Ben Beckett
benbeckett.bsky.social
Ben Beckett
@benbeckett.bsky.social
In Jacobin, Apocalypse Confidential, Ligeia, Burnaway, and more.
Reposted by Ben Beckett
"I insult their pride by not boring them."

Jean Paul on literary critics
April 5, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Get ready for this, and in the meantime get rainbear!!!!!!! ASAP www.apocalypse-party.com/rainbear.html
February 22, 2025 at 2:52 PM
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“In one letter that he had written to her then he had said: Why is it that words like these seem to me so dull and cold? Is it because there is no word tender enough to be your name?”

―The Dead, James Joyce
February 9, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Reposted by Ben Beckett
My 4yo is in a know-it-all phase where every time he asks a question he prefaces by saying “I already know this but can you remind me…” I told him there was a guy named Plato who said we’re born knowing everything and merely rediscover things, and he said “yeah I knew that”
January 19, 2025 at 9:35 PM
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essential reading 2025
December 8, 2024 at 7:23 PM
Have to agree. This was one of, if not the best book to come out this year, and one that I expect to grow in stature over time.
Small press recommendation. From the mighty @dalkeyarchive.bsky.social, American Abductions, by @ineluctablequak.bsky.social. Read this book for so many reasons: for a sense of what sentences can do, for an important reflection on the state of the rotten world, for the best kind of challenge.
December 6, 2024 at 7:15 PM
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‼️ ‼️ ‼️
December 6, 2024 at 9:55 AM
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Our starry and cloudy firmaments vault no higher than the vault of our skulls – Jean Paul
December 3, 2024 at 5:44 PM
Very grateful for Ligeia and very sad it's stopping
December 3, 2024 at 11:44 PM
Reposted by Ben Beckett
Places like this are worth most of the big academically-affiliated journals combined. Never read anything in Ligeia that wasn't a real work of art, exciting and interesting in every sense. Openminded, generous, free of pedantic gatekeeping but dedicated to artistic rigor
December 2, 2024 at 7:16 PM
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Ligeia is easily one of my favorite journals and I think of it as one of the few really indispensable ones out there--great editors and aesthetics, so generously open to the experimental and strange. A real loss, already deeply missed.
December 2, 2024 at 6:50 PM
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(getting dragged away dripping wet by police) “It’s not the same stream! The stream is always changing! The stream the sign refers to no longer exists, you fools!”
November 30, 2024 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by Ben Beckett
Calling all Franz Kafka enthusiasts! Translator Ross Benjamin and I are launching a substack called FRANZ today. FRANZ is dedicated to creative engagement with Franz Kafka's life and work, including the first-ever publication of his complete letters in English.

franzjournal.substack.com
FRANZ | Seth Rogoff | Substack
FRANZ is dedicated to creative engagement with Franz Kafka's life and work, including the first-ever publication of his complete letters in English. Click to read FRANZ, a Substack publication. Launch...
franzjournal.substack.com
November 29, 2024 at 3:08 PM
November 27, 2024 at 4:56 PM
Definitely recommend this book
November 18, 2024 at 7:04 PM
Hypothesis on the Bernhard micro-revival: Americans love him becuase he does what Austrians do flagrantly but what Americans will only do with pretensions of something else. Namely, elevate kitsch to high art.
November 18, 2024 at 4:33 AM
So tired of this shit
November 18, 2024 at 2:18 AM
Prompt tweet = muted
November 16, 2024 at 10:49 PM
I'm sorry, but riffing is no longer allowed.
November 14, 2024 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Ben Beckett
Clouds in their roundelay,
pass through the world’s repose.

Robert Walser (trans. Kristofor Minta)
For the Almanac, I wrote about Robert Walser, whose birthday is today, and a recent collection of his early poetry, out through @sublunary.bsky.social: www.paradise-almanac.net/p/no-time-is...
No Time Is Timely
On the early poetry of Robert Walser
www.paradise-almanac.net
April 17, 2024 at 5:58 PM
Forget contacts, is there a way to import my mute list
November 13, 2024 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Ben Beckett
ever since I was a little girl I knew I wanted to post cringe across multiple platforms
November 13, 2024 at 2:08 AM
November 11, 2024 at 2:32 PM