Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Helen Lovatt

@helenlovatt.bsky.social

1.4K followers 630 following 2K posts

Professor of Classics at Nottingham, writing, cats, brass banding, flowers. Power of Sadness, Latin Epic, Argonauts crossing. She/they. Legally blind

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 11d

Finally sat down to write and Ellie has opinions

Ginger cat sitting on notebook looking determinedly out into the garden

1 4

Reposted by Helen Lovatt

Auschwitz Memorial @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social · 6h

14 October 1940 | A Dutch Jewish girl, Mirjam Lewkowicz, was born in Gouda.

In September 1943, she was deported to #Auschwitz and murdered in a gas chamber after the selection.
---

A short video showing the ruins of gas chamber and crematorium III: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ipQmBPAlJQ8

Vintage black and white photo of a young girl with large eyes and curly hair, wearing a patterned bib over a dark shirt.

14 120 440

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 9h

Or just make porn, of course

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 9h

The process /possibility of revelation more exciting than the outcome…

1 16

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 9h

The weirdness might be worth a brief look. I guess it might fall into a having fun with fan mash ups /a feeling of co creation or authorship? For those who want more of a thing that has been cancelled? Or would have preferred a different storyline outcome? But there is so much excellent TV out there

1 2

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 13h

In under-researched areas, but also in well-traveled areas, where they tend towards cliché.

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 13h

Likelihood of wholly fabricated references?
In general: LLMs extrapolate plausible words based on the prompts and their training data. They don’t understand things. They tend towards the most commonly said things. Therefore they are very bad at cutting edge, critical humanities research, especially

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 14h

The politics of animal stories. Interesting for children’s literature. Nature, like the ancient world, can be used to justify many different modern beliefs.

Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 16h

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.

Reposted by Helen Lovatt

Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 16h

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

10 34 110

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 15h

More work than it saves is happening.
Planning? It will give you lowest common denominator out of date bullshit.
Bibliography? Mostly irrelevant or out of date
Summarising? Surprisingly inaccurate. Just use the abstract
Writing? Terrible vapid style.
Referencing? Danger of hallucinations

1 1

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 15h

This is important: ‘And for every student who has enthusiastically embraced AI, there’s a student who used it once or twice and realized that in the time it takes to get AI to generate something passable they could just do the work themselves.’ Figuring out the good use cases and where it creates

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 15h

I’m in the I won’t call you for academic misconduct if there’s no smoking gun, but I will give you a very low mark if it is a hotchpotch of vague generalities. A third class or fail mark, that you will not be happy with.

1 1

Reposted by Helen Lovatt

Neville Morley @nevillemorley.bsky.social · 17h

A really excellent Open Letter to Students on using GenAI, which I came across over on Mastodon: librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/a...

An open letter to students considering submitting AI generated work

“We have concluded a Faustian pact with our science and technology generally, and with the computer in particular. So it seems to me. And in such a pact with Mephistopheles both partners gain somet…

librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com

3 11 15

Reposted by Helen Lovatt

Abby Innes @abbyinnes.bsky.social · 18h

Why an urgent path to net zero is not a socialist conspiracy…. number 3456328…
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Towns may have to be abandoned due to floods with millions more homes in Great Britain at risk

Every constituency projected to be at greater risk, with many areas likely to be uninsurable, Guardian investigation finds

www.theguardian.com

4 49 100

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 1d

YA fiction is often better written than adult fiction, because more tightly edited

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

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

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 1d

My parents, their business, our old landline, my sister’s old landline. You used to repeat the number when you answered the phone to tell people they’d dialled the right number. Only my own mobile, from filling in forms.

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 1d

‘Introduce yourself using only one food you refuse to eat, one movie you’ll never watch again, and one song you can’t stand’

Refuse is a strong word, but I’m very down on white bread
Coraline
Indian Summer, by Eric Ball (brass band piece not a song)

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 1d

What does ‘recruit senior researchers’ even mean? Does it mean ‘not make enough professors redundant’?

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 1d

Definitely contributed 😞

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 1d

Unfortunately Littlejohn seems to have caught the zeitgeist though

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 1d

But you had exercise!

1 2

Reposted by Helen Lovatt

SEL Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 @sel1500to1900.bsky.social · 3d

Today is National Coming Out Day, and we're reading an article about one of the most famous stories of (maybe (not)) coming out ever told,:Twelfth Night! Jami Ake's "Glimpsing a 'Lesbian' Poetics in Twelfth Night" (43.2, pp. 375-94)

3 4

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 1d

Went to make squash soup. It’s not a squash, it’s a melon. No soup for me

2 2

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 1d

I’ve experienced in Germany (Berlin) what it’s like when the platform is completely full and you can’t move around on it. Terrifying. I guess that’s why in London they keep people in the larger central concourse. (Also greater likelihood of late platform changes than say Stevenage)

Helen Lovatt @helenlovatt.bsky.social · 4d

Nice cuddle with cat. Still loads to do, and really don’t want to. Technically my day off, but need to clear decks before weekend. Sigh.

Ellie, ginger and stripy cat, smiles up from my lap

Reposted by Helen Lovatt

elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 4d

As a lifelong hate-watcher of #BBCQT it's been incredible to see the tone shift in last night's prog with @zackpolanski.bsky.social on. It should have never been that hard to call for common sense - and actually popular - policies. Someone is actually doing it.

Quick 🧵

1 100 370