Matthew Cheney
@melikhovo.bsky.social
Writer, teacher, person.
Books from Black Lawrence, Bloomsbury Academic, punctum, Third Man, Lethe. Horror fiction, modernism, pedagogy, weirdness.
(Would love to post less about politics, but, well, look outside...)
https://matthewcheney.net
Books from Black Lawrence, Bloomsbury Academic, punctum, Third Man, Lethe. Horror fiction, modernism, pedagogy, weirdness.
(Would love to post less about politics, but, well, look outside...)
https://matthewcheney.net
Pinned
Matthew Cheney
@melikhovo.bsky.social
· Aug 29
MOON SONGS | Kirkus Reviews
A greatest hits collection of unclassifiable speculative fiction.
www.kirkusreviews.com
Kirkus gives Moon Songs a star!
"This compellingly assembled retrospective gives longtime Emshwiller fans a chance to savor her unique sensibility again, while lucky newcomers enjoy the thrill of discovery."
@thirdmanbooks.bsky.social
www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...
"This compellingly assembled retrospective gives longtime Emshwiller fans a chance to savor her unique sensibility again, while lucky newcomers enjoy the thrill of discovery."
@thirdmanbooks.bsky.social
www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
Striking for me as a physicist who also does social science work is the way these physicists were suddenly totally ok with autoethnography as data because they personally enjoyed using GPT-5. A case study in how values orient our empirical practices if there ever was one lol
November 27, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Striking for me as a physicist who also does social science work is the way these physicists were suddenly totally ok with autoethnography as data because they personally enjoyed using GPT-5. A case study in how values orient our empirical practices if there ever was one lol
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
“Amazon is a technofeudal rentier owning the digital infrastructure on which privateers, states and societies depend.”
How Amazon turned our capitalist era of free markets into the age of technofeudalism | Yanis Varoufakis
Amazon Web Services owns the basic infrastructure for other businesses to operate online, turning even governments into its serfs, says the leader of MeRA25, Yanis Varoufakis
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 5:38 PM
“Amazon is a technofeudal rentier owning the digital infrastructure on which privateers, states and societies depend.”
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
Imagine a world in which all politicians spend time in soup kitchens & shelters, offer pro bono legal clinics, work on low-income housing sites, volunteer in hospitals, at daycare centers, literacy classes — because the priority of a real political party should be to build & support community.
Combatting poverty and hunger in this city will take every single one of us. Myself included.
November 27, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Imagine a world in which all politicians spend time in soup kitchens & shelters, offer pro bono legal clinics, work on low-income housing sites, volunteer in hospitals, at daycare centers, literacy classes — because the priority of a real political party should be to build & support community.
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
Against Settler Colonialism: A Reading List
Against Settler Colonialism: A Reading List
From Turtle Island to Palestine, Indigenous people across the world continue to resist settler-colonial domination, extraction, and exploitation of their land and communities.
We center these tradi...
www.haymarketbooks.org
November 26, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Against Settler Colonialism: A Reading List
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
Canada made weird tv shows because it was all being done with government funded art grant money so they fell in this wacky middle ground between “shoestring budget” and “no expectation to generate shareholder value” which is really the best way to make art
November 26, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Canada made weird tv shows because it was all being done with government funded art grant money so they fell in this wacky middle ground between “shoestring budget” and “no expectation to generate shareholder value” which is really the best way to make art
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose—especially their lives."
- Eugene Debs, 1918 (this speech landed him in prison)
- Eugene Debs, 1918 (this speech landed him in prison)
November 26, 2025 at 9:30 PM
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose—especially their lives."
- Eugene Debs, 1918 (this speech landed him in prison)
- Eugene Debs, 1918 (this speech landed him in prison)
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
taylor schultek -- aberration -- the new neighbors are fun
November 26, 2025 at 9:13 PM
taylor schultek -- aberration -- the new neighbors are fun
I saw this at Dartmouth in September (they bring a few films from Telluride to NH every year) and friends and I unabashedly loved it. A perfect movie for our times. I really look forward to seeing it again.
"Once in a while, you see a movie that doesn’t feel made, but extracted from a dreaming mind. It won’t go to you and hand over its meanings. You have to go to it." I reviewed The Secret Agent, my favorite film of 2025. Haunting, beautiful, profound. www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-...
The Secret Agent movie review (2025) | Roger Ebert
This is one of the year’s best films, and one of the most distinctive.
www.rogerebert.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:28 PM
I saw this at Dartmouth in September (they bring a few films from Telluride to NH every year) and friends and I unabashedly loved it. A perfect movie for our times. I really look forward to seeing it again.
This holiday season, may I suggest that MOON SONGS: THE SELECTED STORIES OF CAROL EMSHWILLER is perfect for most friends and relatives. There's a little something for your superhero grandma, your favorite cat lady, apocalypse addicts, furries, UFOlogists...
www.thirdmanbooks.com/catalog/moon...
www.thirdmanbooks.com/catalog/moon...
Moon Songs: The Selected Stories of Carol Emshwiller — Third Man Books
Carol Emshwiller’s pioneering stories have been praised by and influenced a wide variety writers including Ursula K. Le Guin, Grace Paley, Samuel R. Delany, Harlan Ellison, Karen Joy Fowl...
www.thirdmanbooks.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:04 PM
This holiday season, may I suggest that MOON SONGS: THE SELECTED STORIES OF CAROL EMSHWILLER is perfect for most friends and relatives. There's a little something for your superhero grandma, your favorite cat lady, apocalypse addicts, furries, UFOlogists...
www.thirdmanbooks.com/catalog/moon...
www.thirdmanbooks.com/catalog/moon...
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
(1) Write genre from outside of it in, not the inside of it out.
(2) Try not to model yourself on the best of genre writers, only on the best of writers. Obviously your choices there will be subjective, but the risk with genre is it's a rabbit hole.
(3) Don't try to undo genre using its own tools.
(2) Try not to model yourself on the best of genre writers, only on the best of writers. Obviously your choices there will be subjective, but the risk with genre is it's a rabbit hole.
(3) Don't try to undo genre using its own tools.
November 7, 2025 at 11:40 AM
(1) Write genre from outside of it in, not the inside of it out.
(2) Try not to model yourself on the best of genre writers, only on the best of writers. Obviously your choices there will be subjective, but the risk with genre is it's a rabbit hole.
(3) Don't try to undo genre using its own tools.
(2) Try not to model yourself on the best of genre writers, only on the best of writers. Obviously your choices there will be subjective, but the risk with genre is it's a rabbit hole.
(3) Don't try to undo genre using its own tools.
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
Lots of people sharing this clip because it's funny and cathartic but I also genuinely believe it's important.
We have to win the narrative battle between "I live in a corrupt society and that's just how it is" and "I live in a corrupt society and we are going to defeat and humiliate these ghouls."
We have to win the narrative battle between "I live in a corrupt society and that's just how it is" and "I live in a corrupt society and we are going to defeat and humiliate these ghouls."
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Lots of people sharing this clip because it's funny and cathartic but I also genuinely believe it's important.
We have to win the narrative battle between "I live in a corrupt society and that's just how it is" and "I live in a corrupt society and we are going to defeat and humiliate these ghouls."
We have to win the narrative battle between "I live in a corrupt society and that's just how it is" and "I live in a corrupt society and we are going to defeat and humiliate these ghouls."
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
'The fading leaves are glad to die'
-Sara Teasdale
🎨John Atkinson Grimshaw
-Sara Teasdale
🎨John Atkinson Grimshaw
November 26, 2025 at 3:27 PM
'The fading leaves are glad to die'
-Sara Teasdale
🎨John Atkinson Grimshaw
-Sara Teasdale
🎨John Atkinson Grimshaw
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
Honestly you're not a real Marxist and are just an unserious Puritan if you think that it's revolutionary to ask people to work for you for free in a system where that "for free" doesn't come with a UBI or free food, housing, and healthcare for the worker
November 26, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Honestly you're not a real Marxist and are just an unserious Puritan if you think that it's revolutionary to ask people to work for you for free in a system where that "for free" doesn't come with a UBI or free food, housing, and healthcare for the worker
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
I am watching the HBO documentary Thoughts and Prayers about the security businesses making money from school shootings. Seeing these profiteers who obviously make a lot more than teachers selling products and training that traumatize us and our students to zero benefit is ENRAGING.
November 26, 2025 at 3:55 PM
I am watching the HBO documentary Thoughts and Prayers about the security businesses making money from school shootings. Seeing these profiteers who obviously make a lot more than teachers selling products and training that traumatize us and our students to zero benefit is ENRAGING.
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
Now here’s the kind of news you drop going into a long holiday weekend. Maybe no one will notice. 🤡
@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
November 26, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Now here’s the kind of news you drop going into a long holiday weekend. Maybe no one will notice. 🤡
@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
Nevada regulators have accused Elon Musk’s Boring Co. of nearly 800 environmental violations in the last two years as it digs a sprawling tunnel network beneath Las Vegas for its Tesla-powered “people mover.”
By @anjeanette-damon.bsky.social and Dayvid Figler
By @anjeanette-damon.bsky.social and Dayvid Figler
Elon Musk’s Boring Co. Accused of Nearly 800 Environmental Violations on Las Vegas Project
Nevada could’ve fined the company more than $3 million, but regulators are seeking a reduced penalty of $242,800, citing an “extraordinary number of violations.”
www.propublica.org
November 25, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Nevada regulators have accused Elon Musk’s Boring Co. of nearly 800 environmental violations in the last two years as it digs a sprawling tunnel network beneath Las Vegas for its Tesla-powered “people mover.”
By @anjeanette-damon.bsky.social and Dayvid Figler
By @anjeanette-damon.bsky.social and Dayvid Figler
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
Also, no one seems to talk about all the MeToo accusations leveled at Ratner anymore.
November 25, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Also, no one seems to talk about all the MeToo accusations leveled at Ratner anymore.
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
"Under his leadership, Louisiana’s health department waited two months to alert residents about a whooping cough, or pertussis, outbreak in the state that had caused two deaths" www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/h...
Doctor Critical of Vaccines Quietly Appointed as C.D.C.’s Second in Command
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:03 PM
"Under his leadership, Louisiana’s health department waited two months to alert residents about a whooping cough, or pertussis, outbreak in the state that had caused two deaths" www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/h...
University partners with arsonist...
The metaphors aren't even metaphors anymore.
The metaphors aren't even metaphors anymore.
University among nation’s first institutions to partner with serial arsonist on fire safety programs.
University of Kentucky among nation’s 1st institutions to partner with Microsoft on responsible AI innovation
The University of Kentucky and Microsoft have formed a strategic partnership to advance the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) and strengthen learning, innovation and care across the Comm...
uknow.uky.edu
November 25, 2025 at 6:24 PM
University partners with arsonist...
The metaphors aren't even metaphors anymore.
The metaphors aren't even metaphors anymore.
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
ICE deported a woman who owned a home in the US for 30 years. A judge banned ICE from deporting her to Sierra Leone where she had been tortured, so it deported her to Ghana, which kidnapped her and sent her back Sierra Leone anyway. ICE is part of this illegal conspiracy.
November 25, 2025 at 4:40 PM
ICE deported a woman who owned a home in the US for 30 years. A judge banned ICE from deporting her to Sierra Leone where she had been tortured, so it deported her to Ghana, which kidnapped her and sent her back Sierra Leone anyway. ICE is part of this illegal conspiracy.
Good thread here on the immense wealth of writers:
Anyway, the point is this: writers can be very poor too. Writers in the global north can be remarkably poor. Cultural capital is not easily exchanged for economic capital, especially in this era of tech disparagement of the arts.
Think of the poorest American you can imagine. That can be a writer.
Think of the poorest American you can imagine. That can be a writer.
November 25, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Good thread here on the immense wealth of writers:
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
Yup. This. AFAIC, it seems fairly obvious that you have sentience, and you have sentience of your own sentience, and at a certain level of self-aware interior dynamics that metacognition qualifies as sapience, but the term "intelligence" as applied in AI discourse has fuck all to do with any of that
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
November 25, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Yup. This. AFAIC, it seems fairly obvious that you have sentience, and you have sentience of your own sentience, and at a certain level of self-aware interior dynamics that metacognition qualifies as sapience, but the term "intelligence" as applied in AI discourse has fuck all to do with any of that
Reposted by Matthew Cheney
NEWS --> BBC confirms to me that they did edit a line out of historian @rutgerbregman.com's speech. It called Trump "the most openly corrupt president in US history."
BBC also confirms this was done on the advice of lawyers. So Trump's threats worked.
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2036...
BBC also confirms this was done on the advice of lawyers. So Trump's threats worked.
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2036...
Trump’s Fury at BBC Gets Unnerving Results with Pro-MAGA Edit Stunner
First, British Broadcasting Corporation execs resigned after Trump complained about a segment. Now the BBC edited out a line from a historian that was critical of Trump. Where does this end?
newrepublic.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:10 PM
NEWS --> BBC confirms to me that they did edit a line out of historian @rutgerbregman.com's speech. It called Trump "the most openly corrupt president in US history."
BBC also confirms this was done on the advice of lawyers. So Trump's threats worked.
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2036...
BBC also confirms this was done on the advice of lawyers. So Trump's threats worked.
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2036...
Sam Steward was a kind of queer Zelig, moving through a wide range of 20th C literary, artistic, & sexual milieus.
New on Print Plus:
In their post "“Read a Dirty Book”: James Joyce, Samuel Steward, and the Orientations of Literary Rebellion" in the "Orientations" blog series, Bracken et al trace a missed connection between James Joyce and Samuel Seward.
Read it here: modernismmodernity.org/forums/posts...
In their post "“Read a Dirty Book”: James Joyce, Samuel Steward, and the Orientations of Literary Rebellion" in the "Orientations" blog series, Bracken et al trace a missed connection between James Joyce and Samuel Seward.
Read it here: modernismmodernity.org/forums/posts...
November 25, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Sam Steward was a kind of queer Zelig, moving through a wide range of 20th C literary, artistic, & sexual milieus.