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Reposted by Aoife Bhreatnach

Shakespeare and Company @shakespeareandcompany.com · 5h

Utterly necessary. Yet how mad that it should be so...

@Galleybeggars @galleybeggars.bsky.social · 7h

Here's the stamp on the back!

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Reposted by Aoife Bhreatnach

Frank O'Connor @frankoconnor.bsky.social · 8h

We're going to war on dereliction — but not yet

Latest op-ed by me & @judesherry.bsky.social in @irishexaminer.bsky.social which discusses move from Levy to Derelict Property Tax with collection by Revenue, & what needs to happen next
Shout outs to Sligo, Drogheda & wider #DerelictIreland community

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Reposted by Aoife Bhreatnach

trouteyes @trouteyes.bsky.social · Feb 5

I may or may not walk five hundred miles
And I may or may not walk five hundred more
Just to be the man who may or may not have walked
a thousand miles to fall or not fall down at your door

- The Disclaimers

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junkyard ambrose @caninebrainz.bsky.social · 1d

authors need to start beefing with each other via long-winded letters & essays published in "serious" magazines again

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 2d

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

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Reposted by Aoife Bhreatnach

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, babes. Have you got a big surprise coming...

Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️
@realchrisrufo
This is great news. We've hired the classicist Spencer Klavan to teach at New College of Florida. Goodbye gender studies; hello, Greek literature.
Quote
Spencer A. Klavan
@SpencerKlavan
·
Aug 19, 2024
Truly excited to be teaching an online survey course in Greek literature this fall semester @NewCollegeofFL. Even more excited that it's open to the public. Please join in here! We'll be reading Homer, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and lots more.

https://ncf.edu/youngheretics/
7:36 PM · Aug 19, 2024
·
840.8K
Views

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Reposted by Aoife Bhreatnach

Tim O’Connor @maotsetim.bsky.social · 3d

An incredibly satisfying article. I appreciate the GAA does a lot of good work but I cannot stand the sanctimony and hubris that so often accompanies the organisation.

Darach Ó Séaghdha @darach.bsky.social · 3d

GAA exceptionalism has definitely been due a peg-lowering.

The phrase "centrist rugby Dad" speaks to a fantasy where GAA is this benignly egalitarian, progressive and welcoming space. This is not everyone's experience but good luck to them if they say so.

www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic...

Malachy Clerkin: The Jim Gavin fiasco was a long overdue humbling for GAA exceptionalism

Micheál Martin had his head turned by Gavin’s football success, forgetting it’s just a sport, no better or worse than the rest

www.irishtimes.com

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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 5d

I am dealing with a “thorny problem” right now, today. It is hard and scary because IT IS ALWAYS HARD AND SCARY. But it is also where you do your best work. It is where stories go from “meh” to “WOW”. When I fix it - because that is the job - I will be that much closer to something worth reading.

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 6d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Reposted by Aoife Bhreatnach

David Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 7d

DEI for me, not for thee.

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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

Did you notice the sex in the Dragonrider books? I must have been dense to miss it

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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

Being taught to read before school was a huge advantage for me too. But I wanted to learn. My siblings didn't and their lives are much less bookish.

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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

Excellent choice!

Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

Blessed be the parents who never censored their children's reading

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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

And Mary Whitehouse was pretty influential then too. This text definitely felt deliberately provocative, even if I knew nothing about precisely why.

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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

I never regret any time spent reading.

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 7d

Just to be clear, an English degree - learning to critically assess texts - is actually one of the most dangerous for people such as Badenoch.

An educated population, able to bring hundreds of years of context to statements in a dawning age of AI slop and attention-seeking dishonesty is also vital.

The Bear @bearlypolitics.co.uk · 7d

So, the plan is to cut English, the arts, and sociology - the degrees that actually study culture - while on another part of your platform claiming to “defend” British culture.

It’s performance nationalism with a reading age of seven.

Badenoch: Curb students taking 'rip-off' degrees such as English
The performing arts, sociology and anthropology are among the subjects the Conservatives would like to cut

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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

What can be more contagious to the mind than the bad book? #SpéirGhorm #BannedBooksWeek

Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

This #BannedBooksWeek I'm remembering all the books I read at the wrong time, when they were "age inappropriate". Some of them shocked and scared me but I don't regret any of them. 🧵

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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

And of course, Jilly Cooper's bonkbusters, from Riders onwards. I borrowed my mother's copies as a young teenager. Cooper's novels were so much fun that I cannot imagine anyone being disturbed by reading them. #BannedBooksWeek

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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

I adored the cover of Porterhouse Blue with its inflated condoms sailing through the air. Read all of Tom Sharpe's scurrilous output in my early teens, when buying condoms was extremely difficult. It seemed very risque to me then. #BannedBooksWeek

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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel disturbed me more than any book I've ever encountered. At 12, I was scarred by its lengthy, graphic and repeated descriptions of rape. Was it good or bad for me to read at this age? Can't really say. #BannedBooksWeek

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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

Did I notice that dragon riders shagged with each other as their dragons mated? I did not. Probably because I was 10. #BannedBooksWeek

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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

Sláine read to me like a Cú Chulainn story with all the gore drawn in. So much naked flesh, so much blood. Read this alongside Dredd and also Asterix, and Tintin. #BannedBooksWeek

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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

Was fascinated by the technicolour violence and extravagant cruelty of Judge Dredd from age 10. I remember beautiful artwork of exploding bodies and barely contained tits. It probably warped my mind. Catalogued in Irish libraries as adult fiction #BannedBooksWeek

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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

Read Sallinger's 'Catcher' when I was 9. Did not feel sympathetic towards its tortured teenage antagonist but it would be difficult for a girl being harassed on the street by teenage boys to feel sorry for any of them. #BannedBooksWeek

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Aoife Bhreatnach @aoifeb.bsky.social · 7d

This #BannedBooksWeek I'm remembering all the books I read at the wrong time, when they were "age inappropriate". Some of them shocked and scared me but I don't regret any of them. 🧵

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Reposted by Aoife Bhreatnach

ACLU of South Carolina @aclusc.bsky.social · 8d

Advocacy Director Courtney Thomas on Beloved by Toni Morrison, one of the most banned and challenged books in the country. #BannedBooksWeek

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