Dr Abigail Boucher
@drabigailboucher.bsky.social
Senior lecturer in English at Aston University. Scholar of nineteenth-century literature and genre fiction. One half of @smfmspodcast.bsky.social
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Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
In our final banned book episode, we celebrate (?) Christmas with the inappropriately summery (but sufficiently maudlin) 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1852).
Turns out, everything we knew about this book we learned from 'The King and I' and was therefore wildly incorrect!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
Turns out, everything we knew about this book we learned from 'The King and I' and was therefore wildly incorrect!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
December 17, 2025 at 11:33 AM
In our final banned book episode, we celebrate (?) Christmas with the inappropriately summery (but sufficiently maudlin) 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1852).
Turns out, everything we knew about this book we learned from 'The King and I' and was therefore wildly incorrect!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
Turns out, everything we knew about this book we learned from 'The King and I' and was therefore wildly incorrect!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
We come out all guns blazing for our Christmas episode, and the final instalment of our banned books series, with Harriet Beecher Stowe's Civil War-causing/-winning 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1852) - what's more, it's crammed with sizzling Quakers...
Out on Wednesday!
Out on Wednesday!
December 15, 2025 at 2:02 PM
We come out all guns blazing for our Christmas episode, and the final instalment of our banned books series, with Harriet Beecher Stowe's Civil War-causing/-winning 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1852) - what's more, it's crammed with sizzling Quakers...
Out on Wednesday!
Out on Wednesday!
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
I have already been quoted and referenced with hallucinated literature, and you all will be too. It’s a growing mess.
“AI models not only point some users to false sources but also cause problems for researchers and librarians, who end up wasting their time looking for requested nonexistent records…”
AI Slop Is Spurring Record Requests for Imaginary Journals
The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that artificial intelligence models are making up research papers, journals and archives
www.scientificamerican.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:28 AM
I have already been quoted and referenced with hallucinated literature, and you all will be too. It’s a growing mess.
Writing a book chapter on true crime fiction and just waiting to get a concerned email from HR about how many times I've looked up Ed Gein on a work computer.
December 9, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Writing a book chapter on true crime fiction and just waiting to get a concerned email from HR about how many times I've looked up Ed Gein on a work computer.
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
Spending today bombarding Waterstones and Daunt specifically with WE DON’T WANT IT messages
This is the end, or one of many ends >> www.thebookseller.com/news/waterst...
Waterstones would stock AI books if 'clearly labelled and customers wanted them', says CEO
Waterstones would stock books created by AI if customers wanted them and they were clearly labelled, CEO James Daunt has said, but it is “something that we would recoil [from]”.
www.thebookseller.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Spending today bombarding Waterstones and Daunt specifically with WE DON’T WANT IT messages
My 1-year-old thinks that the clown with the tearaway face in 'Nightmare Before Christmas' is hilarious, but he's terrified of the measuring cups in the kitchen
December 3, 2025 at 11:22 AM
My 1-year-old thinks that the clown with the tearaway face in 'Nightmare Before Christmas' is hilarious, but he's terrified of the measuring cups in the kitchen
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
Is this the level of class warfare that will finally make the bourgeoisie join forces with the poors? AI deskilling law, academia, architecture, programming, finance, and literally every other human endeavour and replacing it with absolute garbage?
“Architects are cooked, AI is coming for your job” and it’s the most ass floor plan you have ever seen with rooms like a Master Roisn and a Coat Bath.
December 2, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Is this the level of class warfare that will finally make the bourgeoisie join forces with the poors? AI deskilling law, academia, architecture, programming, finance, and literally every other human endeavour and replacing it with absolute garbage?
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
Deskilling happens incredibly fast, and re-learning lost skills is hard!
We can't really say this enough...
> Anastasia Berg [at UCL Irvine] said that new research — and what she's hearing directly from colleagues across various industries — shows that employees who heavily rely on AI are losing core skills at a startling rate.
www.businessinsider.com/ai-tools-are...
> Anastasia Berg [at UCL Irvine] said that new research — and what she's hearing directly from colleagues across various industries — shows that employees who heavily rely on AI are losing core skills at a startling rate.
www.businessinsider.com/ai-tools-are...
AI tools are 'deskilling' workers, philosophy professor says
A philosophy professor warns that AI reliance is weakening workers' judgment, creativity, and problem-solving.
www.businessinsider.com
December 1, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Deskilling happens incredibly fast, and re-learning lost skills is hard!
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
Higher ed's rush to adopt AI is about so much more than AI: defector.com/higher-eds-r...
Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI | Defector
If you don’t work at a university or have college-age kids, you may have missed the flurry of news stories and social media banter about AI adoption in higher ed, stories which have snowballed into…
defector.com
November 29, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Higher ed's rush to adopt AI is about so much more than AI: defector.com/higher-eds-r...
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
you're telling me a right-wing catholic convert is just a protestant in disguise? shocked
In newly leaked audio, Peter Thiel admits he urged JD Vance to ignore Pope Leo XIV on moral questions — including the ethical development of AI.
He goes even further, branding Leo “the woke American pope” and suggesting he’s a tool of the Antichrist.
He goes even further, branding Leo “the woke American pope” and suggesting he’s a tool of the Antichrist.
NEW: JD Vance’s Top Donor Suggests Pope Leo XIV is Antichrist
In a leaked lecture, Peter Thiel says he’s urged Vance to ignore the pope on moral questions — and simply pray for him.
www.thelettersfromleo.com
November 26, 2025 at 11:44 AM
you're telling me a right-wing catholic convert is just a protestant in disguise? shocked
My students just told me that it's considered embarrassing to have a boyfriend???
Do I have to get divorced????
Do I have to get divorced????
November 24, 2025 at 4:15 PM
My students just told me that it's considered embarrassing to have a boyfriend???
Do I have to get divorced????
Do I have to get divorced????
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
We pour billions into saving an economically tiny steel industry whilst actively destroying one of our largest export industries. (Yes, higher education to overseas students who already massively subsidise UK students, are counted as exports).
i: Reeves to unveil £600m raid on foreign student
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
November 24, 2025 at 7:37 AM
We pour billions into saving an economically tiny steel industry whilst actively destroying one of our largest export industries. (Yes, higher education to overseas students who already massively subsidise UK students, are counted as exports).
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
My friend just fuckin showed up with a corncob pipe & that’s when it hit me that we are all in our 40s which means we get one new accessory slot
November 23, 2025 at 9:11 PM
My friend just fuckin showed up with a corncob pipe & that’s when it hit me that we are all in our 40s which means we get one new accessory slot
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
ChatGPT feeds me reams of bullshit, but good news everyone, I'm not going to remember it anyway
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 4:08 PM
ChatGPT feeds me reams of bullshit, but good news everyone, I'm not going to remember it anyway
My best friend and I are forcing my unamused husband to watch 'Wicked'.
His first comment:
'I'm sorry, "No one lays a WILLY on their grave??"'
His first comment:
'I'm sorry, "No one lays a WILLY on their grave??"'
November 21, 2025 at 6:35 PM
My best friend and I are forcing my unamused husband to watch 'Wicked'.
His first comment:
'I'm sorry, "No one lays a WILLY on their grave??"'
His first comment:
'I'm sorry, "No one lays a WILLY on their grave??"'
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
Gotta say, it’s a hard time to be a historian of medicine whose focus was pre-antiseptic / pre-vaccine era.
Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad
November 20, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Gotta say, it’s a hard time to be a historian of medicine whose focus was pre-antiseptic / pre-vaccine era.
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
What most people would call corruption, grifting, graft, and criminality gets branded as "blurring of lines "
November 20, 2025 at 11:50 AM
What most people would call corruption, grifting, graft, and criminality gets branded as "blurring of lines "
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
OpenAI is a social arsonist - as Dr. Chris Gilliard reminds us - and the company's attempts to capture education with its "free" version of ChatGPT for teachers should, IMO, be met with vocal resistance and refusal if we as educators are to care for our students, their communities, and our planet.
November 20, 2025 at 12:42 AM
OpenAI is a social arsonist - as Dr. Chris Gilliard reminds us - and the company's attempts to capture education with its "free" version of ChatGPT for teachers should, IMO, be met with vocal resistance and refusal if we as educators are to care for our students, their communities, and our planet.
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
Happy (early) Thanksgiving, Shelfers! Don't pull a spear on or chuck a boulder at a relative. Not unless they *really* deserve it.
More importantly, Happy International Men's Day: no girls allowed in our episode on William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' (1954).
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
More importantly, Happy International Men's Day: no girls allowed in our episode on William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' (1954).
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
November 19, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Happy (early) Thanksgiving, Shelfers! Don't pull a spear on or chuck a boulder at a relative. Not unless they *really* deserve it.
More importantly, Happy International Men's Day: no girls allowed in our episode on William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' (1954).
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
More importantly, Happy International Men's Day: no girls allowed in our episode on William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' (1954).
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
The AI bubble may be about to bust.
Peter Thiel has sold all of his Nvidia stock.
We all need to say this very clearly:
NO BAILOUTS FOR THEFT-TECH!
Expropriate their asses instead.
They stole from all of us and fully plan to burn the planet.
They owe us - not the other way around. 1/3
Peter Thiel has sold all of his Nvidia stock.
We all need to say this very clearly:
NO BAILOUTS FOR THEFT-TECH!
Expropriate their asses instead.
They stole from all of us and fully plan to burn the planet.
They owe us - not the other way around. 1/3
November 17, 2025 at 6:37 AM
The AI bubble may be about to bust.
Peter Thiel has sold all of his Nvidia stock.
We all need to say this very clearly:
NO BAILOUTS FOR THEFT-TECH!
Expropriate their asses instead.
They stole from all of us and fully plan to burn the planet.
They owe us - not the other way around. 1/3
Peter Thiel has sold all of his Nvidia stock.
We all need to say this very clearly:
NO BAILOUTS FOR THEFT-TECH!
Expropriate their asses instead.
They stole from all of us and fully plan to burn the planet.
They owe us - not the other way around. 1/3
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
It's human nature to be a snotty private schoolboy - or so William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' (1954) tells us - and we got into the spirit of this message with plenty of quibbling over pronunciation.
Episode out on Wednesday!
'One fly to rule them all, one fly to find them' etc.
Episode out on Wednesday!
'One fly to rule them all, one fly to find them' etc.
November 17, 2025 at 9:14 AM
It's human nature to be a snotty private schoolboy - or so William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' (1954) tells us - and we got into the spirit of this message with plenty of quibbling over pronunciation.
Episode out on Wednesday!
'One fly to rule them all, one fly to find them' etc.
Episode out on Wednesday!
'One fly to rule them all, one fly to find them' etc.
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
"Get his ass” Is so unreasonably funny to me. A huge win for the English language. Today's version of "seize him" imo
November 16, 2025 at 5:22 AM
"Get his ass” Is so unreasonably funny to me. A huge win for the English language. Today's version of "seize him" imo
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
Message to all faculty: your expertise is no longer trusted or valued at this so-called “university.”
November 14, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Message to all faculty: your expertise is no longer trusted or valued at this so-called “university.”
Reposted by Dr Abigail Boucher
Some of you guessed our clue correctly:
For International Men's Day (19 November), we will be release the most laddish book we've ever read on the show: William Golding's 1954 anti-colonialist schoolboy castaway narrative, 'Lord of the Flies'.
No girls allowed, and 'Sucks to your Auntie!'
For International Men's Day (19 November), we will be release the most laddish book we've ever read on the show: William Golding's 1954 anti-colonialist schoolboy castaway narrative, 'Lord of the Flies'.
No girls allowed, and 'Sucks to your Auntie!'
November 4, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Some of you guessed our clue correctly:
For International Men's Day (19 November), we will be release the most laddish book we've ever read on the show: William Golding's 1954 anti-colonialist schoolboy castaway narrative, 'Lord of the Flies'.
No girls allowed, and 'Sucks to your Auntie!'
For International Men's Day (19 November), we will be release the most laddish book we've ever read on the show: William Golding's 1954 anti-colonialist schoolboy castaway narrative, 'Lord of the Flies'.
No girls allowed, and 'Sucks to your Auntie!'