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Nick Hubble

@thehubble101.bsky.social

5.4K followers 740 following 1.6K posts

Aberystwyth-based writer, researcher, critic, academic. Nonbinary (they/them)🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️. Columnist, Vector: #SFFResistance. Blogs on SFF at Prospective Cultures - current topics: #ScottishSFF #CriticismForInterestingTimes. https://linktr.ee/nick_hubble

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Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · Apr 21

I'm sitting in 'Who Runs the World? Feminism in SFF' at #Eastercon. Long discussion of how women SFF writers disappear. I'm starting a daily thread of reviews of books from a few years ago which still deserve to be read and discussed. First up, Tricia Sullivan's Occupy Me (2016). (1/-)

Tricia Sullivan’s Occupy Me (2016)

This review first appeared in Foundation 125 (2016): 112-115 [I’ve added additional links to this blog version] Tricia Sullivan, Occupy Me (Gollancz, 2016, 266pp, £16.99) Reviewed by Nick Hubble (B…

prospectiveculture.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Nick Hubble

Chris Schilling @schillingc.bsky.social · 23h

A good friend has submitted this brilliant model of the library from Buffy to Lego Ideas. I’d be very grateful for your help in getting her to 5k supporters: beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Library | LEGO® Ideas

"Sunnydale High isn't really like other high schools. A lot of weird stuff happens here." Buffy the Vampire Slayer first exploded onto our TV screens in the lat…

beta.ideas.lego.com

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Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 10h

Good article in the G. I worked in Birmingham at the Perry Barr campus of UCE (now Birmingham City University) between 2003 and 2005 and lodged in nearby Handsworth for about 6 months during that period. I always liked the city and found the people and predominantly local students friendly.

I know the real Handsworth – it’s a far better place than Robert Jenrick’s toxic vision of Britain | Nazia Parveen

The shadow justice secretary complained of a lack of integration in an area that has shown, time and time again, that it is for everyone, says Nazia Parveen, an assistant managing editor at the Guardi...

www.theguardian.com

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Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 3d

I see that one of those fringe parties is having a political conference this weekend.

Reposted by Nick Hubble

scott lyall @scottlyall.bsky.social · 3d

Reading MacDiarmid's A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle again. It was published 100 years ago next year. Kenneth Buthlay's annotated edition from 1987, published by @asls.org.uk, remains the best guide. The poem itself is as thrilling, ambitious and flawed as ever it was.

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Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 3d

Afternoon, Womble! I loved 'Wolves'! I've had an illness/fatigue-wrecked autumn so far. Upside is lots of reading. Over last 7 days: Marie-Helene Bertino's Beautyland, Tegan & Sara's High School, John Irving's The Hotel New Hampshire, and currently Andrew Crumey's Sputnik Caledonia.

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Cult Edge @cultedge.bsky.social · 5d

Only available for a short time, we've almost hit target for the pressing plant to start production! The #Blakes7 synth pop track you've been waiting for! Realised by @philheeks.bsky.social, a unique Blake's 7 item. Grab it now! PRE-ORDER: www.bit.ly/markedtokill VIDEO: www.bit.ly/federationvideo

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Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 5d

I was thinking of the raw smell but this is also true. Although I think that still fits the metaphor too. Difficult to avoid smells.

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Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 5d

Bizarre article in Times implying that diverse assessments in English departments, which have been fairly standard for at least 25 years, are some form of compensation for declining standards and students not being able to read. Part of some sort of rightwing campaign to reset to last century.

Universities teaching literature students how to cope with long novels

Critics blame GCSE English for deterring teenagers from the subject, describing the literature syllabus as boring and repetitive

www.thetimes.com

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Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 5d

I must admit I don't particularly like the smell of raclette cheese. But I was thinking more along the lines of raclette cheese as the embodiment of an unattainable utopia.

Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 5d

Still waiting for the (cheese) man...

Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 5d

No worries. We've got a new supplier now!

Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 5d

The punchline being that I'm lactose intolerant. But as a metaphor it just works so well. Like that time back in the 1990s, when we lived in Brighton and Waitrose just couldn't understand why we wanted a kilo of raclette cheese ... 'A little bit cheesy, but nicely didsplayed'.

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Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 5d

I'm ill and it's raining but my awesome partner is allowing me to feel useful by waiting in for a delivery of raclette cheese (which obviously has to go straight in the fridge). I'm now (slightly feverishly) thinking about reconceiving my life story around raclette cheese as a central metaphor.(1/-)

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Reposted by Nick Hubble

Juliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · 6d

Good news! The Green Man's War is a Kindle ebook deal for October. You can get fully caught up with Dan Mackmain's adventures before The Green Man's Holiday is published on 30th October.
www.amazon.co.uk/Green-Mans-W...

Cover art shows a lethal, pale-scaled serpent-dragon or wyrm lurking in woodland. It looks straight at you as its forked tongue flickers between open, sharp-toothed jaws.

Cover copy reads: THE GREEN MAN’S WAR

For a few years now, the Green Man has sent Daniel Mackmain to resolve clashes between ordinary people and the supernatural world. Dan has found allies among folk from myth and met other humans who can see the uncanny.

He has also made dangerous enemies. Someone has decided to put a stop to this interference once and for all.
Dan and his friends are about to find themselves in the firing line.

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Reposted by Nick Hubble

Bloomsbury History @bloomsburyhist.bsky.social · 21d

The Mass-Observation Critical Series documents and archives the everyday lives, thoughts and attitudes of ordinary Britons.

Found out more https://bit.ly/4lPM60w

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Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 9d

Oh no! It's all the fault of 'postmodern identity politics and cultural liberalism' polluting socialist purity with 'increasingly irrational, sectarian, and nihilistic ideas'. Embarrassing rightwing garbage from Tribune here.

Tribune @tribunemagazine.bsky.social · 9d

Neoliberalism and postmodernism have torn apart the social fabric that once held us together. But in rebuilding the strength of labour and the organised society, we can be unified, empowered, and dignified once again.

Reversing the Decline of Union Power

tribunemag.co.uk

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Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 10d

No. 60. Jane Alexander, The Flicker Against the Light and Writing the Contemporary Uncanny (2021). This began life as a PhD and was published under Luna Press’ academic imprint. Stories that 'linger, as a kind of question’ followed by a really good essay #ScottishSFF (78/-)

Jane Alexander, The Flicker Against the Light (2021)

This review originally appeared in ParSec #2 (Winter, 2021) Before examining in detail one of the stories included in The Flicker Against the Light, it is worth thinking for a moment about how we c…

prospectiveculture.wordpress.com

Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 11d

Magdeleine Vallieres is the new World Road Race Champion. Great race and brilliant ride.

EF Pro Cycling @efprocycling.com · 11d

MAGDELEINE VALLIERES!!!! 🌈🌈🌈🌈 WORLDDD CHAMPPP! WHAT HAVE YOU JUST GONE AND DONE

📸: @gettyimages.com

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Reposted by Nick Hubble

Ginger Nuts of Horror @gnofhorror.com · 13d

This review took longer than I had hoped to write. But in a good way, there was so much to digest after reading

That Very Witch: Fear, by Payton McCarty-Simas

And why it is Essential Reading for Horror Fans and Feminists Alike

gnofhorror.com/that-very-wi...

@lunapress.bsky.social

A book cover featuring a person surrounded by a circular arrangement of text. The title "That Very Witch" is prominently displayed, along with subtitles mentioning themes of fear, feminism, and the American witch film. The author's name, Payton McCarty-Simas, is also featured on the cover. The design includes elements of graphic design and cartoon styles.

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Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 13d

Having a weird month - up and down. But I have finally looked into the last remaining bag I removed from my former office in January and was rewarded with genuine treasure in the shape of a couple of classic CDs. So in lieu of fairly meagre showings on this account recently, here's a picture.

Two CDs: L7's Smell the Magic and Marianne Faithfull's Broken English

Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 16d

My article on Margot Bennett (77/-)
www.sfcaledonia.scot/margot-benne...

Margot Bennett by Nick Hubble – SF Caledonia

www.sfcaledonia.scot

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Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 16d

No. 59. Margot Bennett, The Long Wat Back (1954) and The Furious Masters (1968). Despite some dated aspects, these novels point the way forward from the postwar decades of Britain to the twenty-first-century feminist perspectives that are more prominent in science fiction and fantasy today. (76/-)

Cover of The Long Way by Margot Bennett. The illustration of a tree is by James Boswell.

Cover of The Furious Masters by Margot Bennett

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Reposted by Nick Hubble

Simon Guerrier @0tralala.bsky.social · 19d

I’ve read the SF ones, and the British Library have helpfully republished her three best-known mysteries - Someone From The Past is cracking! In case of interest: 0tralala.blogspot.com/2025/01/some...

Someone from the Past, by Margot Bennett

0tralala.blogspot.com

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Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 19d

Thanks. I read those two in the National Library of Wales, which is fortunately only about a mile up the road from me.

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Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 19d

I wrote about Margot Bennett for SF Caledonia. Better known as a crime writer, she wrote two SF novels: The Long Way Back (1954) and The Furious Masters (1968), both of which I discuss here. I also write about her service with the British Medical Unit in the Spanish Civil War. #ScottishSFF

Margot Bennett by Nick Hubble – SF Caledonia

www.sfcaledonia.scot

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