University, UK

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 18h

“It’s too late for preventative antifascism. I think we’re in a new era.”

After death threats for his work on antifascism, a Rutgers University professor fled the United States.

The latest from @schuylermitchell.bsky.social:

He studies fascism. Is he now living through it?

After death threats for his work on antifascism, a Rutgers University professor fled the United States. "It's too late for preventative antifascism," he said. "I think we're in a new era."

www.motherjones.com

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 1d

I can’t help but think today about how many young people were savaged on social media, branded as anti-semites and abandoned by their schools for daring to call for a ceasefire. I remember saying that it was the first time I can remember that calling for ceasefire was regarded as a hostile demand.

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Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 1d

“ALL of Florida lost its [interlibrary loan] services as of October 1. This, of course, most harms those in rural communities. That means those with the most to lose and with the weakest access to education and entertainment materials are now wholly dependent on what their own library owns…”

The Current State of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (October 2025 Edition)

Grant money that should be going to library projects is going to state-sponsored propaganda, among other IMLS updates.

buttondown.com

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404 Media @404media.co · 1d

For months we followed what happened when a company forced AI into the world of craft beer. Legal threats, people quitting, and beer judges in revolt over being told to use AI.

"It is attempting to solve a problem that wasn’t a problem before AI showed up" www.404media.co/what-happene...

What Happened When AI Came for Craft Beer

A prominent beer competition introduced an AI-judging tool without warning. The judges and some members of the wider brewing industry were pissed.

www.404media.co

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jeffreyford8 @jeffreyford8.bsky.social · 1d

Was just over at the Lethe Press site and saw this is going to drop in February 2026 -- The Pandemonium Waltz -- 17 stories. Cover by Derek. More info as the days proceed.

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Matthew Cheney @melikhovo.bsky.social · 1d

The gun industry survives on panic. This is why the NRA et al. work so hard to convince people that the politicians are coming for their guns at any moment, criminals are everywhere, etc. Panic-buying and prepper stockpiling are essential to profits.

The Trace @thetrace.org · 1d

Gun sales are down more than 35 percent from a record high in 2020, when pandemic lockdowns and widespread social unrest drove unprecedented crowds to stores.

Retailers worry the president’s gun-friendly policies will continue to hurt sales.

Gun Stores Are Struggling Under Trump

Dealers say the president’s gun-friendly policies have actually hurt their sales. “People have a tendency to want what they feel is under threat," one said.

www.thetrace.org

Matthew Cheney @melikhovo.bsky.social · 1d

Ohmygawd, yes. So many debate-bros with messiah complexes.

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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 1d

Great thread on the distinctive political culture of Portland, by a US historian who is very much from Portland.

C. E. Aubin @ceaubin.bsky.social · 1d

What The Hell Is Going On, a thread:

I’ve seen some thinkpieces and posts about Portland protests that fail to understand the long-term hyperspecificity of Portland culture/humor, and frame it as a sort of shitposting meme-pilled ironic thing. Which is wrong.

So I’m gonna give you my breakdown.

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Matthew Cheney @melikhovo.bsky.social · 1d

"If current trends in AI harvesting do not reverse, then libraries’ continued ability to offer open content and systems at our current investment levels will be put in jeopardy."

scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/10/07/g...

Guest Post - “Have You Proved You’re Human Today?” Open Content and Web Harvesting in the AI Era - The Scholarly Kitchen

AI web harvesting bots are different from traditional web crawlers and violate many of the established rules and practices in place. Their rapidly expanding use is emerging as a significant IT managem...

scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org

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Modernism/modernity @mmodernity.bsky.social · 4d

New on Print Plus:
Nicholas Sawicki’s “The Eye and the Hand: On Kafka’s Drawings” examines how Kafka’s sketching practices blur the line between vision and inscription, art and text.

Read here: modernismmodernity.org/articles/saw...

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The New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 1d

“Tokarczuk’s body of work is animated by the idea that being trapped in a single consciousness—one’s own—is a somewhat desolate condition.” —Christopher Tayler

In the Fourth Person | Christopher Tayler

In 1896 the French writer Alfred Jarry gave a speech introducing his play Ubu Roi, a pioneering work of avant-garde provocation, at the Théâtre de l’Œuvre

buff.ly

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