Author | Lightnews

Olivia Giovetti

@oliviagiovetti.bsky.social

180 followers 94 following 150 posts

When I was 4, I dressed up as Mephistopheles from Faust for Halloween and corrected each of my grandparents' friends when they thought I was the devil. Now I'm a cultural critic. Web: oliviagiovetti.com Substack: criticaldrift.org

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Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · Aug 1

“Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment.”

Reposted by Olivia Giovetti

Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 4d

And all while building a ballroom.

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 4d

starving over 40 million people right before major holidays + massively upping healthcare costs does strike me as a rather bold move this early in the authoritarian consolidation game for any given fascist regime, but I guess we’ll see what happens

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Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · 7d

The only thing that should frighten anyone about Mamdani is his theatre-kid energy.

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · 9d

I used to live around the corner from this place and am baffled by this turn of events and nostalgic for their burnt ends.

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · 9d

Bret Stephens is at Google now?

Zoë Schiffer @zoeschiffer.bsky.social · 10d

New: Google has a bed bug outbreak in its New York offices: www.wired.com/story/theres...

Google Has a Bed Bug Infestation in Its Manhattan Offices

Employees at Google’s Chelsea office were told to stay home after exterminators found “credible evidence” of an infestation.

www.wired.com

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · 11d

You’re telling me that Curtis Sliwa and JoJo Siwa are two different people

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Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · 22d

Konzept: All-female Billy Budd and it’s set in a high school a la Jennifer’s Body.

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · 22d

Shevshchenko lassoes the moon, Lviv

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · 22d

Excellent work, thank you for your service.

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · 23d

In Poland talking in French with my South African cab driver about the political situation in Burkina Faso as he drives me to a meet-up point for my trip into Ukraine. What a world.

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · 27d

There was a lot of tension around that behind the scenes in late 2023/early 2024 and it‘s pretty galling to now see some of my former colleagues there cover Palestine favorably since it became less of a risk. But it wasn‘t the main issue that led me to leave.

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · 28d

Can pre-crime get you pregnant or is that just a myth they teach you in abstinence-only Marxism?

Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 29d

Donald Trump's new security directive labels anti-capitalist beliefs as a predictor of political violence.

The irony: left-wing structural analysis actually pushes people away from lone-wolf attacks and toward mass organizing for change.

Trump Classifies “Anti-Capitalism” as a Political Pre-Crime

Donald Trump’s new security directive labels anti-capitalist beliefs as a predictor of political violence. The irony: left-wing structural analysis actually pushes people away from lone-wolf attacks and toward mass organizing for change.

jacobin.com

Reposted by Olivia Giovetti

Thomas Jones @moonjets.bsky.social · Sep 28

During the curtain call for Verdi’s 1847 Macbeth in Busseto last night, two of the dancers laid a Palestinian flag on the stage. Most of the audience kept applauding though there were a few boos. And you had to wonder which part of ‘gli oppressi corriamo a salvar’ the booers hadn’t heard.

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Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · Sep 28

When Verdi wrote Macbeth one of his friends asked if he could go back to writing political operas.

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · Sep 28

One must imagine Sisyphus redpilled.

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · Sep 28

Yep. Small town Rhode Island, man.

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · Sep 28

Got engaged.

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Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · Sep 23

(And to answer the follow-up: Obviously I had no friends in high school which was how I was able to write Golem x Bayreuth fanfic.)

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · Sep 23

Now's a good time to remind people that Met donor Mercedes Bass's step-cousin-in-law was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran.

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · Sep 23

Oh god, this was high school? Maybe college?

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Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · Sep 23

I once wrote a short story about a Golem going to Bayreuth.

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Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · Sep 23

I don't know what to say anymore but at least I'm not about to start arguing that Ivan Khovansky was practicing politics the right way.

Killing Khovansky

1,041 words about the past that have absolutely nothing to do with the present (until they do)

www.criticaldrift.org

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · Sep 23

Gorilla Gluing my head to my desk

👁️saac 👁️o @eyesack.bsky.social · Sep 23

lol gelb'd

the nyt mistakenly thought peter gelb said something meaningful

A correction was made on Sept. 22, 2025: An earlier version of this review referred incorrectly to remarks made by Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera. He said that the Met was “proudly standing for freedom of artistic expression,” not that “Kavalier & Clay” was a testament to the power of art against oppression.

Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · Sep 18

Campaigning for the NYT's classical critic gig on the platform of bringing back reads like this line from 1900.

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Olivia Giovetti @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social · Sep 18

One thing I distinctly remember about David Rakoff was his insistence on drinking year-round iced coffee. (She says while making her own iced coffee on a 12-degree morning.)

Reposted by Olivia Giovetti

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Sep 16

‘When Studs Terkel described her as “a writer of profound compassion and tenderness and understanding”, Parker asked if he was “talking about somebody else”.’

Kasia Boddy on Dorothy Parker: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Kasia Boddy · Pretty Garrotte: Why we need Dorothy Parker

While she always insisted that she wasn’t a ‘real’ critic, Parker is more astute than most on matters of style,...

www.lrb.co.uk

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