Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · 4d

Oh! Ilkley Literature Fest is the best. Gorgeous town, lovely audiences, and the organisers are so friendly and thoughtful. Recommend a walk up on’t moor too if you get time. Anyway, hope It goes really well.

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Reposted by Dennis Duncan

Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 5d

“The line between engagingly informal and distractingly unfiltered is a delicate one…”

An observation for the ages from @djbduncan.bsky.social's sharp review of Stephen Pinker’s new book in the New York Times.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/b...

What Fuels Revolution, Social Embarrassment and Public Acclaim? It’s Common Knowledge.

www.nytimes.com

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Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · 9d

They are tho! That's what surprised me so much about them. I thought they were going to be tough guy action novels, but actually (to my relief) he's much more of a Sherlock Holmes. He *knows* crucial details and he's brilliant at logistics!

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Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · 9d

Prior to this summer I'd only read her book on Sartre, which frankly didn't lead me to expect that she'd be so *funny*!

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Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · 9d

Oh yes! That was one of the first ones I read. Another terrific ghastly narrator, and a wonderful rug-pulling device at the end. I love how one of her favourite jokes is the awful narrator who says, "It is clear that I must break all contact with her" then one page later, "I have sent a telegram..."

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Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · 9d

I really enjoyed answering @mathewlyons.bsky.social's questions about my favourite books, which brought out patterns I hadn't noticed in the things I like. I'd recommend to anyone having a think about how you'd answer. open.substack.com/pub/mathewly...

The writer's bookshelf: Dennis Duncan

Eight questions about writers, books, and reading…

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Dennis Duncan

Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 9d

New on the Writer’s Bookshelf: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the brilliant @djbduncan.bsky.social
– featuring Alistair MacLean, Georges Perec, Charlotte Brontë, Iris Murdoch and much more!

(It also includes a surprise appearance from a would-be prime minister.)

The writer's bookshelf: Dennis Duncan

Eight questions about writers, books, and reading…

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Dennis Duncan

Barbara J. King @bjking.bsky.social · 16d

On S. Pinker's new book, by @djbduncan.bsky.social: "There is a certain charm to the affable, playfully bumptious professor who can’t resist the provocation of scare quotes around the word 'microaggressions'", "A book can be bad without its thesis being untrue." #Booksky #psychology #anthropology

What Fuels Revolution, Social Embarrassment and Public Acclaim? It’s Common Knowledge.

www.nytimes.com

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Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · 16d

I reviewed Steven Pinker's new book on common knowledge. Tl;dr: "A book can be bad without its thesis being untrue".

What Fuels Revolution, Social Embarrassment and Public Acclaim? It’s Common Knowledge.

www.nytimes.com

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Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · 27d

Did the Middle Ages really happen? Couple of recent reviews of Marcus Glatt's "The Greatest Hoax in History".

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Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · Aug 18

A blog about Perec, cafes, and what I did on my birthday
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...

The Eternal and the Ephemeral

I seek, at once, both the eternal and the ephemeral. It’s a line from the French writer Georges Perec. Perec, you may remember, is most famous – notorious – for writing La Disparition (or A Void in it...

open.substack.com

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Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · Aug 5

Much to love in this "Out of the Ordinary" auction catalogue, but the thing that tickled me the most is this advertising poster for lemonade "bottled by pretty girls". The past sure is a foreign country. www.sworder.co.uk/auction/lot/...

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Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · Jul 30

Oh! Can I add the gradgrindian inchworm that Danny Kaye sings about in “Hans Christian Andersen” (1953)

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Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · Jul 24

A little blog about Posh Spice and What We Talk About When We Talk About Reading
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...

In Defence of Posh Spice

Or, What We Talk About When We Talk About Reading

open.substack.com

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Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · Jul 22

[Lady Bracknell voice]: “A yearwig?!”

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Reposted by Dennis Duncan

Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · Jul 21

Found today pasted into a 1744 Oxford-printed Bible: an unrecorded ephemeral printing of ‘A cure for the bite of a mad dog’, directing us to ‘give three spoonfuls morning & evening; one pint is sufficient for man or beast’. It is ‘never known to fail’. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social 7100.b.73. #ephemera

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Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · Jul 21

Would *you* return a puppy to a Mr D'Wolf? Some thoughts on a two-hundred-year-old lost dog poster.
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...

Lost Dog!

Please return to Mr D'Wolf

open.substack.com

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Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · Jul 21

Would *you* return a puppy to a Mr D'Wolf? Some thoughts on a two-hundred-year-old lost dog poster.
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...

Lost Dog!

Please return to Mr D'Wolf

open.substack.com

Reposted by Dennis Duncan

Miri @miri18.bsky.social · Jul 19

Scathing personal critisism via an indexn has excellent entertainment value. Courtesy of 'Index, A History of the: A bookish adventure' by @djbduncan.bsky.social