Alberto Andrés

‘We watched 9/11 from the rooftop, blasting the music out’: how The Disintegration Loops became a requiem for the attacks It is an epic piece of music that literally falls apart – and it perfectly captured the end-of-days chaos after the tragedy. Composer William Basinski and musician Anohni recall its febrile birth in N...

Loved this. I'd read a William Basinski autobiography in a heartbeat

A part of Akinola Davies Jr's speech the BBC decided not to air

this is not an essay about Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" why can't we cope with ambiguity these days?

Great essay by Heather Perry on "********* *******" open.substack.com/pub/heatherp...

"How will a student who is learning to write well know when to transform an automated output or how to infuse it with A-worthy value? Which of a chatbot's always confident ideas or texts do or do not meet the bar?"

Really brilliant piece on AI infiltrating the university.

Interested nonfiction writers! Do you have a book project you'd like to get off the ground but aren't sure where to start? I'll be offering one-on-one consultations from February! DM me here or contact me through my website to discuss if it could be right for you

Nothing remarkable about a much-hyped film being irredeemable trash ofc, but definitely something interesting happening (also visible in many other recent films -- basically half of A24's catalogue) about the film's mobilisation of prestige #aesthetics to prop itself up

A ½ review of Hamnet (2025) I’m literally passing out on the train trying to write this, so forgive me if the results are disorganized. Not that this movie—among the year’s worst, in a shitty year—rewards extended contemplation....

Thought this was very good on the Hamnet Mass Delusion letterboxd.com/miseryminist... 'significations of significance itself'; 'the actual image counts less than its conspicuous aura of prestige'. All correct!

Obsessed with Knausgård not only blurbing every single Significant Literary Novel of the past 12 months but doing so as "Karl Ove Knausgård - author of Recent Non-Autofictional Novel I'm Desperate for People to Read Instead of the Autofictional Stuff". Genuinely humanising grifting

I love this book so much!!

Still plenty of time to submit an abstract for the BACLS New Work in Contemporary Literary Studies graduate conference at The University of Leeds on May 20th for PGRs and ECRs! Please share widely call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/11/...

@bacls.bsky.social
@maxrshirley.bsky.social

Still plenty of time to submit an abstract for the BACLS New Work in Contemporary Literary Studies graduate conference at The University of Leeds on May 20th for PGRs and ECRs! Please share widely call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/11/...

@bacls.bsky.social
@maxrshirley.bsky.social

So sorry to hear this, Becky! I hope you recover soon

Time to speak truth to power: not only is it a banger but also it's effectively the first Animal Collective song ever

In my experience, Iris Murdoch is the only novelist who allows their characters to say "Oh goodie!"

All true!

Best thing I've read so far on the new Pynchon (imo a good-not-great, astonishingly addictive novel, which to be fair is a lot more than I expect to contribute to society at age 88) + just an extremely lucid career retrospective

I went to pay homage at Thomas Bernhard's grave in Vienna. A few minutes later, I was locked in the cemetery and had to try to flag down the caretaker to let me out. It was pitch black aside from the many candles guttering on the graves. I was unnerved, but I expect TB thought it hilarious.

Traveling Light, by Rafael Toral 6 track album

New Rafael Toral is beautiful and strange AND a perfect cosy season album rafaeltoral.bandcamp.com/album/travel...

Thrilled to share that Killing Children in British Fiction has been jointly awarded the @bacls.bsky.social Monograph Prize 2025. Thanks to judges; huge congratulations fellow winner @dremmaparker.bsky.social and shortlisted @olihaslam.bsky.social @gabriele-lazzari.bsky.social.

bacls.org/news/187/

Congrats, Dom!! Well deserved

The MHRA has transitioned from Twitter/X and will now use Bluesky to communicate our work. We are excited to contribute to establishing Bluesky as a dynamic, inclusive, and engaging platform for academic exchange and collaboration.

To celebrate this new chapter, we are hosting a book giveaway! 👇

Then there was the famous exchange between Bill Gates and Terry Pratchett in 1996(?) when clearly only one of them understood where human nature would take the Internet, and it wasn't Mr. Microsoft.

Been thinking a lot about Raymond Williams’s “Culture & Technology” essay where he critiques the liberal account of technological disruption: organic progress, rather than conscious choices by capital.

Just imagine if the money we are flushing into data centers went to railways or solar panels.

This is great. 'A refusal of AI in creative work begins with a refusal of that product’s ideological packaging'

Post-feudalism 🤝 neo-feudalism

Image of an olive skinned woman with shoulder length dark hair looking to her left, in a white T-shirt. The background is blurred. Overlaid white text on black backing reads: I’m running to be elected to the Management Committee of the Society of Authors.

Light blue background with whitish grid motif. Black text reads: - to improve author and translator pay - to fight against AI use and its normalisation - to represent both authors and literary translators

Same light blue background. Black text reads: - to bring my perspective as a working-class practitioner - to share my experience as a publisher and press officer

Same light blue background. Black text reads: full statement available on my website and the society of authors website. Voting is for members by post and must be received by 22 October.

I’m very proud to be running to be elected to the Management Committee of the Society of Authors. You can read my full statement here:

jencalleja.com/writing/

Love this album so much

Sally Rooney putting her money where her mouth is (figuratively of course). Bravo.
www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Thirty-seven years after the fact, the drum machine, doom-klezmer moves of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" remain an astonishingly radical gesture. From the crypt-keeper vocals to the reverse-Sermon-On-The-Mount-sentiment, it's the sound of Satan trying out his stand-up act and absolutely killing.