Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 30/09/2026In today's research dead-end, I've found a satirical "antique collector's guide" from 1923. The first section is about 'antiquing ahead', aka 'purchasing cheap tat and holding onto it until it becomes antiques'. This is hysterical 103 years later, when the cheap tat IS now all fancy antiques. 021
Reposted by Malcolm SchmitzDr. Sarah Parcak @indyfromspace.bsky.social · 13/09/2026The ancient Egyptians loved to go on picnics with their friends and family into the mountains/ gebels around Luxor 3500 years ago. We know this because they left inscriptions where they started "Spending the day..." Hiking and enjoying the outdoors is as old as we are. 116433
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026The *only* thing that isn't Chillingly Prescient about the ~cyberpunk world of Anne McCaffery's Crystal Singer~ is that she assumes computers "won't change" very much in the future and so a modern surveillance state is, under the hood, running on COBOL. #annemccaffery #crystalsinger 010
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Right? The thing that's driving me the most feral with that is "No Mutants Need Apply." Like, within the context of the [SPOILERS], that is an absolutely reasonable thing to specify. The [SPOILERS] require a very specific kind of person. AND YET. 010
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026The capitalism-critique is also there. Without spoiling too many twists- the world runs on a 'social credit' system that is chillingly prescient, and a lot of the story is about young people in a system that is Not Built For Human Thriving. 160
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Who knows what? Who *gets* to know what, and when? Who knows what *about you?* Who has your data, and when? The main character is desperate for privacy, to the point where that's one of her defining character traits (and gets used as a euphemism later in the book!) 170
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026But it is not like that AT ALL. This is a story about information. 150
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026The MC, Killashandra, is forced out of music school and becomes a 'crystal singer'- miners who use perfect pitch to find and harvest valuable crystals. Before I read this, I expected it to be like Love Live or School of Rock. The MC would SAVE THINGS from the MARGINS with the POWER OF MUSIC. 150
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026I've been reading Crystal Singer by Anne McCaffery. This is an incredibly cyberpunk book- and it came out two years *before* Neuromancer. #crystalsinger #annemccaffery #cyberpunk 3367
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026TLDR: if you like romantasy, you would probably enjoy 80s fantasy. If it's got a fully clothed woman with improbably great hair on the cover, if it's pink or sage green, or if there's unicorns, you will probably find an interesting love story that doesn't slot neatly into this decade's tropes. 000
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026But they are at least *different* tropes. And some of them are doing really cool stuff within their genre, especially if you take them in the context of the time. 100
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026I'm not going to pretend that these books were perfect, or that they've necessarily aged well, or even that they don't have their own tropes. They have so many of their own tropes, and once you read a few of them you can start to pick out the formulas. 100
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026They were *marketed* as fantasy, and thus readers expected them to have the stuff you'd want from fantasy. A unique setting, interesting worldbuilding, strong female characters, a talking animal companion... 100
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026There was a period where a good bit of fantasy (/science fantasy) was aimed at female readers. It was thus the *default assumption* that these books would have an important romance subplot. But - crucially- they were not *marketed* on the basis of this subplot. 111
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026If you read a lot of #romantasy, and you enjoy the love stories but you wish that there was a skosh more variety in the characters/settings, I'd recommend picking up some 80s fantasy, especially if it's aimed at women. 151
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 12/09/2026So in doing research for Bright Young Things, I stumbled across this fella - Japan's first superhero, Ōgon Bat! pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/%C5%8Cg... < He is "an ancient warrior who slept thousands of years into the future in suspended animation" and fights a phantom thief called Kuro Bat. 000
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Otherwise the club is not specially exclusive. Nobody is ineligible per se, except strong, silent men. 001
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 07/09/2026You must not mention golf or fish, however, and, if the Hon. Freddy Arbuthnot’s motion is carried at the next committee meeting... you will not be allowed to mention wireless either. As Lord Peter Wimsey said... those are things you can talk about anywhere. 100
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 07/09/2026The Egotists’ Club is one of the most genial places in London. It is a place to which you may go when you want to tell that odd dream you had last night, or to announce what a good dentist you have discovered... 100
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 07/09/2026I am straight-up cribbing the descriptions of Various Fictional Gentleperson's Clubs for Bright Young Things today and Sayers' description of the Egotists' Club still continues to be one of my favourite bits of prose. She's invented ADHD Yapper Paradise. 100
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 10/07/2026Lore is a good friend of mine- please help them out! 020
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 30/06/2026Today I'm trying to figure out how someone might break into the Royal Gunpowder Mills circa 1920, without having enough research time to do so properly. In other news, fudge is on the menu: www.instagram.com/fudgehutleav...instagram.comInstagramCreate an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you. 010
Reposted by Malcolm Schmitzjenny hanniver 🌈✌🌱 @jennyhanniver.bsky.social · 30/06/2026(writing this down) 2899653205
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 29/06/2026www.wordcraft.net/flashlight.h... I love Web 1.0 websites made by experts with a handful of Very Specific Interests which they are delighted to tell you about at length. They're one of the best parts of the internet and I hope they stay forever.wordcraft.netFlashlight Museum page one 010
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 16/06/2026Things I learnt today: - The word 'drag', in reference to the art form, is older than you might expect. - The phrase 'drag queen' is more recent than you might expect. 010
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 04/06/2026I'm cranky at how difficult some of this research has been. You hear about how America-centric the internet is, but then you start trying to research the history of a topic that is important in America and not particularly important anywhere else... 020
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 26/05/2026More work on Bright Young Things (my 1920s superhero Wodehouse-Meets-Watchmen story) today. 030
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 21/05/2026I'm finally making progress on my personal writing again. The migraines and my schoolwork knocked me down. But like Sawbones, I always get up again. 050
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 19/05/2026I'm growing a real appreciation for high fantasy characters who talk like bored 1920s aristocrats. 010
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 19/05/2026archive.org/details/barr... I have to spend entirely too much time researching locks for my various sneaky thiefy projects. Found this valuable resource for my 1920s Wodehouse-Meets-Watchmen project- this is a catalogue of locks, complete with some explanation of mechanisms!archive.orgIllustrated Catalogue of Locks and Builders' Hardware (1920) : Barrows Lock Works : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive1920 catalog of hardware manufactured by Barrows Lock Works of the Yale & Towne Mfg. Co. 011
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 07/05/2026I just got a piece of incredibly good news and I'm feeling so much relief in this chilis' today. I'm going to have time over the summer to write, and then I'm going to get to keep studying at a school I've kind of fallen in love with. 050
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 30/04/2026You are shooting for 'polite but firm, clearly aware that horse hockey is horse hockey but not going to directly call it out, treating the person you're dealing with as a Respectable Peer even if you cannot think highly of them, and impeccably well-mannered." 151
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 30/04/2026An autistic-neurotypical translation service. People could log into a chat app with (say) a copy of a business email and have a few people look it over for them, and go "okay, if there's a hidden meaning, this is what it's likely to be and how you should handle it." 000
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 30/04/2026Other than that- the word choice is of course wrong, but you can actually get a fair bit of mileage out of imitating a Jane Austen character (Eleanor Dashwood would be my pick) or another Period Piece Aristocrat. 141
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 30/04/2026I'd honestly recommend @askamanager.org /Allison Green's work rather than anyone in fiction, because Allison has a huge archive of stuff you can try that's directly related to reality. She has direct social scripts for things like 'coming together as a group to deal with a shitty boss'. 151
Reposted by Malcolm SchmitzKK @kk-maker.bsky.social · 30/04/2026Image: illustration of birdlike dinosaur, dark green with gray head & chest and red flight feathers. They're leaning over a row of dark blue-green eggs half buried in dirt. 021
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 30/04/2026...I can't imagine how difficult it must be to deal with this kind of culture shock if you have *nothing* to work off of to re-adjust your social scripts for the new situation. 1252
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 30/04/2026I'm in that "disabled starving artist who has no money but can do the middle-class WASP social norms" bucket. I know Where The Forks Go. But I've had to deal with enough Poor People Bureaucracy that it's skewed my social scripts on how to deal with bureaucracy in general. 1282
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 30/04/2026If you are a person who has had to deal with Poor People Bureaucracy to survive, dealing with Rich People Bureaucracy is a minefield. All of your social scripts are wrong, and your survival instincts will drive you into counterproductive behaviour. 1326
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 30/04/2026If you park your butt in the office of, say, an elite college's admissions office, you are proving that you are the Wrong Sort and you need to be gatekept out. It is rude and unbecoming to aggressively demand that someone take care of your problems. 1335
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 30/04/2026When dealing with Poor People Bureaucracy, you need to be as aggressive and annoying as possible to get anything you need. If you have an issue with your welfare benefits, you need to park your butt in the welfare office until your issue is fixed. Or you will fall through the cracks. 1376
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 30/04/2026The function of Poor People Bureaucracy is to get everyone to buzz off by any means possible. The function of Rich People Bureaucracy is to gatekeep- getting the 'wrong' people to buzz off but aggressively helping the 'right' people. 1366
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 30/04/2026One of the nastier class barriers no one talks about is how your social scripts for dealing with Poor People Bureaucracy do not translate to dealing with Rich People Bureaucracy. 15217
Reposted by Malcolm SchmitzStephanie Campisi @stephcampisi.bsky.social · 30/04/2026Don't forget to back up your work, friends! 096
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 22/04/2026So about the exorcist game: - I'm making it for school - It's called EXORCISE YOUR BEST JUDGEMENT - It's about an ašipu/exorcist in the court of King Sennacherib trying to heal the King's sudden, mysterious disease - Read omens. Study Real Assyrian Medical Texts. Restrain your terrible dog. 010
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 16/04/2026You guys... *really* liked Sulak the Mesopotamian Toilet Demon, huh? ...is this a bad time to tell you I'm working on a game about Mesopotamian doctor-exorcists? 071
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 14/04/2026Tag them on the Mesopotamian toilet demons too!! 100
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/04/2026For the curious, this is what the ancient Mesopotamian toilet-demon (Šulak) and the lion-centaurs who fought him look like. Šulak looks rather like he should be getting lanced by St. George, or perhaps hanging out in the Garden of Earthly Delights. He's a potato of toilety evil and I love him. 001
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/04/2026According to the paper, they looked like this. Half-man, half-lion. Sulak looks rather like he should be getting lanced by St. George, or perhaps hanging out in Bosch's Hell. 110
Malcolm Schmitz @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social · 13/04/2026(The running gag is that there are a couple of very small children near me playing the ancient game of Drop and Pick Up, and I am talking to them as though they are Distinguished Personages of Science. Baby: *Drops bottle, starts crying* Me: "Awww, did your grant funding get denied? Me too, buddy." 010