iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Alix Beeston

Rafael Walker @rafaelwalker.bsky.social · 20h

Glad to share this interview with @alixbeeston.bsky.social for the New Books Network, about my new(ish) book, Realism after the Individual! Available here or wherever you get your podcasts.

newbooksnetwork.com

Realism After the Individual: Women, Desire, and the Modern American Novel with Rafael Walker (U Chicago Press, 2025) - New Books Network

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

This by Courtney Maum is where I am too. I am grateful to her for the words...

For me, the subject of AI detection is an ouroboros. I’ll speak only for myself, here is my opinion. I didn’t ask for artificial intelligence. It’s not something I need, it is not something I desire. And yet, it barged its way into my life and stole all of my books. All of them. Stole them. Trained off of them. Did not compensate me for this theft. So now, AI can write a book like me, because it stole my own work and learned my breed of humor and satire. So if someone runs an AI text detector on my creative output, it will probably “test positive” why? Because AI is a contaminant that has embedded itself into my work by stealing it and using my own work to perpetuate itself. It will test for itself and find AI there because it AI is a virus that has contaminated the DNA of my current and future writing—a form of intellectual rape. A kind of colonization. A raging plague that some gatekeepers are opening the door for.

If you ask me what I’m currently working on, the answer is nothing book-length. I’m not going to publish a new book in this current landscape. That’s a stance of privilege, I recognize that. And I can’t hold this stance forever, I can hold it as long as I have savings from my last book.

This current literary climate isn’t acceptable. It is not acceptable to have a thing thrust upon us that takes absolutely everything, and then be forced to prove that we are not the thieves.

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Jessica Smith @thedaybooks.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

It’s nice to see everyone’s textual analysis of The Odyssey It’s almost like the humanities give you entertainment, feelings, pleasure, and fun/interesting stuff to talk about, as well as lenses into both past and current society

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Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Hard to think of a more deeply damaging start to Burnham’s premiership than giving green light to new oil & gas in N. Sea, if true. It won’t lower bills or lead to greater energy security but will drive an even hotter planet. What a terrible signal to give to rest of the world #ClimateVandalism

x.com

BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) on X

Andy Burnham will announce plans for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea when he becomes prime minister on Monday, the BBC has been told. The announcement will form part of a flurry of policy m...

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Brian Glavey @glavey.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

So I'm starting a podcast about friendship and aesthetic experience called "Some Marvelous Experience." I've posted a brief teaser that explains a little bit about the main idea and will drop the first episode soon. Please subscribe and help me spread the word! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

podcasts.apple.com

Some Marvelous Experience

Arts Podcast · Updated Biweekly · A podcast about friendship and art hosted by Brian Glavey. For each episode I'll talk to a pair of friends about a work of art or aesthetic experience that they share...

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Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Every day a new abomination. "LLMs hallucinate, yet some confabulations can have social affordances if carefully bounded. We propose critical confabulation (inspired by critical fabulation from literary & social theory), the use of LLM hallucinations to "fill-in-the-gap" for omissions in archives…"

arxiv.org

Critical Confabulation: Can LLMs Hallucinate for Social Good?

LLMs hallucinate, yet some confabulations can have social affordances if carefully bounded. We propose critical confabulation (inspired by critical fabulation from literary and social theory), the use...

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Gabrielle Steele ⚔️ Echoes of Chaos out now! @eldris.thellian.com · 07/06/2026

UK folks, let's jump on this AI regulation petition the Society of Authors emailed out! It's an actual parliament one so the government HAS to respond if it reaches the signature threshold. It calls for regulations to make AI developers disclose copyrighted works trained on. Sign & repost!! ❤️

petition.parliament.uk

Petition: Protect creators' rights: require AI firms to disclose training data

We ask the Government to introduce a statutory duty requiring AI developers to disclose the copyrighted works used to train generative AI in enough detail for creators to identify use of their work, e...

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 31/05/2026

‘The REF has now morphed into a hugely expensive, attention-engrossing status marker. Few things would improve the intellectual culture of universities more quickly than the complete abolition of this flawed and coercive exercise.’ Stefan Collini on universities www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lrb.co.uk

Stefan Collini · Squadrons of Pigs: Bonfire of the Universities

The problems with Britain’s universities are systemic and deep-rooted, not just local or contingent. Yet political and...

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Jonathan Bernstein @jonbern.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

this is not true, and this guy doesn't speak for me! nymag.com/intelligence...

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jude paw picture diary 🔜 TFCON ORLANDO @judepaw.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

actually i kinda *do* think using genAI should be such a social faux pas that the user is marked as a pariah and no longer feels welcome in the community. "AI is bad" is no longer an abstract (it never was), my city has been under a boil water advisory for a week because of AI data centers

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Lyse @lyse.myatproto.social · 23/05/2026

Never give up on your dreams

Posted flyer:

For Hire: Karate Lawyer
Hi. I am Michael and I am pleased to announce that I have launched this town's first karate-based law firm.
While many lawyers win cases with knowledge of the law and clever legal arguments, I intend to win mine with karate. Here are some of the services I provide:
• Taking out corrupt judges with karate
• Using karate to defeat prosecution lawyers who are making convincing arguments as to why my client should be imprisoned
• Removing unhelpful jury members with karate
• Using karate to get immunity for my clients (not sure how this will work yet but I will figure it out at the trial)
If you are being persecuted by the law and need a lawyer, take one of my business cards below and get in touch. What I lack in formal legal qualifications, I make up for in karate moves.

Stack of cards attached to flyer:
Michael
The Karate Lawyer
If you are tired of hining lawyers who. know the law but DON'T know karate, hire The Karate Lawyer. It's like hiring a real lawyer but better because he does karate.

Second flyer underneath:

Karate Lawyer - Clarification
Hi. Michael again from the poster above. Following a heated discussion with a policeman, I have been asked to make it clear that I am not legally allowed to represent defendants in a court of law and, even if I was, I would not be allowed to do karate on anyone.
As a result, my karate law firm is closed for the foreseeable future. I will, however be starting a new business very soon.
Michael

The top of a third flyer that was posted under the first two:

For Hire: Karate Architect
Hi. I am Michael and I am pleased to announce that I have become this town’s first karate-based architect

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Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Academic departments deserve to be saved, supported, resourced, allowed to grow even if they're not "best in the country," "first in the REF," "top-ranked," "at a Russell Group uni," or whatever other austerity-brained nonsense senior managers have been using to flimflam you out of solidarity

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Dan Tappin @oitappin.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Timid librarian in plea to save my workplace from making a huge mistake. A whole floor of Cardiff University's main library is under threat of being repurposed to teaching facilities with the removal of 7km of shelving holding valuable books. Pls share x you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

you.38degrees.org.uk

Save the second floor of Cardiff University's Arts and Social Studies Library (ASSL)

Dear current patrons, past patrons, and future patrons of Arts and Social Sciences Library (ASSL) at Cardiff University. On Friday 17th of May, library staff of the ASSL were informed by University Li...

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Chris Lloyd @cilloyd.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Hey Bluesky folks. If you’re in education or just follow for my thirst traps, would you please sign this if you can, and share far and wide? c.org/dCKk9vjqxY It’s much appreciated. My university is cancelling all UG humanities degrees. We need support and love right now x

c.org

Sign the Petition

Save the Humanities at the University of Hertfordshire

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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

The signs that your UK HE has entered the death spiral (may have started years ago) and is most probably getting advice from one of few HE consultants, such as Nous. 1. Losing your joint degrees if you had them, terrible for modern languages

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Laura McAtackney @lauramca.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

English media analysis of recent seismic changes don’t really grasp the very different forms of nationalism in the other nations. Whereas English is negatively based on Imperial nostalgia the others are formed by their negative experiences of British colonialism. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.com

‘Seismic change’: how election wins for nationalists in Celtic nations could reshape UK

With polls suggesting Plaid Cymru, the SNP and Sinn Féin could be in power after May vote, constitutional challenges may lie ahead

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Dr. Vaughn Joy @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Meet the sideshow FREAKS who REFUSE to use the work-stealing, planet-burning, minority-choking, teen-killing, water-guzzling, brain melter that gets most things wrong and makes the user decide whether they give a shit enough to do their job correctly or if they've given up completely on themselves.

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𝚂𝔢𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔢 ☽|☾ 𝔓𝔯𝔦𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔢𝔰𝔰 🎃🧛 @chaospriestess.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

My favorite Sam Neil fact will always be that he designed a future Australian flag that replaces the union jack with the aboriginal flag for Event Horizon and insisted the film use it.

Screencap of Sam Neil in Event Horizon, his flight suit features an Australian flag with the union jack replaced by a yellow circle on black and red, the Australian aboriginal flag

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librarypunk @librarypunk.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Every day I watch the tech industry build The Boot On the Neck Of Humanity Machine and watch universities say “we are going to sustainably and ethically prepare our students to become innovators in The Boot On The Neck Of Humanity Machine space”

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Alix Beeston @alixbeeston.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

In my first year as a host at @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social, I've interviewed seven excellent film and literary scholars about their recent books, their ways of working, and the value of the humanities You can check out the episodes here: newbooksnetwork.com/hosts/profil...

A screenshot of a webpage showing the information for seven episodes of a podcast

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Silent London @silentlondon.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Highly recommended!

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Almost everything we argue about is a substitute for the thing we should be arguing about: the immense wealth & power of an oligarchic class, which captures governments, ruins lives and wrecks the living planet. This class redirects our rage at scapegoats. To resist its lies is to resist its power.

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

I don't know how to clip a segment (sorry), but the bit I really want you to watch starts at 29'10". It's about the deep roots of the attack on Iran and why it's just as well Starmer is "no Winston Churchill". I'm surprised this aspect isn't more widely discussed. 🧵 www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

bbc.co.uk

Question Time - 2026: 05/03/2026

Fiona Bruce presents an hour of topical debate from Kettering. On the panel are Stephen Doughty, James Cleverly, Shashank Joshi, George Monbiot and Annabel Denham.

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Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

It's just so entirely grim that underlying all of this is the fact that there are really just one or two institutions that can be expected to hire at all for the foreseeable future, even on a replacement basis. Just total ecosystem collapse.

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Sarah Jane Cervenak @sjcerv.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” James Baldwin

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Dr Dion Georgiou 🇨🇾❤️🇬🇾 @drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Reliance on the US, neglect of key industries, reluctance to raise taxes to fund public services, reluctance to re-embrace Europe, inconsistent foreign policy, commitment to reducing immigration, transphobia, illiberal positions on drugs and sex work are not serious contemporary policy approaches.

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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

One cool thing about unequivocally hating AI is that you will be proven right over and over again every single day

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Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

"The UK pattern is one where people have the skills but jobs don’t let them use them." extremely familiar...

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jenny tightpants @jtp.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

everyone loved the tech industry's free music and friendship machines of 20-30 years ago. it's unclear what could be causing people to feel the opposite about the industry's new racism and insanity machine

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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

My general feeling is that every summary tool shortcuts the library shelf. In grad school there were few things I adored more than finding a book on the shelf bc I inevitably found six or seven other books on proximate shelves that I didn’t even know I needed! Process is the point!

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

It’s also not our job because “teaching students ethical use” is a largely vacuous slogan built on inevitability narratives, “just a (neutral) tool”discourse, & other misleading hype. In my humanities courses, I begin with the *ethics of non-use* when I explain the many reasons we won’t be using it.

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Mair Dundon @quietaction.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Reading this beautiful weaving of past work and these chapters has healed the day. “somewhere behind this wall I have to believe in the quiet rhythm of your Sundays the blue obstacles routed from the fire held in your hands this life that demands only to let down its solitude”

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Melanie Williams @britfilmmelanie.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Very pleased to be doing this upcoming online research seminar for University of Reading's Film, Theatre & TV department: Wednesday 25 February, 14.00 - 15.30, "Muriel Box, 'The Truth About Women', and the truth about women directors" www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/muriel-box...

eventbrite.co.uk

Muriel Box and the Truth About Women Directors

Professor Melanie Williams presents her current research on the work of film director Muriel Box and her 1957 film The Truth About Women

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Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

I guess I have to say this too: staff worked ourselves ill to do our best for students and we didn't make the decisions that led to their dissatisfaction *but we know that we'll bear the fallout from it.* We are already losing jobs, departments, campuses, fields of expertise to government decisions.

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Alix Beeston @alixbeeston.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

A few years ago in the Kathleen Collins archive in New York, I started reading a heavily edited, coffee-spilled notebook. I'm honored to share an excerpt of Collins's first novel, virtually unread before now, in dream magazine @parisreview.bsky.social: www.theparisreview.org/blog/2026/02...

theparisreview.org

Unfinished: On Kathleen Collins’s “Blue Obstacles” by Alix Beeston

February 5, 2026 – “To reappraise women’s incomplete works can be to resist the exclusionary gestures—the refusals, rejections, and roadblocks—that all too often stymie and limit the public careers of...

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Alix Beeston @alixbeeston.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Hot on the heels of the @parisreview.bsky.social piece featuring an excerpt from Kathleen Colllins's unfinished novel "Blue Obstacles," ASAP/Journal has published a longer version of the draft materials with scholarly notes and a contextualizing essay. It's open access! 🎉🎉🎉 doi.org/10.1353/asa....

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Alix Beeston @alixbeeston.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Thanks Laura - hope you might be coming to Loughborough in July? Xx

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Alix Beeston @alixbeeston.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Happy to have had a chance to write about Nella Larsen's author portraits and to reflect on my first book In and Out of Sight in the postscript to a special issue of the Journal of World Literature on the modernist face, edited by Anca Parvulescu and @tynedaile.bsky.social: brill.com/view/journal...

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Tyne Daile Sumner @tynedaile.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

At long last our Special Issue on 'The Modernist Face in/as World Literature' is now out in Journal of World Literature, edited by Anca Parvulescu (Washington University in St. Louis) and me! Our Introduction is open access here: brill.com/view/journal...

brill.com

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Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Just a few hours left for this, but it's plenty of time. Even just answering the "overall do you agree" question can be meaningful. Speak against this endless cruelty.

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Alix Beeston @alixbeeston.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

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Alix Beeston @alixbeeston.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Kathleen Collins: "Can’t a colored woman be vague and full of notions? Can’t she settle on damp, uneven ground and try to twist herself into some odd, unpredictable shape?" www.theparisreview.org/blog/2026/02...

theparisreview.org

from “Blue Obstacles” by Kathleen Collins

February 5, 2026 – “I discern everything in a Parisian way. Until the thought comes home that my hair is messy and I am too dowdily colored to look French. I am not even well-colored: just a layer of ...

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Alix Beeston @alixbeeston.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

theparisreview.org

Unfinished: On Kathleen Collins’s “Blue Obstacles” by Alix Beeston

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