Richard Cooper
@richardhcooper.bsky.social
Reads, writes, watches, gets increasingly leftwing as he gets older. I live in Battle, East Sussex. I’m 41. I try & write essays (on literature, film, TV drama, TV comedy) for my blog. I have an MA. I’m on the Spectrum. Socialism or barbarism.
Pinned
One Foot in The Grave: some thoughts on a masterpiece
One Foot in the Grave is one of the least suburban, least traditional sitcoms ever made. It's worth stressing this, because the Daily M...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com
new followers won’t have seen these so what the hell: essays on each of the four greatest sitcoms
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2012/06/one-...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2012/11/like...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2012/05/essa...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2011/12/geni...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2012/06/one-...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2012/11/like...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2012/05/essa...
richardhcooper.blogspot.com/2011/12/geni...
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Re-reading what may be my favorite non-Parker Donald Westlake novel, Somebody Owes Me Money. How could you stop reading after this opening line?
November 28, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Re-reading what may be my favorite non-Parker Donald Westlake novel, Somebody Owes Me Money. How could you stop reading after this opening line?
Reposted by Richard Cooper
I don’t agree Carol’s obnoxious: the problem is more the show keeps pushing for an ambiguity - “is Carol madder/more sinister more inhumane and than the hivemind?” -it can’t be bothered to create: her predicament is so straight up nightmarish and the hive entity is a straight up tyrant.
November 27, 2025 at 2:19 PM
I don’t agree Carol’s obnoxious: the problem is more the show keeps pushing for an ambiguity - “is Carol madder/more sinister more inhumane and than the hivemind?” -it can’t be bothered to create: her predicament is so straight up nightmarish and the hive entity is a straight up tyrant.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Episode 5: Worse thing about Pluribus continues to be the way the other immune characters are written: Laxmi’s phone call was abysmally scripted.
Fourth episode okay, still painfully inferior to The Last of Us and Severance.
November 27, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Episode 5: Worse thing about Pluribus continues to be the way the other immune characters are written: Laxmi’s phone call was abysmally scripted.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
the Social Network film is really funny now. Apart from the idea of Zuckerberg being fast-talking and quick-witted, every cameo character is in the Epstein emails
November 28, 2025 at 3:48 PM
the Social Network film is really funny now. Apart from the idea of Zuckerberg being fast-talking and quick-witted, every cameo character is in the Epstein emails
Episode 5: Worse thing about Pluribus continues to be the way the other immune characters are written: Laxmi’s phone call was abysmally scripted.
Fourth episode okay, still painfully inferior to The Last of Us and Severance.
November 27, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Episode 5: Worse thing about Pluribus continues to be the way the other immune characters are written: Laxmi’s phone call was abysmally scripted.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
If you can, in the spirit of including someone for the holidays, please help Hammam.
November 26, 2025 at 10:30 PM
If you can, in the spirit of including someone for the holidays, please help Hammam.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
A truly gorgeous essay here, and now that, mysteriously, two copies of Close Reading for the 21st Century have made their way into my household, I’ll take this chance to also warmly recommend it, the opening gambit on Red Wheelbarrow alone is a marvel. They are making “glazed” happen!
I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review
Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.
www.bostonreview.net
November 26, 2025 at 6:18 PM
A truly gorgeous essay here, and now that, mysteriously, two copies of Close Reading for the 21st Century have made their way into my household, I’ll take this chance to also warmly recommend it, the opening gambit on Red Wheelbarrow alone is a marvel. They are making “glazed” happen!
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Finally, I reached The City of Death. Unlike all the other Baker Whos so far, I actually remember watching this one the first time round. Splendid stuff. Humour in Who works when Douglas Adams is doing it. Less so in other hands. Proustian rush at recalling the surprise cameos at the end.
November 25, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Finally, I reached The City of Death. Unlike all the other Baker Whos so far, I actually remember watching this one the first time round. Splendid stuff. Humour in Who works when Douglas Adams is doing it. Less so in other hands. Proustian rush at recalling the surprise cameos at the end.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
A thing about rewatching The Wire is you can see why the actors whose careers took off after it succeeded, but you can also see a couple of dozen GREAT performances from people who got zero bump from it. Some of them are local Baltimore actors, but a lot of it is just the dumb nature of the biz.
November 25, 2025 at 10:23 PM
A thing about rewatching The Wire is you can see why the actors whose careers took off after it succeeded, but you can also see a couple of dozen GREAT performances from people who got zero bump from it. Some of them are local Baltimore actors, but a lot of it is just the dumb nature of the biz.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
and it also should be read alongside @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social 's "Close Reading is For Everyone"
defector.com/close-readin...
defector.com/close-readin...
Close Reading Is For Everyone | Defector
In Sigrid Nunez’s 2018 novel The Friend, a famous writer kills himself. Not long before, he complains to the narrator about readers: “People talking about a book as if it were just another thing, like...
defector.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:33 PM
and it also should be read alongside @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social 's "Close Reading is For Everyone"
defector.com/close-readin...
defector.com/close-readin...
Reposted by Richard Cooper
I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review
Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.
www.bostonreview.net
November 26, 2025 at 3:14 PM
I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
FWIW, joined Instagram too. Do follow if you’re there. instagram.com/richardhcooper/
November 26, 2025 at 5:23 PM
FWIW, joined Instagram too. Do follow if you’re there. instagram.com/richardhcooper/
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Funny how difficult decisions always involve taking money away from the poor and needy, and never from people like this git.
‘Madness’ to increase welfare spending in Budget, says AO World boss
‘Madness’ to increase welfare spending in Budget, says AO World boss
‘Madness’ to increase welfare spending in Budget, says AO World boss
www.independent.co.uk
November 26, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Funny how difficult decisions always involve taking money away from the poor and needy, and never from people like this git.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Please help Shymaa
November 26, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Please help Shymaa
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Please help Nurse Hammam get money to buy a tent, it's freezing and pouring with rain in Gaza:
November 26, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Please help Nurse Hammam get money to buy a tent, it's freezing and pouring with rain in Gaza:
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Please help Mohammed Nashwan protect his children from the cold and hunger:
chuffed.org/project/1574...
chuffed.org/project/1574...
November 26, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Please help Mohammed Nashwan protect his children from the cold and hunger:
chuffed.org/project/1574...
chuffed.org/project/1574...
Reposted by Richard Cooper
please reinstate @gorangligovic.bsky.social! @support.bsky.team
November 26, 2025 at 11:52 AM
please reinstate @gorangligovic.bsky.social! @support.bsky.team
please reinstate @gorangligovic.bsky.social! @support.bsky.team
November 26, 2025 at 11:59 AM
please reinstate @gorangligovic.bsky.social! @support.bsky.team
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Basically my fear that Goran would get brokd from bsky due to sharing Palestinian accounts got fulfilled.
November 26, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Basically my fear that Goran would get brokd from bsky due to sharing Palestinian accounts got fulfilled.
Reposted by Richard Cooper
My guess would be: keeps reposting gofundmes from Gazans that bluesky has deemed as "spam"
November 26, 2025 at 11:45 AM
My guess would be: keeps reposting gofundmes from Gazans that bluesky has deemed as "spam"
Reposted by Richard Cooper
What the hell happened to my boy @gorangligovic.bsky.social????
November 26, 2025 at 8:16 AM
What the hell happened to my boy @gorangligovic.bsky.social????
Reposted by Richard Cooper
The nightmare of Graham Linehan is that I don’t really think he’s a case of diminished responsibility, even though stupidity that self-defeating is hard not to think of as insane. His addiction since July 2018 has been to unrelenting narcissism, self-justification, ego massage…
November 25, 2025 at 8:49 PM
The nightmare of Graham Linehan is that I don’t really think he’s a case of diminished responsibility, even though stupidity that self-defeating is hard not to think of as insane. His addiction since July 2018 has been to unrelenting narcissism, self-justification, ego massage…
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Share a 90s movie you believe needs more love…
November 25, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Share a 90s movie you believe needs more love…
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Share a 90s movie you believe needs more love…
November 25, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Share a 90s movie you believe needs more love…
Reposted by Richard Cooper
Great big news!
My book, LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK is coming to America! I'm so pleased that @princetonupress.bsky.social will be publishing my strange, slippery take on Spark's life and work. It'll be out in spring!
🐈⬛💘🐦⬛
My book, LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK is coming to America! I'm so pleased that @princetonupress.bsky.social will be publishing my strange, slippery take on Spark's life and work. It'll be out in spring!
🐈⬛💘🐦⬛
November 25, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Great big news!
My book, LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK is coming to America! I'm so pleased that @princetonupress.bsky.social will be publishing my strange, slippery take on Spark's life and work. It'll be out in spring!
🐈⬛💘🐦⬛
My book, LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK is coming to America! I'm so pleased that @princetonupress.bsky.social will be publishing my strange, slippery take on Spark's life and work. It'll be out in spring!
🐈⬛💘🐦⬛