iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Don’t be a stranger if your travels take you to Oxford!

Reposted by Joel Clarkson

Plough Quarterly @plough.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

“We too live between an annunciation and an arrival. Christ has come, and we, on the far side of his death and resurrection, are the recipients of his good news. Christ’s redeeming presence now exists in the world; we bear it in ourselves.” —Joel Clarkson

plough.com

From the Annunciation to the Visitation

After an angel tells Mary she will bear the Savior, she sets out to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Both encounters are rich in meaning for Advent.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

Excellent. It also suggests a clever titular sleight of hand not uncommon but often overlooked – e.g., the subjects indicated by HAMILTON and MAESTRO arguably aren’t Alexander and Lenny but their wives – here, the ‘wonderful life’ isn’t the one George has lived the one but which Mary has made.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

It’s Amy. Any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

So enjoyed writing for Plough’s Advent Series about one of my favourite sequences in the gospels. Joyous Advent, friends!

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Now this is an LLM I can get on board with!

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

It’s amazing until you find yourself eternally at the cliff edge of book two because at this point we’re never going to get Doors of Stone

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Astonishing and captivating. Loved it from start to finish.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

This post is like shot and chaser, all in one. 😂

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

I mean, Ratzinger’s main man Augustine is both the variation on the theme and the antidote to this, right?

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Matthew Shadle beat me to it, but Ratzinger emphasises the intrinsic human desire to transcend one’s self, and how the Cross opens that possibility by means of self-giving grace which transforms self-destruction into transfiguration and communion. Which is simply to say that innate desire matters!

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

This whole album is about divesting from the shiny promises of technocracy toward endless self-realisation and instead embracing the limits of human life - the joys and complications of love, the pain of age and death, the restorative beauty of nature. A sleeper, and one of the best of the 2010s.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

I am now just into Lake of the Long Sun (after finishing Nightside). As with New Sun, I am enthralled and yet constantly frustrated by the realisation that some ruse is happening under my nose and I just can’t quite hack it.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Which is why the Clone Wars animated series is so fantastic. The first season and a half was kidsy but then went deep on character and world development. It achieved the heights toward which the prequels gestured. The final season is a masterpiece.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

I am now nearing the end of Citadel of the Autarch. We must discuss New Sun whenever we next chat. Should I press on to the Urth of the New Sun?

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

Do I espy another WordleBot connoisseur? Wordle 1,285 2/6* ⬛⬛🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Grateful to be included in the December edition of ‘Ekstasis Curated,’ a regular feature of Ekstasis Magazine’s Substack. Hope you’ll give it a look!

ekstasismagazine.substack.com

Ekstasis Curated | December Edition

Collection for your Christmas reflections

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

I’m getting behind on these, but you’ll note that it doesn’t say 20 CONSECUTIVE days. Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge 9/20

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this one! What collection is this from?

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Haha—have you seen her newest, The Wood in Midwinter? It’s surprisingly short! I read it in one sitting. Was actually astonished when I realised I had reached the end.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

I liked it! I think it equally has to do with the sense that the world is suffused with meaning that exceeds the mere ‘givenness’ of things. Again, it’s been probably a decade since I last read it, so I should probably revisit it sometime!

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

(There’s more I could say, but not without revealing spoilers to unassuming passersby!)

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Interesting! It’s been a while since I’ve read it, but my takeaway was actually more about how the main character’s perspective has been opened up (and opens us up) to a grander vista about the nature of the world that remains compelling even as we become aware of the incidentals of his story.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge 8/20

‘The Sabbath,’ by Abraham Joshua Heschel.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge 7/20

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

So the moral of the story is I need to give BG3 a go (as soon as the prices drops just a little bit more)

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Yeah, I mean perhaps the worst offenders on the FPS front are the Uncharted games, where Nathan Drake, our charming protagonist, mows down literally thousands of opponents in the course of the story.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Per old school Bethesda and BioWare, I see what you mean. Yeah… to be honest, as a gamer I’ve certainly changed. Perhaps I should give BG3 a go and see what I think. What about Hideo Kojima? Death Stranding is in the running for my favourite game of the last decade.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

I’ve not really played other Bethesda games tbh, but if you mean Elder Scrolls Online, I never thought that was meant to be in the chronological canon as such. Sort of a side project doing something completely different.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

I’ve got to imagine Bethesda will go all in on massive world, amazing graphics, extensive storytelling. That’s the elder scrolls experience, and it’s ostensibly why it’s taking them over a decade to release.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Interesting… I would have thought open world, heavy story games would still have a lot of purchase. I’m thinking of Horizon: Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, Ghost of Tsushima, Witcher 3, and even to some extent the new God of War games (storytelling is incredible though the complexity is more limited)

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

I have to admit I haven’t tried out BG3 yet, and unfortunately I’ve been in a bit of a gaming moratorium over the past year or so. BG3 notwithstanding, my gut is to say there’s room for variety of RPG manifestations. What are the significant steps forward with BG3?

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

In 2020, the head designer was like, ‘if you expect to see the next game after eight years, then I’m not managing expectations’ and I’m like, man, I don’t know what super human, singularity body you’ve got, but the rest of us are dealing with normal human age parameters here

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

All I’m asking for is Elder Scrolls VI to release at some point in my lifetime. Is that really so much?

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge 6/20

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

I lived a five-minute walk from shores like these in St Andrews, and it is basically how I survived multiple lockdowns 2020-2021.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

This is very niche, but: After a few weeks of effort, I’ve achieved a 98 average skill on WordleBot. Only 99 remains. If you know, you know. #wordnerd

A screen capture of a Wordlebot score of 98.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge 5/20

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

For the record, this version specifically (or one very close to it). Combined single volume, illustrated to perfection by Alan Lee. I still have my copy in my personal library.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge 4/20

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

It’s been a true joy to me that this piece I wrote some years ago continues to be relevant in the present. It’s on one of my very favourite themes in the whole liturgical year: the light of Christ dawning into the world’s shadows.

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Joel Clarkson @joelclarkson.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge 3/20

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