Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ethan Campbell

@profgawain.bsky.social

140 followers 290 following 360 posts

Former English professor, medievalist, editor, writer. Books: The Gawain-Poet and Anticlericalism (2018); The English Apocalypse (2024): https://isdistribution.com/BookDetail.aspx?aId=184714.

isdistribution.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · May 27

The full text of my book THE ENGLISH APOCALYPSE is now online on the new Middle English Text Series website!

In addition to introductory material, the site includes the full Middle English text of the Apocalypse with hypertext links to all of my explanatory notes.

metseditions.org/editions/89r...

The English Apocalypse: A Fourteenth-Century Translation of the Book of Revelation from Columbia University, MS Plimpton Add. 03

Before translators at the University of Oxford began producing the first Wycliffite Bibles in the 1380s, few complete books of the Bible had ever been translated into Middle English. One notable excep...

metseditions.org

1 2 5

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 1d

It's a story of highly trained professionals (EMTs and ambulance drivers) who have clear protocols and an accountability structure coming into conflict with completely untrained agents who have no consistent protocols or accountability.

4 32

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 1d

This pastime has a lot of confusing rules.

1 6

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 1d

The novel isn’t dead — in fact, we’re living in its golden age.

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 1d

I’m reading a novel right now that does this (R.F. Kuang’s “Babel”), but let’s be honest — I’m still looking at Wikipedia 😄

1 1

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 2d

I’m so sad for your loss.

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 5d

I saw it live! Incredible production! (And I did also show this clip to my Shakespeare students when we read Much Ado.)

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 6d

On day one, she’s going to declare a state of emergency on utility bills. I’ve heard her say that about 10,000 times in ads during Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. (I live in Brooklyn.)

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 7d

Is this the guy whose actual favorite sandwich was the Russ & Daughters Super Heebster, but he thought saying so would make him seem too rich? Because … that’s a good sandwich.

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 8d

Copy editors have to be responsible for a major share of those stats — I’ve corrected to “whoa” countless times, because that’s how it’s spelled in the dictionary. If @merriam-webster.com decided to make “woah” an “established spelling variant,” its prevalence in published works would shoot up.

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 15d

My initial thought was "long-dick'd," but 1827 is actually a little too early for that usage -- the OED puts it at 1890. "Long-prick'd" is possible, but it's hard to say, and it might be some regional slang (whatever the region is here). It's clearly vulgar, or it wouldn't be blanked out!

1 3

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 15d

I've been transcribing my grandfather's letters from WW2, and I love the way he blanks out "d--n," "h--l," "son of a b---h," etc. As if it's totally fine to use the words when talking to his mother and fiancée, but their eyes might be too delicate to see them spelled out.

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 15d

So if baby Jesus’s parents take him across the border illegally, that means *he* has committed a sin?

I guess that does explain her support for detaining children.

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 16d

Everyone likes to quote the “they could indict a ham sandwich” thing, but I wonder if federal grand juries will become more discerning, more skeptical of prosecutors bringing them evidence. They’re made up of ordinary citizens on jury duty, after all — some of them must read the news.

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 16d

“Hope you’re well” is the New York version of “Bless your heart.”

2 14

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 17d

A wonderfully descriptive article by Carson Vaughan, with some great photography, about the part of the world where I grew up.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/t...

Floating the Lazy Rivers of Nebraska’s Spring-Fed Water World

www.nytimes.com

1 2

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 19d

The octopus eyeball is my favorite creature in Alien: Earth, and I know I’m not alone. But I wonder how many people would agree that the best actor is Jonathan Ajayi, as Smee. Out of all the people playing children in adult bodies, he’s the most convincing.

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 19d

Pearl Jam’s “Animal” was the perfect needle-drop for the final scene of Alien: Earth. But I didn’t realize *how* perfect it was until I played the song on my phone … and remembered the cover art for that album was an angry sheep. 😂

1 1

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 21d

Tom Homan walking away with $50,000 doesn’t even crack the top five.

1 10

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 23d

Well, Charlie Kirk amassed a pretty big following among men in college — so yeah, Trumpers do go there. My point is that older people were less likely to know who he was, and if they’re making a big deal of him now, it’s because they’re riding along with the hype.

1 4

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 23d

I've seen so many older people in my Facebook feed say things like, "I didn't know much about him, but from these clips I've seen, he seemed like a good guy." I don't think ordinary Trump voters who haven't been to college in the past ten years even knew who he was.

1 1 1

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 23d

The Giants went for it on like 4th and 4 because … they don’t have a field goal kicker?

This is a professional football team?

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 25d

I’m jealous for what you are about to discover.

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 27d

I would watch a monologue about the rice truck story.

1 3

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 27d

Weirdly, I think it was easier for some people to ignore secret police snatching innocent people off the streets and sending them to concentration camps than it will be to ignore popular late-night comedy shows getting cancelled.

Ethan Campbell @profgawain.bsky.social · 27d

One of my favorite etymologies. It's wild to think that in the 1940s, cartoon viewers might hear Elmer Fudd called a "nimrod" and think, "Hilarious, an ironic reference to the mighty hunter from Genesis!" Just a different world.

Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 27d

I was delighted to learn, long ago (but was just reminded of it), that the transition of "nimrod" from the biblical mighty warrior to our modern-day maroon meaning derives from Looney Tunes.