Oisín

I was so happy my copies arrived from @Downingfield, I... Lilies on the Deathbed of Étaín, my second collection just landed in my house. Critically praised, a Scotsman book of the year, pick up a copy and bring me back to life! amazon.co.uk/dp/0645231819/ #poetry #writing #ireland

@NatureUnedited @JulianD86666247 I want to hug them all

These adorable great horned owls were recorded in Arizona, nesting in a saguaro cactus. They were moments away from falling asleep, all bundled up together

@bernardtjoy Ah there's several older episodes where they encounter folk who are like oh hi, yeah, no go away you weird primitives, we're happy without you

Trekkies can correct me, but it must be a very common opinion that one of the main ways Star Trek so cleverly solved the problem of portraying a utopian future, that being the inevitable sense of paralysis and stultification in such a morally excellent society, was by evincing an imperialistic ethos of discovery whereby barbarous worlds as foil could be encountered and placed under the microscope of the Federation's higher moral standards. Whether in Earth's past or in distant zones of the universe, the utopian society acts as universal critic but what interests me is that it is these other, lesser societies that are the only escape such a utopian science fiction can have from stalling under the weight of its own perfection.

@brecht_dp Teehee

@Breen I couldn't have said it better (and AI definitely not 😂)

More people seem to be worried about a novel being AI-assisted, than about Hachette publishing absolute crap in the first place.

@brecht_dp No, person with several million, a family pile in the upper east side of Manhattan and several houses, you are not oppressed. You do not get to dictate ethics. Your entire attitude is poison. ;)

@brecht_dp They're all at it. High end lit has largely been emperor's new clothes for decades, overseen by a coterie of wealthy idiots readapting critical theory to place themselves as victims in order to reintroduce Victorian style didacticism.

@bernardtjoy I agree. Your post also reminds of Foucault's essay from, I think, the 80s, about the decontextualisation of the centre, but that 'centrehood' is a non local usable but permanent relational property of an object, yet not, in fact, due to relationality, contained in the object

Art is made for many social, political, commercial and financial reasons that go beyond the artwork as artwork. So, an artwork is an artwork and it is a driver of change, and a securer of power, and a commodity. However, if there is not at least one artist at the centre of the project interested if not exclusively then mostly in human experience and their craft and technique then the artwork cannot be made to any degree of high quality, cannot fulfil its primary role.

@SketchesbyBoze This one is pretty hilarious.

You can be pretty confident that someone doesn’t read when they say “raped over at Kohl’s” rather than “raked over the coals.” As literacy declines, we are seeing new & unparalleled malapropisms.

@bernardtjoy @matthiasellis 100% Christ, as a poet, I'm half convinced no one, who lauds each year's new sensation, ever read it. I encounter spectacular work, then I see what's promoted by the organizations, and I have no idea what's happening. An aside: why/how is blue tick going? Worth holding nose?

I think one of the massive issues with film culture today is that dedicated audiences will consciously choose to accept films that do not hang together as a complete work. So it is possible for a fan to say "sure it doesn't stand alone, but it sets the table for part two" or "yes, the film has no strong characterisation, but just look at the aesthetics" or "I know the pacing is rubbish but listen to that soundtrack!" I read this as something to do with the atomisation of the formerly much more consolidated ways we used to think about art and entertainment, and the consolidated ways too that artworks and entertainment came to us and were distributed and received. Seems to me, films of the past were under much more pressure to stand on their own merits, to be coherent at first viewing and without much of the conceptual crutches of in-built fandoms and the weight of hundreds of billions of dollars concerns and all their industry synergies. Many more films of the past had to pull together all the threads of the filmmaker's art. They did this with at least the primary intention of creating an atmosphere in the moment that was capable of moving a viewer as an individual and what's more doing so on a pre-reflective level, before that viewer has begun to make excuses for the film they wanted to love and to fill in blanks that the filmmakers ought to have filled in themselves.

@jadedwriter_ Aye, agree. It's a huge shame. Unwritten rules were great in many ways.

@Breen Unfortunately this level of thought and consideration can not be counted upon as being the standard.

Tough one. And why I stopped soliciting years ago. Of course it’s insulting to have a solicited piece rejected, but at the same time, solicited writers assume the solicitor will publish whatever they send and often don’t send their strongest work. Bad practice in general, IMO.

@poland4evr @dramdarcy Interesting. Honestly, I'm open to this, on a broad spectrum. I think at his peak Eliot wins, but on reflection, more broadly, you're right. Still no Joyce.

@Breen @dramdarcy Nah, Woolf clears Eliot easy

Nah ... she's a minor modern master and she knew it, hence the jealous sniping at Eliot and Joyce. Furthermore, a truly dreadful, very specific type of Upper Middle Class English Snob, who finds reason to despise almost everybody outside of their constricted, provincial circle.

@dublin_damo Aye, very true.

@Breen It's different in warm countries, they live outdoors, streets always full of life, and eating is a more social activity. In Ireland, the pub is the only real social outlet for many 'aul lads.

Love seeing 'aul lads talking shite together in the pub, it means the world to them, free therapy, and Ireland is still the best country in the world for it.

@thomasforth I personally, would not have wanted this outcome. But there was a window, but I'd have put it a long time earlier. I think you'd have needed to treat with the actual remnant Irish civilization as a bonafide state, i.e. before the final Tudor conquest.

@thomasforth True, to be fair. I'm delighted we're independent, but it would have been possible to treat, and then find shared balance (with a federated model), but it would have needed an awareness that didn't exist, and an apology for hundreds of years of war, theft & tyranny -> unlikely.

1/ Yes. 30M easily. 2/ In a world where Britain had properly joined Ireland as equals in 1800 and built a country together, Ireland and we would share that country which would have avoided famine, and we'd be 120 million today. Decent chance. . My favourite what if in history.

@erskinechilders Yup.

@dramdarcy I mean, she's equivalent to one of the top football players of her era, remembered, praised, and admired. Joyce, Eliot etc., they're Maradonas, Platinis, Zidanes Then folk like Bely, they're those little scheming genius players who wow for centuries, but for afficionados.

@dramdarcy Ah she's fabulous, and so many brilliant books. She can have had an absolute ridiculous viewpoint on many things (dear me, she did), and still be top tier. I'll accept that Joyce & Eliot are streets ahead, but they're from the even narrower band of tip-top tier for the ages.

@BeckyLTuch This is ... odd.

Portion of a contract from a literary magazine to a writer. 😮 Does this look reasonable to you? (Emphases mine.)

@jadedwriter_ That said, anywhere that solicited and paid, I'd treat like an assignment and do the work for exactly what was required. I guess that's my line, produce commensurate with the offer, and my knowledge and appreciation of the source.

@jadedwriter_ It's interesting right? Depends on solicitation. Only happened me a few times. Twice it was very, oooh anything in the vaults, and once I wrote something specific, but they ghosted, then asked again the year after (staff change), and ghosted again (subnivean, small but hey...)