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Malcolm Quinn

@malrog.bsky.social

1.3K followers 890 following 5.5K posts

Professor of Cultural and Political History UAL, Honorary Professor Bentham Project UCL. Thinks about anti-aesthetics. Read a chapter of my academic work for free: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10096746/1/Bentham-and-the-Arts.pdf

discovery.ucl.ac.uk

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · Aug 31

'If Bentham unsettles our faith in aesthetics while appropriating aesthetic forms, if he uses his knowledge of visual culture to compare Treasury officials to automata and has his portrait built in an anatomy theatre, which aspects of utilitarian thought are being developed?'

UCL Laws 24 July 2025

Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 24m

Oh I just smile and say ‘no thanks’. But it reminds me of that part of Freud’s essay on ‘The Uncanny’, where he tries to eject a decrepit old gent from his personal space, and then realises it is himself in a mirror.

Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 37m

Nearly a year since we were in Vienna. Trump was elected on the day we arrived, and I remember talking to some very troubled Americans in a museum

Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · Nov 8

We went to the Austrian Theatre Museum this morning. I wasn’t expecting to stand in a room where Beethoven’s fourth symphony was premiered.

Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 1h

Six weeks into this diet now, and I am heartily sick of it.

Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · Aug 26

Back in UK to find that the whole country has been put on the Reform diet. #gavage

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · Sep 3

Proof, if it were needed, that Farage has no interest in better outcomes for UK. Instead, he wants to find external means of support for his ethnonationalist agenda.

Josiah Mortimer @josiah.writes.news · Sep 3

Politico: "The Sun has seen evidence to [a US] committee submitted by Nigel Farage in which he suggests the White House should use “diplomacy and trade” in the free speech battle, which sounds like calling for Britain to be bullied into a law change."

Is Farage calling for sanctions AGAINST the UK?

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Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 17h

ICYMI | MIT has rejected the Trump administration’s proposal to sign on to the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which would mandate sweeping changes across campus in exchange for preferential treatment on federal funding.

https://bit.ly/3KO0g5l

MIT President Sally Kornbluth next to a shot of the campus and text of an open letter to the government on the education compact proposed by President Donald Trump. In black text the kicker Governance, the headline MIT Rejects Proposed Federal Compact, and the sub-headline MIT is the first institution to reject a proposal by the Trump administration that would trade preferential treatment on federal funding for far-reaching changes. Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images | Nate Hovee/iStock/Getty Images | MIT

The quote “In our view, America’s leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.” — Sally Kornbluth, MIT president, in a letter to the campus community Friday.

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 2h

However, there is also an urge to scorn the kindly young folk who offer you a seat on the tube.

Martin McDonald @martymcd.bsky.social · 15h

One of the few good things about getting old is being able to say 'I'm old' tbh

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 16h

When you think about it, it took 14 billion years to get to this point.

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Dr Anna Clark @drannaclark.bsky.social · 3h

New Worlds: The Geographer, 1669 by Johannes Vermeer, possibly inspired by Dutch microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. Textiles & cartography reflect East Indies trade & exploration, with wall chart by Blaeu & terrestrial globe on cabinet by Hondius the Elder, born #OTD 1563.
Städel Museum Frankfurt

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Londonist @londonist.com · 4d

Who's watching the new series of Slow Horses? We're sleuthing where all the London locations were shot, and have just added the Episode 3 scenes -> londonist.com/london/film/...

Slow Horses: Series 5 Filming Locations

Where does Jackson Lamb eat his breakfast? and other scenes.

londonist.com

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 11h

Apple TV.

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 11h

‘Slow Horses’ does London better than any other drama series I can think of. Rather than cleaning it up, it manages to make it just a bit more sleazy than it actually is.

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 1d

Basque cheesecake with raspberries and cream in a bowl.

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 13h

Carole Cadwalladr was right and we’d be in a better world if more people had listened.

Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 15d

This tweet has been doing the rounds on Twitter now that Nathan Gill has pleaded guilty.

If only someone had tried to investigate UKIP & Russian interference 🧐

There’s another timeline where the Guardian supported me, doubled down on the investigation & I look 5 years younger ..

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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 22h

The right-wing campaign group that helped topple Roe v Wade in the US is now working to roll back abortion laws in the UK, with the help of Nigel Farage.

Its first step? Trying to create a debate around "free speech"
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 13h

It is ok to prefer Ogilby to Milton.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 20h

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social · 1d

Ezra Stoller
Eero Saarinen’s TWA Terminal at Idlewild Airport, 1962

The swooping lines of the terminal, with a few travellers

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 14h

Watching @channel4news.bsky.social Georgia Meloni channeling Randall and Hopkirk in the parade of black suits at Sharm El-Sheikh.

Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 14h

‘Sailing the Shipping Forecast’. A cruel and unusual punishment.

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 3d

Like an actor who knows that he will never play Hamlet, I read this and realised that I am too old to be the Antichrist.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 3d

Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist

The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’

www.theguardian.com

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 15h

Or worse, Alan Bennett.

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 3d

No mention of the poll tax, a tax on being alive. She was a disaster.

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 15h

What are the chances that there is an AI version of this that engages us in conversation?

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 16h

Thanks for the heads-up. The last show I saw there was Michaux’s mescaline drawings, which was a small exhibition, but which also warranted a magnifying glass. It will be interesting to see how Thiebaud looks in the Courtauld.

Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 16h

When you think about it, it took 14 billion years to get to this point.

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Malcolm Quinn @malrog.bsky.social · 16h

‘Spare a few words, guv?’

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