Amanda Watson
@amndw2.bsky.social
Librarian, literature geek, knitter, opera fan, book history person. Writing a book about commonplace books and poetry readers. Opinions here are my own. She/her/hers. Queer and furious. 🏳️🌈
I keep reading ahead in The Age of Innocence because this last stretch of the book is so compelling! No mean feat considering what a frustrating protagonist Newland Archer is. 🏹
November 25, 2025 at 2:55 AM
I keep reading ahead in The Age of Innocence because this last stretch of the book is so compelling! No mean feat considering what a frustrating protagonist Newland Archer is. 🏹
Phase 1 of Operation Fruitcake 2025 is a go: a big bowl of dried fruit and citrus zest is ready to spend the night soaking in rum.
November 24, 2025 at 3:04 AM
Phase 1 of Operation Fruitcake 2025 is a go: a big bowl of dried fruit and citrus zest is ready to spend the night soaking in rum.
Reposted by Amanda Watson
Court permanently blocks Trump's executive order to dismantle federal agency for America's libraries IMLS
librarytechnology.org/pr/31973
librarytechnology.org/pr/31973
Court permanently blocks Trump's executive order to dismantle federal agency for America's libraries
Press Release: Court permanently blocks Trump's executive order to dismantle federal agency for America's libraries. The U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island struck down the Trump Adm...
librarytechnology.org
November 22, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Court permanently blocks Trump's executive order to dismantle federal agency for America's libraries IMLS
librarytechnology.org/pr/31973
librarytechnology.org/pr/31973
Reposted by Amanda Watson
Not saying I would be caught by sirensong but I would definitely crash my ship straight into a rock if I heard this
November 21, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Not saying I would be caught by sirensong but I would definitely crash my ship straight into a rock if I heard this
Reposted by Amanda Watson
man, this is such a good point -- Mamdani might be the first happy, well-adjusted person Trump has seen in weeks
everyone's talking about how bright and charming zohran must be, which is true, but then you remember the spider-brained cryptkeepers trump's surrounded himself with since '15 and realize a single smile from mamdani must have hit like barbecue spare ribs down the gullet of a 12th century peasant.
November 22, 2025 at 12:04 AM
man, this is such a good point -- Mamdani might be the first happy, well-adjusted person Trump has seen in weeks
Reposted by Amanda Watson
This week, I withdrew from a speaking engagement at a public university because they sent me a list of prohibited “words & concepts.” I will not humor this censorship. It does a disservice to the stories I’m discussing & the audience, who deserve unfettered access to information & conversation.
November 20, 2025 at 10:20 PM
This week, I withdrew from a speaking engagement at a public university because they sent me a list of prohibited “words & concepts.” I will not humor this censorship. It does a disservice to the stories I’m discussing & the audience, who deserve unfettered access to information & conversation.
Reposted by Amanda Watson
"don't pay attention to any of that frivolous humanities education, STEM all the way - what, do you think you can hack a computer with poetry or something?"
apparently, yes
apparently, yes
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 20, 2025 at 7:16 PM
"don't pay attention to any of that frivolous humanities education, STEM all the way - what, do you think you can hack a computer with poetry or something?"
apparently, yes
apparently, yes
Me after this semester / this fall / this year.
November 20, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Me after this semester / this fall / this year.
Oh no, anything but a trend! 🏹
November 20, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Oh no, anything but a trend! 🏹
Me every time I reread Middlemarch: oh God, what if I end up becoming Mr. Casaubon??
Me, rereading The Age of Innocence: wait, what if I end up becoming Newland Archer?? Noooooo! 🏹🛖📖
Me, rereading The Age of Innocence: wait, what if I end up becoming Newland Archer?? Noooooo! 🏹🛖📖
November 20, 2025 at 4:49 AM
Me every time I reread Middlemarch: oh God, what if I end up becoming Mr. Casaubon??
Me, rereading The Age of Innocence: wait, what if I end up becoming Newland Archer?? Noooooo! 🏹🛖📖
Me, rereading The Age of Innocence: wait, what if I end up becoming Newland Archer?? Noooooo! 🏹🛖📖
Book history in the wild: came across this early C19 (1830s) German philology periodical in our library stacks the other day. Check out the binder’s waste under the spine! Possibly from a directory or similar?
November 19, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Book history in the wild: came across this early C19 (1830s) German philology periodical in our library stacks the other day. Check out the binder’s waste under the spine! Possibly from a directory or similar?
Current status: intermission conversation about how half the characters in this opera are queer in one way or another.
November 19, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Current status: intermission conversation about how half the characters in this opera are queer in one way or another.
Reposted by Amanda Watson
“Short bursts indicate an ICE sighting. Long whistles indicate agents making arrests. If you hear the whistle and you’re undocumented, said [Whitney Hu, a community activist and organizer with South Brooklyn Mutual Aid], ‘you hide. And if you’re somebody who’s not, you go to the street.’”
As ICE Street Raids Ramp Up, New Yorkers Stock Up On Whistles
Taking a cue from Chicago, community groups have distributed thousands of whistles in recent weeks — a grassroots system people in other cities have adopted to help neighbors sound the alarm.
www.thecity.nyc
November 17, 2025 at 1:44 PM
“Short bursts indicate an ICE sighting. Long whistles indicate agents making arrests. If you hear the whistle and you’re undocumented, said [Whitney Hu, a community activist and organizer with South Brooklyn Mutual Aid], ‘you hide. And if you’re somebody who’s not, you go to the street.’”
TFW you're taking a day off and one of your favorite movies of all time pops up on Criterion 24/7.
Now playing (07:40 AM PST):
"The Green Ray" (1986)
By Éric Rohmer
Runtime: 99 min.
"The Green Ray" (1986)
By Éric Rohmer
Runtime: 99 min.
November 17, 2025 at 3:48 PM
TFW you're taking a day off and one of your favorite movies of all time pops up on Criterion 24/7.
I had three MLA hotel room interviews the one year I went on the English lit prof job market, in the aughts. I don't recall sitting on the bed in any of them, but I do recall the nervous interviewees waiting their turn in the hallway.
If you are not in academia, you might not know this, but job interviews used to be held at conferences IN HOTEL ROOMS. Women candidates in a hotel room alone with often all-male committees. People sitting on beds! The horror stories I've heard.
I thing I sometimes thing about is that university departments were still doing job interviews in hotel rooms in the mid aughts
November 16, 2025 at 8:40 PM
I had three MLA hotel room interviews the one year I went on the English lit prof job market, in the aughts. I don't recall sitting on the bed in any of them, but I do recall the nervous interviewees waiting their turn in the hallway.
Reposted by Amanda Watson
i remain shocked at just how badly elite higher ed admins have stewarded universities. these presidents and chancellors and provosts, supposedly accomplished people, have collectively overseen a staggering nationwide collapse in every respect.
One reason why elite schools (Columbia, Brown, Cornell) caving to Trump’s illegal impoundment and extortion is so galling — a betrayal, really — is that they would have won had they fought. By giving up, they guaranteed every other school will have to fight harder.
Judge bars Trump from immediately cutting funding to the University of California | CNN Politics
The Trump administration cannot immediately cut federal funding to the University of California or issue fines against the school system over claims it allows antisemitism or other forms of discrimina...
www.cnn.com
November 16, 2025 at 12:24 PM
i remain shocked at just how badly elite higher ed admins have stewarded universities. these presidents and chancellors and provosts, supposedly accomplished people, have collectively overseen a staggering nationwide collapse in every respect.
Top 5 movie genres are:
- Queer people in history living their lives
- Backstage at the opera / concert hall
- Characters don't know each other but we see how they're all connected
- Beautiful, menacing folk-horror pastoral
- Highly emotional food movie
- Queer people in history living their lives
- Backstage at the opera / concert hall
- Characters don't know each other but we see how they're all connected
- Beautiful, menacing folk-horror pastoral
- Highly emotional food movie
Top 5 movie genres are:
-Let’s put on a show!
-Getting the gang back together for one final heist
-She is coming for her own and you best believe she’s gonna get it.
-Life is terrible but also achingly beautiful and also there are angels
-One perfect day
-Let’s put on a show!
-Getting the gang back together for one final heist
-She is coming for her own and you best believe she’s gonna get it.
-Life is terrible but also achingly beautiful and also there are angels
-One perfect day
Top 5 movie genres are:
People being shits at a dinner party
Rotting mansion, faded starlet/society beauty, high-camp fuckdown
Either nothing or everything happened, glacially slowly & visually stunningly
Woman is being haunted or maybe there’s actually a gross guy
Tilda Swinton hears a weird noise
People being shits at a dinner party
Rotting mansion, faded starlet/society beauty, high-camp fuckdown
Either nothing or everything happened, glacially slowly & visually stunningly
Woman is being haunted or maybe there’s actually a gross guy
Tilda Swinton hears a weird noise
November 16, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Top 5 movie genres are:
- Queer people in history living their lives
- Backstage at the opera / concert hall
- Characters don't know each other but we see how they're all connected
- Beautiful, menacing folk-horror pastoral
- Highly emotional food movie
- Queer people in history living their lives
- Backstage at the opera / concert hall
- Characters don't know each other but we see how they're all connected
- Beautiful, menacing folk-horror pastoral
- Highly emotional food movie
The "family surnames as first names" custom in The Age of Innocence gets increasingly comic as the names pile up. Newland Archer is running around with [checks notes] Van der Luyden Newland, Thorley Chivers, Thorley Rushworth, Sillerton Jackson, and now Emerson Sillerton. 🏹
November 16, 2025 at 3:35 PM
The "family surnames as first names" custom in The Age of Innocence gets increasingly comic as the names pile up. Newland Archer is running around with [checks notes] Van der Luyden Newland, Thorley Chivers, Thorley Rushworth, Sillerton Jackson, and now Emerson Sillerton. 🏹
I need this kind of party! Endless admin tasks are slowly sapping my will to live.
props to WSJ for once on a useful notion, ADMIN PARTY for everybody
November 15, 2025 at 5:26 PM
I need this kind of party! Endless admin tasks are slowly sapping my will to live.
The Edna St. Vincent Millay house on Bedford Street is for sale again! If I only had a spare $4.2 million lying around I'd move there like a shot.
A Famous Narrow House in the West Village Listed for $4.195 Million
www.nytimes.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:34 PM
The Edna St. Vincent Millay house on Bedford Street is for sale again! If I only had a spare $4.2 million lying around I'd move there like a shot.
It’s strange to read about the social geography of Wharton’s 1870s upper-crust New York when you live in Manhattan and regularly walk past Washington Square, Grace Church, the site of the old Academy of Music (it’s where the Con Ed building is now), etc. 🏹
November 13, 2025 at 11:16 PM
It’s strange to read about the social geography of Wharton’s 1870s upper-crust New York when you live in Manhattan and regularly walk past Washington Square, Grace Church, the site of the old Academy of Music (it’s where the Con Ed building is now), etc. 🏹
I'd almost forgotten just how fun this production is.
November 13, 2025 at 4:03 AM
I'd almost forgotten just how fun this production is.
Reposted by Amanda Watson
November 12, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by Amanda Watson
Great piece by Zadie Smith. When the right talks about classics or "Western" culture, these works are only important to the extent that it demonstrates their superiority, they have no interest in art in and of itself beyond that www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
November 12, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Great piece by Zadie Smith. When the right talks about classics or "Western" culture, these works are only important to the extent that it demonstrates their superiority, they have no interest in art in and of itself beyond that www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...