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Jake Goldsmith

@jgoldsmith.bsky.social

58 followers 53 following 160 posts

Author. https://www.saggingmeniscus.com/authors/jake_goldsmith/ Contributing editor to Exacting Clam. Founder of The Barbellion Prize. https://www.jakegoldsmithauthor.com

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · Jul 26

In Extremis

Published 9th September 2025

@saggingmeniscus.bsky.social

www.saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/in_e...

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 4h

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!

Bluemoose Books @ofmooseandmen.bsky.social · 7h

Having some Shakshuka for breakfast in our hotel in Belfast and Jeremy Vine from BBC Radio 2 phones about Julia Roberts and Leonard and Hungry Paul by @ronanhession.bsky.social

Rónán will be on @bbcradio2bot.bsky.social at 1.30 this afternoon.

Magic.

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 2d

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 )

Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 4d

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

Nocilla Lab by Agustín Fernández Mallo, Fitzcarraldo Editions

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 7d

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

Reposted by Jake Goldsmith

Ian Hagues @ianhagues.bsky.social · 7d

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

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 8d

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...

Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 8d

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

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 8d

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.

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 8d

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

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 8d

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...

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 8d

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

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 10d

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

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 10d

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 ...

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 10d

That is clearly a flying hare 🐰

Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 10d

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

Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 10d

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

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

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 12d

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

Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 12d

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

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 13d

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.

Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 13d

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

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 13d

“…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.

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 13d

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

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Reposted by Jake Goldsmith

David Collard @davidcollard.bsky.social · 16d

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.

The Glue Factory

The Glue Factory October newsletter This free monthly newsletter is to let you know about forthcoming events and/or publications involving...

davidjcollard.blogspot.com

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Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 20d

I've never seen a Parliament petition with that many signatures. When I signed it was over 800,000!

Considering that Reform are a likely next government, I shudder to think what they'd do with compulsory IDs...

Jake Goldsmith @jgoldsmith.bsky.social · 23d

We already have (or will have) our own organic homegrown demagogues in Europe making the same ridiculous claims, coming to a ballot box near you 🔜