sean guynes
@guynes.bsky.social
critic and cultural historian of genre fantasies
senior acquiring editor (@leverpress.bsky.social) and associate editor of sf (@lareviewofbooks.bsky.social)
read more: seanguynes.com
senior acquiring editor (@leverpress.bsky.social) and associate editor of sf (@lareviewofbooks.bsky.social)
read more: seanguynes.com
Pinned
Ballantine Adult Fantasy: Reading “The Blue Star” by Fletcher Pratt
The twelfth essay in my Ballantine Adult Fantasy reading series, which looks at Fletcher Pratt’s The Blue Star (1952), an impressive, short novel of “rational” fantasy about power…
seanguynes.com
I continue my Ballantine Adult Fantasy reading series with the first official novel in the series: Fletcher Pratt's THE BLUE STAR. Originally published in 1952, this is an impressive novel about power and gender (though it's not without its problems), and a great start to the BAF series proper.
Reposted by sean guynes
The Ancillary Review of Books anti-billionaire promise:
February 4, 2026 at 3:45 PM
The Ancillary Review of Books anti-billionaire promise:
Should've made clear: this is open access, like everything else we publish at Lever Press!
February 4, 2026 at 2:49 PM
Should've made clear: this is open access, like everything else we publish at Lever Press!
Out today! An extensive edited collection on the topic of triggers warnings in the college classroom, which takes a number of angles and perspectives:
Trigger Warnings
How do instructors navigate the tension between facilitating safe spaces for students while also challenging students intellectually in increasingly politicized classroom settings? How can trigger war...
services.publishing.umich.edu
February 4, 2026 at 2:48 PM
Out today! An extensive edited collection on the topic of triggers warnings in the college classroom, which takes a number of angles and perspectives:
Reposted by sean guynes
Lots of good SF books (and books about speculative fiction & related topics) coming out this spring: check out our latest call for reviews & essays!
Calls for Reviews & Essays: 2026
The Ancillary Review of Books publishes reviews and essays with an emphasis on utopian impulses and systemic injustices. ARB seeks to build a community of radical thinkers writing about amazing, sp…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
February 2, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Lots of good SF books (and books about speculative fiction & related topics) coming out this spring: check out our latest call for reviews & essays!
Reposted by sean guynes
Many--maybe even most--of my favorite authors were horrible people. The good thing for me is..... They're all dead!
That's the only time you get a pass to support a monster who made beauty. When you aren't putting any coins in their pockets. Because their pockets have rotted away under the earth.
That's the only time you get a pass to support a monster who made beauty. When you aren't putting any coins in their pockets. Because their pockets have rotted away under the earth.
a group of men are carrying a coffin while dancing .
ALT: a group of men are carrying a coffin while dancing .
media.tenor.com
February 3, 2026 at 8:30 PM
Many--maybe even most--of my favorite authors were horrible people. The good thing for me is..... They're all dead!
That's the only time you get a pass to support a monster who made beauty. When you aren't putting any coins in their pockets. Because their pockets have rotted away under the earth.
That's the only time you get a pass to support a monster who made beauty. When you aren't putting any coins in their pockets. Because their pockets have rotted away under the earth.
Reposted by sean guynes
Occasional reminder that I sell books and similar stuff on eBay. Link to my store is below.
Just reached 4100+ items for the first time. So there are categories and internal search in the storefront, which might help a bit.
www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_...
Just reached 4100+ items for the first time. So there are categories and internal search in the storefront, which might help a bit.
www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_...
Items for sale by cornersbumpedbooksandantiques | eBay
Shop eBay for great deals from cornersbumpedbooksandantiques!
www.ebay.com
January 13, 2026 at 8:14 PM
Occasional reminder that I sell books and similar stuff on eBay. Link to my store is below.
Just reached 4100+ items for the first time. So there are categories and internal search in the storefront, which might help a bit.
www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_...
Just reached 4100+ items for the first time. So there are categories and internal search in the storefront, which might help a bit.
www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_...
Reposted by sean guynes
Ah yes, that thing that you can definitely do in theatres, buy tickets for the standing room
Kayleigh: My mom went to see Melania. She said the theater was packed, it was standing room only. People were cheering through it, they were excited. It was interactive—people interplaying with the film. She said it was just electric.
February 2, 2026 at 11:35 PM
Ah yes, that thing that you can definitely do in theatres, buy tickets for the standing room
This reminds me of that time the cinema was so packed I had to stand for the entire 3 hours of Avatar: Way of Water. An old lady fainted from the crowd. People were trampled. I wish they'd make shorter movies.
Kayleigh: My mom went to see Melania. She said the theater was packed, it was standing room only. People were cheering through it, they were excited. It was interactive—people interplaying with the film. She said it was just electric.
February 2, 2026 at 11:29 PM
This reminds me of that time the cinema was so packed I had to stand for the entire 3 hours of Avatar: Way of Water. An old lady fainted from the crowd. People were trampled. I wish they'd make shorter movies.
"Reject productivity!" I said to myself and the Internet, while worrying incessantly about the fact that I've accomplished so little in life.
February 2, 2026 at 11:20 PM
"Reject productivity!" I said to myself and the Internet, while worrying incessantly about the fact that I've accomplished so little in life.
Reposted by sean guynes
Can't now find it but there's a classic old tweet which said something like "Every time we're on the verge of achieving class consciousness in America a CIA sleeper agent activates and, their eyes glowing red, they just tweet out "John Brown was a white saviour"" and I think about it often.
February 2, 2026 at 11:13 AM
Can't now find it but there's a classic old tweet which said something like "Every time we're on the verge of achieving class consciousness in America a CIA sleeper agent activates and, their eyes glowing red, they just tweet out "John Brown was a white saviour"" and I think about it often.
Dick Heads: a podcast that reads through the works of PKD in chronological order
February 2, 2026 at 2:16 AM
Dick Heads: a podcast that reads through the works of PKD in chronological order
tbh I used to watch it while grading college students' papers, and I watched it only to know references, but I did not enjoy Seinfeld at all.
February 1, 2026 at 7:03 AM
tbh I used to watch it while grading college students' papers, and I watched it only to know references, but I did not enjoy Seinfeld at all.
Shockingly big reach for a post that... makes no sense? But it might be that people just haven't seen Seinfeld? Then again, people love a simple binary! "There are two kinds of people in the world..."
February 1, 2026 at 6:51 AM
Shockingly big reach for a post that... makes no sense? But it might be that people just haven't seen Seinfeld? Then again, people love a simple binary! "There are two kinds of people in the world..."
Seems like a bad/pointless test...
Seinfeld would make plots of all tech? They made a plot about waiting in line for Chinese food! Everything is a "plot" for Seinfeld.
Seinfeld would make plots of all tech? They made a plot about waiting in line for Chinese food! Everything is a "plot" for Seinfeld.
You can test new tech ideas using the Seinfeld Test
Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs)
Good tech.
Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales)
Bad tech.
Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs)
Good tech.
Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales)
Bad tech.
January 31, 2026 at 6:11 PM
Seems like a bad/pointless test...
Seinfeld would make plots of all tech? They made a plot about waiting in line for Chinese food! Everything is a "plot" for Seinfeld.
Seinfeld would make plots of all tech? They made a plot about waiting in line for Chinese food! Everything is a "plot" for Seinfeld.
Reposted by sean guynes
This is a great question. I think for me it is about teaching them to handle experiences of boredom, frustration, and confusion. Sitting with uncertainty, finding your way through an opaque image, letting go of your need to be better than the film, etc., are all skills that can be taught.
If there’s a short answer, how do you teach someone how to watch a movie? It strikes me even with that sentence that our language is not up to the present task: “how to watch a film” has always meant interpretation, not “how to look in one consistent direction for about 100 minutes”
January 31, 2026 at 3:42 PM
This is a great question. I think for me it is about teaching them to handle experiences of boredom, frustration, and confusion. Sitting with uncertainty, finding your way through an opaque image, letting go of your need to be better than the film, etc., are all skills that can be taught.
Reposted by sean guynes
Sydney Sweeney: 👁️ 👄 👁️
Giancarlo Esposito: And for me, I have to speak out. If the whole world showed up... they’d kill 500 or 50 million or however [many], but the rest of us would survive with a new [world]. This is time for a revolution, and they don’t even know that’s what they’re starting.
Giancarlo Esposito: And for me, I have to speak out. If the whole world showed up... they’d kill 500 or 50 million or however [many], but the rest of us would survive with a new [world]. This is time for a revolution, and they don’t even know that’s what they’re starting.
January 30, 2026 at 12:32 PM
Sydney Sweeney: 👁️ 👄 👁️
Giancarlo Esposito: And for me, I have to speak out. If the whole world showed up... they’d kill 500 or 50 million or however [many], but the rest of us would survive with a new [world]. This is time for a revolution, and they don’t even know that’s what they’re starting.
Giancarlo Esposito: And for me, I have to speak out. If the whole world showed up... they’d kill 500 or 50 million or however [many], but the rest of us would survive with a new [world]. This is time for a revolution, and they don’t even know that’s what they’re starting.
Reposted by sean guynes
Adam Kotsko roped me into becoming a poster on his Star Trek blog. First post: "Trek and/as Boomerslop."
latestartrek.substack.com/p/trek-andas...
latestartrek.substack.com/p/trek-andas...
Trek and/as Boomerslop
And the children shall lead.
latestartrek.substack.com
January 27, 2026 at 5:20 PM
Adam Kotsko roped me into becoming a poster on his Star Trek blog. First post: "Trek and/as Boomerslop."
latestartrek.substack.com/p/trek-andas...
latestartrek.substack.com/p/trek-andas...
This is such a cool idea: the celebratory 15th anniversary issue of SFFTV invited papers to focus on media that had been overlooked, forgotten, or ignored by past issues, and there's some really interesting papers in this bunch! I'm particularly stoked that there's an essay on Stargate SG-1.
The "Oversights" special issue of SFFTV is currently open access!
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/sfftv/16...
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/sfftv/16...
Contents | Science Fiction Film & Television 16, 1-2
This article covers the ontologico-theoretical groundwork of Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Solaris, articulating the meanings behind the assignment of specific states of being. Following – and ultimately, upending – the philosophical questions of Martin ...
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk
January 30, 2026 at 1:41 AM
This is such a cool idea: the celebratory 15th anniversary issue of SFFTV invited papers to focus on media that had been overlooked, forgotten, or ignored by past issues, and there's some really interesting papers in this bunch! I'm particularly stoked that there's an essay on Stargate SG-1.
Always cool to see something I did a decade ago still being used. I just wish that the thing I initially published with a UP hadn't been bought up by Routledge!
More to come from me on Star Wars... Soon...?
More to come from me on Star Wars... Soon...?
Also sharing that our other fall MA grad, Caden Borgeson, did a shoutout to @guynes.bsky.social's work on Star Wars in his capstone "Starwarsology: The Space Opera, American Wars, and Techno-Orientalism In A Galaxy Far, Far Away…" 🗃️ scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/thes...
January 30, 2026 at 1:29 AM
Always cool to see something I did a decade ago still being used. I just wish that the thing I initially published with a UP hadn't been bought up by Routledge!
More to come from me on Star Wars... Soon...?
More to come from me on Star Wars... Soon...?
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind if I ever head seriously toward Malzberg!
January 29, 2026 at 10:16 PM
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind if I ever head seriously toward Malzberg!
Curious! I could be tempting to read, maybe, the Falling Astronaut book.
January 29, 2026 at 9:53 PM
Curious! I could be tempting to read, maybe, the Falling Astronaut book.
From yesterday, my essay on THE GODS ABIDE -- a 1976 historical fantasy about the tragic destruction of queer paganism at the hands of a violent, masculinized, woman-hating Christianity during the late Roman empire.
Approaching the end of my read of Thomas Burnett Swann's 16 fantasy novels with this essay on his third-to-last novel, THE GODS ABIDE (1976). It was his 5th novel in 1976, published 6 months after his death, and tells a compelling story about the violence of Christianity's rise in late Roman empire.
Reading “The Gods Abide” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s The Gods Abide (1976) is the author’s fourteenth novel and explores the violence of the rise of Christianity in Roman Italia and Britannia.
seanguynes.com
January 29, 2026 at 8:25 PM
From yesterday, my essay on THE GODS ABIDE -- a 1976 historical fantasy about the tragic destruction of queer paganism at the hands of a violent, masculinized, woman-hating Christianity during the late Roman empire.
Reposted by sean guynes
Approaching the end of my read of Thomas Burnett Swann's 16 fantasy novels with this essay on his third-to-last novel, THE GODS ABIDE (1976). It was his 5th novel in 1976, published 6 months after his death, and tells a compelling story about the violence of Christianity's rise in late Roman empire.
Reading “The Gods Abide” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s The Gods Abide (1976) is the author’s fourteenth novel and explores the violence of the rise of Christianity in Roman Italia and Britannia.
seanguynes.com
January 29, 2026 at 12:21 AM
Approaching the end of my read of Thomas Burnett Swann's 16 fantasy novels with this essay on his third-to-last novel, THE GODS ABIDE (1976). It was his 5th novel in 1976, published 6 months after his death, and tells a compelling story about the violence of Christianity's rise in late Roman empire.
Reposted by sean guynes
This is how to convert from a for-profit Big Deal to an equitable, but professionalised, diamond OA system!
@theblochian.bsky.social and I dreamed of this scale when we launched @openlibhums.org Now, she has done it. Consortial funding, at scale.
Now over to the library community to support it.
@theblochian.bsky.social and I dreamed of this scale when we launched @openlibhums.org Now, she has done it. Consortial funding, at scale.
Now over to the library community to support it.
We've officially launched! With our new #DiamondOpenAccess investment campaign to help libraries build a sustainable, community‑led future for scholarly publishing & support journals flipping away from costly subscription models. Read the Press release here drive.google.com/file/d/10Hgf...
January 29, 2026 at 7:57 PM
This is how to convert from a for-profit Big Deal to an equitable, but professionalised, diamond OA system!
@theblochian.bsky.social and I dreamed of this scale when we launched @openlibhums.org Now, she has done it. Consortial funding, at scale.
Now over to the library community to support it.
@theblochian.bsky.social and I dreamed of this scale when we launched @openlibhums.org Now, she has done it. Consortial funding, at scale.
Now over to the library community to support it.