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Jonathan Gibbs

@jonathangibbs.bsky.social

2.8K followers 1.1K following 4.5K posts

Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at City St George's, Uni of London. I curate the short story project apersonalanthology.com. Novels are Randall or The Painted Grape, and The Large Door. Poetry is Spring Journal. https://linktr.ee/jonathangibbs

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · Jan 6

2025 Reading 1: Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton. A fascinating use of format for a memoir/linguistic commentary: Barton picks fifty onomatopoeic or more broadly 'mimetic' Japanese phrases and explores their meaning to her, using the form to narrate her experience of working in Japan as a teacher.

White paperback book with dark blue text giving title, author and publisher (Fitzcarraldo Editions), set on a wooden table.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 8m

I’d have cut that too! 😼

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 10m

Agreed. I liked the Charlene/Bob ending, despite as you say its incongruity, especially the final exchange: “be careful”/“I won’t”.

Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 19m

In narrative terms it’s pointless. We learn nothing new about them or him. It’s like the short final shot you get in an advert when it recaps the comic element from the main part of the ad that is then followed by the brand announcement.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 57m

I went to see One Battle After Another in VistaVision at the Odeon Leicester Square so you don’t have to.

boxd.it/bjI6ZB

A ★★★★ review of One Battle After Another (2025)

First up: Vista Vision. What’s the big deal? The presentation at Odeon Leicester Square was disappointing, in high-up circle seats at least. The screen is tiny for such a big auditorium. Though the so...

boxd.it

Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1h

I can imagine that! (Especially if you edit out the flagrantly unnecessary ’welcome to your office’ segment.)

£20 was also what I paid for VistaVision at Odeon Leicester Square, which seems poor value by comparison.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1h

I’m not sure. I’m hoping someone will enlighten me! My sense is that it was a higher resolution format that was superseded by imax. The image wasn’t the problem: the screen/auditorium relationship was.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 9h

So the Vista Vision presentation of One Battle After Another at Odeon Leicester Square was very disappointing, in high-up circle seats at least. The screen is tiny for such a big auditorium. (Amazing soundsystem, though.)

Happy to be educated if anyone can explain why it’s so great!

Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 10h

Certainly not worth the candle to my mind, at Leicester Square at least. Perhaps if you’re in the best seats. The screen really is quite small for such a huge auditorium. The soundsystem, however, is top-notch: real seat-shaking bass.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 10h

(It’s Odeon Leicester Square - one of only four screens worldwide that can show VistaVision. I went just to see it as it’s such a rarity. Certainly way below IMAX in terms of quality I’d say.)

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 10h

Vista Vision very much not worth the extra money I’d say, at this cinema at least – unless you pay top dollar for best seats. The screen really is quite small. The soundsystem, however, is top-notch: real seat-shaking bass.

Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 13h

One Battle After Another in Vista Vision, hell yeah! But damn I forgot to bring my binoculars…

Screen One at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square. Yes the chairs are luxurious and the sound is good, but the screen is… small, and… far away.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 17h

It's Thursday afternoon, and so nearly the weekend – and A Personal Anthology! This week's guest editor, picking and introducing a dozen favourite short stories, is Niall Griffiths (@niall2025.bsky.social), author of Grits, Sheepshagger, Kelly + Victor (*shivers*), Stump, Broken Ghost etc!

Details:

About - A Personal Anthology

A weekly guest-editor picks and introduces a personal anthology of twelve favourite short stories. Click to read A Personal Anthology, by Jonathan Gibbs, a Substack publication with thousands of subsc...

apersonalanthology.substack.com

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Reposted by Jonathan Gibbs

Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · May 29

Krasznahawkeye

A poorly spliced pair of photographs showing, on the left, Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai, and on the right, Alan Alda in M*A*S*H as Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

Not read the Raven - have heard similar things!

Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

a man with a red face is standing in a space ship and saying it 's a trap .

Alt: Star Wars gif of Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi in a space ship, saying “It's a trap”.

media.tenor.com

Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

Books on the tube

Atomic Habits by James Clear
A Court of Silver Flames & Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
Grunwick by Jack Dromey
The Trading Athlete by Shane Murphy
Let the Snog Fest Begin by Louise Rennison
Villains Academy by Ryan Hammond

Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

Books on the tube (this morning)

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin
The Miseducation of a 90s Baby by Khaholi Bailey
In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story by Ghada Kharti
Unidentified blue Fitzcarraldo edition

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

Books on the tube (last night)

Babel by RF Kuang
Intimacy With God by Randy Clark
My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 2d

Ha. At his best he’s superb. “I am living at the Villa Borghese. There is not a crumb of dirt anywhere, nor a chair misplaced. We are all alone here and we are dead.” At his worst (The World of Sex or whatever it’s called) … shudder!

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 2d

Two books I happen to be reading at the moment.

Books Do Furnish a Room by Anthony Powell and So Many Books by Gabriel Zaid.

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Reposted by Jonathan Gibbs

Tom Woodhead @tomwoodhead.bsky.social · 3d

Anyone got a SAD lamp they'd recommend? Ideally one that's dimmable and can change colour temperature for the evening (but nothing that needs an app to control it)

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 3d

If you choose to wear smart glasses then my first assumption right off the bat will be that your glasses are smarter than you are.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 3d

I’ll reread Day one day, but the book of yours I reeaaally want to take in for the second time is Everything You Need – BUT I want a holiday on a remote island to do it properly.

Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 3d

And a late addition from last week, which I didn’t post because it was just two books, but which seems appropriate to post today:

A Court of Thorn and Roses by Sarah J Maas
Riders by Jilly Cooper

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 3d

Books on the tube

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
Boys in Zinc by Svetlana Alexievich
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters

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