Tobias Wilson-Bates
@phdhurtbrain.bsky.social
Time Machines. Temporality. Ecology. Robots. Education. Associate Professor of 19th century British Literature.
Pinned
Bluesky isn’t about popularity, it’s about gathering all 17 William Morris lovers together in a single online location!
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
I remember reading Matthew Lewis’s The Monk in grad school (it slaps, highly recommend) and thinking to myself, “ok, but there are SO many tits in this book.” Then I learned that Lewis was 20 years old when he published it. Clarifying information!
I don’t think students should only read horny books in college, but they should be assigned at least one (1) very horny book at some point when they’re in college.
January 27, 2026 at 5:15 AM
I remember reading Matthew Lewis’s The Monk in grad school (it slaps, highly recommend) and thinking to myself, “ok, but there are SO many tits in this book.” Then I learned that Lewis was 20 years old when he published it. Clarifying information!
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
I wouldn’t call them “horny” even though they are pornographic, but reading Marvell’s Advice to a Painter poems as an undergrad absolutely had me asking *so many questions* that I had to do a PhD to get answers. “Desperate pencil” still makes me laugh 🤭
January 27, 2026 at 3:15 AM
I wouldn’t call them “horny” even though they are pornographic, but reading Marvell’s Advice to a Painter poems as an undergrad absolutely had me asking *so many questions* that I had to do a PhD to get answers. “Desperate pencil” still makes me laugh 🤭
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
Me looking over my syllabi right now
January 27, 2026 at 3:46 AM
Me looking over my syllabi right now
I don’t think students should only read horny books in college, but they should be assigned at least one (1) very horny book at some point when they’re in college.
January 27, 2026 at 3:02 AM
I don’t think students should only read horny books in college, but they should be assigned at least one (1) very horny book at some point when they’re in college.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
"The number of downloads...surged by 529% after Mr. Mamdani’s news conference"
"there had been 3,000 people on a waiting list to access a limited number of e-book copies"
"2,000 people applied for a library card over the weekend, roughly twice as many as had applied by this time last year"
A win!
"there had been 3,000 people on a waiting list to access a limited number of e-book copies"
"2,000 people applied for a library card over the weekend, roughly twice as many as had applied by this time last year"
A win!
gifting this article because it made me laugh, which is hard to do in this context. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/n...
After Mamdani Nods to ‘Heated Rivalry,’ Library E-Book Downloads Surge
www.nytimes.com
January 27, 2026 at 2:28 AM
"The number of downloads...surged by 529% after Mr. Mamdani’s news conference"
"there had been 3,000 people on a waiting list to access a limited number of e-book copies"
"2,000 people applied for a library card over the weekend, roughly twice as many as had applied by this time last year"
A win!
"there had been 3,000 people on a waiting list to access a limited number of e-book copies"
"2,000 people applied for a library card over the weekend, roughly twice as many as had applied by this time last year"
A win!
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
It strikes me that one reason AI slop is so infuriating to engage with is because we recognize it as the sort of pro forma grey goo we feed into machine for mind-numbing busy work, but now the machines are feeding it into us.
January 27, 2026 at 1:54 AM
It strikes me that one reason AI slop is so infuriating to engage with is because we recognize it as the sort of pro forma grey goo we feed into machine for mind-numbing busy work, but now the machines are feeding it into us.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
Virginia Woolf on Wuthering Heights:
“The impulse which urged her [Emily Bronte] to create was not her own suffering or her own injuries. She looked out upon a world cleft into gigantic disorder and felt within her the power to unite it in a book.”
“The impulse which urged her [Emily Bronte] to create was not her own suffering or her own injuries. She looked out upon a world cleft into gigantic disorder and felt within her the power to unite it in a book.”
January 26, 2026 at 2:52 PM
Virginia Woolf on Wuthering Heights:
“The impulse which urged her [Emily Bronte] to create was not her own suffering or her own injuries. She looked out upon a world cleft into gigantic disorder and felt within her the power to unite it in a book.”
“The impulse which urged her [Emily Bronte] to create was not her own suffering or her own injuries. She looked out upon a world cleft into gigantic disorder and felt within her the power to unite it in a book.”
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
if bovino is out and conservatives are turning on noem then there is a real opportunity to demand that miller resign too.
January 27, 2026 at 1:07 AM
if bovino is out and conservatives are turning on noem then there is a real opportunity to demand that miller resign too.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
Living in the modern world is like being a farmer, but instead of tending animals you’re just tending the battery status of various electronics.
January 26, 2026 at 10:01 PM
Living in the modern world is like being a farmer, but instead of tending animals you’re just tending the battery status of various electronics.
Living in the modern world is like being a farmer, but instead of tending animals you’re just tending the battery status of various electronics.
January 26, 2026 at 10:01 PM
Living in the modern world is like being a farmer, but instead of tending animals you’re just tending the battery status of various electronics.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
I just read the word “Apocaloptimist” and unfortunately must now pluck my eyes from my head and go mad.
January 26, 2026 at 7:28 PM
I just read the word “Apocaloptimist” and unfortunately must now pluck my eyes from my head and go mad.
I just read the word “Apocaloptimist” and unfortunately must now pluck my eyes from my head and go mad.
January 26, 2026 at 7:28 PM
I just read the word “Apocaloptimist” and unfortunately must now pluck my eyes from my head and go mad.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
The correct answer to this is "Yes, and everyone else too."
Should artists get a basic income like they do in Ireland?
Could the government pay salaries to musicians and artists - no strings attached like they do in Ireland?
www.bbc.com
January 26, 2026 at 2:49 PM
The correct answer to this is "Yes, and everyone else too."
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
I've heard people say the world feels small but that's romance baby. Nobody said this was an urban fantasy book.
when I talk about how this is truly the only show to have a romance novel structure, this is what I mean: every other romance adaptation turns the fundamentally, crucially narrow focus of a romance novel into a broader tv world. this show feels different because it does not.
I wrote about a show about love. Maybe you've heard of it.
Me, on HEATED RIVALRY, for @newrepublic.com newrepublic.com/article/2055...
Me, on HEATED RIVALRY, for @newrepublic.com newrepublic.com/article/2055...
January 26, 2026 at 4:42 PM
I've heard people say the world feels small but that's romance baby. Nobody said this was an urban fantasy book.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
Based on what I’ve experienced on the road, they don’t teach this anymore.
January 26, 2026 at 6:48 PM
Based on what I’ve experienced on the road, they don’t teach this anymore.
Parchment paper is the most hardcore paper. It’s seen things that other paper couldn’t even imagine.
January 26, 2026 at 6:50 PM
Parchment paper is the most hardcore paper. It’s seen things that other paper couldn’t even imagine.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
Always worth reiterating this as current Tech oligarchs are like “hey, bro, stealing fire from the gods. Built different”
January 26, 2026 at 1:35 PM
Always worth reiterating this as current Tech oligarchs are like “hey, bro, stealing fire from the gods. Built different”
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
Watching Kristi Noem and Greg Bovino giving their account of the murder of Alex Pretti…I can’t stop thinking about this scene from “Andor”.
January 25, 2026 at 11:37 PM
Watching Kristi Noem and Greg Bovino giving their account of the murder of Alex Pretti…I can’t stop thinking about this scene from “Andor”.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
Pretty sure that Frankenstein is written as a best-case scenario. Worse outcomes seem entirely possible, but anything more optimistic than this scenario is fundamentally unbelievable.
January 26, 2026 at 1:29 PM
Pretty sure that Frankenstein is written as a best-case scenario. Worse outcomes seem entirely possible, but anything more optimistic than this scenario is fundamentally unbelievable.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
to the extent that there is a “carrot” to trumpism it is the same carrot that slaveholders offered to lower class white men: “you can be an overseer”
January 26, 2026 at 2:43 PM
to the extent that there is a “carrot” to trumpism it is the same carrot that slaveholders offered to lower class white men: “you can be an overseer”
It was obvious from the moment it became clear that they would always be masked and armed that they were planning on doing crimes they didn’t want to be held accountable for.
January 26, 2026 at 2:58 PM
It was obvious from the moment it became clear that they would always be masked and armed that they were planning on doing crimes they didn’t want to be held accountable for.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
I will never forget saying that Rittenhouse’s valorization was a sign that white men had been deputized in precisely this way. I believe it got me almost banned on Twitter. Anyway.
Some of the reason I just cannot these days is I feel like I already did.
Some of the reason I just cannot these days is I feel like I already did.
Another way to think of ICE right now is as the institutionalization of the Kyle Rittenhouse model of vigilantism under the state's authority.
Escalation and aggressive violence is clearly intentional.
But it's also cooked into the sociological model of how this force has been mobilized.
🧵
Escalation and aggressive violence is clearly intentional.
But it's also cooked into the sociological model of how this force has been mobilized.
🧵
January 25, 2026 at 9:52 PM
I will never forget saying that Rittenhouse’s valorization was a sign that white men had been deputized in precisely this way. I believe it got me almost banned on Twitter. Anyway.
Some of the reason I just cannot these days is I feel like I already did.
Some of the reason I just cannot these days is I feel like I already did.
Pretty sure that Frankenstein is written as a best-case scenario. Worse outcomes seem entirely possible, but anything more optimistic than this scenario is fundamentally unbelievable.
January 26, 2026 at 1:29 PM
Pretty sure that Frankenstein is written as a best-case scenario. Worse outcomes seem entirely possible, but anything more optimistic than this scenario is fundamentally unbelievable.