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Wesley Osam @mwosam.bsky.social · 25m

At the #comics site: Keep Off

www.superdoomedplanet.com/comic/?p=1639

Keep Off

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www.superdoomedplanet.com

Reposted by Wesley Osam

Christina Holland @mortalwombat.info · 2d

I think movies have done a lot to convince people that art or writing or any creative endeavor is when you come up with an "idea" because your dumb friend said a phrase, and all the rest of making it is busy work, a montage, and wouldn't you like to skip the montage? well good news, AI can do it

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Reposted by Wesley Osam

Matthew Claxton @matthewclaxton.bsky.social · 1d

Do we remember things weird, or is this just one of those novels that has been reduced to one or two signifiers, often by people who haven't read it in decades/haven't ever read it?

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Reposted by Wesley Osam

Matthew Claxton @matthewclaxton.bsky.social · 1d

Almost finished with The Left Hand of Darkness, and before starting I knew about 1) sex and gender speculation and 2) very cold planet.

Pretty sure I've never seen anyone say "Plotwise, most of it is a political thriller with a mad king and secret police and a looming war."

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Reposted by Wesley Osam

DIO @danielirizarri.bsky.social · 3d

I think what's impressive about TRON is that, visually, it's still so much more interesting than any of it's sequels. It's crazy that they tried update this digital world by making it as 'realistically rendered' as possible. It's a complete misunderstanding of the original's charm.

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Wesley Osam @mwosam.bsky.social · 23h

And maybe just, y'know... actually trying to learn about the subjects we want to talk about, instead of just blurting whatever off-the-cuff feelings pop into our heads about the latest discourse?

Wesley Osam @mwosam.bsky.social · 23h

Which means being careful not to repost AI slop, but also means not falling for it when Politico or Axios or even the New York Times posts some clickbait article designed solely to make us angry or scared.

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Wesley Osam @mwosam.bsky.social · 23h

I'm kind of coming round to the idea that all of us on social media—even those of us whose followings aren't huge—are basically small-scale influencers, and should think of ourselves as having certain responsibilities on that basis.

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Reposted by Wesley Osam

Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 1d

Maybe we should all just not repost videos for a while.

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Reposted by Wesley Osam

𝕍∃, Cyber closed shell syndrome relief fund coordinator @vortexegg.com · 2d

I’ve been thinking for a bit that we’ve moved not only into a post-material perspective of the world, but also a post-informational one that privileges collective make-believe and imagining over any other mode of reality

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Wesley Osam @mwosam.bsky.social · 3d

Like, a lot of online discourse feels like fan fiction about real people, both public figures and not. Posters exchanging head canons about their goals, motivations, and inner lives.

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Wesley Osam @mwosam.bsky.social · 3d

I'm not planning on watching this show, but found this thread interesting. I've been thinking for a while our culture encourages everyone to think about and relate to real people in pretty much the same ways we think about and relate to fictional people.

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 4d

Last note on this: Like Gein himself, the show manipulates dead people for its own pleasure and purpose and, like Gein, doesn’t appear to consider - or care? - how or why this might be a violation.

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 5d

I’ve been watching the new Monster: The Ed Gein Story series on Netflix, mostly because I was intrigued by hearing that it traced Gein’s influence on popular horror culture, and how it deals with fictionalizing events is interesting - and to my mind raises difficult questions. SPOILERS AHEAD

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Reposted by Wesley Osam

ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 3d

Social media is very effective at creating sin-eaters. A sin-eater is different from an ephemeral main-character. It's a recurring "well would you look at that guy" person you see screenshotted on your feed constantly, who is meant to stand in for the evils of some larger group you dislike

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Matt Miller @mattmiller.bsky.social · 3d

few better movie experiences than watching something where you’re like “there’s no way they can stick this landing” and then it goes full Kerri Strug. that’s this movie.

Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 3d

If you are looking for an unusual, tense, and oddly beautiful horror movie this Halloween, I highly recommend A Dark Song, should it have escaped your notice before.

Woman facing a doorway with arcane symbols with title A Dark Song and accolades including Outstanding abd An Utterly Unique Film.

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Wesley Osam @mwosam.bsky.social · 5d

This kind of pacing has bothered me for ages; I just checked and it looks like I first complained about it on my blog nearly a decade ago: www.superdoomedplanet.com/blog/2016/04...

Action and Time | Recurring Bafflement

www.superdoomedplanet.com

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Reposted by Wesley Osam

Jake Casella Brookins @casella.bsky.social · 5d

I've been seeing a lot of this even in books that seem like they should be more driven, pulpier, more plot & action-focused. What frustrates me about it—to be clear, I adore a contemplative lost-in-the-landscape literary meander—is when it seems to stem from a televisual concept of *time*.

Jenny Hamilton @readingtheend.bsky.social · 5d

I'm seeing a lot of this in the romantasy space! there are books with minimal story apart from the romance, so you end up with an iterative structure where the leads go to a series of locations or make a series of small advances on their MacGuffin quest, as set dressing for their escalating intimacy

Mythcreants @mythcreants.bsky.social · 6d

A new thing we’re noticing is books where way less happens than you’d expect for their length because of worldbuilding info dumps or long scenes of explaining plans. You get through a 100,000 word novel and realize the whole story was spent picking up magic groceries.

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Wesley Osam @mwosam.bsky.social · 7d

At the #comics site: Things Your Grandparents Knew

www.superdoomedplanet.com/comic/?p=1636

Things Your Grandparents Knew

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www.superdoomedplanet.com

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Ancillary Review of Books @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org · 12d

End of the month, and that means: the link round-up is upon us! Some cool reviews, some great interviews, and some insightful essays from around the web:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/09/29/w...

Wow! Signal: September 2025

Jake Casella Brookins The Ancillary Review of Books was founded to address the radical possibilities of criticism, particularly in the context of the radical possibilities of speculative fiction. N…

ancillaryreviewofbooks.org

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Wesley Osam @mwosam.bsky.social · 13d

This morning I randomly remembered the time Lipton tried to appeal to the anxious masculinity market with the slogan "This ain't no sippin' tea."

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Reposted by Wesley Osam

Dr. Hilary Agro, PhD 🍄 @hilaryagro.com · 14d

As an anti-capitalist content creator we are always begging people to share and talk about our work but the dunking/outrage ecosystem is like a bulldozer driven by a geared up gym bro. We've gotta figure out ways to have discourse around interesting ideas too, not just bad ones

Liz Ryerson @ellaguro.bsky.social · 15d

it really burns me that everyone knows the name of guys like Ezra Klein and are constantly talking about them (even if it's in the negative sense) vs. someone like Kaleb Horton. sometimes it feels as if broad name recognition in this era is inversely related to how good your work is.

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Reposted by Wesley Osam

Tegan O’Neil @teganoneil5000.bsky.social · 14d

was S01 strange? hell yeah. some of the spiciest shit Roddenberry ever thunk up, and a couple of real clunkers in that line-up. they were right to smooth out some of those kinks … but Star Trek has to have some of that weirdness to work. that’s the Great Bird’s truest legacy, we forget at our peril.

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Reposted by Wesley Osam

Tegan O’Neil @teganoneil5000.bsky.social · 14d

these guys are so familiar and domesticated now, it seems hard to properly convey just how weird this pilot was, a different world filled with bizarre shit making no real attempt to color within the lines of the still very popular movies … like a weird day-glo bomb set off right in the living room.

The Spaceshipper 🚀 @thespaceshipper.com · 14d

Star Trek: The Next Generation started 38 years ago today.

The future began again at this (Encounter at Far)point.

Newspaper advertisement for the U.S. premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Specifically, this ad was for its broadcast on the New York station WPIX on the week of its debut. The headline, "TONIGHT, THE 24TH CENTURY BEGINS WITH A SPECTACULAR TWO-HOUR MOVIE," refers to the series' double-length pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint."

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Wesley Osam @mwosam.bsky.social · 14d

At the comic site: Behold, a Snail Horse

www.superdoomedplanet.com/comic/?p=1632

Behold a Snail Horse

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www.superdoomedplanet.com

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Wesley Osam @mwosam.bsky.social · 18d

Re-upping this once for the morning. Specifically, it's part two of a post on stories that got both a Hugo and a Nebula nomination in 1974, which turned out to be a surprisingly thematically unified bunch.

Wesley Osam @mwosam.bsky.social · 18d

I've finally gotten around to finishing part two of a long blog post on the science fiction awards of 1974:

www.superdoomedplanet.com/blog/2025/09...

Science Fiction Awards in 1974, Part 2 | Recurring Bafflement

www.superdoomedplanet.com

Wesley Osam @mwosam.bsky.social · 18d

I've finally gotten around to finishing part two of a long blog post on the science fiction awards of 1974:

www.superdoomedplanet.com/blog/2025/09...

Science Fiction Awards in 1974, Part 2 | Recurring Bafflement

www.superdoomedplanet.com

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