Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 1d

I always thought that the Stiftsbibliotek would be where George Smiley would spend his salad days.

Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 2d

One of the best bits of Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver is the detailed narration of Newton doing this, streaming tears and making observations, imperiously commanding the narrator to do different things with the lighting in the room.

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 2d

"Being a grownup is you have to work all night and all day until someone answers your double computer"

Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 2d

Because of the world I assumed one or both must have just died

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 2d

TURMOIL

What can i say, we loved the drama

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 2d

Im triggered

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 2d

"Pine no longer available"

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 2d

the pressure was intense! and the cognitive dissonance of desperately wanting to conform while also thinking that that was nonsense

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 2d

Thinking about the man -- long dead, now -- who taught me The Dead in his sitting room in Hale Barns. He was old, but the story's preoccupation with youth and old he taught quite unselfishly. He wanted me, a 17-yo boy, maybe Michael Furey's age, to think about my youth and my age. What a gift.

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 3d

The Olds were there for the Theory Wars; by contrast I saw the finest minds of my generation starving, hysterical, and egg-based

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 3d

Middle grad school for me was peak branding -- I met lots of grads at conferences who presented themselves as a brand ("Weather poems; storms as knowledge" was one gnomic self-pitch, right after getting her name out). I think the sub-fields got too tiny and the soufflé collapsed.

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 6d

RIP Jilly Cooper, the writer who best understood the inflections of a smirk.

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 8d

Almost all good undergrad teaching tramples on someone else's historicity.

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 9d

Can't wait to read another week's news justifying torture and genocide.

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 12d

Pull for prime always lands as such a roast. Love this.

Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 12d

Russel Hoban for ever.

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 15d

Final Boss of Both-Sides-ing

JVG 骨 @jasonv.bsky.social · 15d

Absolute all-timer sentence in today's @nytimes.com

"some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily execute civilians" says today's New York Times, continuing their long tradition of whitewashing fascism

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 15d

Remember "close reading is extractive"?

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 15d

The instant they remember you're there, they will forget it all

Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 15d

This is a terrific analysis. And from the point of view of my own expertise, some really impressive, sensible use of data viz to make an argt.

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 15d

On the morning of Keir Starmer's conference speech here's a new post on an odd psychopathology in British politics - our main parties don't like the people who vote for them - the dreaded Professional Managerial Class. And so they are acting out like a divorced dad seeking cooler voters. 1/n

British Politics' Midlife Crisis

Why British Parties Can't Make Peace with Their Actual Voters

benansell.substack.com

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 15d

Really interesting and I'm only mildly piqued that I didn't get book club scammed. But I get about two emails a month insisting I talk on WhatsApp about my research. Which... no.

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 15d

Baldur's Gate 2 erasure

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 15d

Never fear, the democrats would NEVER. Compromise is not in their vocabulary. Unlike capitulate, I guess.

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 15d

Not the best prognosis tbh

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Claude Willan @claudewillan.bsky.social · 16d

I'm sorry we weren't ready when you were, Jonathan Swift

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 16d

I have been haunted by this statement all day www.kgw.com/article/news...

Local News
Trump seems to back off Portland military plan: 'Am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening?'

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