Brian Dillon

Brian Dillon

@briangdillon.bsky.social

Writer. AFFINITIES, ESSAYISM & SUPPOSE A SENTENCE published by Fitzcarraldo & NYRB. GONE TO EARTH (on Hounds of Love) & AMBIVALENCE (on education) forthcoming.

1,470 Followers 177 Following 20 Posts Joined Feb 2024
6 months ago
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Brian Dillon · At Tate Modern: ‘Leigh Bowery!’ For a while, Leigh Bowery touted himself as a legitimate if outré fashion designer, but it’s clear from the Tate show...

‘Leigh Bowery once planned to walk up to the bar at Taboo with an axe and chop off his own hand, but he chickened out.’

@briangdillon.bsky.social on the performance artist and London nightclub impresario, on show at Tate Modern until Sunday: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

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10 months ago

An excellent thread by @larapawson.bsky.social about this "overlooked men" dimwittery. Interesting that the Guardian piece about Conduit Books is backed up with old quotes from Murdoch editors/reviewers.

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10 months ago
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Séamas O'Reilly: Trans people have spent a decade being attacked in a moral panic The poor provision of unisex children’s facilities— which reinforces gender stereotypes and inconveniences women and men both — was, incidentally, an issue I remember being quite talked-about a decade...

The UK's political and media class has spent years heaping sadism on trans people, and they want to do the same in Ireland next. Calls for civility and calm won't cut it. We need to fight them tooth and nail.

www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle-co...

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10 months ago

A little piece about bringing Fallow into the world of print, in the Irish Times today.

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11 months ago
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Residential Writing Course: The Essay | One form, infinite possibilities | Arvon What constitutes an essay, and why write one? Are there limits to what this ancient form can do, where it can go, or what it might contain? How do we know when an essay is done and how we might go abo...

This May, spend a week in Devon exploring essays—a form with limitless possibilities. Tutored by prizewinning journalist, essayist and non-fiction writer @chitgrrl.bsky.social, writer and publisher Will Rees, plus special guest @briangdillon.bsky.social. More info: www.arvon.org/writing-cour...

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1 year ago
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Aside from the fact that it's a very cool gold-topped cane, what a demented thing to write. Are they waiting for some smirking bearded (white) bro-infant in a too-tight suit to show them the way?

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1 year ago

It's a fascinating book – hope it gets plenty more attention.

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1 year ago
A copy of "Bye Bye I Love You" by Michael Erard standing on a table.

"A well-meaning focus on last words may miss a person’s last efforts at communication and connection. So too, perhaps unexpectedly, the words of the very young."

@briangdillon.bsky.social reviews "Bye Bye I Love You" for 4Columns: https://4columns.org/dillon-brian/bye-bye-i-love-you

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1 year ago

Pincher, Bone and Blunt!

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1 year ago
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Lavinia Greenlaw · Short Cuts: On Marianne Faithfull By the end of 1979, hesitation had given way to dread. We fully expected to be facing the end of the world. Margaret...

‘The best songs on 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘌𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 are the ones she co-wrote. The original mix was less spacious, more of itself, less of the time and more of her times.’

Lavinia Greenlaw on Marianne Faithfull: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

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1 year ago

They’ve DerryLondonDerried the Gulf of Mexico

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1 year ago
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David Johansen, the last of the New York Dolls, has stage four cancer and a broken back, but lives in a country where even a wildly famous musician and actor cannot afford healthcare. You can help him and his family here. www.sweetrelief.org/davidjohanse...

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1 year ago
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Book Review: ‘Live Fast,’ by Brigitte Giraud In the 2022 Prix Goncourt-winning novel “Live Fast,” Brigitte Giraud pieces together the motorcycle crash that killed the narrator’s husband, while tearing her apart.

For @nytimes.com I reviewed LIVE FAST, by Brigitte Giraud; translated by Cory Stockwell. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/b...

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1 year ago
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Marianne Faithfull - Broken English (Short Film by Derek Jarman) [1979] YouTube video by Marianne Faithfull

RIP Marianne Faithfull. youtu.be/f2tbc81Ujno?...

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1 year ago
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The Dublin Review number ninety-seven | WINTER 2024-25 features work by Brian Davey, Karen O’Reilly, Eimear Ryan, Susannah Dickey, Aisling Flynn, Juliana Adelman, and Arnold Thomas Fanning. To buy or subscribe visit thedublinreview.com/product/subscription/

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1 year ago
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Brian Dillon · At the Whitechapel: On Peter Kennard Can the art of political photomontage continue to function as print declines and memes both crude and ingenious...

‘Bristling missiles are one of Kennard’s motifs; variously resembling a nest of knives or sprouting crystals, the warheads protrude from a gas mask worn by the Earth or lurk inside the half-opened dome of a nuclear reactor.’

@briangdillon.bsky.social on Peter Kennard:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

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1 year ago
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Brian Dillon · At the Whitechapel: On Peter Kennard Can the art of political photomontage continue to function as print declines and memes both crude and ingenious...

I wrote about the art of Peter Kennard for the new issue of the @londonreview.bsky.social www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

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1 year ago
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Hello Bluesky!

Please enjoy D. Graham Burnett’s essay for issue 60, “Notes Toward a History of Skywriting,” featuring this lovely image by Robert Hill, unlocked for a limited time.

www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/60/bu...

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1 year ago

Glad you liked it!

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1 year ago

This such a beautifully tender piece

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1 year ago
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You Can’t Go Wrong With Delia Brian Dillon on Christmas with Delia. Illustration by Seb Tanti Burlò.

When @rebeccamayjohnson.bsky.social asked me to write about Christmas with Delia for @vittles.bsky.social, thoughts also turned inevitably to Christmases past. What does Delia provide, alongside all the failsafe recipes? Absolution from Christmas melancholy! www.vittlesmagazine.com/p/you-cant-g...

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1 year ago
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What Remains

On the poetry of Hannah Arendt, for 4Columns. 4columns.org/dillon-brian...

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1 year ago

Yes, I've seen this! Pity she isn't more present in this conversation.

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1 year ago

If you've not read Tim Robinson, you might like to do so: he was a writer of genius and a kind and generous man. (And also made beautiful maps.)

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1 year ago
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🐞This week’s podcast: Hannah Regel & Emily LaBarge discuss Regel's first novel THE LAST SANE WOMAN

You can listen here: lrb.me/013

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1 year ago

As I say, it's been a long time (late 80s probably), but I think I admired the snark, just not what it was in service of. Likewise "Radical Chic".

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1 year ago

It's a long, long time since I read The Painted Word or any of his art writings, but almost certainly yes.

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1 year ago

Is contemporary art a lot of pious wokery? Let's ask a minor art critic but notable right-wing troll.

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1 year ago

Whenever I see a writer (usually American?) disparage the semicolon, it makes me want to revive all manner of stately but unruly punctuation;—the Ruskinian semicolon-and-dash; Woolf's semicolons instead of commas for dependent clauses, &c.

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1 year ago
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