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Reposted by Matthew Parkinson-Bennett

James Kelleher @jameskelleher.pilcrow.ie · 2h

Next time somebody asks me what Bluesky is like, I'll send them this

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Reposted by Matthew Parkinson-Bennett

Will - Absolute Shower 🇺🇦 @showerabsolute.bsky.social · 29m

This is the first of these I've seen that genuinely is insane

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 28m

For “fact” read “daft”

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 30m

Alternative Shakespearean authorship theories are a good thing. The sort of fact but colourful, harmless kookiness that keeps Elizabethan literature alive as a matter of national importance and should be encouraged.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

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

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 1h

I’m wrong, it happened in the 70s, but briefly, and three presidency was so different then

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 1h

I think one difference is that the act of reading is always frictional to begin with whereas the act of having colourful moving lights beamed into your eyes is not, regardless of how tricky the game actually is to play

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

Nah if people are worried about looking stupid for not having read something they just lie about having read it

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

On Royal Albert Hall headed paper?

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

And this is related to ppl saying “everyone has a book in them” but never “everyone has an album in them”

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

Do they or do they think that classical music is just “for somebody else”?

There’s something different about literature where ppl want to insist that it’s the same for everyone whereas with free jazz or opera or minimalist techno I think it’s more “not for me but knock yourselves out, weirdos”

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

Yes I think it’s an idea that enjoyment implies lack of friction

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

Nobody thinks that people who listen to classical music don’t actually enjoy it and they’d have a better time listening to pop music.

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

Both the injunction to read Litersture and the injunction to Read what You Enjoy presuppose that one does not Enjoy Literature.

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

Remember folks: “Enjoy” is Superego

Micah @rincewind.run · 18h

it is more important to read books you actually enjoy reading than books that are Literature

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

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

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

I mean, it would be astonishing if the SF candidate did not condemn the SCC

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

Seriously

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

Ugh I shared a link that it can’t be bought from

www.waterstones.com/book/wolfsto...

Wolfstongue: "A modern classic" - The Times by Sam Thompson, Anna Tromop | Waterstones

Buy Wolfstongue: "A modern classic" - The Times by Sam Thompson, Anna Tromop from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

www.waterstones.com

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

If you want a recent animal story that I increasingly understand as a very powerful anti-fascist allegory, I published this book (and its two sequels) which The Times called “the best animal adventure since Watership Down”

uk.bookshop.org/p/books/wolf...

Wolfstongue: "A modern classic" - The Times

Check out Wolfstongue: "A modern classic" - The Times - "The best animal adventure since Watership Down" - The Times The children's debut by Booker-longlisted author Sam Thompson is an engrossing,...

uk.bookshop.org

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 2h

Fintan is ~kind of~ coming out for Connolly here.

He also thinks she represents a “high risk” option. Between that and wanting Steen on the ballot it seems like his main motivation is boredom and wanting stuff shaken up.

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...?

Fintan O’Toole: This has become an election about the nature of the presidency itself

In Heather Humphreys, we have a candidate who is harmless. And In Catherine Connolly one who has the potential to do some harm, but also to do good

www.irishtimes.com

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 4h

Fair enough! I’ll have to come up with a new bit so. Has anyone tried claiming Humphries owes her allegiance to the British crown yet

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 4h

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 4h

Does she actually? Like in an official sense? That’s impressive if so

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 4h

I hope the media follow up on this. We need to know if (checks notes) Catherine Connolly is (puts on reading glasses, rechecks notes, turns notes upside down, frantically searches for another set of notes) a Freemason.

Richard Chambers @newschambers.bsky.social · 5h

A group of people have turned up to Catherine Connolly’s canvass in Naas asking about Enoch and Elijah Burke.

They have asked Connolly if she’s a Freemason…

@virginmedianews.bsky.social

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 5h

You fool, your prison stretch is the best reading time you’ll ever have

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Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · 5h

Trying to be right on and progressive by erasing literature by women, people of colour, queer and trans authors…

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