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Reposted by Helen Macdonald

Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 6h

Today I am mostly thinking about the popular inter-war literary genre 'animal stories written by fascists'. Join me.

Title page of a collection of animal stories by Henry Williamson: TARKA THE OTTER, SALAR THE SALMON, THE EPIC OF BROCK THE BADGER, CHAKCHEK THE PEREGRINE.

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Reposted by Helen Macdonald

Postcard From The Past @pastpostcard.bsky.social · 8d

Jilly Cooper is lovely.

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Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · 9d

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BSFWriters @bsfwriters.bsky.social · 14d

Our opinions on current issues in the technosphere:

AI is theft
Diversity encourages innovation
If you won't fix this planet, you don't deserve a new one
There is no such thing as a self-made human
Reject terror
Ignore censors

Remember, you are here:

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Sin Blaché ♣️ @sinblache.bsky.social · 14d

If only someone had written a really gay sci-fi horror book built around the central theme of how nostalgia is a weapon wielded by a fascistic and capitalist state
Anyway, read PROPHET. Me and @hjm.bsky.social are super proud of it.

grimm ☀️ @mugrimm.bsky.social · 15d

This is doing numbers on social media right now and it's so depressing how people truly yearn for this shit and want to preserve that feeling indefinitely like a mausoleum of false memories.

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Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · 18d

Hanging out at Barrett’s with Xtin

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Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · 18d

Napoleon Bonaparte box set! "Each in a color that evokes an event in the emperor's life"

Napoleon Bonaparte box set - Knee-highs - Limited edition

Box of 6 replicas of Napoleon's stockings - Limited edition May 5, 2021 marked the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's death. To celebrate this page in French History and the love of socks, the Mes Chauss...

meschaussettesrouges.com

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Reposted by Helen Macdonald

Susan Kaye Quinn is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱 @susankayequinn.bsky.social · 20d

They've lost the 9yos

JA Westenberg
@Daojoan@mastodon.social

My 9 year old and his classmates have started using “that’s AI” to mean “I don’t believe you.”

Me: we’re having dinosaur meat for dinner

Kiddo: that’s AI
Sep 24, 2025, 07:36 AM

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Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · Mar 31

This Reddit thread of people explaining the most unhinged reason they ever abandoned a book is a delight

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Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · 20d

ah I see Farage has invoked the old swan chestnut

excerpt from Vesper Flights putting claims of immigrants eating swans in context and showing it's an ornithological dog whistle

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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 22d

I am calling for a moratorium on new tote bags. We all have more than enough tote bags already. Stop giving me tote bags at conferences. I do not want or need any more tote bags.

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Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · 22d

Did I mean one dimensional, @sinblache.bsky.social? I mean, deWitt has his heritage apple thing, maybe that gets him to 2D

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Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · 22d

In PROPHET, @sinblache.bsky.social and I took great delight in making our villains as two-dimensional and frankly awful as they are irl

Angus Main @angusmain.bsky.social · 22d

I wonder if the early 21st century trend of treating super villains like they’re heroes has any broader cultural significance

Gizmodo @gizmodo.com · 22d

No doubt Lex will still be a villain by the end of 'Man of Tomorrow,' but you'll leave the movie understanding where he comes from.

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Reposted by Helen Macdonald

Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 22d

“The computer acts like a computer” is such a profound and such a mundane result, all at once. It’s far more shocking that reasonable-sounding people have argued that massive datasets contain within them a secret truth that only will be revealed by… multinomial logits

Prof Mike Yearworth @mikeyearworth.bsky.social · 23d

"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits."

www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws

In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...

www.computerworld.com

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Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · 23d

The best shirt

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Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · 23d

Thanks to bff Xtin for alerting me to this joyous photoset

WEDDINGS 26 — Tanner Fletcher

tannerfletcherstudios.com

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Reposted by Helen Macdonald

Scoiattolo @offline.mountainherder.xyz · 25d

We eating dessert out of the demon core.

(Don’t sleep on Bakea in Mungia, once they get a Michelin star you’ll never be able to get in)

The image shows a close-up of hands with blue-painted fingernails touching a silver or metallic dome-shaped object with a lever inserted into it on a wooden surface with a metal-toned container partially visible on the right side of the image.

The image shows two small metal hemispheric containers on a wooden surface. One container is empty, while the other contains what appears to be a decorative food item - a swirl of white cream or meringue with yellow and reddish-brown elements, possibly a dessert or culinary presentation. In the background, there is a tall cylindrical metal container and some other blurry metallic objects on the wooden surface.

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Reposted by Helen Macdonald

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 25d

An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade

Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’

Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'

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m john harrison @mjohnharrison.bsky.social · 26d

I heard "unfortunately you can't not do this thing in fiction" & have been determinedly not doing it since

Emma Devlin @theactualemma.bsky.social · 26d

Heard “unfortunately you can’t do [forma thing] in fiction” and I am, sorry to say, obsessed with doing it now.

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Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · 26d

quentin blake, photojournalist

Camilla, charles, trump, melania in poses and expressions that resemble the pen, ink and watercolour illustrative style of the illustrator Quentin Blake

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Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · 27d

Re: last RT. See also: Frank O’Hara

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Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 28d

But most of all, I loved how Redford held a phone.
How he righted wrongs with a phone.
How he made holding a phone so fucking sexy, so morally righteous.

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Sathnam Sanghera @sathnam.bsky.social · 29d

I don't think Peter Mandelson is PM's biggest problem. The biggest problem is not standing up to the literal violent racism on our streets, supercharged by the richest man in the world, and threatening the very fabric of our society. If he and so many commentators can't see this, we're truly lost.

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Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · Sep 13

Hahaha

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L @banalplay.bsky.social · Sep 12

This is simply untenable. There is no way forward with media and political classes captured by the right. Every time someone commits a crime you have to pray it's not an undesirable or it's purge time, then when it turns out to be themselves again they just shrug and wait for the next one.

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