iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

there is very little purpose in promoting a poetry event in Canyon, Texas on here, but then there's little purpose in all human ambition. sorry, i've been reading hamlet.

ad for a poetry reading tonight (7 pm / Emilee Kinney and Chera Hammons). it's got a horse.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Trying an adaptation of @zugenia.bsky.social's "Where Do You Know From" exercise for my 1st year writing class. Original assignment here: www.maifeminism.com/where-do-you... (full text of my assignment in ALT text if you want to steal it!)

Worksheet: Where are you coming from?
We’ll take a few minutes to think and then a few more minutes to write answers to a couple of these questions. Use full sentences.
1. What are your intellectual interests? That is, what are you so curious about that you read, watch, research, practice, or talk to learn more? Your answer might be a particular question or field of study, but it could also be about related to your relationships, hobbies, or sports.

2. How did you get interested in these ideas? Given only a few minutes, how would you tell the story of you starting to care about these questions? (Did it start with your family? With something you read or saw? A teacher or coach? Something else?)

3. How have these interests changed your life? (Have you traveled to competitions all over the state? Picked a major to follow your interests? Filled your room with movie posters? Learned to cook Korean food?)

4. How do you want your college experience to help you pursue the ideas that matter the most to you? (It could be through classes, through clubs, through competitions or performances, through the friends you make, the opportunities you take up, or something else entirely.)

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

@kqandrews.bsky.social this is the best google AI result for a book search i have ever gotten.

google search for animals i never saw.

the ai result: Most people never see rare, elusive animals like the deep-diving spade-toothed whale, the subterranean pink fairy armadillo, or the nocturnal pangolin because they live in extreme habitats, have tiny populations, or hide underground and in the deep sea

pictured: some ridiculous cute animal thing. looks like a failed pokemon.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

mom, someone's being mean in the groupchat again

me: God gives his most annoying battles to his whiniest warriors
friend: Gosh Matthew I can only imagine your battles

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

I have been remiss in promoting this Shakespeare Association seminar, called Close-Reading Now, that @laurakolb.bsky.social and I are running next April. We're gathering folks who want to delve deep into particular poems. (They made me cut the line banning all abstract theoretical discussion.)

Close Reading Now
Matthew P. Harrison
(West Texas A&M University)
Laura Kolb
(Stony Brook University)
What does close reading mean for early
modernists? How does it make meaning,
particularly now? This seminar invites
papers that develop close readings
of individual early modern poems.
Participants will engage the nuances
of each other's practice, with broader
methodological discussion emerging
from the details of our work.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

ProQuest's AI generates "search suggestions" based on what you type into Early English Books Online. The search suggestions are conceptually connected, but they don't reflect what EEBO is--a database of transcribed early modern print--and so every single one is useless.

Searching for "bacon" yields topics like "culinary traditions" or "cultural significance."

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Tudor preacher Thomas Brice's ballad "Against Filthy Writing" has been automatically added to AllPoetry, illustrated by a photograph of the 16th century writer and an AI summary that's wrong on the details.

The Thomas Brice page. He's illustrated with a photograph of (I think) a historical rugby player

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Googling pseudonymous early modern tracts now often produces a hallucinated scholarly attribution. At first I would check the evidence, wondering if I'd missed something. Here's an example of how it makes up a scholarly consensus on attribution: Robert Parsons, Matthew Grove, Anthony Munday...

this time the AI attributes it to Munday.

Here, it's printed by Shakespeare's dad.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Sparing you two most of the rabbithole I went down (Roman casserole dishes!), but I thought you might need the aubergine poetry.

To begin with, the earliest mention of eggplant dishes calledmusakkaoccurs in the early eighteenth century in the poems of the Turkish poetIbrahim Tirsi (d. 1727), where he refers to the dish several times. Hespecifies making it with dried eggplant in the following couplet:If I had a succulent piece of meat, my heart’s desireWould bemusakkamade with dried aubergines.Or the long curved type:If your temperament inclines you to eat musakka,Take local aubergine, all the slender arched variety.Or with artichoke:If there is a king of vegetables, the artichoke deserves that office. Letmusakkabe made, no other dish is worth

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

george turberville invents the incel, 1567

screenshot of poetry:

I did pretend, pretend,
To be hir Friend
Vnto the end, but she refusde
My louing hart, and me abusde.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Apparently a drone image of the damage done by the fires south of town last night. 14,000 acres burned so far in just the Hunggate fire.

a suburban neighborhood, surrounded by the brown grass of a drought in the grasslands. to the south (up on the picture) huge amounts of blackened terrain.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

...my drafts are so much worse here than they were on twitter

It's my birthday, so people keep explaining how much being an Aries explains my personality.

(I'm a Taurus.)

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

The article points out that this pen drawing combines inspiration from a European Renaissance annunciation with Chinese landscape painting, for example.

In the top left, an angel appears to two men. The landscape, on the other hand, is reminiscent of other Chinese landscapes. (Sorry--I know little about art!)

caption: FIGURE 5. Celestial Vision, slightly tinted black pen drawing, Tabriz or Baghdad, ca. 1375–1400. Istanbul, TSMK, H. 2153, fol. 120v. Courtesy of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

have gotten obsessed with this early 16th c. Ottoman manuscript (Topkapi Palace H 2153) that collects art from a huge range of traditions: as far as Europe ("in the Frankish manner") and China ("in the Cathayan manner"). great article here: journals.publishing.umich.edu/ars/article/...

two pages: each has a variety of different images, including European figures, Chinese illustration, and Persian paintings. Images are oriented in all sorts of directions; the effect is a dizzying array of differences and similarities.

image caption: Figure 4A (ABOVE), B (OPPOSITE PAGE). Bifolio with Eight Figures in European Attire; and two central Jalayirid Shāhnāma paintings, Tabriz or Baghdad, ca. 1370–74. Istanbul, TSMK, H. 2153, fols. 55r, 54v. Courtesy of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

today's rabbithole: working Yolanda López's incredible Guadalupe triptych into this essay on teaching English renaissance literature.

Three paintings: oil pastel and collage. Each takes the imagine of the Virgin of Guadalupe and changes it to depict a member of the artist's family. Her grandmother; her mother working a sewing machine; her running with a starry mantle.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

im only answering your email if you're this stunning early modern painting of mosquitoes.

red waves; lots of tiny dots for mosquitoes. looks pretty.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Mapping out (almost) every location mentioned in @carmenpelaez.bsky.social's /The Cuban Vote/ and cross-referencing with voting maps as I prepare to talk about the play with students. Turns out I'm still the Urban Studies major I was in college.

A map of Miami, with locations marked in blue and green. It's frankly too small for it to be interesting to anyone other than myself.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

saving this bit of my kid's worksheet for when things are going poorly

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

THE DEVIL SPEAKS! in this version, we learn how the devil feels about it.

third image of the devil being gelded. this time he says "oh! it smarts."

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

big news for devil-gelding fans: i found a later copy of this woodcut with one important difference.

another image. the gelding is subtler and the devil in the background more devilly. also the trees look a little different.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

i'm not sure who needs to hear this, but here is an early modern woodcut of the devil being gelded.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

That, in turn, sent me to this neat article about African spoons in Renaissance Lisbon: smarthistory.org/spoons-from-... In paintings: "African spoons were being used as implements to nourish the most important people in the Christian world: the Virgin, the Christ Child, saints, and cardinals."

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

I still remember (as a v junior scholar) trying to write this section of a review.

One factor may limit classroom use of this otherwise excellent volume. Deeply self-referential, dozens of citations in each chapter point to other pages and footnotes. The first four pages of chapter four, for example, cite ten other places in the present volume, including a later section of this chapter, the pages of the introduction summarizing this chapter (twice), and (separately, twice) the footnotes to the introduction’s summary. (One of these footnotes, in turn, refers the reader back to the pages from whence she came.) A similar dependence is shown on Borris’s previous work, cited more than fifty times. Particularly frustrating is the repeated practice of citing the bibliography of the author’s earlier articles, rather than naming sources directly. Though the connections made are often helpful, it makes assigning a chapter in isolation tricky. That said, this is at worst an inconvenience and at best a guide to further research.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

I've been looking at the poem "Surge: to a woman" and thinking about how we translate anger, not just across. languages but across periods. Inés Hernandez, below, offers a staightforward translation, while Alicia Christoff parenthetically intensifies emotion: "(Fuck that noise!)"

Surge!

To woman

Surge! Rise up, with fists! Into life, into activity, into the beauty of actually living: surge – like sap

into tree the tips, like electricity in a storm – gorgeous with energy, resplendent with virtue, strong as

hell.

You, sitting all queenly, universally adored, a sovereign attended by her vassals: don’t lock yourself up

like that, all triumphant in your holy temple or your courtesan’s chamber.

That’s not worthy of you. Don’t be a Queen or a Goddess: be a mother, be a woman! (You think

you need men for your worship? Ha!)

A woman, a true woman, is more than a god or a queen. Don’t get drunk on the incense at your altar

or the applause at the footlights. (Fuck that noise!) There are greater and nobler things than all of that.

That is unworthy of you, before Goddess or Queen, be a mother, be a woman.
One who is truly a woman is more than a goddess or queen. Do not let the incense on the altar, or the applause in the audience intoxicate you, there is something more noble and grand than all of that.

Surge
(Rise Up! To Woman)
A la mujer.
Surge! Surge a la vida, a la actividad, a la belleza de vivir realmente; pero surge radiante y poderosa, bella de cualidades, esplendente de virtudes, fuerte de energías.
Tú, la reina del mundo, Diosa de la ado-ración universal; tú, la soberana a quien se rinde vasallaje, no te encierres así en tu tempo de Diós, ni en tu camarín de cortesana triunfadora.
Eso es indigno de tí, antes que Diosa y Reina, se madre, se mujer.
Una mujer que lo es verdaderamente, es más que diosa y que reina. No te embriague el incienso en el altar, ni el aplauso en el escenario, hay algo mas noble y mas grande que todo eso.
Los dioses son arrojados de los templos; los reyes son hechados de sus tronos, la mujer es siempre la mujer.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Okay, also, I love his and Celia's bonkers translation of Catullus, where they try to retain as much as they can not just of the meaning but also the SOUND of the Latin. not surprisingly, the dirty poems are particularly wild.

32
I’m a bow, my dual kiss, Ipsithilla,
my daily key, eye, my eye’s litde leap-horse,
you bid me to “when,” I’m your meridian.
That: so you see as sure as that adjuvant,
no case, limb, menace obscure your tableland,
no tidbit love you outdoors far as a bier.
Stay home, my man he asks we pair us—no bis—
nine continuous gasps, no refutations.
Very, so he could, yes start if you bid to:
he’s primed now a joke-stuffed satyr, so pin us!
pert under the tunic, pulling up the quilt.

Catullus English and Latin from here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Catullus_32
Literal English Translation Original Latin Line

I beg you, my sweet, my Ipsitilla,
my darling, my sophisticated beauty,
summon me to a midday assignation;
and, if you're willing, do me one big favor:
don't let anyone lock the door,
and don't decide to go out,
but stay at home and get ready
for our nine successive copulations.
Honestly, if you want it, give the order:
I've eaten, and I'm sated, supinated!
I'm poking through my cloak and tunic.

Amabo, mea dulcis Ipsitilla,
meae deliciae, mei lepores,
iube ad te veniam meridiatum.
et si iusseris, illud adiuvato,
ne quis liminis obseret tabellam,
neu tibi lubeat foras abire,
sed domi maneas paresque nobis
novem continuas fututiones.
verum si quid ages, statim iubeto:
nam pransus iaceo et satur supinus
pertundo tunicamque palliumque.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Small good thing: this tiny, silly bit of Zukofsky.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Another small good thing: we've loved Priya Krishna's /Indian-ish/ as a cookbook for years. Recently bought Priya's Kitchen Adventures for my son, and he's loved reading and cooking from it. The recipes are organized by country, and so it's prompted conversations, too. (Also, the food is good!)

Front cover of Priya's Kitchen Adventures: A Cookbook for Kids.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

i've been exhausted whenever i check social media recently, because so much is bad. I'm starting a thread of small good things. first: this pastel piece, "Tiger in the Rain," by @chloecumming.bsky.social, that my wife bought me for Christmas. I love it so much.

pink clouds over a yellow tiger, who seems both bowed by the rain and still strong.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Annie has been raising the alarm about mandatory high school book lists for awhile, but it's time for higher ed folks to be paying attention. Look at this bonkers set of linked texts from the Texas list:

Shakespeare's Caesar; Thatcher's eulogy for Reagan, Pericles' Funeral Oration, and the Raven as recommended pairings.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

meet me at the inflatable grinch in fifteen minutes if u wanna fight

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Just saw the cover for @chera-writes.bsky.social's new book of poems. There are very few poets I try to always pre-order new books from, but Chera is one of them. I just recently finished her last book, /Maps of Injury/, which is stunning. I'll find better words for it when I'm not grading.

Cover of a book of poems, "Birds of America," by Chera Hammons

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

@tracelarkhall.bsky.social Shakespeare-themed puzzle at my folks’ house. They had to get used to me complaining that the geography was all wrong.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Today’s teaching: my favorite lines in Spenser.

Townsfolk stand around the very real body of an allegorical dragon. Marker on blackboard.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

things are getting HEATED in the group chat

text message: "they’re all like, oooh, yes, the only emperor IS the emperor of ice cream"
subsequent text message: "morons"

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

okay, his friend can come, too but its just me and nahua bugs from here on out.

another one, like a floating eyebrow with a turtley head.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

not talking to anyone except this caterpillar from the Florentine Codex (book 11, 103r) right now

it is a very silly looking thing: all vertical lines in haphazard directions, with a circle on one end that i suppose is an eye.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

@catacalypto.bsky.social reading Renaissance descriptions of possums, so I thought of you.

a copy of a copy of Oviedo's 16th century drawing of an opossum.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

I've been looking for moments like this ever since I read Gerda Lerner: moments when Renaissance women find other women writers and claim them. To that end, let me show you the best thing I've ever seen in an archive: a little note, in Mary Wroth's copy of Eusebius.

Someone has underlined "Hypatia a woman of great lear-ning."

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

for example, we read Gaspara Stampa's Rime 1 alongside Petrarch's first poem. Where Petrarch turns to shame and transience in his poem's sestet, Stampa imagines a future in which another woman can be inspired by her, can walk side-by-side.

You who hear in these troubled rhymes,
in these troubled and these dark accents, the sound of my amorous laments
and sufferings that vanquish all others’—
wherever valor is esteemed and prized,
I hope to find glory among the well-born: glory and not only pardon; for what gives rise to my laments is so sublime.
And I hope some woman will be moved to say: “Most happy she, who suffered famously for such a famous cause!
Oh, why can’t the fortune that comes
from loving a lord like him be mine,
so such a lady and I might walk side by side?”

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

i like that this request to review an article doesn't try to flatter me.

A request to review an article that begins "We are contacting you because your expertise in areas related to lingusitics (if any) makes you an ideal candidate..."

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

From there, images of featherwork in the Florentine Codex, including what I think is a tiny self-portrait. We closed by comparing that to a moment in Du Bartas, where Eve crafts herself a feather mantle.

Page of the Florentine Codex. On the left, three stages in the process of making feather work art. On the right, a description in Nahuatl.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

We talked about English privateers and the material stuff of sea trade, focusing on spices, calicos, and porcelains as sites of non-Euro knowledge, labor, and creativity. Then Sir Walter Cope's collection. Talked about his "Madonna made of Indian feathers," showing this Mexican St. John.

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

We compared various representations of him (his armor in the Met, two Hilliard portraits, etc) to think about aristocratic masculinity before I asked them about this engraving of him in San Juan.

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