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Monica Byrne

@monicabyrne13.bsky.social

5.2K followers 780 following 5.9K posts

Writer living in Ireland. AI-free. Buy THE ACTUAL STAR: https://www.monicabyrne.org/the-actual-star. Reps at CAA, DG&B, and Kaplan/Perrone. She/her. monicabyrne.substack.com patreon.com/monicabyrne

www.monicabyrne.org

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Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · Oct 23

"When a book is this ambitious, either it is a thumping success or it falls on its face. Happily, The Actual Star is a stone-cold masterpiece. It is one of the most moving novels I have read and surely a contender for major awards."

Welp. 😳

The Actual Star review: A masterpiece of imaginative world building

Monica Byrne's fantastic second novel follows three storylines in the past, present and future, all of which are linked by historical threads and religious ideas, says Michael Marshall

www.newscientist.com

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Reposted by Monica Byrne

Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 1d

Yes, because NYT is a fascist institution

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d

Douthat is laundering hard core white Christian supremacy into the mainstream, with the NYT's blessing.

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 1d

Ross Douthat treats this guy like they're having some deep conversation about the relationship of Christianity and the government, but the dude is a garden-variety dull, shallow, hateful, worthless bigot with nothing interesting to say, just endless riffs on "God hates everything/everyone I do."

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Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 2h

I started watching Kramer vs Kramer and was horrified. So many movies like this

Matthew Willis (Naval Air History) @navalairhistory.com · 2h

Having recently caught up on a number of ’classic’ films that I’d missed like Taxi Driver, The Godfather and Scarface, or reaquainted with ones I haven’t seen in decades like Heat, I am quite happy for there to be a c.50 year moratorium on films about white masculinity

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 2h

My house smells like ginger candle, mulled wine, and curry stew, and it’s wonderful

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 3h

Yes, this. Really tired of the “but we’re all just so complicated 🥺 👉🏻👈🏻” movies from white men

Chris Lawrence @chrislarry33.bsky.social · 3h

In some ways it shared same flaw as Killers of the Flower Moon, by centering Leo, especially as losers, you have to flatten the non-white women who are the plot while through the lens of white male filmmakers who feel the need to redeem whiteness while they seek to also vilify it.

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Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 3h

Bruhhhh. Yes this, absolutely.

I hated that movie. One of Scorsese’s regular old mafia intrigue movies, except involving Indigenous peoples this time, as a prop. Could have swapped out for any people.

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 3h

Ahh interesting. My memory of it is mainly the disgust after it won the Oscar for Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain…. I’m not sure I was reading reviews as actively back then.

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 3h

It’s Crash all over again 🤮

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 3h

More “biracial children will save us all” shit.

Also, just really hard to buy Leonardo DiCaprio as either a revolutionary, or as the loving father of a daughter played by an actor who is the same age as the women he dates in real life

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Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 3h

Thanks so much for the links, everyone. I feel less crazy.

It felt like the theme was: “this hypersexed dark-skinned Black woman violent revolutionary stuff isn’t sustainable, we need a nice tempered (with whiteness) light-skinned offspring with a more moderate approach”

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Reposted by Monica Byrne

Wouter de Boer @weedebee.bsky.social · 3h

Here you go:
bsky.app/profile/cand...

Candice Frederick @candicefrederick.bsky.social · 12d

blackgirlwatching.substack.com/p/one-battle...

One Fetish After Another: PTA Exploits Black Women and Averts Revolution

One Fetish After Another: PTA Exploits Black Women and Averts Revolution

Paul Thomas Anderson's action flick leaves much to be desired.

blackgirlwatching.substack.com

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Reposted by Monica Byrne

Candice Frederick @candicefrederick.bsky.social · 3h

bsky.app/profile/cand...

Candice Frederick @candicefrederick.bsky.social · 16d

. @aishaharris.bsky.social points to some of my issues with One Battle After Another her review www.npr.org/2025/09/24/n...

'One Battle After Another' wants a revolution

Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Teyana Taylor star in Paul Thomas Anderson's action thriller about the unfulfilled promises of protest and rebellion.

www.npr.org

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Reposted by Monica Byrne

Candice Frederick @candicefrederick.bsky.social · 3h

bsky.app/profile/cand...

Candice Frederick @candicefrederick.bsky.social · 12d

Jezebels, race kink and Cardi B: in One Battle After Another, Black women are still stereotypes www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...

Jezebels, race kink and Cardi B: in One Battle After Another, Black women are still stereotypes

With its hyper-sexualised Black female revolutionary and fetishised depiction of interracial relationships, Paul Thomas Anderson’s much-lauded latest raises questions about how white male directors de...

www.theguardian.com

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Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 3h

Thanks so much for both of these. I had only seen praise of it, so I was second-guessing my own reaction…turns out I was reading the wrong people.

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Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 3h

AHA. Well, already this headline nails it for me.

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 3h

Have any Black women critics written about One Battle After Another?

Because the more I think about the racial politics of that film, the more it bothers me. But I don’t know if I’m projecting or overreacting.

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Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 5h

😆 At the time I was shrugging sheepishly about how to fasten a boutonnière to my date, but yes, totally.

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 6h

Me in 2025: “Wow all my friends’ kids are wearing these teeny-tiny micro-dresses to their Homecomings, is this a new thing??”
Me in 1996:

Me as a sixteen-year-old wearing a teeny tiny micro-dress

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Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 6h

Slept an extra two hours on a Sunday and now I am fully realized human being

Reposted by Monica Byrne

Ebony Elizabeth Thomas @ebonyteach.blacksky.app · 14h

No money in the red kettles. Mutual aid instead.
(And no, I'm not taking questions about this.)

kat, ghost of helenruthsghost @chaoskat.bsky.social · 16h

Salvation Army seen feeding ICE today. For anyone who doesn't already know about their bigotry, here is more, No need to give them your money this Christmas, or ever.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 17h

It’s dinner time for the police. Appears to be pizza from a Salvation Army van.

Broadview’s “free speech” curfew starts soon, at 6pm.

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Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 18h

I take them neat though. I don’t get the crumbed edges. Why crumb the edges? Why dip in lilies in gold

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 18h

Going to fall asleep to the thought of rolling up those nice ham slices from Centra and sucking on them like a meat blunt

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Reposted by Monica Byrne

LOLGOP ❌👑❌ @thefarce.org · 18h

“In fact, let me put it a little simpler: all of those data center deals you’ve seen announced are basically bullshit. Even if they get the permits and the money, there are massive physical challenges that cannot be resolved by simply throwing money at them.”

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 2d

Premium: The AI Bubble's promises are impossible. NVIDIA's customers are running out of money, GPUs die in 3-5 years, most 1GW data centers will never get built, and OpenAI's Abilene data center doesn't won't have the power it needs before 2028 - if it ever does.
www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-bubbl...