Christopher Pittard
@christopherpittard.bsky.social
Course leader and Senior Lecturer in English Literature. Victorian lit and culture, detective fiction, Arthur Conan Doyle, Dickens, Wilkie Collins. New book: *Literary Illusions: Performance Magic and Victorian Literature* (Edinburgh UP, 2025).
Bryan Ferry doing "Let's Stick Together" on #totp, I see.
two men are sitting at a table with their hands folded and a target in the background .
ALT: two men are sitting at a table with their hands folded and a target in the background .
media.tenor.com
February 13, 2026 at 9:12 PM
Bryan Ferry doing "Let's Stick Together" on #totp, I see.
There must be people from the politics department at Kent on here. Was Goodwin always this strange? I feel that this level of weirdness must have been almost impossible to conceal. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
‘Handmaid’s Tale future’: Reform’s Matt Goodwin sparks outcry with fertility comments
Byelection candidate accused of indulging ‘alt right fantasy’ by suggesting women need ‘biological reality’ check
www.theguardian.com
February 13, 2026 at 7:15 PM
There must be people from the politics department at Kent on here. Was Goodwin always this strange? I feel that this level of weirdness must have been almost impossible to conceal. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Christopher Pittard
There's also the fact that scans can't replicate the material evidence of the archive - the kind and quality of paper used, etc. While working with Silas Hocking's manuscript for *Her Benny*, I found that he'd written the novel on the back of about 200 unused Methodist pamphlets.
It is so important to keep hammering in this point. People always ask me why I would have to go visit archives - why not just look at a scan? Because they haven’t been scanned! And they are never going to be! There are millions & millions of pieces of paper in every archive.
Right, another key thing that historians do is working with important records that have not been digitized.
And the vast majority of the world’s records *have not been digitized* and thus do not exist in any format that LLMs/AI can work with.
And the vast majority of the world’s records *have not been digitized* and thus do not exist in any format that LLMs/AI can work with.
February 13, 2026 at 3:58 PM
There's also the fact that scans can't replicate the material evidence of the archive - the kind and quality of paper used, etc. While working with Silas Hocking's manuscript for *Her Benny*, I found that he'd written the novel on the back of about 200 unused Methodist pamphlets.
I'd missed that @kermodemovie.bsky.social had agreed to review *Melania* in return for a donation to charity. It seems the review has had more viewers than the film. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTyU...
Mark Kermode reviews Melania
YouTube video by Kermode and Mayo's Take
www.youtube.com
February 12, 2026 at 11:49 PM
I'd missed that @kermodemovie.bsky.social had agreed to review *Melania* in return for a donation to charity. It seems the review has had more viewers than the film. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTyU...
Reposted by Christopher Pittard
NUDE ELON MUSK: The invisible clothes I'm wearing are a product of xAthleisure, which will roll out self-dressing outfits within two years at the latest
THE CREDULOUS PRESS: Fully Clothed Tesla Innovator Does It Again
THE CREDULOUS PRESS: Fully Clothed Tesla Innovator Does It Again
February 12, 2026 at 7:10 PM
NUDE ELON MUSK: The invisible clothes I'm wearing are a product of xAthleisure, which will roll out self-dressing outfits within two years at the latest
THE CREDULOUS PRESS: Fully Clothed Tesla Innovator Does It Again
THE CREDULOUS PRESS: Fully Clothed Tesla Innovator Does It Again
That reminds me - you might want to read Kay Dick's *They*, published in 1977 but reissued by Faber a couple of years ago, in which a dystopian UK is taken over by a philistine mob who destroy all forms of art.
A pretty bleak threat from the Reform party on Kent county council...
Reform threatens to pull funding for Margate’s Turner Gallery as ‘naked retribution for local MP exposing Kent savings lies' - via Polly Billington MP
Reform threatens to pull funding for Margate’s Turner Gallery as ‘naked retribution for local MP exposing Kent savings lies' - via Polly Billington MP
February 12, 2026 at 10:43 PM
That reminds me - you might want to read Kay Dick's *They*, published in 1977 but reissued by Faber a couple of years ago, in which a dystopian UK is taken over by a philistine mob who destroy all forms of art.
Reposted by Christopher Pittard
Right, another key thing that historians do is working with important records that have not been digitized.
And the vast majority of the world’s records *have not been digitized* and thus do not exist in any format that LLMs/AI can work with.
And the vast majority of the world’s records *have not been digitized* and thus do not exist in any format that LLMs/AI can work with.
it's literally impossible for an LLM to do a historian's job
it's not even LLMs sucking it's that they need data input to do anything and where's that data supposed to be coming from without historians
never met a computer that can dig through a thousand year old book in a library
it's not even LLMs sucking it's that they need data input to do anything and where's that data supposed to be coming from without historians
never met a computer that can dig through a thousand year old book in a library
February 11, 2026 at 8:36 PM
Right, another key thing that historians do is working with important records that have not been digitized.
And the vast majority of the world’s records *have not been digitized* and thus do not exist in any format that LLMs/AI can work with.
And the vast majority of the world’s records *have not been digitized* and thus do not exist in any format that LLMs/AI can work with.
Reposted by Christopher Pittard
"The seriousness of this failure should not be underestimated."
"It is frankly intolerable that the Royal Society has allowed itself to be hollowed out in this way."
"It is frankly intolerable that the Royal Society has allowed itself to be hollowed out in this way."
FOR THE RECORD: one year on, I lay out clearly how Elon Musk FRS has breached the @royalsociety.org’s code of conduct, why the Society’s failure to defend its values has been so damaging, & what they need do to recover their standing in the scientific community. occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2026/...
February 12, 2026 at 8:21 PM
"The seriousness of this failure should not be underestimated."
"It is frankly intolerable that the Royal Society has allowed itself to be hollowed out in this way."
"It is frankly intolerable that the Royal Society has allowed itself to be hollowed out in this way."
I read Wyl Menmuir's *The Many* over the last two days and it's superb, doing some interesting things with genre. Tonally, it reminds me a little of Christopher Priest's *The Quiet Woman*, but is much more successful.
Morning shopping in Oxfam bookshop in Exeter; this batch, including a signed Menmuir and a first edition Rushdie for £11.
February 9, 2026 at 10:47 PM
I read Wyl Menmuir's *The Many* over the last two days and it's superb, doing some interesting things with genre. Tonally, it reminds me a little of Christopher Priest's *The Quiet Woman*, but is much more successful.
I just saw the news footage of Charles being heckled about Andrew. The crowd's reaction - being more offended by the heckle than by Andrew's behaviour - is dismaying.
February 9, 2026 at 10:20 PM
I just saw the news footage of Charles being heckled about Andrew. The crowd's reaction - being more offended by the heckle than by Andrew's behaviour - is dismaying.
Reposted by Christopher Pittard
This is incredibly funny to try because even if it *was* true, then it would mean Streeting was defending Mandleson in September for the love of the game.
February 9, 2026 at 7:05 PM
This is incredibly funny to try because even if it *was* true, then it would mean Streeting was defending Mandleson in September for the love of the game.
If you can't lose your Fellowship of @royalsociety.org for being an outright racist, surely you should lose it for not being a, you know, scientist?
BREAKING: “in my 24th year of my quest to settle the planet Mars, I have just been informed of a basic fact of celestial mechanics.”
February 9, 2026 at 6:45 PM
If you can't lose your Fellowship of @royalsociety.org for being an outright racist, surely you should lose it for not being a, you know, scientist?
Reposted by Christopher Pittard
It's been clear for some time that sustained use of AI for knowledge work de-motivates and de-skills. Even among academics, the last population I'd expect to allow such atrophy, folks are now reduced to playing cynical games with the language machine and justifying it via the grant hamster wheel.
NEW on Wonkhe: Jim Dickinson explores the growing evidence that AI isn't just changing what students produce – it's changing what their brains are ready to do, and asks whether HE can redesign itself around a question it has been avoiding for decades buff.ly/uHtisNU
February 9, 2026 at 9:17 AM
It's been clear for some time that sustained use of AI for knowledge work de-motivates and de-skills. Even among academics, the last population I'd expect to allow such atrophy, folks are now reduced to playing cynical games with the language machine and justifying it via the grant hamster wheel.
Or Theresa May, or John Major. In fact, the last time a Conservative Prime Minister was first appointed by winning an election outright was Thatcher, nearly half a century ago.
The Express & Sun are saying there should be a General Election if Labour changes its leader. A principle they didn’t apply to Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, or Rishi Sunak. I wonder what the difference is? If your principles only apply when it suits you then you don’t have principles.
February 8, 2026 at 9:55 AM
Or Theresa May, or John Major. In fact, the last time a Conservative Prime Minister was first appointed by winning an election outright was Thatcher, nearly half a century ago.
I saw a secondhand copy of Matty Goodwin's Pelican book for £3 yesterday. I was idly thinking I might gradually work my way through the modern Pelican series, but not so sure now. Was Goodwin's book any good, or was his slide into tinfoil millinery always there?
February 7, 2026 at 8:57 PM
I saw a secondhand copy of Matty Goodwin's Pelican book for £3 yesterday. I was idly thinking I might gradually work my way through the modern Pelican series, but not so sure now. Was Goodwin's book any good, or was his slide into tinfoil millinery always there?
Morning shopping in Oxfam bookshop in Exeter; this batch, including a signed Menmuir and a first edition Rushdie for £11.
February 6, 2026 at 4:17 PM
Morning shopping in Oxfam bookshop in Exeter; this batch, including a signed Menmuir and a first edition Rushdie for £11.
I'm on leave today so happened to glance at the morning TV schedule, and by startling coincidence... the Channel 4 *Frasier* year is now a little over two months now, @pipmadeley.bsky.social
A bit of Channel 4 *Frasier* with breakfast tea, and… it’s already Frasier New Year again? @pipmadeley.bsky.social
February 6, 2026 at 10:25 AM
I'm on leave today so happened to glance at the morning TV schedule, and by startling coincidence... the Channel 4 *Frasier* year is now a little over two months now, @pipmadeley.bsky.social
Reposted by Christopher Pittard
A reminder - don't use Amazon, but go to bookshops, which play a far more vital role in promoting literacy just by simply making books more visible, and allow you to find things by chance rather than by what the algorithm decides.
January 23, 2025 at 11:45 AM
A reminder - don't use Amazon, but go to bookshops, which play a far more vital role in promoting literacy just by simply making books more visible, and allow you to find things by chance rather than by what the algorithm decides.
Reposted by Christopher Pittard
Also universities.
hot take: newspapers should not be run by people who dislike reading and thinking
February 4, 2026 at 3:23 PM
Also universities.
Oh good, *Dangermouse* is about to start.
February 4, 2026 at 3:32 PM
Oh good, *Dangermouse* is about to start.
Reposted by Christopher Pittard
I literally had an online conversation with the proquest 'designer' who introduced the zoom page feature, of which he was super proud, but simply who could not fathom why I would more want to know where/on which page search terms appeared; the implication was that I was eccentric
February 4, 2026 at 1:02 PM
I literally had an online conversation with the proquest 'designer' who introduced the zoom page feature, of which he was super proud, but simply who could not fathom why I would more want to know where/on which page search terms appeared; the implication was that I was eccentric
In other tech news, I've found an eBook platform that is even worse than ProQuest. The problem with these sites is that they're designed by people who don't read academic books (who needs page numbers, right?) and don't care about reading as aesthetic experience.
February 4, 2026 at 11:44 AM
In other tech news, I've found an eBook platform that is even worse than ProQuest. The problem with these sites is that they're designed by people who don't read academic books (who needs page numbers, right?) and don't care about reading as aesthetic experience.
More Outlook horrors - not only is the search function terrible, but when you're in the screen showing search results the button to write a new email disappears. I mean, who would want to write a new email based on information sent in a previous email?
February 4, 2026 at 10:09 AM
More Outlook horrors - not only is the search function terrible, but when you're in the screen showing search results the button to write a new email disappears. I mean, who would want to write a new email based on information sent in a previous email?
Reposted by Christopher Pittard
Devastatingly sad.
Every Labour MP should be forced to read this. In fact, every MP, who rushed back to Parliament to vote to save one steel mill, whilst hastening the collapse of dozens of universities - and harming the students, staff, communities and economies universities sustain and support
Every Labour MP should be forced to read this. In fact, every MP, who rushed back to Parliament to vote to save one steel mill, whilst hastening the collapse of dozens of universities - and harming the students, staff, communities and economies universities sustain and support
'When it opened, the campus housed a GP surgery and a new dental clinic offering free treatment to local people. This was followed later by the forum – a library and art gallery shared by the university and local people.' 1/2
‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university?
When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...
www.theguardian.com
February 4, 2026 at 8:06 AM
Devastatingly sad.
Every Labour MP should be forced to read this. In fact, every MP, who rushed back to Parliament to vote to save one steel mill, whilst hastening the collapse of dozens of universities - and harming the students, staff, communities and economies universities sustain and support
Every Labour MP should be forced to read this. In fact, every MP, who rushed back to Parliament to vote to save one steel mill, whilst hastening the collapse of dozens of universities - and harming the students, staff, communities and economies universities sustain and support