Every single thing I have seen unis do for mental wellbeing has made me want to punt myself into the sun.

'We recommend long walks in nature' - cool will that stop me from having to uproot my entire life again?

'We brough emotional support puppies in!' - cool, will they be taking on any of this immese courseload I have to prep in the one week of notice I got?

There is so much unutterable smugness in offering wellbeing training to people you gleefully punt into the void every 6 to 12 month on temporary contracts.

The problem is the looming threat of joblessness and homelessness, not an absence of mindfullness training.

#AScareADay
Lionel Johnson, "The Dark Angel"
Moral conflicts torment humans who must struggle ceaselessly against earthly desires to avoid eternal damnation.
Maybe Johnson had in mind Bosch's hellscapes (as I did) where a comprehensive range of human pleasures are mercilessly, foreverly punished.

1. A new journal report in the prestigious Medical Journal of Australia eviscerates the Cass review, saying it is filled with fallacies and launders anti-trans disinformation.

It methodically goes through each problem in the review.

The latest from S. Baum.

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I really love that it's like 'I won' and then it very quickly becomes clear that 'oh shit, I did NOT'

#AScareADay="text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400">#AScareADay – Day 9 – The Secret Chamber by Margaret Oliphant

#AScareADay - Day 9 - I share my thoughts on Margaret Oliphant's short story, and an unedited draft chapter of my WIP, AS BELOW, SO ABOVE - my alchemist m/m Rapunzel.

I find the ending intriguing. The lack of resolution. The hope that it ends with balanced with uncertainty. Can anything really be done?

I also love that what is in the room isn't the end of the story. It's not a one stop shock. It's the creeping horror of the afterwards that gets you! 2/2

Day 8 of #AScareADay was Margaret Oliphant's 'The Secret Chamber'.

I loved this description of the family:

'With much evil in them, and some good; never insignificant, whatever else they might be.'

An unusual summary that immediately sets you on alert. 1/

Our @cncsi.bsky.social C19 Gothic Afterlives programme!
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This headline is deeply misleading. Not least, we have a funded-research group devoted to horror studies at the University of Copenhagen, and there are similar groups all over Europe and North America. Some are even called centres. Why misrepresent what is otherwise good news for the field?

Day 8 of #AScareADay is "The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing but the Truth" by Rhoda Broughton--another new to me author!

The story is epistolary, told in letters between Mrs. De Wynt and Mrs. Montresor. It's got the classic trope of one bedroom that leaves inhabitants dead or mad.

1/

I ran a whole course on Byron and the Brontes last year and the end result was everyone saying something along the lines of 'holy shit there's a lot of Byron in here'. (I paraphrase)

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this story and the space it leaves for your imagination to think up the worse thing it possible can!

#AScareADay="text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400">#AScareADay – Day 8 – The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing but the Truth by Rhoda Broughton

#AScareADay - Day 8 - Today's short story is epistolary and I really enjoyed it! Rhoda Broughton is worth a read. My response to it is non-fiction this time, in honour of the title, with some…

We are left to imagine what sort of ghastly visitation could have driven one person mad and frightened another quite to death, but I often prefer this to a description that ends up falling quite flat (terror is such a personal thing).

Absolutely! Nothing worse than a reveal that is a damp squib!

Day 8 of #AScareADay was Rhoda Broughton's 'The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth' and I really loved this one. The letters are genuinely quite fun to read until they're suddenly terrifying.

I enjoyed the way we never know what was seen!

Charlotte Riddell now has a blue plaque in Carrickfergus!

In a woodcut released today the Guild of Thieves and Cutpurses declared that enforcement of regulations against Thieving and Pursecutting would ‘devastate a growth industry’ and damage the economy.

Good good

a) an English degree does not prevent you from getting and doing a [scare quote] real job [scare quote]
b) there are things, goals, and values in the world other than money
but also c) last year the publishing industry's estimated worth to the UK economy was ELEVEN BILLION QUID.

I was intrigued about the framing of the story. It seems to draw out the emotional elements that you have this listener's perspective. I liked it. It definitely made me want to check out more by the author.

#AScareADay="text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400">#AScareADay – Day 7 – The Last House in C____ Street by Dinah Mulock

#AScareADay - Day 7 - Today's scare is not really a scare, but a lovely sad ghost story about love and loss. I wrote a short piece on similar themes.

Quite a sad one for #AScareADay Day 7; The Last House in C____ Street by Dinah Mulock. I do love a moment of death phantom (generally speaking) but I certainly felt for the protagonist's realisation at the end.