Jon Stone

Game Poems Issue 1 is now available on Itch! If you enjoyed the issue, please consider leaving an honest rating or comment to help with traction and discovery on the platform. <3 gamepoems.itch.io/game-poems-i...

It wasn't "cancel culture" when women and people of color got used up, silenced, and dismissed before their careers even began. It only became "cancel culture" when powerful abusers started having established careers momentarily inconvenienced by revelations of what they'd done.

Again: Not hyperbole, misinterpretation, or a joke that Christian Dominionism is a strain of apocalyptic accelerationism which VERY LITERALLY SEEKS to hasten their vision of the Biblical end of the world, & the people who believe this have VERY CAREFULLY worked their way into the halls of U.S. power

A billion dollars is the socio-economic equivalent of a loose nuke, and we should work to prevent the acquisition of the former with the same urgency and ruthlessness we use to prevent the acquisition of the latter.

Join me on for the launch of my book Gothic Celebrity: Fame and Immortality from Lord Byron to Lady Gaga! The event will take place on 20 March at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. If you'd like to attend, you can sign up via Eventbrite
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launc...

I've really enjoyed this one after bouncing hard off Discovery and finding Strange New Worlds only mildly diverting.

I mean, they both feature a lot of hyperventilating and intense looks?

Shattering the historic voting bloc of left, libs and Sensible Moderates was *the entire point* of McSweeney’s project, at first in secret and then openly. The entire plan was to replace it with a crushing natural party of government composed of Sensible Moderates, Reasonable Tories and bullied libs

I need to sit down at some point and organise the channels properly because it seems like the tools are there to get a good feed through. Generally, I think we've got a way to go still in building up the network here.

(Gave you a shout-out in my latest Substack by the way).

DIARY: Talking Very Loudly in Big, Hot Rooms Readings and events, gone and upcoming. Tarot, Twine, toys, transformation etc.

Here's my big (but relatively short) round-up of various events and readings over the last few months, as well as what's just around the corner. Of particular interest to those of you who really like looking at posters!

shotscarecrow.substack.com/p/diary-talk...

Les hasards heureux de l'escarpolette (The Swing) after Jean-Honoré Fragonard They've all broken in. The floating girl in her blancmange of petticoats, who kicks off her shoe like a ravenous convict tossing away a sucked-clean bone. The one who grips the ropes of the swing as if losing control of his chariot. And the hatless little priest for whom an angel just blazed into view. They've all broken in to the nuage d'orage in a flying machine.

'Les hasards heureux de l’escarpolette (The Swing)' by @shotscarecrow.bsky.social badlilies.uk/jon-stone-1

Opinion The Labour Together scandal goes right to the heart of No 10 - Starmer has nowhere to hide

The core of “the Labour Together scandal” is Peter Mandelson’s party insiders secretly collaborating with the national press to a) terrorise a twitchy minority group, b) shitehouse the Tories to election victory, then c) bullshit Sir Keir to power. I’d say a few others have questions to answer.

Made a new poster. London launch for Pirates and Vampires, a week this Friday, at The Angel in Holborn from 6pm.

'Wildfires', the new issue of Bad Lilies is out, and I have a poem in it based on this painting, 'Les Hasards heureux de l'escarpolette' by Jean-Honoré Fragonard:

"... kicks off her shoe
like a ravenous convict tossing away
a sucked-clean bone."

Oof. Then I got nothing.

Given that it's an invitation to give a keynote, I'm wondering if the email is not on behalf of a faculty or department but a conference organiser who is operating without a proper budget?

Yeah, I have never in my life heard this "Universities don't pay speaker fees" nonsense before.

'Blind Fish' by Yusef Komunyakaa, from Night Animals. (I posted a short review of this yesterday).

Icebox. An empty icebox.

Why Does Contemporary Fascism Fetishize the Classics? Having acquired a hundred acres adjacent to the royal residences in Castelporziano in 1906, the House of Savoy commissioned an archeological dig on their new land. From the sandy soil displaced dur…

Good article, but I've got a simpler answer: the only aspect of culture the far right cares about is mythic representations of power.

lithub.com/why-does-con...

Two new Future Karaoke events coming up in March! Onwards to March, when I can also overseed my wretched lawn!

100-Word Reviews: Fae/Spy Edition On theme with our latest submissions call: Night Animals; Animal Well; Slow Horses; Codenames Duet.

Four new 100-word reviews thematically tied to the current @sidekickbooks.bsky.social submissions call. Night Animals, Animal Well, Slow Horses, Codenames Duet.

sidekickbooks.substack.com/p/100-word-r...

Sometimes?

That in turn is not helped by the fact that it turns out really was a massive billionaire child trafficking ring that was behind everything (OK, not *everything*, but you get my point -- the more extreme things get, the more easily people reach for other extreme explanations).

braag sale ends tomorrow 10th feb up to 50% off thebraag.co

If you've been thinking about grabbing any books from us, now would be a brilliant time! Our sale ends tomorrow, Feb 10th.

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lol, the 'pro-Corbyn crew' had plenty of criticisms of Corbyn -- just not ones that followed the mass media script. They also actively discussed who should succeed him, recognising that he needed to be only a temporary figurehead to get the movement into power. Try again, Paul.

In fact, we should all be paying very close attention to the details of German history from 80 years ago.

Members of the public joined in, and police refused to intervene. It was instigated by the Nazis, but so was Brexit instigated by figures in the right trying for a power grab -- namely, UKIP and their allies in the Tory party.

It's a very close parallel. Significant numbers of the populace willed into an act of mass vandalism by a sinister cabal who see opportunity in chaos.

Brexit was a significant stage in the long-term plans of racists and xenophobes, yes.

Your argument is that people discussing German fascism should stop mentioning Kristallnacht.