Irina Dumitrescu
@irinadumitrescu.bsky.social
8.4K followers 2.2K following 490 posts
Writer and professor of medieval literature. I'm a columnist at the TLS, sometimes co-host a podcast with Mary Wellesley at the LRB, and am one of the editors of @creativecritical.bsky.social. irinadumitrescu.com
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irinadumitrescu.bsky.social
Doorbell just rang. A package from Australia. The bookseller Nicholas Pounder sent me a small press print of my Times Literary Supplement poem, "Criseyde." It's a private, gift copy, and it has brought tears to my eyes this morning, for so many reasons.
They said Cassandra
Was the cursed one
But every woman knows too much.
I am used by now
To my voice getting caught in my teeth.
It doesn’t help
That I can smell tomorrow’s burning.
No one is interested
In the geometry
Of a falling city.
I sit politely and fan myself
Listening to old philosophies
Trying not to show
I see the sparks of death in their eyes.
My soles feel the road to come
The cool boards of an enemy’s ship
The freedom of early surrender.
Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu
fergalc.bsky.social
Oh, sorry, it's from a review of a book called "Free", a memoir by Lea Ypi of her childhood in Communist Albania. That particular excerpt refers to Romania, home country of the reviewer Irina Dumitrescu

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
The Great Leap Backward | Irina Dumitrescu
Lea Ypi's memoir of her childhood in Communist Albania asks whether individual freedom is always elusive, even in liberal democracies.
www.nybooks.com
Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu
irinadumitrescu.bsky.social
"Reading Lessons" was a reprint from this amazing collection on the many forms of reading, which is open access -- download it for free at the link. How We Read, edited by Kaitlin Heller and Suzanne Conklin Akbari

punctumbooks.com/titles/how-w...
How We Read: Tales, Fury, Nothing, Sound – punctum books
punctumbooks.com
Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu
suchmayer.bsky.social
Realism ruined storytelling.
rachelfeder.bsky.social
Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat
irinadumitrescu.bsky.social
Thank you for reading and for the kind words, Zachary!
Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu
savcavalcante.behind.camera
fiquei obcecado, catei um catálogo do cara e vi tudo até esbarrar num louva-a-deus - é CLARO que ia ter um

temos um louvinha, uma efêmera e um inseto imaginário, muito simbolismo rolando
print de uma ilustração de Joris Hoefnagel contando um louva-a-deus verde, uma efêmera e um inseto imaginário que parece um dragãozinho de seus patas e quatro asas; todos em cores e feitos com realismo.

no topo, lê-se em latim:"privs locvsta bovem".
Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu
cema-su.bsky.social
The Centre d'Etudes Médiévales Anglaises @sorbonne-universite.fr is convening the 2nd instalment of the André Crépin sessions on Saturday October 18.
@irinadumitrescu.bsky.social will give a plenary on the Chaucer's women and perfection, and we will read folios from a mystery manuscript together!
Fifteenth century woodblock of the Wife of Bath David and Jonathan from the Vespasian Psalter
irinadumitrescu.bsky.social
Thinking of inventing an app where you can tell it that you, say, made a phone call to complain in French, and then followed it up with a formal complaint email in French, composed with dictionaries, not AI, and it just plays ten minutes of applause and shows you videos of fireworks going off.
irinadumitrescu.bsky.social
I just did a little more research and found out the goat deal was a myth. Disappointing, but good to know the truth. Karl Marx was indeed imprisoned in the university jail when a student tho.

www.uni-bonn.de/en/universit...
irinadumitrescu.bsky.social
That is correct, I only asked for access to a green, as per tradition. But the negotiation took a turn and I was offered the goats.
irinadumitrescu.bsky.social
When I negotiated the terms of my current professorship, I asked the chair if it was true that professors at our uni were entitled to pasture land for their goats. He said I could have all the goats I wanted. I still do not have a single goat, though to be fair, I haven't put it through purchasing
jacklynch000.bsky.social
Gutenberg was paid “two large barrels of wine” each year for life by the Archbishop of Mainz, Chaucer received a gallon of wine a day from Edward III, and the British poet laureate received “a tierce of Madeira” every year.

I’m thinking I need to renegotiate my contract with Rutgers.
irinadumitrescu.bsky.social
I'd never heard of that! I must see it.
irinadumitrescu.bsky.social
I know just what you're wondering: is there a French Bridget Jones' Diary with a lovable-goofy heroine, a brooding Englishman, a fantasy version of the literary world, and every beat both utterly predictable and knocked out of the park? I present to you: "Jane Austen a gâché ma vie".
Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu
irinadumitrescu.bsky.social
Completely random I know! But it just occurred to me that I wish I'd known this stuff earlier, before I ruined a bunch of items I liked. Seems to me that part of sustainability should also be knowing how to care for items without destroying them.
irinadumitrescu.bsky.social
Meanwhile, a lady who sold me some of my better clothes told me I should wash them in liquid detergent. And (more of a Euro specific thing) a woman selling intimates said the detergents today disinfect well enough that a 60 C wash is unnecessary.
irinadumitrescu.bsky.social
Those dishwasher tabs that promise to get everything off your dishes also destroy the actual dishes. Meanwhile, the powder costs less than two euros a bag, and you don't even need to fill up the container.
irinadumitrescu.bsky.social
One thing about the German labor force is that sales people often have a *lot* of training for their jobs. So I've made a habit of asking them how best to care for purchases. This is how I learned you don't need fancy dishwasher tabs. Powder is fine, much cheaper, and gentler on dishes.
Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu
aluckmann.bsky.social
Academia may not give you job security, flexibility, or wealth, but it will let you unexpectedly connect to eduroam in foreign cities