johncarvill
@realjohncarvill.bsky.social
440 followers 810 following 1.5K posts
“Living inside the System is like riding across the country in a bus driven by a maniac bent on suicide" Likes: Old movies, old music, old books Dislikes: Fascism, Zionism, Centrism, Racism, Islamophobia, Transphobia, Misogyny, Bigotry, Monday
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realjohncarvill.bsky.social
I wish it were so. Sadly this is his worst book, worse even than Bleeding Edge.
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
It's dreadful. Ever since he handed the writing over to Neil and Rob Gibbons, Partridge has been shit. Why do the media continue to pretend this is not the case?
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
“You wait. Time passes.”
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
Isn't McSweeney supposed to be politically savvy? Can he really imagine a world in which Kier Starmer is PM after the next GE? I mean, shit happens, right - "Events, dear boy!" - so we can't say for certain it'll be Farage. But we can be 100% sure it won't be Starmer. FFS.
flyingrodent.bsky.social
Grimly fascinated by these people’s maniacal commitment to utterly, abjectly humiliating everyone who has ever spoken a kind word in their favour
John Rentoul @rentouljohn.bsky.s... • 20m
I think the McSweeney strategy is the right one, because most marginal seats are
Labour-Reform contests
McSweeney sees the current political battlefield as a fight between Labour and Reform. He does not believe that moving to the "left", which includes these days moving to a more pro-EU position, is the way to keep voters who are tempted to abandon Labour for the Lib Dems, Greens and the Corbyn-Sultana party.
McSweeney's view is that Labour should focus on voters who are tempted to defect to Reform, and that presenting the next election as a choice of prime minister between Starmer and Farage will also keep enough of the left onside.
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
I’m old enough to remember Labour winning a landslide and me being naive enough to think they’d do something about Murdoch but instead Blair ended up baptising Murdoch’s spawn in the Jordan, then riding his wife.
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
A tad click-baity. Quantick gonna Quantick.

It is a shame they've censored a key song (which Dave doesn't dare name) due to the 'n' word. Ridiculous.
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
Sick as a pike, eh? Drifting into the arena of the unwell?
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
Thing is: Pynchon (like Dylan) contains multitudes. Why you like him can be v different to what I look for, and v versa. I miss the poetic prose, and the late style cutesy dialogue gets on my nerves. Milwaukee section was ok, Europe a frantic bore, finale strove for gravitas but fell flat.
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
Oboy! I thought it was terrible.
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
It wos Pynchon wot should have won it
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
Ta, la. I *am* simplistic: I see people as either for or against Genocide. Colour me reductive! Kisses x
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
At last! A critically acclaimed film I actually enjoyed. Insightful writeup from @grahamfuller.bsky.social too.

57 year old man + 161 minute film + no pee break = Rave Review
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
But I love Vineland and am currently half way through yet another reread of it. It’s underrated.
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
Yeah I recognise some of what you’re saying. But I think the book just doesn’t work, it runs out of momentum really early on. And then it’s just diminishing returns. Shadow Ticket is like that only more so.
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
Yep. That and their Zionism. I can't buy the paper any more.
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
They were all in on smearing him, in cahoots with Mandelson, McSweeney etc. Denied it for ages, then eventually ran a big article crowing about it - how they conspired with the Right to rid Labour of all progressive policies and people.
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
I love Pynchon btw it pains me to have to say anything negative. In fact, the very first piece I had published online was a celebration of the great man:

www.popmatters.com/thomas-pynch...

(Please ignore the crappy subeditor-imposed title, and the cringey construction "Think Henry Miller ...")
The Fuss About Thomas Pynchon » PopMatters
Cast aside synthetic substitutes, junk food for the soul, and take a bite of the pungent, organic mushroom offered up by the man from Oyster Bay, Thomas Pynchon.
www.popmatters.com
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
Shadow Ticket starts out ok. And I mean ok, not great. I enjoyed some early passages but couldn’t relax with it due to increasing sense it wasn’t getting better. Then we get to Europe and it reads like it’s a Pynchon parody written by AI.
realjohncarvill.bsky.social
Things are much, much worse than he realises.