Weird how this keeps happening! www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...
05.03.2026 12:59 β π 1925 π 483 π¬ 38 π 57@mkirschenbaum.bsky.social
Critical tech and literary/cultural AI. Also cats, letterpress printing, and tabletop gaming. Professor of English at UVA (Commonwealth chair upon approval). Speaking for myself as a private citizen here. Being rude will get you blocked.
Weird how this keeps happening! www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...
05.03.2026 12:59 β π 1925 π 483 π¬ 38 π 57To be sure. But we canβt just wave away the structural truth of βeven if only a small percentage.β The power imbalance is hugely consequential!
05.03.2026 14:40 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Yesterday, I received a project assessment/problem fix plan that was created with AI. It's a mash-up of generic text and excerpts from tech blogs, some of which are, amazingly, applicable.
It's exactly the sort of commodity writing that MK is taking about.
Here works best for me, thank you
05.03.2026 14:26 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0But to the extent we are all creatures of neoliberal institutions, yada yada, itβs the same argumentβ
05.03.2026 14:26 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0We live in the world of what Michel de Certeau called the scriptural economy. Writing and capital are inextricably linked. That has been my position since pretty much day one. It is not intended as a salutary diagnosis.
05.03.2026 14:24 β π 17 π 5 π¬ 1 π 0π. In the abstract for something I just wrote, I appended: βThis is not intended as a salutary diagnosis.β
05.03.2026 14:22 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Some of the other replies Iβve received are illuminating. The assumption/expectation in their workplace is that people will just use a model.
05.03.2026 14:20 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0We live in the world of what Michel de Certeau called the scriptural economy. Writing and capital are inextricably linked. This has been my position since pretty much day one.
05.03.2026 14:17 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
I fear Iβm already lost.
And no, of course not every academic believes this. But every time the category error gets made, itβs an academic who does it.
I was honored to be asked!
05.03.2026 13:49 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0I am genuinely looking forward to our conversation!
05.03.2026 13:43 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0You should have kept that chapter in the book. :-)
05.03.2026 13:34 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0For me, itβs not βweβ with the agency here, itβs capital. I just wrote a longish piece on this for Social Research Iβd love to send you before itβs out, if I may.
05.03.2026 13:32 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Exactly. Iβm not saying this is a salutary state of affairs. I am saying itβs the way of the world.
05.03.2026 13:29 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Right. I call it transactional writing, following Deborah Brandt. What gets missed over and over in these discussions is that itβs by far (volumetrically) the most common form of writing in the world.
05.03.2026 13:28 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
I hereby declare Kirschenbaumβs law:
Thinking that every discussion of writing is a discussion of student writing is a category error only academics make.
I am a big John Warner fan, and his recent book is the first one I recommend to colleagues. But I am not talking about student writing or teaching writing here. Thinking that every discussion of writing is a discussion of student writing is a category error only academics make.
05.03.2026 13:16 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 2 π 0π
05.03.2026 04:01 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Itβs likely because itβs late and itβs been a long day, but I apologize, Iβm just not following that.
05.03.2026 04:00 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Congratulations: your experience of writing is *qualitatively different* from the vast majority of what gets written, which is so dreary and workaday that the courts have repeatedly ruled the authors of such work are not authors but employees, nor can they claim copyright or profit from said work.
05.03.2026 03:47 β π 17 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0When you sit down to write an essay or a long overdue email to a friend or even a snappy post for this website, you relish the feeling of the words at the tips of your fingers, tumbling into place like the tumblers in a safe. We say βit clicksβfor a reason, right? Itβs unique and itβs you, right? β>
05.03.2026 03:47 β π 22 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0Most people donβt win prizes for their writing, nor do they aspire to such. That writing is or should be that is itself a historically and culturally conditioned view of what writing is.
05.03.2026 03:38 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0This is the needed corrective to the new round of "when humans write it's like music, every word carefully chosen and precisely placed" which is simply not the reality for most people and situations. Much of writing is a tedious task that we have to slog through to simply keep our job/day/etc going.
05.03.2026 02:34 β π 46 π 6 π¬ 4 π 3+1 to everything above. You canβt actually know something about writing in its varied historical and social contexts and cling to the notion that itβs some form of exceptional activity. It *can* be, but that is itself the exception.
05.03.2026 03:14 β π 7 π 0 π¬ 2 π 0π
05.03.2026 01:26 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
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Be the Library of Virginia's born-digital collections coordinator, leading planning and management of electronic gov/manuscript records. We're looking for a techie archivist type who can help improve access to our born-digital wonders.
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Okay, sorry. Been a long day here. ;-)
04.03.2026 19:26 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Why this article is cited _in this very thread_.
Honestly, Iβm exhausted.
The warfighters who are currently fighting are not fighting a war.
04.03.2026 19:04 β π 6 π 0 π¬ 3 π 0