ferdinand addis

#Conquest by @ferdieaddis an epic, visceral history of the Romans in Britain, from Caesar's first invasion attempt in 55 BC to the fall of the Roman empire. Pre-order now: geni.us/Conqorgsoc

Lotta guys been using the rusalka in the millpond as a therapist. If you only go in up to your ankles she can’t drown you but she’ll still tell you how tall and handsome you are

@Dennis_W_Wise May I have a copy? Sounds intriguing!

Except for a few people *really* into the modern alliterative revival, I haven't encountered many people who even know this poem exists ... but if you can survive the difficult late modernist aesthetics, it's a ridiculously fascinating text. DM for the pdf! 2/2

A new publication just dropped for the *Journal of the INTERNATIONAL ARTHURIAN SOCIETY* ..... it's an extended analysis and explanation to help newbies understand the long, late modernist poem ARTORIUS by British poet John Heath-Stubbs. 1/2

@QiaochuYuan @imperialauditor Yes quite! In a sense, age of slop is a test of the "death of the artist" idea, and a successful one in that it demonstrates that artists never died, but rather have been haunting their art all along. Could we always tell? Maybe not. But we find we miss them when they're gone

@ferdieaddis @imperialauditor right. this is what i take sam kriss to mean when he says the reason AI music can’t replace real musicians is AI can’t get addicted to heroin and kill itself

would you guys prefer I wrote no long form essays at all or wrote them with Claude's help?

#ConquestFerdinandAddis by @ferdieaddis an epic, visceral history of the Romans in Britain, from Caesar's first invasion attempt in 55 BC to the fall of the Roman empire is now available on @NetGalley Request now: bit.ly/4eTfzH5

@imperialauditor Worth mentioning the third option here: write them yourself badly (they will actually be good and worthwhile!) An essay, after all, is an attempt!

@imperialauditor @QiaochuYuan But good non fiction is not that! Rather it's the record of a person really grappling with reality, and that makes it precious and alive. It's one of the (myriad) disorders of the podcast age that we've come to think of non fiction primarily in terms of information transfer, imo

@imperialauditor @QiaochuYuan I think not really? Unless, I suppose, the purpose of the writing is really to impart to me some specific knowledge. I wouldn't mind reading, for example, an AI textbook or technical manual (assuming accuracy).

@QiaochuYuan @imperialauditor In a weird way this might make it worse. Depends on your philosophy ofc, but if you go to a piece of writing (as I do!) hoping to have some fleeting contact with the real thoughts and feelings of your fellow man, then better ai prose = bigger disappointment

@ferdieaddis @imperialauditor unless it's like really really good possibly

@imperialauditor @QiaochuYuan People will extremely object to reading through a thing and discovering it's ai at the end imo!

@QiaochuYuan yeah I'm curious whether its better to have the acknowledgement at the end of the piece or the beginning ie tradeoff between people unfairly dismissing it without reading vs feeling suckered (although if they read to the end that's it's own signal)

Thornton Wilder, why you must read fiction

not to pick on this person in particular, but I am perplexed by the apparent absence of what ought to be a firm social consensus that these people should be burned at the stake

Editing

Book already admirably opinionated

Off to yugoslavia

@CptHastings1916 Me and my 8yo enjoyed trying to do sketches of various (I think maybe mesopotamian but I forget) figurines, near the Egyptians upstairs. Mostly pleasant because less teeming. Likewise there's never anyone looking at the Greek pots and they're really fun

Any of my Twitter chums taken children to the British Museum? Might be taking my 8 yo daughter soon so glad of any tips for good stuff there that younglings might enjoy. So far she likes the sound of the Ancient Egyptian bits.

Context