iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Time for the clue to our next episode! For our Halloween episode later this month, we will be covering a text that a MUCH more famous horror novel ... just completely plagiarised. What is our creature feature?

Boris Karloff in the 1930s Mummy Film, all done up in bandages

Boris Karloff in the 1930s Frankenstein film, emerging from the shadows

Lon Chaney Jr in the 1940s Wolfman film, looking like a hairy twit in the woods

Bela Lugosi in the 1930s Dracula film, BLEHHH!

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

We did because so many of them were using AI that they didn't even know what they had submitted. It ended up working really well (students were nervous but ultimately enjoyed talking about their research) and it definitely dissuaded cheating.

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Xero now with 100% more 🎃 @artificer-ind.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Still patiently waiting to be "left behind" by AI rather than it chasing me across every damn space like a slasher in a low budget flick.

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Showing my baby the Rankin Bass Lord of the Rings for the first time, only to discover that he exclusively cheers for the orcs.

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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.

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Dr SpookyGoth @ghostingdani.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Rejecting AI is not ignoring it.

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I have been in the UK for 15 years, but it is nice to know that there are still major pop culture references to learn about

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Time for our clue to the next episode! We had a lot of wacky adventures during our poetry month in August, so how about something more straightforward and calm? Even, dare we hope, boring? What about a text about the postal service? That sounds like it won't be zany at all. What are we reading?

Photograph of a US postal service truck parked at a curb, while a mail carrier empties a postbox.

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Nary a Care @nary-a-care.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I don't want gen AI in my browser; I don't want gen AI in my pc; I don't want gen AI in my art; I don't want gen AI in my games; I don't want gen AI in my music; I don't want gen AI in my movies; I don't want gen AI in my books; I don't want gen AI in my cart; and, I don't want gen AI in my life.

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Craig Harvey @internetofzings.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

You should be able to give star ratings to emails from colleagues.

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Hosting a weekend house party with academics, which means I wake up to see which 20th century pacifist was drunkenly drawn on the baby's magnetic drawing pad the night before.

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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!

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maura quint @mauraquint.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

stop paying for AI, I'll tell you lies and make you go insane for free

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

I don't want to be overly critical of Vogue (I know full well what I should expect when I open its covers). However, I think we have finally jumped the shark with this story on designer potatoes.

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Was delighted to discover Kenneth Anger's legendary exploitative gossip rag, 'Hollywood Babylon', at the BFI gift shop. He did not disappoint. Everything I have heard about his sleazy writing is true.

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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.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Time to guess the clue to our next episode! We've had a lot of texts this season that focus on women. Our next text is no different and, in fact, even references a woman right in the title. But let's complicate gender a little bit. What if it featured a very sexy lady with a big ole moustache?

Pretty blonde woman with a polka dot scarf holding up a prop moustache on a stick and looking playfully to the side

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Having weekly video call cocktails with my dad. How long until he brings up his favourite character actor, Barry Pepper? (Answer: 11 minutes)

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

My baby *watching a big Michael Bay action scene where everything explodes*: Uh oh!

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Helena Fitzgerald @hellafitzgerald.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

[taking the deepest possible breath] the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602,

headline that says “why is trump hosting a cage fight at the White House” with photo of same

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Sister-in-law *to her chaotic seven year old son*: What are you eating? Nephew: CORN ON BREAD *holds up a piece of artisinal sourdough covered in ears of baby corn*

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Woke up to find out that my stepbrother just won* a Tony for Schmigadoon, and I had to learn it from Bluesky instead of from actual family WTAF *does it count as winning the award if you produced the show? Whatever, he was on stage to accept it

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Taught my baby to point at people and say, 'J'accuse!' Nailing this whole parenthood thing.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Bosom friends and kindred spirits: it's here, our single queerest text to date! 'Anne of Green Gables' (1908). There's a lot of chat about puffed sleeves, hating the French, and child labour on a farm (which city-boy Daniel refuses to understand in good faith). podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

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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.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

It's an SMFMS first--two episodes in one day! We cover another Big Boy™: William Thackeray's silver fork parody and 'novel without a hero', 'Vanity Fair' (1848). Parts 1 and 2 below. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Begad! Our double episode of W.M. Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair' (1847-8) is coming out this Wednesday - featuring a damn inarticulate rant about aristocratic accents in period dramas:

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Morrisons are selling ones from Chile.

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Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

You can’t really learn much if you’re having AI generate your homework, your papers, and everything else you need to complete a class, but for some reason universities keep shoving AI into the learning environment on the assumption that it’s an improvement.

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Husband & I watched Bryan Fuller's film 'Dust Bunny' and had the most confusing 25 min convo about his ouevre, themes, collaborators, etc. He was thinking of Bryan Singer; I was think of Ryan Murphy. We got on the same page, had a great chat, & then realised we were both thinking of David Fincher.

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Finished my last class of term. The films my students found 'boring': -Rear Window (1954) -West Side Story (1961) -Little Shop of Horrors (1986) -Frida (2002) -Grizzly Man (2005) -The Woman in Black (2012) The one text they loved unabashedly? -The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) WHAT IS HAPPENING

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Ash Parrish, Kotaku's LeBron James @adashtra.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Stop worrying about what YA books to let your kids read and let them sort it out with V C Andrews and cocaine era Stephen King as God intended

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

I'm sorry, our solution is to give Godzilla the bends??

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Finally watching 'Godzilla Minus One'. While it is excellent, and while one hesitates to body shame eldritch horrors, Godzilla could really afford to skip the odd leg day.

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Same! They are losing so many people to the Green Party (including me) because they can't stop trying to be Tory Lite. I don't know why they think their core voters are going to cosign a continuation of these gross and cruel policies.

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Rare trip to the cinema last weekend. Resisted the urge to yell, 'Yes, Clem Fandango, my heights are wuthered!' Charmed that he kept his interest in avant garde fashion, though.

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Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

I think the greatest gift college professors in the humanities can give to students right now is a seminar room where, for 80 minutes twice a week, nothing that happens to them is a sales pitch for an AI product.

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

@dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social I was doing my usual QA listen of our new episode this morning and felt my blood pressure rising with every fart joke. ✨🌈💖🦄Fuck you forever🦄💖🌈✨

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Happy Valentine's Day! If you like Beatrice and Benedick's schtick in 'Much Ado', you'll love Abby and Daniel's combative barbs. We fight about D's bad attitude, endless fart jokes, & odd directorial decisions. Let's eat HIS heart in the marketplace! Yum yum yum! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Book cover for Much Ado, showing a lil naked Cupid sitting weirdly astride a big red heart while fishing. Why not!

Book cover for Much Ado showing a placid looking woman as 14 disembodied hands point angry fingers at her. I guess that's Hero?

Old picture of Much Ado showing a blue drawing of a house and gardens with various C17th people wandering around. It's cool.

Boring-ass cover fro Much Ado, showing a masquerade mask, which makes sense, on top of a bunch of sheet music, which does not.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

TOMORROW, tomorrow, and tomorrow: our coverage of 'Much Ado About Nothing' comes out - including yet more dramaturgical insights.

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Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

We've been receiving some wonderful book proposals of late for @incsa.bsky.social's book series with Clemson University Press. But you can never have too much of a good thing. If you have a monograph or edited collection, consider sending it to us! Details 👇 libraries.clemson.edu/press/series...

libraries.clemson.edu

International Nineteenth-Century Studies Association Book Series – Clemson University Press

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Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 20/01/2026

Suspect a HUGE issue with "A.i." summary tools is that they're full of mistakes that you'd only know if you already know the material. So people THINK it's helping when it's actually making them more ignorant.

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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.

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🌞🌻🌙 @honeyp0t.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

There’s a GoFundMe for Jonathan Ross’s legal expenses for murdering Renee Good. This violates GoFundMe’s Terms of Service. Everyone must report it. A thread on how to do that 🧵

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Dr Abigail Boucher @drabigailboucher.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

My carbohydrate-loving 1yo just laid his head adoringly on a plate of hot buttered toast, like it was the bosom of his most cherished companion.

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

You guessed right! Season 7 (on camp classics and fan favourites) starts with Gaston Leroux's 1910 melodrama, 'The Phantom of the Opera'. And if you think the stage show is OTT, has an insufferable Raoul, and nonsensical plot points...then, babygirl, you better gird your loins for the original text.

Phantom book cover showing a beruffled man in a mask and a dashing hat, gesturing ambiguously.

Phantom book cover showing a cowering woman in a bathrobe and with truly fucked up hair, on her knees at the feet of a man in a tux. His head is cut off in the image, but his stance says: smug.

Phantom book cover, showing a negative-space illustration of a half-mask and a rose.

Phantom book cover showing a man in a top hat, opera cloak, and tux, rowing a woman in a bathrobe in a lil boat (technically I think he's punting, but that doesn't quite sound right).

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Save Me From My Shelf Podcast @smfmspodcast.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Happy New Year, Shelfers! Time to guess the clue to our next episode. In S6, we saw an awful lot of attractive characters. The Duchess of Malfi, Emma Bovary, Molly Bloom, everyone in Streetcar and Fanny Hill, etc. But uggos need love, too! So for our S7 opener, I want to read about a real munter.

Still from Beavis and Butthead, where two gormless looking teenage dweebs sit on a couch and gurn at each other, hornily.

The crone-witch from the 1930s animated Snow White, leaning in through the open half-door.

A still from Shrek, showing big ole green lumpy Shrek holding Princess Fiona's dainty lil hand as the sun sets. Aww!

A still from Batman Returns, showing Danny DeVito hamming it up as the grotesque Penguin. My good dude could use some colour corrector for this dark under-eye circles!

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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.

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