Christopher Pittard
@christopherpittard.bsky.social
Course leader and Senior Lecturer in Victorian Literature. Specialist in detective fiction, Arthur Conan Doyle, Dickens, Wilkie Collins. New book: *Literary Illusions: Performance Magic and Victorian Literature* (Edinburgh UP, 2025).
Once again, I’m on the panel for the Arthur Conan Doyle Society’s award for scholarly writing. Read a good academic piece published this year? Nominate it here by 30 November. acdsociety.com/Honors/Honor...
ACD Society ... Honors
acdsociety.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Once again, I’m on the panel for the Arthur Conan Doyle Society’s award for scholarly writing. Read a good academic piece published this year? Nominate it here by 30 November. acdsociety.com/Honors/Honor...
I think I’ve reached the age where the world no longer makes sense. This is what it must have been like for my grandmother on first sighting Boy George. www.bbc.com/news/article...
Starmer apologises for leading pupils in 6-7 dance
The prime minister performed a version of the viral dance with primary school children, before being told it was not allowed.
www.bbc.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:44 PM
I think I’ve reached the age where the world no longer makes sense. This is what it must have been like for my grandmother on first sighting Boy George. www.bbc.com/news/article...
There is a startling level of cultural illiteracy involved in complaining that a school's Christmas play has a plot about refugees from the Middle East. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Inverness school's Christmas show cancelled after 'racist' abuse
Highland Council says some of the online messages were directed at staff at the primary.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 2:11 PM
There is a startling level of cultural illiteracy involved in complaining that a school's Christmas play has a plot about refugees from the Middle East. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
This morning I had my favourite undergraduate seminar of the year, on Derrida's *The Death Penalty*, of which we read extracts from the first and second sessions. I approach this seminar in a different way from the others on my Crime Writing module...
November 25, 2025 at 12:43 PM
This morning I had my favourite undergraduate seminar of the year, on Derrida's *The Death Penalty*, of which we read extracts from the first and second sessions. I approach this seminar in a different way from the others on my Crime Writing module...
Nice to see Roger Limb on BBC Breakfast just now, but a bizarre mistake by the reporter - Limb didn’t compose the Doctor Who theme.
November 25, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Nice to see Roger Limb on BBC Breakfast just now, but a bizarre mistake by the reporter - Limb didn’t compose the Doctor Who theme.
Reposted by Christopher Pittard
okay so here’s the thing about being racist, right
you can’t do it nicely!!! There is no kind or complimentary way to be racist!!!
you can’t do it nicely!!! There is no kind or complimentary way to be racist!!!
“I would never ever do it in a hurtful or insulting way”
Nigel Farage responds to allegations of racist behaviour from when he was a teenager at school
@itvnewspolitics.bsky.social
Nigel Farage responds to allegations of racist behaviour from when he was a teenager at school
@itvnewspolitics.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 6:37 PM
okay so here’s the thing about being racist, right
you can’t do it nicely!!! There is no kind or complimentary way to be racist!!!
you can’t do it nicely!!! There is no kind or complimentary way to be racist!!!
Found this fragment of a lost civilisation in the stack of bookmarks by my desk.
November 24, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Found this fragment of a lost civilisation in the stack of bookmarks by my desk.
@rosiepaice.bsky.social Got the cover for your next book on *Paradise Lost*.
November 24, 2025 at 12:57 PM
@rosiepaice.bsky.social Got the cover for your next book on *Paradise Lost*.
This bit wasn't in the email I received, but I love the fact there's an even nuttier version out there.
If I'm remembering right, he's a spiritualist himself, and believes he was the plagiarised 19th-c author (Matthew Franklin Whittier) in a past life. The past life stuff seems to have dropped out of his most recent theories - now all about the supposed plagiarism.
November 24, 2025 at 12:52 PM
This bit wasn't in the email I received, but I love the fact there's an even nuttier version out there.
Has every other Victorian literature specialist received that email purporting to 'prove' that Dickens didn't write a *A Christmas Carol* and that it is actually a Spiritualist (in 1843??) text?
November 24, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Has every other Victorian literature specialist received that email purporting to 'prove' that Dickens didn't write a *A Christmas Carol* and that it is actually a Spiritualist (in 1843??) text?
Arrived at my office to find my computer has been on all weekend because Windows 11 apparently doesn't understand what "Update and shut down" means.
November 24, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Arrived at my office to find my computer has been on all weekend because Windows 11 apparently doesn't understand what "Update and shut down" means.
Suddenly considering an abrupt shift in research projects.
It’s a very happy #DoctorWhoDay from us - we’re delighted to announce we’ve successfully acquired the archive of Whoniverse legend Terrance Dicks 😲 Read more at the link:
www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/ne...
www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/ne...
November 23, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Suddenly considering an abrupt shift in research projects.
Had a look around @pfieldbookshop.bsky.social yesterday, and they’ve got some lovely Alasdair Gray first editions, if you like that kind of thing.
November 23, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Had a look around @pfieldbookshop.bsky.social yesterday, and they’ve got some lovely Alasdair Gray first editions, if you like that kind of thing.
I never said my school was good at sound mixing. #totp
I see that #totp tonight includes a 1991 episode featuring Altern-8, so you’ll get to see the most famous person who went to my school. It’s not an extensive list. I might actually be on it because I was on Radio 4.
November 21, 2025 at 10:02 PM
I never said my school was good at sound mixing. #totp
I see that #totp tonight includes a 1991 episode featuring Altern-8, so you’ll get to see the most famous person who went to my school. It’s not an extensive list. I might actually be on it because I was on Radio 4.
November 21, 2025 at 8:35 PM
I see that #totp tonight includes a 1991 episode featuring Altern-8, so you’ll get to see the most famous person who went to my school. It’s not an extensive list. I might actually be on it because I was on Radio 4.
Reposted by Christopher Pittard
I've said it before and I will say it again many times, people using "AI" to design and deliver 'teaching' to students, to mark their work, and in this case to (!) generate literal voice overs are risking their jobs, and frankly they *should* be at risk if they do this sort of thing:
‘We could have asked ChatGPT’: students fight back over course taught by AI
Staffordshire students say signs material was AI-generated included suspicious file names and rogue voiceover accent
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:11 PM
I've said it before and I will say it again many times, people using "AI" to design and deliver 'teaching' to students, to mark their work, and in this case to (!) generate literal voice overs are risking their jobs, and frankly they *should* be at risk if they do this sort of thing:
Reposted by Christopher Pittard
To “my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.”
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
I Set A Trap To Catch My Students Cheating With AI. The Results Were Shocking.
"Students are not just undermining their ability to learn, but to someday lead."
www.huffpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:22 AM
To “my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.”
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
In good news, my Blackwell’s purchases arrived today. Disappointed they don’t include the free bookmarks any more, though.
November 20, 2025 at 7:09 PM
In good news, my Blackwell’s purchases arrived today. Disappointed they don’t include the free bookmarks any more, though.
OK, but also look at the *total* percentages for each of them. 54% of respondents apparently have no opinion on Polanski or Sultana at all.
Zack Polanski and Ed Davey have positive net ratings among 2024 Labour voters, while a majority of those who backed the party at the last election now have unfavourable views of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves
Polanski: +24 net favourable
Davey: +17
Starmer: -10
Corbyn: -15
Reeves: -31
Polanski: +24 net favourable
Davey: +17
Starmer: -10
Corbyn: -15
Reeves: -31
November 20, 2025 at 11:18 AM
OK, but also look at the *total* percentages for each of them. 54% of respondents apparently have no opinion on Polanski or Sultana at all.
Brilliant that Reform UK's line of defence in relation to people remembering Nigel Farage being racist is "well you can't remember stuff from the 1970s", yet every Reform UK member's Facebook page is full of remembering stuff from the 1970s.
November 20, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Brilliant that Reform UK's line of defence in relation to people remembering Nigel Farage being racist is "well you can't remember stuff from the 1970s", yet every Reform UK member's Facebook page is full of remembering stuff from the 1970s.
One of the archive TV channels is showing the film version of *The Likely Lads*. It’s an odd adaptation, with lots of quite short scenes that feel like the film is casting about for a plot in the first half.
November 19, 2025 at 10:22 PM
One of the archive TV channels is showing the film version of *The Likely Lads*. It’s an odd adaptation, with lots of quite short scenes that feel like the film is casting about for a plot in the first half.
It seems that Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth has dropped their Christmas market this year in favour of a ticketed 'immersive' festive experience which opens at the end of this week. The website is full of AI slop, so I'm placing a bet now that it turns out to be this year's Yuletide Wonkaland.
November 19, 2025 at 5:43 PM
It seems that Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth has dropped their Christmas market this year in favour of a ticketed 'immersive' festive experience which opens at the end of this week. The website is full of AI slop, so I'm placing a bet now that it turns out to be this year's Yuletide Wonkaland.
Why is Outlook so aggressively poor? The search function doesn't work properly, and half of the results are emails I've already deleted. And the pinging - the incessant pinging...
November 19, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Why is Outlook so aggressively poor? The search function doesn't work properly, and half of the results are emails I've already deleted. And the pinging - the incessant pinging...
In the days before self-checkout, on one occasion at the Sainsbury’s in Exeter Guildhall Centre I only needed to buy shoe polish and bread rolls. As I finished paying, I said “yum, polish baps for me tonight.”
self checkouts have robbed us of the pleasure of looking at the shopping of the person in front and imagining what their evening is going to be like.
November 18, 2025 at 8:57 PM
In the days before self-checkout, on one occasion at the Sainsbury’s in Exeter Guildhall Centre I only needed to buy shoe polish and bread rolls. As I finished paying, I said “yum, polish baps for me tonight.”
Astounding how quickly the Royal Society has gone from being a respected academic society to repeatedly treading on rakes.
AI slop gracing the cover of Royal Society B. Not only in AI yellow but scientifically nonsensical. Come on. I'm certain human photographs and artworks were ignored to platform ... this.
November 18, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Astounding how quickly the Royal Society has gone from being a respected academic society to repeatedly treading on rakes.