Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 09/09/2026We had some correct guesses for our next (and frequently requested) text: Thomas Pynchon's psychedelic '60s freak-out about an 800-year-old evil postal service cabal, 'The Crying of Lot 49' (1966). Post-horns, highballs, and LSD tabs at the ready, because this doozy lands on 16 September. 173
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Anyone for Tennyson? The next stop in our tour of narrative poetry is the surprisingly onion-light, 'The Lady of Shalott' (1832/42). Out on Wednesday! 052
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 11/08/2026A lovely review of 'The Rise of Office Literature' in the @bavs-uk.bsky.social summer newsletter by Angelica Belloli. Love the term 'productively unstable' - something we all aspire to be. Thanks a lot! What's more, the book's coming out in paperback next month! bavs.ac.uk/wp-content/u...bavs.ac.uk 020
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 11/08/2026The next instalment in our August poetical miniseries deals with a lil thing called *Romanticism*, as we cover Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' (1798). If you like your weddings bassoon-laden, and your Constantinopolitans Platonic, then join us TOMORRAH! 063
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 14/07/2026TOMORROW: our episode on Wilkie Collins's 'The Woman in White' (1860). This is a novel with a message: if you're going to be falsely imprisoned in a Victorian hospital, you simply *must* go private. 172
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 03/06/2026We had one correct guess: our big summer episode (which could easily double as a Valentine's Day or Halloween episode) is the Australian cosmic horror, 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' (1967). Brace yourselves for the laughs, lusts, and primal screams of a buncha old-fashioned teens. Episode drops 17 June. 241
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 12/05/2026Out tamorrah! Our coverage of the Canadian children's classic, co-written by Lucy Ward Montgomery and Georges Perec. Join us for 'Ann of Grn Gabls' (1908) - it's a tearjerker. 032
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 13/04/2026Trevor Howard was the name I didn't have to hand. 050
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithAlexandra Irimia @alexandrairim.bsky.social · 21/03/2026What a nice surprise: my review of @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social's "The Rise of Office Literature" made it into the print version of Critical Inquiry -- and it's in great company! @bloomsburyacademic.bsky.social Have a look at the Spring 2026 issue: 172
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 11/03/2026Happy belated International Women's Day! Enjoy Aristophanes's sex strike farce (and possibly the randiest text we've covered), 'Lysistrata' (411 BCE). We notice a dildo discrepancy, get a surprise visit from wee Donalbain, and get a LOT of translation help. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... 152
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 05/03/2026Some of you guessed correctly: For our International Women's Day episode, we'll be joining the ladies of ancient Greece on a sex strike with Aristophanes's incredibly horny comedy, 'Lysistrata' (411BC). Episode drops 11 March. Milesian dildoes at the ready! 162
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 24/02/2026I had a nightmare in which I attended a lecture delivered by Donald Trump on the virtues of AI. Diagnosis: too much lurking on Bluesky. 030
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithAlexandra Irimia @alexandrairim.bsky.social · 29/01/2026Issue #6 of Bureaucritics is out now! Catch up with the latest in art, fiction, and scholarship about bureaucracy. bureaucritics.substack.com/p/cultural-b... #newsletter #bureaucracy #administration #officeliterature #bureaucraticfiction #parliamentsbureaucritics.substack.com 022
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 14/01/2026Welcome to Season 7! Let's kick off a year of fan favourites and camp classics with our trashiest novel yet: Gaston Leroux's 1910 'Phantom of the Opera'. Abby has the time of her life, Daniel is checked out, and our new imaginary producer, Diane, keeps us on task. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... 261
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 13/01/2026TOMORROW: If you thought 2026 already couldn't get any worse, our new series starts with Gaston Leroux's thoroughly stupid 'The Phantom of the Opera' (1910) - a rare example of a novel that's *more* incoherent and histrionic than its musical adaptation. 092
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/12/2025In our final banned book episode, we celebrate (?) Christmas with the inappropriately summery (but sufficiently maudlin) 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1852). Turns out, everything we knew about this book we learned from 'The King and I' and was therefore wildly incorrect! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... 0112
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 15/12/2025We come out all guns blazing for our Christmas episode, and the final instalment of our banned books series, with Harriet Beecher Stowe's Civil War-causing/-winning 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1852) - what's more, it's crammed with sizzling Quakers... Out on Wednesday! 072
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 19/11/2025Happy (early) Thanksgiving, Shelfers! Don't pull a spear on or chuck a boulder at a relative. Not unless they *really* deserve it. More importantly, Happy International Men's Day: no girls allowed in our episode on William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' (1954). podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... 072
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 17/11/2025'Rank-and-file Francophile' - can somebody do something with that, s'il vous plait? 010
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/11/2025It's human nature to be a snotty private schoolboy - or so William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' (1954) tells us - and we got into the spirit of this message with plenty of quibbling over pronunciation. Episode out on Wednesday! 'One fly to rule them all, one fly to find them' etc. 032
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 07/11/2025'Deliver me from calamity; from muddy boots and whirlpools; deliver me lunch.' Another album from my dear old dad - a retelling/reimagining/detournement of 'Dark Side of the Moon'. Feat. yours truly on heavily distorted concertina in the final track: hrsmokeandrewsmith.bandcamp.com/album/mortal...hrsmokeandrewsmith.bandcamp.comMortal Questions, by HR Smoke/Andrew Smith14 track album 040
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 05/11/2025Looking to compile the definitive collection of portrayals of tyrants in bikinis. So far I've just got Caligula in 'I, Claudius' (1976) and Louis XIII in 'The Devils' (1971). Please get in touch if you have any others. Thanks. 130
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 04/11/2025Some of you guessed our clue correctly: For International Men's Day (19 November), we will be release the most laddish book we've ever read on the show: William Golding's 1954 anti-colonialist schoolboy castaway narrative, 'Lord of the Flies'. No girls allowed, and 'Sucks to your Auntie!' 052
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 22/10/2025I had a great time at the 'Files, Forms, Fictions' symposium in Bonn last week. Excellent blend of bureaucracy chat, Adenauer anecdotes, and Bönnsch beer. Thanks again to @alexandrairim.bsky.social and her colleagues for an excellent conference! 120
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithAlexandra Irimia @alexandrairim.bsky.social · 23/09/2025Bureaucritics #5 is now online! It brings along a busy stretch of new publications, from the just-printed to the just-planned, plus fresh calls for papers and events.bureaucritics.substack.comBack in OfficeWe’re back! 052
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/09/2025Hey, ya phonies! Enjoying back-to-school? Well, our (anti)hero sure isn't! Join us for JD Salinger's 1951 ode to teen angst, 'Catcher in the Rye'. Let's all have Buckfast at Tiffany's, put on weird hats, and argue about who has it worse in winter: ducks or fish. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... 083
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithUtopian and Dystopian Fictions Podcast @utopiaanddystopia.bsky.social · 17/09/2025Episode 15 drops this afternoon, 1pm BST. It should be fun. An episode about bureaucratic utopias/dystopias featuring an interview with Daniel Jenkin Smith, author of The Rise of Office Literature and co-host of @smfmspodcast.bsky.social.media.tenor.coma man in a suit and tie stands in front of a sign that says the work is mysteriousALT: a man in a suit and tie stands in front of a sign that says the work is mysterious 062
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 17/09/2025Looking forward to this - love the swish poster! 010
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithUtopian and Dystopian Fictions Podcast @utopiaanddystopia.bsky.social · 10/09/2025A week today we'll be putting out our next episode and you can listen to me chatting about bureaucratic dystopias (and utopias) with @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social of @smfmspodcast.bsky.social 'fame'!... I use fame in scare quotes because I know he'd want me to! 024
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 09/09/2025If Dorothy didn't squash the Wicked Witch of the East, the legalistic Munchkins, still loyal to the Witch, would've subjected her and Toto to a Kafkaesque cycle of trials and appeals - all sung-through: 'The Bishop is in hock to the Lollipop Guild, but they're a front for the Lullaby League (etc.)' 000
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithCritical Inquiry @criticalinquiry.bsky.social · 29/08/2025"Jenkin-Smith brings to his readers’ attention authors and periodicals that literary histories have meanwhile discarded or longtime ignored." Alexandra Irimia on Daniel Jenkin-Smith's The Rise of Office Literature, from @bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social: criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/alexandra_ir... 094
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 01/09/2025Thanks for this lovely review of the book! 030
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 12/08/2025Recorded, and released, during a heatwave, we discover in this episode that high temperatures can yield provocative new visions about literature and culture. Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451' (1953) - out tomorrow! 242
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithUtopian and Dystopian Fictions Podcast @utopiaanddystopia.bsky.social · 06/08/2025Just finished recording an interview with the super smart @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social of @smfmspodcast.bsky.social fame on the relationship between bureaucracy and utopia/dystopia! Lots of great insight and a really fun chat. Looking forward to the episode making its appearance. 063
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 04/08/2025Loads of people guessed correctly! Our next very banned (and, ironically, often burned) book is Ray Bradbury's 1953 dystopia about the perils of anti-intellectualism, 'Fahrenheit 451'. Tune in on 13 August for a lot of histrionics about technology! 0122
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 30/07/2025Physicists: we've got fission down, but will we ever perfect fusion chips? 010
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 16/07/2025ATTENTION ALL PERVS: our 69th episode, covering John Cleland's 1749 erotic novel 'Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure' (AKA 'Fanny Hill'), is out now! Expect strapping footmen, polite applause during orgies, and plenty of red-hot turtlebilling! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e... 282
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 14/07/2025Join us on Wednesday for our episode on John Cleland's seminal (heh) erotic work, 'Fanny Hill' (1748). In addition to lots of strange euphemisms for body parts, be prepared to learn about some bizarre sex acts, like (the maybe less dirty than originally thought) 'turtlebilling'. 032
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 18/06/2025Happy Pride, everyone! Today we look at Tennessee Williams's slutty 1947 play, 'A Streetcar Named Desire'. We talk po'boys, suffer through a massive recording equipment failure, and Daniel reveals himself to be both the podcast's Brando AND a thriving gay man. 🌈 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... 192
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/06/2025TOMORROW: We cover the first installment in Tennessee Williams' highly popular Historic Tramways of New Orleans Extended Theatrical Universe™: 'A Streetcar Named Desire' (1947). FEAT: the bleeping out of the word 'tosser'. Tune in! 1102
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 04/06/2025'Hildegard? It's Marvin -- your cousin: Marvin of Bingen. You know that new sound you're looking for? Listen to this!' 010
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 03/06/2025Just overheard an English language purist ordering a 'cheese burgess'. 120
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 22/05/2025YESTERDAY: Ulysses Part 2 just dropped! Tune in for the shocking, explosion-laden, hostage situation-ridden conclusion to the 16 June 1904 with yet more of our coverage of James Joyce's magnum opus. Yes you said yes you will yes. Pprrpffrrppffff: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e... 162
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 21/05/20251969-74: The Age of Ketchup Accidents in US Cinema. Spilling ketchup is an everyday hazard, but the directors of the 'New Hollywood' raised this instance of trivial frustration to a symbolic level: 100
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 09/05/2025'Who hit my car at McDonalds? -- You fucked up my mirror.' Another dose of quotidian ennui set to music by enigmatic singer-songwriter, H.R. Smoke. Listen now!: hrsmokeandrewsmith.bandcamp.com/album/i-coul...hrsmokeandrewsmith.bandcamp.comI could go on, by HR Smoke/Andrew Smith11 track album 010
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 07/05/2025Gird your loins, everyone! Today we cover the first half of James Joyce's 800-page Modernist Irish masterpiece and light retelling of 'The Odyssey' (with far more poop and possibly more sex, if you can believe it): 'Ulysses' (1922). Will we go mad in the process? podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... 153
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 05/05/2025Tune into part one of James Joyce's 'Ulysses' (1922) on Wednesday, a work that inspired all manner of discussions philosophical, psychological, linguistic, theological, cinematographical... and scatological. 053
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 25/04/2025So many people guessed our next episode that we don't need to tease it: We two 'lunatics', as we've been rightly called, will be doing James Joyce's 800-page incomprehensible Modernist masterpiece, 'Ulysses' next month. Why not in June? Because Abby thought Bloomsday was in May, like a numpty. 062
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-SmithSave Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 16/04/2025Not since our episodes on 'Pamela' and 'Ivanhoe' have the hosts of this show been so annoyed! Tune in today for the emotionally manipulative banned book, 'The Kite Runner' (2003). podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... 162