Sign in

Christopher Burlinson

@cmburlinson.bsky.social
1.5K followers 1.1K following 429 posts

A green thought in a green shade. Early modern English literature. I teach at Jesus College, Cambridge, but these words are mine, not theirs.

PostsRepliesMedia
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It's the end of a long summer, and work is about to get real, but we've had some really good news today and we're going to celebrate by drinking wine and watching this banger: films (and things) don't get any better than this.
A still from Powell and Pressburger's I Know Where I'm Going: Roger Livesey and Wendy Hiller, both soaking wet but the chemistry is burning.
4111
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
Gareth @chibiabos83.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Picture of Thurston Dart holding a serpent
141
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
There are building works on my staircase, and this ghostly list of previous inhabitants emerges. Trevor Jones was a German lexicographer and Bletchley code-breaker; Thurston Dart a musicologist; Harry Creswick was university librarian; Cameron Wilson taught French; Freddy Britain was a classicist.
An old list of inhabitants of C Staircaae in Jesus College Cambridge.
4525
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I wrongly thought we were at the equinox (not quite…), but very definitely an early autumn swim: chilly, clear, beautiful and still.
An outdoor pool on an autumn morning.
1110
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I love this card catalogue so much. Here's a short piece I wrote for @litreview.bsky.social about it (and my great-grandmother's wartime reading diary) earlier this year literaryreview.co.uk/list-of-a-li...
Bookends piece in Literary Review magazine
0124
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
Rebecca Anne Barr @rabarr.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
It's happening! 'Killjoy Comedy: Willful Women and 1750s Fiction' is coming out with @uvapress.bsky.social in February 2027. @sinsleyh.bsky.social says it is 'a ROMP'. I am *floored* @bsecs.bsky.social @asecsoffice.bsky.social #18thcentury #c18th www.upress.virginia.edu/title/10256/
A dour looking elite woman is sitting side-saddle on a horse, followed by a ridiculous supercilious little dog. The title of the book, in hot pink, is KILLJOY COMEDY.
186414
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Mircea Cǎrtǎrescu, Nostalgia: this is more self-contained than Solenoid and Blinding, but there’s some weird, astonishing stuff in here; the final story, about an architect who gets obsessed with his car horn and starts to re-create the entire history and future of music, is hilarious & apocalyptic.
Mircea Cartarescu, Nostagia, trans. Julian Semilian
2134
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Just read: Roberto Bolaño, Distant Star, trans. Chris Andrews. I struggled so hard with The Savage Detectives, but this (and By Night in Chile) has shown me the way. Finished it in 24 hours: stone cold, shocking, unsparing, but such a copious, funny imagination.
Roberto Bolaño, Distant Star, trans. Chris Andrews.
3202
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
A morning seeing Frank Bowling at the Fitzwilliam Museum. ❤️
Frank Bowling, Pondlife (After Millais)Frank Bowling, Yellow Map Frank Bowling, Beggar No. 5Frank Bowling, Potarospray
0130
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
It rained overnight and it’s still grey and everything smells damp and the bunting is ragged and limp and for the first time in months I’m going to swim in the drizzle … Is this heaven? I could almost cry.
Bunting hangs over an outdoor pool under a heavy grey sky.
2130
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
“For a lyric to materialise, it’s more helpful to let yourself wait in a condition of listening ignorance. In a helpless yet alert not-knowing.” (Denise Riley, A Chorus of Ears)
150
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Solar eclipse in Cambridge!
A shadow of a woman holding up a piece of paper against a brick wall. The image of the solar eclipse is being projected against it.
0241
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
John Hughes @johnmelhughes.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Marvellous "reverse" sonnet by John Ashbery. I love this poem so much.
0293
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
Dirk Puehl @wunderkammertales.eurosky.social · 09/08/2026
"I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes and dream!" Tove Jansson was born #otd 1914
328060
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
“God’s pity! How long will it feel like burning, said the child trying to be kind.” (Anne Carson, Lines)
Anne Carson, ‘Lines’
2131
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Anne Carson, Decreation; Gustave Flaubert, Sentimental Education, trans. Robert Baldick
291
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
EMILY WILSON @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I wrote about the Nolan Odyssey for the LRB. I'll summarize some of my main points below, in case you don't feel like reading all that. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Emily Wilson · An Uncomplicated Man
As they say at the awards shows, I was humbled to learn that Christopher Nolan has read at least the first line of my...
19761601559
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Roberto Bolaño, By Night in Chile, trans. Chris Andrew’s. Taken from @staggerlee42.bsky.social ‘s top 100, and this time I really clicked with RB: this was really funny, bonkers, furious.
2121
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
And now this: such a gentle film, so unforced, always in control of its complications and fictions. Just like a fable but never sinks into cliché.
First Cow, dir. Kelly Reichardt
5132
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
“Who speaks of death speaks also of that mysterious world to which, perhaps, we gain access by death. After such long reflection […] I still know nothing of what goes on behind death’s dark curtain. But the Syrian night remains as my conscious experience of immortality.”
1121
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
About twelve months late for everything, but we’re catching up on this tonight, v excited.
Poster for The Mastermind, dir. Kelly Reichardt
2150
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Now reading: Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian, trans. Grace Frick
Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian, trans. Grace Frick
1110
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Now reading: Silence, by Shusaku Endo.
Shusaku Endo, Silence, trans. William Johnston
090
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
Alice Wickenden @awickenden.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
I agree with all the takes about an attack on the humanities being an attack on critical thinking, &c. It’s also about joy, though. ‘Why bother studying that’ is always also a sneer at — why do you think you should get to do something you enjoy? Grow up and be miserable all the time!
7553169
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Putting the heat into a bit of perspective.
James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
2101
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Starting the summer with this beautiful thing.
A still from the end of Eric Rohmer, The Green Ray
2101
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
Katie Murphy @manymanyplies.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Two-year early modern English job, at Oriel College and the Oxford English Faculty, starting October. Happy to field any questions! my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
my.corehr.com
Job Details
02531
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
grantrintoul.bsky.social @grantrintoul.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
"I have so little sense of living what I’m living while I live it that I have to relive it to finally live it."
0178
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
With some of this for afters.
Wim Wenders, Alice in the Cities
040
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
This is great.
Alfred Döblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz, trans. Michael Hofmann
2131
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Nice work.
A rainbow over the rooftops of Arbury, Cambridge
0171
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe this afternoon. The heavens opened in Act 2 and the cast really fought their way through it; palpable joy at the end. The production leans into audience participation and ad lib, but the comedy is done really, really well.
The Globe before it started raining cats and dogs.
1200
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Blustery Ascension Day at Jesus College Cambridge.
070
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
Ceri Houlbrook @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Why would we want to learn from our pasts, or ponder the power of the written and spoken word, or explore the deep questions of humanity? According to the University of Hertfordshire, we wouldn't. They've just cut all of our undergrad Humanities programmes
45631298
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
This is such a beautiful film: such delicacy, such magic.
The promotional poster for All We Imagine as Light
4264
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Happy May Day
210553
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
Rob Palk @robpalk.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Ian Penman on the Beach Boys, LRB you are spoiling me: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Ian Penman · I’m just a sound: Back to the Beach Boys
In 1983, Brian Wilson told a reporter: ‘I think ultimately I’m just a sound. I don’t know if I’m a human being...
1124
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
I wrote about what it's like to read the poetry of J.H. Prynne
someflowerssoon.substack.com
In Darkness by Day
Reading J.H. Prynne (1936-2026)
34419
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
Stephen Guy-Bray @stephengb.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
When I was a little boy some adult asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up and I said "read poetry all day" and they said "that's not a job" and I said "I know, I'll think of something" but then I thought that maybe it could be a job and now that is my job and I couldn't be happier.
631422
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
#TheCompleteBritten #78 Our Hunting Fathers, Op. 8 (1936) - symphonic cycle for high voice and orchestra Prologue (W.H. Auden) 1 Rats away! (anon) 2 Messalina (anon) 3 Dance of death (Thomas Ravenscroft) Epilogue and funeral march (W.H. Auden) Britten's "real Op. 1" had a difficult birth. 🧵 /1
youtu.be
Benjamin Britten - Our Hunting Fathers, Op. 8
YouTube video by Classical Music
2359
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
'Beside corn felt crake persistently at night locally for wide awake was ever their delight This is not “all crepuscular and iambic”, but I find it moving in its cubist feeling for the candle-lit history of English.' (read this reading!!)
291
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Discovered in a second-hand copy of What Maisie Knew: “my knees!” #usedbooks
This envelope fell out of a used copy of What Maisie Knew. On the back, a drawing of a face with ‘my knees!’ written next to it; another doodle and the word ‘fandango’ in fainter red pencil.A close up of the face.And on the back, some notes about Wagner and Strauss.
081
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
Kristin Grogan @kristingrogan.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
rest well jh prynne, the / mere & lovely centre, of the earth
07422
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Won’t you look at these colours.
A laburnum tree against a blue sky.
1163
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
I hit a wall with Musil (one for another day?), but Katalin Street floored me, a history of c20 Hungary that is also the history of a house & its ghosts. Its anger and grief and sorrow are just too much: like a story that doesn’t know how to tell itself, can only watch itself playing out. Loved it.
Magda Szabo, Katalin Street, trans. Len Rix, and Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities, trans. Sophie Wilkins
2161
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
This has lifted me out of a reading slump: Enard, Tell them of Battles, trans. @avecsesdoigts.bsky.social, a beautiful short novel imagining Michelangelo in Constantinople in 1506. A fragmentary book about fragments, drafts, desires, acts of creative imagination, the thrill of translation.
Mathias Enard, Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants, trans. Charlotte Mandell
1266
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 09/04/2026
There I stayed, and there forgot, my cheek laid on my Beloved fair. And all things ceased, and I was lost and all my worldly doubt and care were sunk among the lilies there. ‘Dark Night’, a poem by John of the Cross, translated by Martha Sprackland. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Martha Sprackland · Poem: ‘Dark Night’
0123
Reposted by Christopher Burlinson
London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 09/03/2026
‘Davis’s skill is to notice the way feeling snags on the various contingencies which by their indifference to its clamour make it visible to itself: a cane, a rug, a furnace, a caterpillar, an old shirt, a plate of chilli.’ David Trotter on why Lydia Davis writes. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
David Trotter · Little and Large: Lydia Davis’s Method
The first few pages of Into the Weeds give the impression of someone starting to regret that she ever agreed to conduct...
0101
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
This film is a banger and well worth seeing on a big screen if you get the chance.
Poster for Kleber Mendonça Filho’s film, The Secret Agent.
2233