Sign in

Daniel Jenkin-Smith

@dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social
351 followers 535 following 59 posts

Postdoctoral researcher - author of 'The Rise of Office Literature' (Bloomsbury, 2025) - co-host of @smfmspodcast.bsky.social Il faut, comme disait Balzac, offrir une surface commerciale.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
We 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.
Cover of The Crying of Lot 49 that is very psychedelic and shows a woman in 1960s attire (paisley shirt and miniskirt) dancing in front of a long-haired drummer.Cover of Crying of Lot 49 showing a small woman on a bleak brown landscape standing in front of a billboard with an old-fashioned post-horn on it.Cover of Crying of Lot 49. It's unclear what we're looking at, but it appears to maybe be a collage of a bunch of stamps with post-horns on them, with the number 49 superimposed on top.Cover of Crying of Lot 49 showing an old-fashioned post-horn with a mute drawn in chalk on a cracked sidewalk.
173
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Anyone 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 · 11/08/2026
A 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
TOMORROW: 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
We 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Out 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 · 13/04/2026
Trevor Howard was the name I didn't have to hand.
050
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-Smith
Alexandra Irimia @alexandrairim.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
What 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Happy 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Some 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!
Cover of Lysistrata, showing a man totally naked except for a headband and a little scarf around his shoulders making the 'come on, baby!' arm motion to a woman who has both hands up in protest.Cover of Lysistrata that spoofs the poster for The Graduate. A woman's leg can be seen while her hands sexily take off a stocking. In the background is a stunned looking Greek soldier.
162
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
I 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-Smith
Alexandra Irimia @alexandrairim.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Issue #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 #parliaments
bureaucritics.substack.com
022
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Welcome 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
TOMORROW: 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
In 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...
Book cover of Uncle Tom's Cabin showing an illustration of a Black woman and Black child tending a garden next to the presumably titular cabin.Book cover of Uncle Tom's Cabin showing an illustration of a blonde girl in a white dress reading a book to a Black man in rags, while they both sit in a shack with a hammock, while a white woman looks on approvingly. Also, there is a dog.Book cover for Uncle Tom's Cabin showing an illustration of a bunch of white men standing around looking at a Black man in rags. One of the white men holds a whip.Super old-fashioned book cover for Uncle Tom's Cabin, showing a woman of ambiugous race talking to a Black man, while she points at something in the distance. They are standing in front of the presumably titular cabin, and also there is a whip and a pair of shackles hanging from the title letters of the book.
0112
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
We 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Happy (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...
Book cover of Lord of the Flies showing an illustrated up-close picture of Piggy's face (or just his eyes, nose, and forehead), specifically showing his cracked glasses. It's all in red and black and looks ominous as hell.Cover of Lord of the Flies, showing a terrified child's face with war paint on, seemingly peeping out of a spiky conch shell. It's illustrated and creepy.Illustrated cover of Lord of the Flies showing a conch shell pouring blood. Chill!Illustrated cover of Lord of the Flies, showing a backlit jungle setting against a setting sun, with a bunch of creepy looking silhouettes of boys, one of whom is holding a spear, standing next to a shack. A couple of boys in the hazy background appear to be doing war dances holding spears, and they're the creepiest of all!
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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
It'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.com
Mortal Questions, by HR Smoke/Andrew Smith
14 track album
040
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Looking 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Some 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!'
Book cover of Lord of the Flies, showing a bunch of (presumably) masked naked stick-figure lads dancing around with spears, on a red background that's dotted with flames, and also there is a big snake there.Book cover for Lord of the Flies showing a chaotic drawing of a jungle with loads of tiny lads looking lost in between the plants.Book cover of Lord of the Flies, showing a boy's face peering out from a bush, or perhaps wearing a sort of headdress mask thing made of leaves. I don't precisely know what I'm looking at. There are also a bunch of flies on a tree trunk or something in the foreground by his jaw.Book cover for Lord of the Flies showing a Rubenesque young lad in a schoolboy's uniform, with a fuck-off great big fly behind and over him, looking like it's almost going to pick him up. There are a pair of shattered glasses separate from this image, below the book's title.
052
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
I 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-Smith
Alexandra Irimia @alexandrairim.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Bureaucritics #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.com
Back in Office
We’re back!
052
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Thanks again for having me on!
120
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Hey, 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...
Book cover for Catcher in the Rye showing a young man in a red hunting hat walking between two cliffs, which have rye fields on top, but are also New York skyscrapers.Book cover for Catcher in the Rye showing a young man in a red hunting hat smoking a cigarette and the puffs of smoke turn into ducks flying awayBook cover for Catcher in the Rye showing a red hunting hat with no one inside it.Book cover for Catcher in the Rye showing a psychotic looking red carousel horse hovering over a New York cityscape. You know this cover. This is the famous one. It's everywhere.
083
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-Smith
Utopian and Dystopian Fictions Podcast @utopiaanddystopia.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Episode 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.com
a man in a suit and tie stands in front of a sign that says the work is mysterious
ALT: 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 · 17/09/2025
Looking forward to this - love the swish poster!
010
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-Smith
Utopian and Dystopian Fictions Podcast @utopiaanddystopia.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
A 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 · 09/09/2025
If 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-Smith
Critical 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 · 01/09/2025
Thanks for this lovely review of the book!
030
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Recorded, 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-Smith
Utopian and Dystopian Fictions Podcast @utopiaanddystopia.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
Just 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Loads 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!
Cover for Fahrenheit 451, showing a very shiny full-face fireman's helmet, reflecting the image of a burning book
0122
Daniel Jenkin-Smith @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Physicists: we've got fission down, but will we ever perfect fusion chips?
010
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
ATTENTION 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Join 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Happy 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...
Cover of Streetcar showing a still from the film, in which a shirtless Marlon Brandon has just made you hornyCover of Streetcar with an illustrated half-naked Stanley calls 'Hey Stella' up to Eunice's apartment.Slightly surreal and colour saturated cover of Streetcar, showing a sexed-up Blanche in a negligee brushing her hair behind a curtain, while men play poker a few feet away. It's all very 'Yoo hoo, boys!'Extremely '60s Mondrian-style colour squares with the words 'A Streetcar Named Desire' over the top. A production directed by Chris Coleman.
192
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
TOMORROW: 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 · 03/06/2025
Just overheard an English language purist ordering a 'cheese burgess'.
120
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
YESTERDAY: 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 · 21/05/2025
1969-74: 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.com
I could go on, by HR Smoke/Andrew Smith
11 track album
010
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Gird 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Tune 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-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
So 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.
Map of, presumably, Dublin with the outlines of two men over it (one in green and one in blue), with the words 'Ulysses' and 'James Joyce' written in red
062
Reposted by Daniel Jenkin-Smith
Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Not 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...
Cover of The Kite Runner showing an illustrated boy's silhouette against a yellow sky with a red sun, flying one kite among manyCover of The Kite Runner showing a kite flying over KabulCover of The Kite Runner showing a boy from behind, peeking around a door frameCover of The Kite Runner showing a boy flying a kite with mountains in the background
162