Nicholas Birns

@nicholasbirns.bsky.social

1.4K followers 2K following 640 posts

Academic, literary critic etc. teaching at NYU. Books from Cambridge UP, Bloomsbury, Broadview, Palgrave, U of South Carolina P, Sydney UP, Routledge. He/him

Videos

Nicholas Birns is a scholar of literature, including fantasy and Australian literature. As a Tolkien scholar he has written on a variety of topics including "The Scouring of the Shire" and Tolkien's biblical sources. His analysis of the writings of Anthony Powell and Roberto Bolaño has been admired by scholars. .. more

Art 28%

Political science 22%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 3h

Polish mountain dancing/singing

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Lisa Diedrich @lisadiedrich.bsky.social · 9h

John Lancester's parenthetical about AI "hallucinations" is fascinating: "(That word, by the way, is another piece of disguised salesmanship. Talk of ‘hallucinations’ distracts us from the fact that AIs get things wrong all the time... 1/2

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 10h

‘Our tech overlords like the idea of being Thomas Edison, genius inventor-businessman, but they often have more in common with P.T. Barnum, genius of marketing and hype. Altman could go toe-to-toe with Barnum, and I wouldn’t want to pick a winner.’

John Lanchester:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

John Lanchester · King of Cannibal Island: Will the AI bubble burst?

Nvidia shares are the purest bet you can make on the impact of AI. The leading firms are lending money to one another in...

www.lrb.co.uk

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 9h

‘Even the individuals closest to Suleyman had agendas that historians have taken decades to unpack and understand. The danger in sidestepping this work is being blinded by the sources.’

Helen Pfeifer on Christopher de Bellaigue’s account of Suleyman the Magnificent.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Helen Pfeifer · Turn around and run: Suleyman the Magnificent

The life of the tenth Ottoman sultan, Suleyman, known in Europe as the Magnificent and in Turkey as the Lawgiver, has...

www.lrb.co.uk

Reposted by Nicholas Birns, Ben Tonra

Eto Buziashvili @buziashvili.bsky.social · 10h

Reposted by Nicholas Birns, Margot C. Finn, Lisa Diedrich

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 10h

John Lanchester · King of Cannibal Island: Will the AI bubble burst?

Nvidia shares are the purest bet you can make on the impact of AI. The leading firms are lending money to one another in...

www.lrb.co.uk

Reposted by Melissa Johnson, Nicholas Birns

Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 20h

A federal judge in Boston interrupted the administration’s efforts to force 15,000 people with legal status in the US to leave by revoking their parole just days before Christmas. Learn who these people are & ask yourself how this makes us any safer. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

A Little Good News on a Saturday Night

Saturday night, a federal judge prevented the Trump administration from revoking “parole” as many as 15,000 people who don’t have legal immigration status but have been permitted to remain in the U.S.

open.substack.com

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Hugo Brady Brown @aodhbc.bsky.social · 22h

"The Last Living Atlanticist Widow Tells All" (forthcoming)

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 1d

Talk I am giving February 26. Will post registration link when I have it..

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

The Typist @thetypist.bsky.social · 2d

If you want to understand the reality Ukrainian soldiers experience at the front watch 2000 Meters to Andriivka, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mstyslav Chernov.

2000 Meters to Andriivka (official trailer) | FRONTLINE

YouTube video by FRONTLINE PBS | Official

youtu.be

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 2d

Thread! & check out my new column for some Commonsensical contexts:

www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2026/01/cons...

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 2d

🚨 NEW VIDEO 👇🏽This puts an end to all the lies. Horrific.

They were having a calm exchange seconds before he murdered Renee Good, and she was barely moving and clearly avoiding him.

Stop the lies.

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Victor Asal @victorasal.bsky.social · 2d

The ‘Crisis of the Humanities’ Is Over. That’s Not a Good Thing.
@chronicle.com
@ehayot.bsky.social
@mattseybold.bsky.social

www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

The ‘Crisis of the Humanities’ Is Over. That’s Not a Good Thing.

All of higher ed now suffers the attacks of politics and technology.

www.chronicle.com

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 3d

www.inquirer.com/food/wine-re...

Low-alcohol wines are trending. Here’s one that’s actually good.

Consumers are increasingly interested in "lite" wine. But removing alcohol alters flavor and compromises the complex balance of tastes, smells, and textures that people expect from a good wine.

www.inquirer.com

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 5d

Found this in an old suit jacket, Momentos of my trip to Serbia in 2014..

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 5d

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of the NATO military alliance. Her comments came in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed call for the mineral-rich Arctic island to come under U.S. control.

Danish prime minister says a US takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of the NATO military alliance.

bit.ly

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 5d

kind of darkly funny that "gender studies" is the stereotypical "useless degree" because gender studies will help you understand a large and important chunk of the current psychosis in american life

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Suman Seth is meant to be writing @alltoosuman.bsky.social · 6d

I tend to think I stay up to date on Warwick Anderson’s publications. But just came across his 2017 paper on ‘Coolie Therapeutics.’ A lovely short paper, one that touches on lots of themes from earlier publications while also exploring new terrain. Final para on Ackerknecht’s sig today is great.

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

TheKnightIrish @theknightirish.bsky.social · 6d

Three more volumes from the Routledge sale that all landed separately. It’s very 18th century heavy… 📚 #histbookchat

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Joshua Holland @joshuaholland.bsky.social · 6d

This little indoor herb garden has really driven home why dill is called dillweed.

A small hydroponic herb growing setup containing three herbs. Two are small and immature and the dill is overgrowing the lights.

Reposted by Matthew Bunn, Peter Thorne, Rosemary A. Joyce , and 7 more Matthew Bunn, Peter Thorne, Rosemary A. Joyce, Lesley A. Hall, Nicholas Birns, Devon Greyson, R. M. Wilson, Erol Akçay, Lisa Diedrich, Timothy D. McBride

Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 7d

In a study following 23 million people age 18-59 (pretty young) for 4 years…despite the fact that the ones who got the COVID vaccine were overall older and sicker at baseline, they not only had 74% lower risk of dying from COVID than the unvaccinated but 25% lower risk of dying from any other cause!

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Andrew Kurjata @akurjata.ca · 7d

Refreshingly clear-eyed editorial in the Globe and Mail: Venezuela's fate is a warning for Canada.

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit...

Globe editorial: The Sunday Editorial: Venezuela’s fate is a warning for Canada

U.S. military action to seize Nicolás Maduro marks the formal debut of an imperial America

www.theglobeandmail.com

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 8d

My man looks like vandals covered a statue with lunch meat

Reposted by Steven French, Rosemary A. Joyce, Alison Phipps , and 4 more Steven French, Rosemary A. Joyce, Alison Phipps, Nicholas Birns, Nicole Guenther Discenza, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Aidan O’Sullivan

Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 8d

In celebration of Mamdani's first day in office, the map from our 2016 NYC atlas celebrating Queens as the most linguistically diverse place on earth. (800 languages spoken in NYC, according to NY's Endangered Language Institute, which collaborated with us on this map.

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 9d

It’s quite telling that so many right-wing dealers in nostalgia are embracing the aesthetics of modern AI-generated art. Can’t actually find real images of the imagined past to which you want us to return? No problem; just generate it with AI.

Post from Congressman Andy Ogles with an AI-generated image of a Crusader

Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 12d

From Mimi Pond’s graphic biography of the Mitford sisters – the Communist Party of the United States in 1994 being a bit Trumpian.

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

Kevin Koczwara @kkoczwara.bsky.social · 12d

Did a lot of teaching this year and not a lot of writing, but kept a newsletter stacked with author interviews and ran an essay on Denis Johnson to close out the year. open.substack.com/pub/kevinkoc...