Jake Goldsmith

Supergroup.

I might crawl out of my cave and see if I can make the treacherous journey down to the city...

The Barbellion Prize (barbellionprize.org) will be relaunched online on Saturday 1st November at 7pm (London Time). It's hosted by prize founder Jake Goldsmith and special guests. f you're not on my mailing list and would like to come please email me via my website: davidjcollard.wixsite.com/my-site

I second Montaigne

The Complete Essays by Michel de Montaigne, Collected Maxims by La Rochefoucauld, Memoirs by Raymond Aron

David Collard and Kurt Luchs in Conversation - The Exacting Clam Cephalopodcast David Collard and Kurt Luchs discuss their two recent books: Collard's A Crumpled Swan: Fifty essays about Abigail Parry's 'In the dream of the cold res...

In the latest Exacting Clam Encephalopodcast, a wide-ranging conversation between two authors of unconventional books on poetry: @davidcollard.bsky.social  (A CRUMPLED SWAN) and Kurt Luchs (TRIBUTARIES).

Man in a brown coat, jeans, and baseball cap, colourful umbrella, at a green table with multiple sets of dentures and teeth upon it. The man holds a pair of pliers.

@kvind.bsky.social Should we trust him?

Just caught @ronanhession.bsky.social on BBC Radio 2 after seeing this post 2 mins before the show. Excited to see Leonard and Hungry Paul on screen soon!

Immigrants forced to study English. They become more educated than native Brits with underfunded education.
Immigrants are now smarter and find the best jobs.
Fewer jobs for Brits.

For this reason we should only have uneducated immigrants who can’t take our high-powered jobs.

…

( /nsrs )

Nocilla Lab by Agustín Fernández Mallo, Fitzcarraldo Editions

Latest purchase ( recommended by @ronanhession.bsky.social )

I read One Day In the Life… about 13 years ago, when I was 15. I wouldn’t recommend it to teenagers but I think you’ll be fine

@avecsesdoigts.bsky.social
@jgoldsmith.bsky.social
Some recent book post 📚💪

This is true. We could also imagine the racist response from many news outlets who think there is now some sort of East Asian bias at the Swedish Academy...

There's no perfect solution anyway. We could award legitimately talented African and Asian authors for the next 50 years to redress past wrongs, but it would in a sense be an insult to everyone

We could say forget all that, forget the schtick of a competitive prize, damn 'optics' and damn everything, but that's too easy (or rather too difficult). They shouldn't be afraid to award an American if (say) another American won last year, and they can still try to redress biases.

Or Anglocentric. Pynchon is 88 and has been (understandably) tipped to win for years. He'd deserve it. But if it wasn't awarded to him because another man won last, this might redress a cultural prejudice but him not being awarded (& then dying) would be seen suspiciously, regardless of fair intent

There are conflicting impulses: 1, to award who is best on merit alone, regardless of 'optics', and 2, to go to some length to not be so biased towards particular authors (say, awarding only Nordic writers). Yet as much as not being Eurocentric is a legitimate aim it becomes fraught...

I'm really looking forward to this and I'm recommending everyone to watch the show (and read the book too).
Coincidentally I'm going out with a friend tomorrow to a board game night at a local bar. I'll be sure to recruit more to the cause

I'm not waiting 35 years for ice cream. Ice cream might not exist in 35 years. Too warm.

I have you as the strongest contender for the 2060 prize. Hopefully we will all still be around by then and the Nobel won't have debased itself into insignificance or frivolity by awarding rockstars or YouTube video essayists ...

That is clearly a flying hare 🐰

I loved the quotes you shared from it earlier so I will probably pick it up

“Should we put the painting up on the wall?”

“No, let’s put it within the elaborate curtained wooden doohickey.”

Nobels are normally given as a sort-of lifetime achievement award. So when Camus won in ‘57 some critics laughed (though of course they were jealous) as they could say he had hit his peak. Wait 30+ years and we can finally award you

It needs to be Pynchon just to be rude and ferret him out of hiding 🫣

We know some things, terrible events or the inner workings of our private lives, are beyond the reach of art: whether they are great works of art or not.

Some experiences defy art. We shouldn’t be against portraying them necessarily, for moral reasons, but we are more inadequate than we think in representing them

“…we watch television programs and we say: “Sorry, but it isn't it.” And when we are asked: “But what is it?”, we find ourselves unable to respond. What we really wish to say, what we feel we must say cannot be said.” — Elie Wiesel.

Terribly gauche comparison, but I feel the same with war. “It cannot be ported into the representational mode.”
…

I've just sent out several thousand emails with my October newsletter attached. Hundreds have bounced back as the file was too large. I sent a smaller file with the same results. So you can find a 'penny plain' version online here: davidjcollard.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-...
Thinking cap on.