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Jonah @jsuttonmorse.me · 1h

Here’s the good part of the next few day(s)

A room full of piles of books, with built in shelves in the background.

Jonah @jsuttonmorse.me · 2h

Note also that “does the fact that I have Tasso’s own analysis of his own historical poem and is that Lit Crit or goes with Tasso” is also a live question.

Jonah @jsuttonmorse.me · 3h

Broadly I am inclined to SFF/other fiction/Poetry (because actually I have kinda a lot)/history/lit crit/other nonfiction (with maybe some special interests), but we’ll see. There’s always the temptation to spotlight special interests and rabbit holes.

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Jonah @jsuttonmorse.me · 3h

The great shelving begins, and along with it the eternal question: is “Jerusalem Delivered” poetry, history (if the crusades) or a historical document that goes with the date of publication? (Corollary: where to put The Silmarillion, Lit Crit focused on Tolkien, and Tolkien’s Monsters and Critics?)

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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 1d

[email protected] on reading long and short books critically: "You can have breadth and have that work really well. You can have depth and have that work really well. It's not like there's one direction

"I think it’s really when the novel feels dissatisfying based on what it’s trying to do."

Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 2d

📣 NEW CRITICAL FRIENDS!

In a new ep of the @strangehorizons.bsky.social SFF criticism podcast, I talk with @redfernjon.bsky.social and Nileena Sunil about books that might be longer, and others that could be shorter.

How to read a text that offers too little, or too much, stuff? Some ideas.

Critical Friends Episode 16: Length and Breadth

Dan Hartland is joined by Redfern Jon Barrett and Nileena Sunil to discuss those novels that feel too sure or not long enough: what's behind that feeling we have that a text is lacking something, o…

strangehorizons.com

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Jonah @jsuttonmorse.me · 1d

(And yes Dan, I did just get to the end)

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Jonah @jsuttonmorse.me · 1d

Seriously @danhartland.bsky.social and @casella.bsky.social … Critical Friends from @strangehorizons.bsky.social and also @mealofthorns.bsky.social on the same day? Y’all gotta space these SFF criticism podcasts …

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 1d

It’s dark. Sam asks for a tale. Strider tells of Tinúviel: ‘It is a fair tale, though it is sad, as are all the tales of Middle-earth.

‘The leaves were long, the grass was green,
The hemlock-umbels tall and fair,
And in the glade a light was seen
Of stars in shadow shimmering…’

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Kate Elliott @kateelliottsff.bsky.social · 2d

THE WITCH ROADS ebook is currently on sale (US) for $2.99, so if you're curious & want to read a grimsweet tale of a humble deputy courier & her annoyed nephew, a possessed prince, & a ravenous fungal ghost plague, now's the time.
Bk 2 of the duology arrives Nov 4!

us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

The Witch Roads

Book 1 in the Witch Roads duology, the latest epic novel by fan favorite Kate Elliott.. Status is hereditary, class is bestowed, trust must be earned.When an...

us.macmillan.com

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 2d

A landing page for the completed “A Tale of Today” series in which (crossing fingers) all the links to episode bibliographies work.

A Tale of Today (2024-2025)

Episode 1: The Age of Insecurity (September 9, 2024) A new season of The American Vandal Podcast inspired by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner’s 150-year-old novel, The Gilded Age…

mattseybold.com

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Nate Wolff @natewolff.bsky.social · 2d

A real honor to nearly bookend (with a late cameo following earlier more substantive appearances!) this amazing series. The depth and breadth of Matt's work here is truly awe inspiring. (And good morning to my brother in late-alphabetical sorting, Yanis Varoufakis.)

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 2d

A landing page for the completed “A Tale of Today” series in which (crossing fingers) all the links to episode bibliographies work.

A Tale of Today (2024-2025)

Episode 1: The Age of Insecurity (September 9, 2024) A new season of The American Vandal Podcast inspired by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner’s 150-year-old novel, The Gilded Age…

mattseybold.com

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Quaker Advices and Queries @advicesandqueries.org · 2d

Abandon your forms when they do not fulfill God’s will. — #5ces-and-queries" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New England Yearly Meeting Young Adult Friends #5

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Jonah @jsuttonmorse.me · 3d

At Meeting today, read a Pendle Hill Pamphlet from 1985 by a Quaker working with a broad coalition of faith groups to provide sanctuary to Central Americans being treated illegally and inhumanely by INS. Depressing and inspiring, but I’m leaning into the inspiring parts.

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Coates is Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 3d

Today is the 63rd anniversary of the London premiere of Dr. No, which means (well, obviously) it’s time to tell you a ridiculous shaggy dog story about the theft of not one but two portraits of the Duke of Wellington

Sean Connery in Dr No’s lair, about to go up a short flight of stairs when he spots a portrait of the Duke of Wellington on a stand. The original had been stolen from the National Gallery the previous year, and this was a joke by the Bond production team

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alix e. harrow @alixeharrow.bsky.social · 3d

surprise! the real challenge was always getting us to recognize the humanity of other humans! we can anthropomorphize the fuck out of wall-e but genocide is "really complicated"

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alix e. harrow @alixeharrow.bsky.social · 3d

all those movies about society refusing to recognize the humanity of robots but it turns out if you glue googly eyes to a roomba about half the country is ready to propose

The Louvre of Bluesky @thelouvreof.bsky.social · 5d

@dystopiabreaker.xyz
i'm completely serious when i say that much of the dismissive ai discourse on here fires the bigotry neuron

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Jonah @jsuttonmorse.me · 4d

One must imagine Sysiphus happy

A delighted 6 year old with blond hair is on her knees rolling an awkward blue ball up a steep grassy hill with a wooden porch in the background.

Jonah @jsuttonmorse.me · 4d

Noodling a review, and it’s gotta be fair to call Steven Erikson among the forefront of Big Chonky Epic Fantasy authors working at the moment, right? I haven’t really been paying attention to word counts or what other series’ are running these days.

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Gautam Bhatia @gautambhatia88.bsky.social · 5d

And listen to the whole podcast for reflections of our fabulous staff on 25 years of Strange Horizons.

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Gautam Bhatia @gautambhatia88.bsky.social · 5d

For @strangehorizons.bsky.social 25th anniversary, I spoke about my (almost) decade at the magazine, its anarchic nature, changes in the genre space, editing SFF non-fiction, and how the extractivism special issue came to be imagined (starts at 1 hr 24 mins):

strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

Celebrating 25 Years with The Strange Horizons Editorial Collective

In this special episode of Strange Horizons at 25, Senior Podcast Editor Kat Kourbeti and Editor Michael Ireland welcome current members of the Strange Horizons Editorial Collective for a series of…

strangehorizons.com

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Plenary Popehat Power @kenwhite.bsky.social · 6d

Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later.

harpers.org/archive/1941...

Who Goes Nazi?, by Dorothy Thompson

harpers.org

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Jonah @jsuttonmorse.me · 6d

My kiddo says the reading was amazing and insists that they get to read this one first!

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Lizzie O'Leary @lizzieohreally.bsky.social · 7d

I will evangelize for 404 until the end of time

Tiago Dias @tiagodf.bsky.social · 7d

“I hate paywalls, I don’t like logging into things. But by explaining why we’re doing it, we’ve had people evangelize for us.” When social media users complain about the email or paywall, 404 readers will “share the explanation of why we did it.”

“The AI-ification of email” keeps 404 Media’s Jason Koebler up at night

For now, though, email newsletters have "completely changed" 404's business "almost literally overnight."

www.niemanlab.org

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Leah Berman Williams @leahwrenn.bsky.social · 8d

Everyone’s responses 🔥

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 8d

So I used to like to joke I taught from Plato to NATO

But really I taught from, say, Gilgamesh to Luther.

But they don't rhyme. I want them to rhyme.

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Jonah @jsuttonmorse.me · 8d

That‘s *not* the world building that people complain about (and I think I agree with you he’s not doing that as much as he gets accused of) but it’s not *not* world building.